BAM Big AZ Music Festival

Jeffery Luck Lucas

Plush Inside, 9:30pm

Jeffery Luck Lucas (San Francisco, CA) "sounds like the name of a serial killer who listens to the Gun Club, and his CD Hell Then Divine does not disabuse us of that notion. Think Tom Waits or Mick Harvey..." - Rolling Stone

"Country noir that simultaneously evokes memories of Twin Peaks, Johnny Cash, and Tom Waits. Whiskey-toned and drooping, like a drenched wooly poncho hanging off a rugged, cigar smokin’ cowboy to wistful ballads that shuffle along with a nod to Townes Van Zandt to perfect collisions of atmospheric swirl and growly, disillusioned, sagging hope and memories left behind like roadkill. Lush expanses and desolate emptiness have never had so much to talk about." - CD Baby

"Lucas recounts his woeful stories slowly and deliberately, blurring the line between nightmares and dreams. Past the roadside bars and whorehouses, down a featureless two-lane highway to oblivion..." - BBC

Los Straitjackets

Club Congress Inside, 11:30pm

Los Straitjackets (Nashville, TN) mix the familiar sounds of Dick Dale, Duane Eddy and the Ventures, creating their own version of energetic surf guitar twang complete with Mexican wrestling masks. These guys are renound for an amazing and insanely fun live set.

"Donning Mexican wrestling masks and conducting all on-stage banter in gringo-fied Spanish, Los Straitjackets would be easy to dismiss as a joke if they weren’t such a damn fine band…Los Straitjackets deliver a fun and energetic blast of ’60s-style rock that makes you feel like you’re there." - Pop Matters

"Rock gimmicks typically have the life span of fruit flies. So why are Los Straitjackets still sh*t-hot seven years and five albums down the line? It’s not that their ever-present Mexican wrestling masks are still kitschy cool. And it’s not that they’ve found some unique angle for updating ’60s-vintage instrumental surf music. No, the fact that the Straits continue to rock so hard has nothing to do with novelty devices. They’re just fantastic at their craft: blazing energy, emotive playing, and tasteful production." - Seattle Weekly

"Live Los Straitjackets effect an inscrutable demeanor and rock from a stage uncluttered with monitors. Because they actually listen to each other, the drummer sits in their midst at the stage’s edge. The band is tight, fused and rocking. For me, there is no better guitar-based instrumental act." - All Music Guide

"Los Straitjackets have been known to tour like the Grateful Dead, so make sure, if there is a chance, that you stop the world and melt for them…Be ready for insanity and nothing else. Oh yeah, the albums are great, too." - Opus

Mellowdrone

Club Congress Outside, 10:00pm

Mellowdrone (Los Angeles, CA) is sure to produce a big national buzz soon. This lo-fi/expiramental/indie band has a number of influences and at various times can be compared to Arab Strap, The Eels, Blonde Redhead, Beck and even Jeff Buckley.

On Mellowdrone’s latest, Box, "there’s something of a mercurial vision throughout the 13 songs, as simple folksy introductions become trippy sonic fusions and later true explosions. The tracks shift effortlessly from moody space pop that bubbles with spacy textures to cut-like-a-knife synth pop throbbing with post-disco grooves. Then there are brooding new wave hybrids with slyly catchy melodies. The retro-meets-modern vibe and otherworldliness throughout are partly fashioned by producer Tony Berg, who is best known for his work with X and Beck." 3 stars - All Music Guide

"Mellowdron(’s)…debut album is simultaneously humorous and brooding, dance-inducing and fragile, lo-fi and downright hookish" - Filter

"Mellowdrone…(has) one of the most underrated talents a musician can have: a wicked, bratty sense of humor that bubbles up whenever the music threatens to become ponderously serious." - Spin

Mofro

Plush Inside, 11:30pm

Mofro (Jacksonville, FL) is absolutely amazing live—not to miss. If you are fans of Van Morrison, North Mississippi Allstars, and the Allman Brothers. You have to catch this act while they are still playing small venues. It’s only a matter of time before they are playing Red Rocks!

“If Jimmy Buffett puts you on a Florida beach, with the waves at your feet and a Corona in your hand—Mofro sets you down on a rickety porch in the everglades, rocking chair underneath you, and a hot summer breeze rolling over the murky waters…swampland blues.”—Glide Magazine

“Lochloosa (Mofro’s new album) is a startlingly good, perhaps even great, record by a band that revels in mystery, history, and deliriously infectious grooves.” 4 Stars—All Music Guide

“…a deliciously down-home blend of gritty funk, swamp-rock, soul, blues and BBQ jazz.”—KEXP (Seattle)

“Mofro’s closest musical peers may actually be the North Mississippi Allstars…If there’s no juke joint near you, Lochloosa is the next best thing.”—Paste

“Mofro’s second release has a laid back brilliance…The deeply soulful songs are delivered with measured grit…” 4/5—Relix

“Mofro brings the spirit world down to this plane onstage nightly.”—Live Review Pop Matters

Monsters Are Waiting

Club Congress Outside, 9:00pm

Monsters Are Waiting (Los Angeles, CA)…"a punkier, if measured, take on New Wave, with Fery’s breathy vocals suggesting an exasperated Pretenders, or a pretend Blondie, with a hint of the attitude that made ’90s British acts Sleeper and Catatonia appealing." - LA Times