Concert brings '80s, ’90s Tucson music legends back to center stage

The lineup, which consists of the Sidewinders, Pollo Elastico, River Roses and Caitlin von Schmidt, was put together by Sidewinders frontman and La Rosa visionary David Slutes. The show is meant to be an old school call-back-to-Tucson event, reminiscent of Hotel Congress’ HOCO Fest, Slutes said.

“It’s almost like a high school reunion,” von Schmidt said. “It’s kind of like the reunions at the HOCO Fest, where it was just a way to be with a lot of people that you’ve known and loved for so long.”

“I know it’s going to be a pretty big crowd and obviously we love playing with the Sidewinders and River Roses,” added Pollo Elastico frontman Brad Brooks. “Those are our homies from back in the day.”

When Slutes first had the idea for the reunion, he recognized that he had the opportunity to bring back groups synonymous with Tucson music in the 1980s and ’90s.

“The fact these bands still exist and play is pretty remarkable,” he said.

Slutes said the irony in the concert’s title was an intentional decision.

“This should be the last reunion, but you don’t know for sure,” he said. “But because it has happened so much, we decided to make light of that fact.”

Rocking in the desert

In the 1980s and ’90s, Tucson built a music scene that consisted of groups like Naked Prey, Giant Sand and, of course, the Sidewinders, Pollo Elastico and River Roses. Slutes said he hopes to transport people back to this desert rock scene at the reunion concert.

“This is one of the most interesting music scenes that was organically built out of Tucson,” he said. “All of these groups have a vibe that is just so creative, and I’d love people to get a snapshot of what Tucson created at a certain place and time.”

What made the music scene in Tucson so special was the city’s acceptance of all genres, no matter how weird, and the do-it-yourself mindset of the artists, said Pete Holmes, guitarist and founding member of Pollo Elastico.

“What was really cool was that the scene at the time was very fertile and accepting,” he said. “We were this really ripping funk rock band sharing a gig with a goth band or a hip-hop performance.”

Holmes was taken in by the do-it-yourself approach of the artists in this era.

“Like everybody else, I was going to pick up a guitar and bang on it,” he said. “That turned into a love for the instrument and a passion for learning more.”

Like Holmes, von Schmidt was inspired by the DIY aesthetic evident in groups performing at small venues of that era, like Nino’s Steakhouse and Lounge, Backstage, Tumbleweeds and Mudbuggs.

“It was a place and a time when people were really doing it themselves with music,” she said.

Von Schmidt was no stranger to music, having grown up with a musician as a father. However, when River Roses frontman Chris Holiman asked her if she wanted to join the group, it was her first time playing with a band, she said.

Despite this lack of experience, von Schmidt accepted the gig and taught herself to play bass — she learned on a two-string bass — and the guitar.

Now a former member of the River Roses, von Schmidt became well known in Tucson playing with groups including the all-female Ortho 28 and her band Caitlin and the Stickponies.

She said Tucson’s musical climate allowed musicians to have fun and create their own sound.

“In those days without the internet, everyone was isolated, so there was more of an opportunity to develop a sound and a scene that was separate from other places,” she said.

The story of the Rubber Chicken

For several Tucson acts, rocking at downtown venues led to national and even international attention. Pollo Elastico is one of the groups that caught the eyes of major labels.

Created by Holmes and bassist Erik Merrill, the group formed when another group, the Deadbolts, departed the jangly guitars of desert rock and morphed into a funk rock act, Holmes said.

“We were just a really different band,” he said.

As the group’s lead singer, Brooks joined the band after his work with a group called The Distant.

“Pollo Elastico was something that I kind of fell into,” he said. “When we got together, it just kind of worked out.”

Owning a sound unique for Tucson, a blend of smooth funk and heavy metal, Pollo Elastico gained a following for its energetic live performances.

“We had all the pieces in place to be a major label act, sort of contemporaries with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction and those bands that were coming out at that time,” Holmes said.

In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, the group played shows in major cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, opening for bands like Primus, Fishbone and 24-7 Spyz. This national attention led to industry negotiations with major labels.

“We had demo deals that extended from Geffen Records, Columbia Records and A&M Records,” Holmes said.

But the group was never quite able to break through, and the band eventually dissolved, with many of the members continuing their music careers in California.

Making the big leagues

The Sidewinders had a bit more luck pursuing national stardom.

The group, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, formed when guitarist Rich Hopkins went to Slutes’ home recording studio, Slutes said. Slutes decided to record his own vocals over Hopkins’ tracks, and the rest was history.

The Sidewinders kept performing locally until they gained enough traction to play shows around the country and even in Europe across the late 1980s and early ’90s. Eventually, the group got their record deal at a showcase in New York City in 1989.

“It was incredible because I never really believed it would happen,” Slutes said. “It was like winning the lottery.”

As a major label act, the group opened for legends like the Replacements and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Pearl Jam even opened for the Sidewinders before they hit it big, Slutes said.

The band also made appearances on the Billboard charts and MTV.

Despite all the success, they faced challenges that would ultimately derail the group.

“We didn’t know any better, so we didn’t get a manager,” Slutes said. “We’d have publishing people who maybe didn’t have the best interest of the band at heart.”

Eventually, the record label sued another band called the Sidewinders in North Carolina, he said. The North Carolina Sidewinders responded with a lawsuit, and Slutes and the Sidewinders had to change their name.

Now, going by the Sand Rubies, the group seemed to lose momentum.

“It killed us,” Slutes said. “People didn’t know who the Sand Rubies were, and we had to re-educate all these places that we’ve been.”

Under the Sand Rubies name, they released an album that, he said, did not connect the same. The group dissolved soon after.

After the Sidewinders, Slutes led a long and successful career as the entertainment director at Hotel Congress. He left the position in 2024 to bring La Rosa to life alongside Charlie Levy, the man behind the Crescent Ballroom and Valley Bar in Phoenix.

The venue is the next step in Slutes’ career in the city’s music scene, he said.

“The Tucson music scene nurtured me and gave me my life,” he said. “From day one, I’ve always felt that I wanted to give that back.”

The First Annual Last Reunion Ever is “a real love letter to the folks that are still in town,” he said.

One night only

For many of the acts, including von Schmidt, Holmes and Brooks, the concert will be a return to the old pueblo.

“I’m excited to be in Tucson, but it’s weird to be there now in some ways,” von Schmidt, who now lives in Massachusetts, said. “It’s like a different planet, but it’s still a lot of fun.”

For Brooks, who now lives in the East Bay, performing is a privilege that he does not take for granted, he said, even a decade after a throat cancer diagnosis and grueling recovery process.

“I went through a year of hell, and it makes me grateful to be able to sing,” he said. “When the thing that you love the most is possibly taken away, it changes your perspective on life and music.”

Returning to Tucson for the first time since 2023’s HOCO Fest, Brooks said he is excited to see the crowd’s reactions to the wild performance Pollo Elastico has planned.

Holmes said the group plans to bring the chaotic energy that was typical of their concerts in the 1980s.

“I’m just really looking forward to that moment when the lights go down and we bust out some crazy new presentation,” Holmes said. “As a musician, it’s really that moment, that communication where you see people beaming up and smiling and really enjoying themselves.”

The First Annual Last Reunion Ever will be at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, May 22, at La Rosa on 800 N. Country Club Road. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $26.49 and can be purchased in advance through larosatucson.org.