photo: David Olsen
This year’s HoCo Fest, bumped forward to September 24-26 due to the grand festivities commemorating the 25th anniversary of the legendary Club Congress Labor Day weekend, ramps up its bill this year and adds the angle of a “curatiorial” band, Tucson-based Calexico. This format, which has proven successful for the likes of the All Tomorrow’s Parties yearly fests in both Europe and America, allows Calexico to handpick some indie favorites – bands sure to make HoCo feel like a world-class pop festival.
Already confirmed for the fete is indie legend Robyn Hitchcock, who has stayed and played at the Hotel before while recording at a local studio. Known for decades as one of the best songwriters of the post-punk era, recent years have found Hitchcock starring in the documentary “Robyn Hitchcock: Sex, Food, Death... and Insects,” concert film “Storefront Hitchcock” and collaborating with a long list of some of American music’s best, including REM’s Peter Buck, Gillian Welch and others. Hitchcock is both thoughtful and playful as a songwriter, having accumulated as smart and as strange a catalog as any working musician alive.
Also slotted to appear are Phoenix-based 80s/90s alternative rockers the Meat Puppets, whose last 30 years have been spent making quirk-rock records as one of the best powerpop trios in the business, from early efforts like “Up on the Sun” and “Huevos” to 1994’s “Too High To Die,” their biggest commercial success.
Additionally, HoCo will introduce Tucsonans to Camilo Lara, a Mexico City-based DJ and the mastermind behind electronic music project Mexico Institute of Sound.
The festival includes a family arts component on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with twenty local non-profit organizations providing entertainment geared toward the young ones, so bring the kids!
Find out the details at HotelCongress.com, call 622-8848 or stop by 311 E. Congress St.
