War, Tower of Power and 50 years of greatest hits coming to Tucson

That’s what happens when the mere mention of a band or an era or a song title plants the seed deep in your medial prefrontal cortex — that’s the part of your brain reserved for music and sound; trust us, we looked it up — and suddenly, consciously or not, a song is stuck on repeat in your head.

Here, let’s test this with War, the pioneering cross-over band that fused funk, rock and soul, with Afro-Cuban rhythms.

You hear it, dontcha? “Why can't we be friends? / Why can't we be friends? / Why can't we be friends? / Why can't we be friends?”

Or maybe your mind is grooving to this War oldie but goodie: “All my friends know the low rider (Yeah) / The low rider is a little higher (Yeah).”

And who can forget this groovy gem: “The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine / He'd drink whiskey, Pancho drank the wine.”

When War and the funk-soul band Tower of Power bring their co-headlining “50th Anniversary Greatest Hits Tour” to the AVA on Saturday, Sept. 19, expect that musically-inclined slice of your brain to go into overdrive.

Between them, War and Tower of Power, who both got their starts in the late 1960s and found mainstream success in the mid-1970s, have dozens of radio singles and a handful of charted hits over the past five decades.

Yes, that’s a lot of potential songs to get stuck in your subconscious.

But we’ve actually discovered a cure for “Can’t get this song outta my head!” syndrome: It's worth having the songs stick around when you experience them live.

Saturday’s concert at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road, starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42.40-$107.40 through casinodelsol.com.