ONE MORE NIGHT TO GO!!!!

Saturday, Dec. 13

8:30 Low Ones
9:00 The Hounds

930 Young mothers

10:00 Ryanhood
10:30 Golden Boots

11:00 silverfox
11:30 Emergency Broadcast System

11:30 Emergency Broadcast System

Bands being covered: Cheap Trick, Flight of the Conchords, Television, TV theme songs, Sublime, Willie Nelson, Neutral Milk Hotel, Jesus and Mary Chain

The idea for the event was stolen wholesale from our friends in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., where The Great Cover-Up was the most anticipated musical event of the year. I had attended a few of those while living in Illinois in the early ’90s and thought it was just about the most purely fun musical event I’d ever attended. When I moved back to Tucson in 1995 and told my friend, Shoebomb singer-guitarist Melissa Manas, about it, she decided to take action and organize one here. The first Tucson incarnation was held at Club Congress in 1998, where it has remained every autumn since. When Melissa became pregnant after a couple of years, I decided to make sure the Cover-Up stayed alive; with the help of numerous folks over the years–most notably current Rialto booker (and occasional Weekly contributor) Curtis McCrary, who has co-organized for the past several–I’ve had a hand in the event for the last (seven) years.

A brief explanation, then, of what the The Great Cover-Up actually is: Local bands–somewhere in the neighborhood of 34 (in 2005), each of which usually performs original material–perform a 20-minute set of cover songs by an artist of their choosing. Some live out their rock-star fantasies and choose a band that’s inspired them; some prefer the comical route and stage a piss-take; others fall somewhere in between those two. Part of the fun is that you never know who’s performing what beforehand, or how they’ve chosen to approach it.