The popular Red Dirt Concert Series will return with free weekly Friday performances in May at the Posse Grounds Pavilion at 525 Posse Ground Road from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“The concerts will now be three hours, as opposed to two hours,” Parks and Recreation Special Events Coordinator Jason Vargo said. “That’s based on the popularity of the concerts and from community feedback. Most of the feedback I received was positive and included a request for more and longer concerts. Also because these are longer concerts, we were able to do a proper opener and headliner and that was a thing to be able to work with the committee to find complementary acts.”
The series will kick off on Friday, May 3, with the established musical act Well Dressed Wolves, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, with Moon Tsunami as the opening act.
The rest of the spring series lineup will feature:
Friday, May 10: FoxyKoshka with Craig Yarbrough
Friday, May 17: The Swamp Poets with Jack OC and The Alien
Friday, May 24: The Storytellers with Banjo Joe and Danielle
Friday, May 31: Anthony Mazzella with Peter Sterling and Friends
Over 200 applications were considered for the 2024 lineup, which Vargo attributed to the enduring popularity of the series. “And how desirable it is to be a performer at the Red Dirt Concert,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the fact we’re going to be getting some audio upgrades at the pavilion. We are going to be taking some steps to improve the already awesome experience [for] both our performers and our audience at the pavilion.”
“[We’re] uber-excited about our first time playing on the Posse Ground Stage,” Well Dressed Wolves drummer
Gabriel Rhodes said. “One of my first jobs was working at the Sedona Cultural Park back in the day and every time I look at that stage over on Posse Grounds, it’s like a miniature version of the Cultural [Park] stage. I’ve always wanted to bring the band there, and I’m so happy that it’s finally going to happen.”
The trio of Rhodes with Travis Eaton on guitar and vocals and Louis Occhline on bass has remained consistent throughout the last two decades, although the band changed its name from The Mods around 2017.
“The last 20 years has been marked by personal growth,” Rhodes said. ”We’ve definitely maintained our influences that we had at day one, Cream, The Beatles, The Who … As we perform we are a lot more mature than we used to be. Everything used to be super-loud. Now we have a bit more use of dynamics.”
A typical setlist for the group includes a mixture of original material and covers of the group’s inspirations, including Neil Young and Tom Petty.
“If you’re a fan of rock ’n’ roll, if you love dancing … we’re going to do all the things that we hope would satisfy [that craving],” Rhodes said. Moon Tsunami is Rhyme Uekusa on bass and lead vocals, Hobbson Connell on guitar and Logan Trujillo on drums.
The band started out playing a lot of funk music and drawing inspiration from Pink Floyd and Vulfpeck.
“In a couple of weeks of us playing for the first time, we were on stage in front of people,” Connell said, explaining the band’s formation at Mingus Union High School. “It was like a really cool experience to be in a class like every day and become a band and we just kept going. We’ve been playing creeping up on six years together.”
Connell said the group has also developed more of a “grungy rock sound” and is taking more cues from Paramore by giving the spotlight to a female vocalist in Uekusa.
“A typical setlist is a lot of original music, we’ll throw some covers in there , we’ll do Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Machine Gun,’” Connell said. “We’re [an] awesome young rock band who’s trying to push the boundaries of local music.”
The Red Dirt Concert Series will return in September, with the application for performers for the 2025 season opening on Friday, Nov. 1.
