AVA Amphitheatre

Tucson, Arizona

July 14, 2024

by Mary Andrews 

Slash’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival made a stop at Tucson’s AVA outdoor Amphitheatre on a stormy night. The allstar cast celebrated the blues with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. The cast of entertainers will change during the summer and it was announced that this was the last night for Eric Gales, Samantha Fish, and Warren Haynes. It was a who’s who of today’s blues musicians. Guns’n Rose’s Slash, is one of the world’s most admired guitarist in existance today.

They were in a hurry to get the show started due to the weather being unpredictable. Eric Gales opened the festivities with as much guitar swagger as the law would allow. My only complaint was that the set was much too short being only 30 minutes (four songs). Gales packed in riviting rendions of “You Don’t Know the the Blues,” “Voodoo Child,” “Kasmir,” and “Back in Black.” 

Samantha Fish followed Gales with another kickass 30 minute set.  Fish performed here last year as a part of Buddy Guy’s last tour. It was obvious that the crowd rememebered her guitar prowess as they were out of their seats clapping and dancing to her hard driving guitar licks. Her four songs included “Kick Out the Jams,” “Bulletproof,” “I Put a Spell on You,” and “Somebody’s Always Trying.” Fish was on fire. She brought out her surprise guest, Warren Haynes, for a song and then it was quickly over.

Warren Haynes and his band extordinaire took the stage after Fish. His band included John Medeski on keysboards, Kevin Scott on bass, and Terrence Higgins on drums. Haynes was playing guitar. (Apologies if I missed someone.) The 45 minute set included “Man in Motion,” “Banks of the Deep End,” “Hattissburg Hustle,” but also the song that the fans kept shouting for throughout the set, “Soulshine” was performed at the end of the set.

Slash’s set was the main event at the end of the show. The set was filled with classic blues songs like “Born Under a Bad Sign,” “Stormy Monday,””PapaWas a Rolling Stone,” and “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.” Warren Haynes was the first guest to join Shash during his set and before the evening was over, all of the previous performers joined Slash during the set. 

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The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival runs through August 17th with more excellent acts including Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram, Larkin Poe, Keb’ Mo,’ Robert Randolph, ZZ Ward, and special unannouced guests. If the show comes to your area, do yourself a favor and mosey on down to the show. You won’t regret it.

by Tamara Jenkins

GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Christina Aguilera has announced rap superstar Big Boi will join her tour as a special guest this fall on select dates of her Liberation Tour.

The tour will be produced by Live Nation and will kick off the limited engagement run on September 25th and travel to 22 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

This is Aguilera’s first tour since 2008 and she will perform at many of North America’s most intimate venues including two dates at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, two dates at The Chicago Theatre, and stops in Boston, Oakland, Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and more.

Big Boi is a seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning, RIAA diamond-certified musician and is currently celebrating his third full-length solo album, BOOMIVERSE. The project includes hit track “All Night,” “In The South” featuring Gucci Mane and Pimp C and singles “Mic Jack” featuring Adam Levine and “Kill Jill” featuring Killer Mike & Jeezy.

Christina Aguilera

Christina released new song “Accelerate feat. Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz” and “Twice” earlier this month, the first songs from her forthcoming and highly anticipated album, Liberation. She will also be performing “Fall in Line,” her newly announced duet with Demi Lovato, at the Billboard Music Awards on May 20th.

American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning today at 10 am local time through Thursday, May 17th at 10 pm local time.   Tickets are on sale to the general public starting Friday, May 18th at 10am local time at Ticketmaster.com.

Liberation will be released Friday, June 15th and is available for pre-order now. Every online ticket purchased for Christina Aguilera’s 2018 tour includes a standard CD copy of her new album, Liberation. Instructions on how to redeem a copy will be provided by Ticketmaster within 24 hours of ticket purchase via email.