This is our second time through Tucson and the last time we were here we had a great experience, so we were very excited for the return engagement. It’s such an odd town and hard to get a handle on, but there is obviously a very healthy underground art/music scene happening here, which percolates up to street level. There also seems to be a lot of major capital investment going into the downtown area, centered on a light transit rail system being constructed. One hopes that the downtown has its resurgence without driving out the underground scene. Unfortunately the usual cycle is; a neglected downtown core becomes the center for a vital art scene because of low rents and lots of unused space; which then makes the downtown core more interesting to those that have neglected it; who then begin to pour money into the core and begin to buy up those large gallery/performance spaces and artist lofts; which then get converted into condos; which attracts a more “upwardly mobile” crowd; which then drives up the rents; which drives out the underground art scene and small independent retail; who are replaced by multinational franchises and before you know it you have an economically thriving, but slightly boring, generic downtown core. But that’s just the way it goes…..I think Tucson has many more years of “independence” before it is taken over…and who, knows, maybe the water will run out before then.

We had an excellent show tonight. A great sounding room and a very focused audience. We love this town.