By Constance Commonplace
February 8, 1985 – Newsreal
Reprinted in “Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades,” Volume 1, page 96.

I returned to Tucson in July ‘79, from a two-year desert break in Boston. Music in Bean Town was already at a rapid boil in terms of the “new wave” thing, and it was hard to leave knowing what hard rock and country comforts awaited my now aurally expanded ears, but the call of the cactus was too great.

The musical climate was calm with an electric edge to it– kind of like the end of winter with snatches of spring no longer at the wishful thinking level – almost there, but not yet. People were looking a tad different and when I went to Pearl’s Hurricane Bar. I knew it was just a matter of time before this ripple would rip through town like a tidal wave.

The Pedestrians, Suspects and Z-Nine were playing. Dissonance became the bottom layer upon which songs were built.

Black was the only color you were caught dead in and those hippie locks of the ‘70s were shorn. The sleepy, creative, energy hanging around the Old Pueblo was replaced by a youthful zeal and was raising its fists, making a joyful noise.

It was late ‘79/early ‘80 when things began to jell. Bands were forming and developing consistent styles.

Remember Romeo and the New Deal on 36th Street? Bands were labeled as New Wave, in Night Train club listings, so those die-hard rockers would know what they were getting into.

There was loads of animosity on 4th Avenue between the wavers and hippies in those early days. Tumbleweeds was staging bands like Channel 88, Memory Product and the Serfers.

By June ‘80, Pearl’s Hurricane Bar was booking blues, the New Deal had gone Hispanic, and Tumbleweeds was bulging at its threadbare seams with “new music! White Pages was playing regularly with various out-of-town punks. The summer of ‘80 was no time for those kind of blues as the air was filled with the music of The Pills, Giant Sandworms, The Erotics and Ménage a Trois.

One end of this new era was the closing of Pearl’s Hurricane in July.

October was a month of major changes. On September 29th at the Contractions and Pills concert, it wasTucson in 1980 announced that Tumbleweeds would close. The Serfers left for L.A. to find fame, and sometime during this period Memory Product had been signed with Subterranean. Loudness One is formed and brings a unique concept to Tucson entertainment.

The Christmas season begins on a sad note as Tucson mourns the death of John Lennon with the rest of the world.

Tumbles opens where Tumbleweeds once was and continues its new music format. Ménage a Trios becomes the Phantom Limbs, while other Tucson bands are moving to Phoenix and beyond. In the new year, the Assassinators and Suzie Caruze are new acts in town.

I would like to mention something about promoters and this spot seems as good as any. Incredibly good acts continue to be brought into town by Feyline and Evening Star Productions. ESP filled Dooley’s with some of the top touring acts.

The spring brings us Jonny Sevin, a band that had Tucson music lovers at a fever pitch just knowing they were practicing at Broadway and Columbus. Tumbles does just that and closes its doors. Jonny Sevin is changing personnel and Ned Sutton puts together some new Rabbits.

In May, just as the shortage of venues becomes oppressively apparent, Club Europa opens on North Stone Avenue. Although great acts are being booked, the scene seems to have taken itself on vacation to another part of the world. The Giant Sandworms are sending tapes from the Big Apple, J7 is in the studio with Bill Cashman recording on his Art Attack Records label.

Frequenters of the Pawnbroker, club for the elite dealers in town, start roaming Yanks, home to the ever- popular Bob Meighan Band. The fall of ‘81 is actually quite boring except for the opening of the Backstage that was formerly Tumbles.

In early September, Green on Red, from L.A. (who were the Serfers when they left Tucson) played at the Backstage and gave a sweet and sour performance. The FM radio stations are as bland as cold oatmeal and lacking in texture– it’s like they sent our ears to Siberia. The Chromatics and Les Seldoms are finding it difficult to be different in this musically unsettling time. People are becoming apathetic and not supporting music as they had in the past. As ‘81 slips away, so does the direction of Tucson’s music scene, and one more club bites the proverbial dust, Club Europa closes.

Trout Unlimited forms with ex-members of the Serfers and the Chromatics, they have abandoned the wave and put out no frills rock and roll. R&B gets a boost with the Salt and Pepper band and Straight Up. All around groovy musician Lee Joseph produces two cassettes of his own weird brand of tunes on his Iconoclast label. The Pills have returned from N.Y. and add Barry Smith of Loudness One to the line-up. And, radio closes the door further on originality– Bob Cook’s Bezerko Lounge is off the air.

On March 27, 1982, Whistling Shrimp Records hosted a Smash-a-thon to boycott the corporation influence in radio programming. Chances Night Club gives Tuesday a new lift with recorded new music and live acts on Sunday.

Spring ‘82 has a new club featuring country-rock. Nino’s opens on First Avenue. Jonathan L and Bob Bish get an hour to air new releases on KLPX. Lee Joseph is at it again with a compilation tape including: Pink Dancing Elephant, Conflict, Jacket Weather, Stainless Steel Kimono, Urban Guerillas, Cowgirls, Les Seldoms and The Chromatics. Virgin Vinyl begins on KLPX. Downtown, Moda Modeling Studio features live new music.

The next six months are pretty unearth-shattering. Eighty Go Ninety, Chris Burroughs and the Nationals and Clean Dog make musical entrances on the scene. Nino’s starts booking new music. A major loss to the music scene of Tucson occurs in August when DJ Bob Cook is shot and killed in a church parking lot.

‘83 has Dooley’s changing its name to the Stray Cat. Stainless Steel Kimono becomes The Freds and Evening Star Productions 37 is booking at Cowboy’s.

The Night Train becomes the Midnight Express and it seems that nothing stays the same.

As we enter ‘85, three clubs have been felled by fire– The Stray Cat, the Backstage and Chances. Rainer (Ptacek) and Naked Prey are making an impression at Jack’s Pub. Gentlemen After Dark (formerly the Pills) had hooked up with Alice Copper, gone to L.A., and have since returned wagging their tails behind them.

Major acts being book in town are at an all time low, but Evening Star Productions keeps trying to keep us musically informed. Radio has plummeted to its most nauseating level of garbage as KWFM turns to adult contemporary to raise ratings and KLPX isn’t sure what it wants to do. Los Lasers have put out a fine little album and other locals will soon be following suit.

Maybe it’s me, but it feels like the mid-70s again, with a lack of innovation from the music-makers of Tucson. Fortunately, I remain optimistic and sense this period as one of transition, a calm before the musical storm, so to speak, for if Tucson’s musical history repeats itself … the beat will go on and the song will not remain the same.