Whereas many outdoor concerts go for being as frantic and in-your-face and attention-grabbing as possible, indie rock outfit Low takes it slow and steady. This was especially clear when they followed-up the electropop freak-out of Superorganism at SXSW.

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Since 1993, Low has reacted to noisy rock shows and rambunctious audiences by turning their volume down. As purveyors of “slowcore,” the three members hardly move on set and their instrumentation progresses minimally, methodically and hypnotically. Sure, it might be melancholy, but this style can also result in powerful jams.

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Awash in reds and purples, Low’s music offered tired festival-goers an auditory break—at least some of the time. Many of their songs started subdued and sad, but grew into greatly layered behemoths of fuzzy guitar, bass and kettle drums.

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Hailing from Duluth, Minnesota, their music is often as bleak and cold as their surroundings. But in a hot, manic Austin night, this could be just what the (witch) doctor ordered.

They were in a political bind on March 14. The Arizona House Republicans could have stood for 17 minutes in silent remembrance of the 17 students killed in Florida and risk angering the Second Amendment absolutists who vote for them, or they could leave and risk showing disrespect for the slain Parkland students and the local students who filled the visitors gallery.

They chose disrespect.

Politicians face damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situations all the time. Both sides of the aisle love to make their colleagues on the other side squirm. This was one of those times for the Republicans.

House Democrats introduced the students in the gallery one by one. It took an hour. Had to be tough for the Republicans to sit through. The fresh faced, idealistic students asked the legislature to pass laws requiring comprehensive background checks, banning bump stocks and hiring more school counselors. Those comparatively mild, measured requests made the Rs squirm further down in their seats. When Democrats made speeches reinforcing student demands, that was too much for the Republicans to take sitting down. Most of them left.

Then came a moment when they were asked to stand quietly for 17 minutes. They could have done it as a simple gesture, a show of respect for the 17 deaths of Florida students who were the same age as the young people in the gallery. It wasn't a vote. It wasn't a commitment to pass gun regulation. Even the nuttiest of their gun nut constituents most likely would have shrugged it off. But they wouldn't do it.

Nothing should have worked with Josh T. Pearson’s set at SXSW: He lost his voice the previous night, there were some technical difficulties, he revealed he was working on probably an hour of sleep, and to top it off, his four-piece band was only about three days old. Despite all of these setbacks, Pearson delivered an enrapturing performance. Perhaps it was simple luck, but for anyone who knows the indie-rock-gone-country-singer’s music, Pearson works well in the midst of disaster.

Pearson and his band played some select singles from his upcoming album, The Straight Hits!, as well as some reworked songs from his critically-acclaimed The Last of the Country Gentlemen.

His once sparse and depressive acoustic dirges received a second life. The keyboard player added lush and delicate layers, the drummer added a surprisingly effective beat to the experimental songs, and the bassist added a slick core to bring them all together. For a band that just, and I mean just, formed, they played tight and with a great amount of chemistry.

You’ve heard honest, twangy country rock like Neil Young, and you’ve heard the lengthy, epic (occasionally ambient) instrumental movements of post-rock—well Josh T. Pearson and his band somehow combined the two to make some bonafide country post-rock, if that can be called a thing.

And although the set was rife with apologies by the singer, it was also filled with great one-liners between the songs and a cheering, mesmerized crowd.

The Straight Hits! releases April 13.

Los Lobos guitarist Cesár Rosas shouted his thanks across SXSW outdoor stage in downtown Austin: “Thank you, music lovers!”

It’s a city full of music lovers. You can see it in the way that people play their music: During country artist Josh T. Pearson's set (which pretty much broke all of our hearts and put them back together again with every song), every member of the four-person band blurred the lines between human and instrument with their passion. When I tell Pearson’s bassist—a guy named Noah who met Pearson for the first time four days earlier—that I could tell how much he loves music just by watching him, he bubbles over with thanks.

“I need music in my life,” he says. “Sometimes, when I talk about some of my favorite bassists, I just get goosebumps.”

Or there’s Australian artist Gordi, an indie pop songwriter whose voice rings with relatable honesty (“every fiber of my being’s agreed that what you want can become something you need”), whether she’s belting with abandon or slipping into a sweet falsetto. Gordi introduces herself as Sophie Payten afterwards and mentions she finished medical school recently, and has an internship next year. She tries to keep it on “the back burner,” though, because music is her priority.

You can see it in the way people watch their music. When R&B/indie pop/soaring voice-coming-from-a-slight-frame musician Joey Dosik performs at The Barracuda, people are singing along, dancing, sometimes closing their eyes the way you do when you want to make sure you remember something for a long, long time.

Or, during a set by violinist, vocalist, and all-around performance artist Sudan Archives, one woman mouths along the words to nearly every song. She’s so enraptured that I don’t see her pull out her phone one time during the whole set… and what’s a more serious demonstration of love than not looking at your phone for a solid 20 minutes to pay attention to another person?

If the wave of pro gun-regulation youngsters is any indication of what the U.S. electorate will look like in one to five years, the NRA is in trouble.

Across the nation, students protested gun violence on National School Walkout Day—the one month anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Parkland, Florida. And in Pima County, many student bodies held “walk-ins” and assemblies where they boldly and unequivocally called for Congress to act on their behalf.

Leadership across six public school districts in Pima County counted 22 high schools and 23 middle schools with a student-led event to call for change and remember the 17 lives lost in Parkland. That’s not counting charter and private schools or the Tanque Verde, Vail and Sahuarita districts, who couldn’t be reached for a count.

Students at the Canyon Del Oro High School held a walk-in to their football fields at 10 a.m.—the time that students held 17 minutes of silence nationwide, for the 17 lives lost at the Florida school shooting.

The walk-out was organized by student leaders who were clear that the walkout was not about gun control, but a call to Congress and local leaders to act on behalf of students to stop mass shootings in schools.

One of the student organizers, junior Rebecca Shanks, said it doesn’t matter what a student’s opinion is on how to fix the problem, what matters is that you speak up.

“It’s really important that students are getting a voice and being heard by adults,” Shanks said. “We are fed up by gun violence, and we want something done about it.”

Students at BASIS North held a 17-minute vigil, at 10 a.m., for the people killed in Parkland, Florida. At the beginning of each minute, someone spoke about each victims. Public officials spoke about the importance of common-sense gun reform, like Victoria Steele, former state lawmaker and current candidate for Arizona State Senate.

Steele has played a part in a number of regulatory firearm bills in the State House, which she says never even get a hearing. She says the youth today are sending a message to Republican leadership in Arizona that if they don’t start listening, they’ll be replaced.

“They are the power. They are our hope right now—these kids,” Steele said in an interview about the wave of student activists. “I don’t want them to think for a minute that because they’re young and they don’t vote that they don’t have the power.”

Junior Corazón Núñez is turning 18 this year and will vote for the first time in the mid-term elections. She says common-sense gun regulation is one of the issues she’ll base her votes on.

“This is a priority for myself and many of us,” she says. “I will definitely be looking at NRA endorsements…. I want to know that Representatives care about their constituents and not the NRA.”

At Orange Grove Middle School more than 500 students marched around their football field,chanting and holding signs calling for gun regulation and an end to gun violence. The march was organized by a group of five 14- and 13-year-old girls. All wearing orange—a color adopted to represent resistance to gun violence—they literally finish each others’ sentences.

They were in awe by the numbers of students who showed up to take part in the march.

“I couldn’t even say anything because of how amazing it was,” said student leader, 14-year-old Simone Gelety.

Organizer and Student Council Member 13-year-old Naomi Holtzman said it’s amazing how their protest “was nothing and suddenly it became everything.”

About a dozen kids on the march chanted “Guns save lives” and held anti-regulation signs that, among other things, compared regulating guns to banning cars (of course, cars are regulated and studied extensively on how to make safer). The girls organizing the march say some of their best friends are against gun regulation, and they’re fine with others having differing opinions.

Can comedy fans give up vicarious ghetto life and the spotlight earned by their own awkward grip on multiculturalism? Would comics of color let ever resist the abundant comedy fruit of the dominant culture’s heedless racism?

Heck if I know. I’m as big a sucker for all that as the next guy, but the current wilderness in our concept of race makes it seem worth asking.

Gary Bynum, owner of Laff’s Comedy Café, stresses just one criterion: Is it funny? Since Trenton Davis is headlining four shows at Laff’s on March 16 and 17, let’s just go with that. Davis is hella funny. And so is his opener, Lyall Behrens, a social critic with exceptional chops in celebrity impressions.

Born in North Carolina, Davis has logged well over 10,000 hours of standup in 45 U.S. clubs. His TV credits include The Real, Laughs on Fox and Bar Rescue. He finished second in the San Diego Comedy Festival, first in the Sacramento and Seattle International comedy festivals and was a finalist in the NBC Standup for Diversity program. He also writes ads for Beats by Dr. Dre.

Davis’ biography stresses that he grew up in a two-parent household — good to know if you were hoping for single-mom-in-the-ghetto jokes. His first gig was a fraternity prank, but it was such a hit he started hosting shows at his church.

In a revealing interview for the 2013 Seattle International Comedy Festival, Davis tells how he committed to comedy ten year ago, after a long hiatus from dabbling in it. “I went to the Ice House to watch a show. . .I watched how this comedian had the crowd in his hands; how he was bringing everyone laughter and, I swear. God spoke to me, ‘Trenton why are you not on stage?’ Since then there aren’t more than 5 days I’m not on some stage, making people laugh.”

In the same interview, Davis describes his act. “I (take) audiences on a journey. I introduce myself, tell them who I am, where I’m from, and then after they get comfortable, I tell them the crazy things that go through my head, how insecure I am, and why I have trouble when it comes to relationships.”

Boom. Human. Visit laffstucson.com for showtimes and reservations.

Retro Game Show is Back!

Watch the world’s tallest drag queen and scholar Tempest du Jour host “Hollywood(ish) Squares at Club Congress on Saturday, March 17. Show’s at 7; tickets are $12.

BOISE—Members of the Arizona Wildcats gathered around the semi-circular row of lockers tucked deep inside Boise's Taco Bell Arena, ahead of their final walkthrough on Wednesday.

The fresh-faced cadre of stars assembled in the undersized, sterile locker room will soon do battle with an undersized, scrappy cast from far-away Buffalo, but for now strike a relaxed, confident tone.

Take, for instance, 7-foot Serbian center Dusan Ristic, who's lounged out in the corner of the locker room, shooting the breeze with anyone that passes.

Then there's the unmistakable presence that is freshman Deandre Ayton, who's cracking jokes and his trademark ear-to-ear smile in the center of the room.

It's hard to tell that these dozen or so personalities are some 27 hours away from the cruelest, most exciting three-week spectacle in American sports, the NCAA Tournament.

Battling the Bulls

That tone will change by 7:40 p.m. local time tonight, when the Wildcats' will get down to business in the first round against the Bulls.

For Ristic, it's been a dream senior season, on the court at least, earning an All-Pac-12 Second Team selection, thanks to averaging 12.1 points and 7 rebounds per game this season.

The Salvation Army Tucson sure has a goal for the summer: Feed more than 200 children twice a day—through community donations.

The Salvation Army's “Summer Day Camp” program is partnering with local Safeway and Albertsons stores for a month long food drive. Fom March 15 to April 15 around the entire Tucson area, they will be accepting granola bars, bread, popcorn, crackers, juice boxes and other snacks that children enjoy eating (candy!). People can also donate money to go toward food for “Summer Day Camp” at The Salvation Army Tucson’s website.

Corey Leith, public relations director of the Salvation Army Tucson, said he came up with the idea of doing a food drive because he felt like it would be more helpful for the children in the “Summer Day Camp” if the weight of the money to fund meals for the kids can be used toward “improving the activities and plans.”

Once he came up with the idea, Leith reached out to the grocery stores and their respective representatives about the desire to start a food drive to provide food for children and they were on board.

“I just saw a need in general and I asked Safeway and they were more than happy to do it,” he said. Thus the food drive was born and Leith is optimistic about what it could do.

“I’m hoping that we can just feed all 200 kids throughout the whole summertime without us having to purchase items. That’s the main goal—just to make sure that all these children are being fed,” he said.

The “Summer Day Camp” program provides local children, ages 5-14, with activities, field trips and lessons they can do throughout the summer. Leith said that with around 200 volunteers the the program is a way to give children something to do during the summer and to help them learn.

“That’s our main goal, to keep them safe and off the streets.”

I don't know if it's just another sign of the political climate or my own poor luck in scouting bands, but I heard a lot of sad and depressing music Wednesday at SXSW. It wasn't necessarily bad music, but it sure as heck wasn't uplifting: Acclaimed bands like Low (at a surprisingly underwhelming NPR showcase at Stubbs) and SYML were just pretty downbeat. And check out the description of Lo Country: "Lo Country is the recording project of Carlton Bostock, Vince Delgado, Robert Cherry, and Jason Butler. It is based on the mutual love of country, blues, and sad, sad songs. Lo Country celebrates the pain of existence with a voice that has obviously lived it. Silver tongued balladeers, their songs plumb the depths of despair and loss." Hey, there's a place for all that, but I was looking for something a little more upbeat.

Leave it to the girls to kick some ass: London's 19-year-old Jade Bird, who was named a country artist to watch by Rolling Stone last year, delivered a rousing set that concluded with a jangly cover of Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere." And Lucy Dacus, who will be playing Club Congress on Tuesday, March 20, delivered a sweet set to kick out the NPR showcase. As Eric Swedlund explains in this week's Tucson Weekly, Dacus is just 22 years old but she's got serious songwriting chops. Check out her show next week if you're free on Tuesday.


But the highlight of my night came from two Austin bands that share members: Brownout and Chicha Money. Brownout is a funk band heavy on horns and percussion that spun out of Austin's legendary Grupo Fantasmo, and Chicha Money is a new spinoff of both bands that loses the horns of Brownout in exchange for the surf guitar of chicha that will be familiar to fans of Tucson's own superband XIXA.

Oh, and not all the boys were sad: Field Report did upbeat alt-country Americana act that kept the crowd happy at the Swan Dive.
Should I tell you all about the BBQ? Another time.

To be a refugee is to find oneself in a land that is not their own, with unfamiliar customs and behaviors, while trying to live a new life that is different from the one they are escaping.

Refugees face adverse hurdles in their origin countries and where they settle. Many believe that they need all the help they can get. There are programs that do this within our own welcoming and supportive community, as Patricia Repolda describes it.

Repolda is the development manager at the International Rescue Committee in Tucson. This resettlement organization helps newly arrived refugees adapt to life here so they can have a smooth transition. The local IRC runs programs that help refugees navigate the missions of finding homes, English language classes, finding a job, legal help, and other services necessary to be successful in the U.S.

“Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes” which is the first time, according to Repolda, that there is a simulation event in Tucson that allows participants to immerse themselves in the experience a refugee endures.

“They will assume the role of a refugee and they will gain an understanding of the different challenges refugees encounter to access basic needs prior to arriving in the United States,” she said.

Through this interactive event, the IRC wants to inform and unite both the refugee community and the local community alike through education and fostering understanding. Along with simulation exercises, there will also be an advocacy station to inform people how they can help refugees in the community—either through volunteer work or donations.

“Our goal is to provide education to the Tucson community to some of the unique challenges refugees have overcome before coming to the United States. And also, provide education to what’s going on around the world—why we’re helping refugees,” Repolda said.

“There’s different things they can do to share their welcome and support to the refugee population here.”

Nejra Sumic fled her native country, Bosnia, with her family as a child because of religious persecution. She came to the United States in the early '90s as a refugee.

Today, Sumic dedicates herself to helping refugees as the advocacy and outreach coordinator for the IRC in Tucson. To her, events like “Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes” are ways to show people about the reality surrounding refugees and for them to have more compassion toward refugees.

“Most people have never experienced it, it’s to kind of give them a little glimpse of their lives and their experience,” Sumic said.

She said that events like “Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes” challenge stereotypes and misconceptions.

“I want to express the importance of a welcoming community for refugees, the refugees are safe, they’re not a burden to the community. Refugees come with the mindset of being driven, of taking ownership of their lives that has been shattered and giving [to] that community that has helped them resettle,” Sumic said.

Benjamin Lawrance, a professor at the University of Arizona and historian that conducts research on African migration.

He said that 60 million people in the world, today, are refugees and only 200,000 of them end up being resettled in another country. Many end up living their lives in an indefinite limbo where they remain in refugee camps for long periods of time while others are lucky enough to go through a lengthy resettlement process and live somewhere. Various refugees end up calling the United States home, a couple of them even becoming our neighbors, here in Tucson.

According to Lawrance, one of the best ways to help refugees is donating money and supplies to local resettlement programs, as well as volunteering. “Refugees need friends. They need helpers to help them learn,” he said.

Events held by refugee centers, like the the International Rescue Committee are the connecting point that brings together refugees and the community, are also important to help them.

“I think it’s very useful to learn about the personal experiences of somebody else, to really become familiar, in whatever way, that you can to the difficulties that people experience,” Lawrance said. “The more exposure you have to other people’s lives, the more capacity of empathy that we have.”

“Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes” will take place on Sunday March 18 at the Jewish Community Center (3800 E. River Rd.) which is partnering with the IRC. It will begin at 10:00 a.m. For more information, please check out this website.