14 June 6th-June 12th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Sales Top 10 chart and was inducted into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2019. The band tour incessantly, pounding out their special blend of rock, country- western, punk and mariachi on stage roughly 125 days a year. They’re working on their ninth album. And they’re revered for supporting other live acts, using Circus Mexicus to help other bands gain a following. Frontman Clyne is humble about the band’s and the festival’s role in creating this musical legacy. “It’s really organic,” he says. “We book people and bands that we like. I like giving people the opportunity to play. Phoenix had quite the dearth of stages for some time.” Mostly they invite their “buddies,” as he put it, and other musicians that work hard and enjoy “music as a community service.” And there’s a selfish aspect: “I get to see the bands I don’t get to see while I’m touring the whole year and that I know.” Josh Kennedy, vocalist and guitarist for The Black Moods, says playing at Circus Mexicus helps create a community for bands and their followers. As Clyne mentioned, it was tough to get traction and find venues after the 1990s Mill Avenue scene fizzled. “When that was gone, there was no meeting ground,” Kennedy notes. Circus Mexicus “really jumpstarted our fan base and what we do now.” Greg White, a bass player in Central Line and pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, attended Circus Mexicus a few times before playing in it with his former band, Random Karma. He says the show is a “who’s who of the local music scene” that allows bands to network and get more gigs. “You cross-pollinate with all these other bands and musicians,” he says. “When Roger’s playing, they’re hanging out back- stage trading stories and making plans.” The way Circus Mexicus is organized also makes it easy for performers to pile in a van and road trip to the festival, Kennedy says. Groups don’t have to haul truckloads of equipment across the border, and changeovers are fast and efficient. “You bring guitars, pedals, sticks, snares, cymbals — if that,” he says. “They’re really accommodating when it comes to that, so everything runs smoothly.” Circus Mexicus is a family reunion even more than an incubator, Kennedy adds. Many local bands are touring or in the studio all year, and this is when they can all connect, kick back on someone’s porch and jam, he says. The Black Moods’ drummer, Chico Diaz, says, “People are friendly and become friends with people they never met before. They become family, basically.” Not to mention, Kennedy says, “We all love tequila, so that really ties in.” Here comes another song about Mexico At all RCPM shows, but especially at Circus Mexicus, fans go wild when Clyne belts out, “Uno, dos, tres, quatro! / Here comes another song about Mexico.” The festival provides a connection between listening to the songs and living them. That wouldn’t be possible if it were held in Phoenix. Lyrics about tequila, beer, cantinas and honky-tonk bars pop up liberally in RCPM and old Refreshments lyrics. Clyne and the band have a tequila brand, Canción (which translates, appropriately, to “song”), and he and the band are known to toast the audi- ence with shots. (From the stage, he frequently warns the Circus Mexicus crowd to pace themselves for the long weekend.) The songs aren’t only about partying, though, and Clyne’s affinity for Mexico is authentic. He hails from a third-genera- tion ranching family out of southern Arizona and worked with Mexican laborers in corrals and on horseback when he was young. “I think I drank my first tequila behind the barn and probably learned my first Spanish swear words there, too,” he recalls. “I fell in love with the inclusiveness and the family nature of Mexican culture.” When Clyne was in high school, Rocky Point beckoned. “I was one of those guys who had 40 bucks and two days off and would run down and spend all my money on beer,” he says. While attending Arizona State University, he and his wife, Alisa, toured Mexico up and down the coasts in a VW bus for three-and-a-half weeks. He also studied mariachi culture in Ensenada, “and that basically sealed it,” he says. So it’s no surprise that Clyne spawned the idea for a show in Rocky Point, RCPM drummer Naffah thinks. He remembers the two of them sitting in a Chicago airport on a layover and Clyne saying, “What if we took the van and the trailer and set up in some pub down in Mexico and made a go of it?” Naffah says he replied, “That’s never going to fly. There’s no way people are going to follow us down to Mexico.” He later adds, “I thought he was absolutely insane.” Clyne says Naffah was the one who coined the name “Circus Mexicus” because he thought the entire thing would be a circus. Everything’s slowin’ down, flowin’ counterclockwise Naffah admittedly underestimated the fans’ enthusiasm for the opportunity to combine the Mexico beach vibe with the reality of seeing the band on an actual Mexican beach. (The band, ironically, works indefat- igably to create the knock-one-back, toes- in-the-sand, freewheeling ambiance that’s a big part of the festival’s success.) “Singing songs and drinking and hanging out on the beach: How can that not be magical?,” asks Hootie Povio of Queen Creek, who founded the Facebook page “Roger Clyne Fans of the Southwest!” She adds, “It’s almost like time slows down and you get to really enjoy those four days disconnected from the rest of the world, for the most part.” It’s more than a music festival, fans say. It’s a “lovefest” known for spurring long- standing friendships — and even marriages and children. Leading up to the weeks and days before the 25th anniversary, followers posted memories and photos from shows through the years on the Facebook fan page and on the official Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers page. But it began with one band and a bunch of beer. Memories are murky on the origins of Circus Mexicus, but Clyne confirmed the inaugural gig was “a kegger” on the rooftop of Sunset Cantina in May 1999. Attendance was around 50 at that one, fans recall, and ballooned to about 1,000 by the early 2000s by word of mouth alone. It was held twice a year until 2008. Until 2012, Circus Mexicus consisted only of RCPM and an opener. The band’s event manager, Greg Ross, verified that it expanded to three days in 2013 and stretched to four in 2015. “They’d play all the Refreshment songs, they’d play all of their songs and after that, they’d play every song they’d ever heard,” says fan John Teefy of Scottsdale and Rocky Point, who’s attended Circus Mexicus for two decades. Although it’s still billed as a John Teefy (right) with friend Ed Kolstedt at Circus Mexicus. (Photo by David Majure) Roger Clyne takes a shot of tequila onstage. (Photo by David Majure) Down Mexico Way from p 13 >> p 16
