Side Pony Express Music Festival - Bisbee, Arizona
I spent a weekend in early November in Bisbee, Arizona attending the Side Pony Express Music Festival. It’s a free festival with about 100 mostly Phoenix area bands of various musical genres rotating between 14 different venues, playing several short sets each day. There is an event schedule showing who is playing at each venue and at what time. As several of the venues are in close proximity, my plan is to pick a first choice, go there, if I like what I hear, I stay; if not, I head for to the next closest venue. I try to catch as many bands as possible which involves considerable walking up and down the Bisbee streets and steps.
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| Most think Bisbee is just weird, but ... |
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| what's weird about No place for Hate ? |
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| Or free your mind ? |
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| Respect ? |
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| Expressionism ? |
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| or even Elvis ? |
As usual many photos are taken that have nothing to do with the festival.
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| The iconic Bisbee downtown view |
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| I always love the rear door at Cafe Roka |
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| The Bisbee peace wall mural |
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| Interesting store interior |
Everything starts about noon time and intensifies as the day goes on into the night. Party central is the area on Brewery Street in the vicinity of the St Elmo Bar which is a true “dive bar” and damn proud of it. There always seems to be a crowd in the vicinity of the St Elmo Bar and the adjacent Quarry Bar and it tends to look a little seedy, but I’ve never seen any trouble.
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| The festival poster |
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| The St Elmo |
Bisbee is built on a hill side and as such about everywhere you go involves going up and down. The streets and sidewalks are rough, nothing is handicapped accessible, but I only saw one person trip and fall. He was about my age walking with his wife when he tripped, lost his balance and fell catching himself nicely. His wife said are you OK, he ashamedly got up and just said, I’m Ok, just pissed off. I thought, yeah thats what starts to happen when you get older and it sucks, I understand.
In Bisbee you always run into a few characters even if you are mostly non social like me. First it was this photographer man who was having a great time shooting random shots of people without them knowing and then occasionally getting people to pose. He was all over town, like me, and as I was also carrying a camera, we crossed paths several times and had a discussion. Then there was a very jovial, somewhat drunk sounding man at a crowded event who came up to me and said, I’ve been following you all day, they call me “Box Car”, what’s your name ? He bent my ear for quite a while and then drifted away, pushing his way into the crowd and within a minute was chuckling with another group of people. I saw him a hour latter again and he said, he left them when they started talking politics.
The performers are all young, but there is one exception who I remembered from the previous year. He is Joe Quinn from Scotland who is probably around 60 and is very good at old Scottish ballads and such, but who I suspect has seen and done it all in past days. As I went into the Copper Queen bar there was a really young band, Painting Fences, barely drinking age, doing real throwback heavy metal stuff. I thought the lead guy might actually give himself a concussion with the severity of his head shaking. Joe was sitting with another older man and they were having the greatest fun watching these kids. They were so young and so full of energy and passion, I have to say I did too.
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| Joe Quinn |
I have to admit, few bands really motivated me, I’m getting a little jaded by the quality musicians I routinely see in Tucson. The ambiance needs to be right for me these days and this particular evening at the Stock Exchange it was. I had a seat right in front of the stage and two bands in succession were magic. The first was a band, the Carrie Lynn Band, who had impressed me in an earlier acoustic set earlier in the day This was their electric show and they were great, strong guitars, drums and the female vocalist, Lynn, is just a natural talent.
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| Carrie Lynn Band |
They were followed by “Ghost Cat Attack” fronted by a very attractive female who started off slow and sensual and then shifted gears into a full rock mode.
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| Ghost Cat Attack Band |
A young woman, sort of new age hippie looking, (or whatever they like to call themselves these days) sat in an open seat next to me. She then saw a guy at the bar who she needed to talk to, asked me if I would watch her stuff at the seat and left. I had finished my beer, didn’t want another, just wanted to hang out until the band was done. I thought she would be back in a couple of minutes which turned out to be about 15 minutes. I guess she noticed I didn’t have a beer so she offered to buy me one, maybe she thought I had no money or felt sorry for a lonely old man, but it was sweet.
I also saw Ghost Cat Attack at the St Elmo Bar the following day where I learned that the band name derives from the cat ghost who haunts the nearby Bisbee Hotel.
I saw another favorite band who I remembered from last year called Japhy’s Descent. They were playing as a duo and I am still impressed with this lead guys raw talent. It was an early morning show and they had obviously had a fun night, seeming to be a little hung over. The vocalist voice was a little creaky and he kept coughing and the other guitarist at on point asked him if he could explain how he got the grass stains on his jeans. The answer; Because it’s Bisbee.
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| Japhy's Descent Band |
The most popular band of the event was a group of hispanic women who played in several different band formats. Their large group was called, Los Chollas Peligrosas and they performed to a jam packed crowd on Saturday evening and on Sunday afternoon. They were dressed in beautiful black dresses with lots of makeup and play a variety of instruments. They have several vocalists with incredible voices, it’s mostly in Spanish, but even if you don’t understand the language, it’s beautiful to hear.
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| The Las Chollas Peligrosas Band |
The smaller version called the La Luz de La Luna
A few others performers worthy of note:
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| Blue Delta from Australia |
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| The Wilt Family, really sad songs, my favorite type |
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Auld Lang Syne Band, one of the best who travel with three
children. They usually bring the kids out for a group family song |
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| They were vibrant performers |
As usual, on one morning I detoured into the nearby town of Lowell on the other side of the Lavender Pit Mine. The town is like a museum and mostly original, like time stood still. Everything seems to belong in part to the Broken Spoke Saloon biker bar empire, a major attraction at the Sturgis, Daytona and Laconia biker weeks. I used to believe that was cool stuff, but times have changed, no more.
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| 39 Chevy army car |
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| Lots of vintage advertising signs |
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| Always admire the vintage gas pumps |
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| Cute couple in a store front |
I usually always have a breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Club which I always loved, a bowl type dish with eggs, potatoes, gravy and a huge biscuit. This time it had way too much gravy, was sort of disgusting and filling. I guess times have changed on that too ? I didn’t eat again until late afternoon when I had a BBQ beef sandwich on a small toasted hamburger bun with a side of cole slaw from a street vendor, one of the best BBQ sandwiches I have ever eaten !
It was an exhausting weekend, but hopefully I’ll do it again next year.
Slick
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