Brian Lopez w/ Holy Faint
Doors 8pm, Show 9 pm
$15 Advance | $18 Day of Show
**BRIAN LOPEZ**
After spending the better part of 2022 on the road, Tucson’s Brian Lopez returns to the Club Congress stage, where it all began. The indie rocker, known for his cinematic melodies and soaring vocals, has been called “…the missing link between Devandra Banhart and Roy Orbison”. Born and based in Tucson, Lopez is a classically-trained guitarist and songwriter who merges his desert roots with soul, pop and rock’n’roll to transport his listeners on an ethereal journey across space and time.
Lopez released his first solo album Ultra in 2011 to international acclaim. Rolling Stone Germany described the record as “Psychedelic chamber-pop with the surrealist touch of Dalí.” After touring across Europe and the US as the opening act for KT Tunstill, Giant Sand and Heartless Bastards, he released Static Noise in 2014. Tastemaker Musikexpress declared Lopez “without a doubt one of the best songwriters of his generation.” In 2018, he independently released his third album, Prelude, a lo-fi 10-song “masterpiece” written and recorded in his Armory Park bedroom during a two-week period. Lopez’s forthcoming release, due out in 2023, builds upon his songwriting prowess while returning to his origins in indie rock.
Aside from his solo project, Lopez is also frontman of the psych/cumbia band XIXA and has worked with an expansive range of artists, including Calexico, Amos Lee, Amparo Sanchez, KT Tunstall, Giant Sand, Orkesta Mendoza, and Mexican Institute of Sound.
**Holy Faint**
The antidote to apathy, Holy Faint is music for the unapologetically passionate. The Tucson-based quintet makes loud music for romantics, dreamers, and oddities
A newly electric guitar obsessed Sophie Gibson-Rush started the project in early 2021 as a means of exploring music with a harder edge than her past experiences in folk and classical. To her, the social and political climate at the time demanded a fiercer sound. As a result, Holy Faint has aggressive, socially-conscious lyrics delivered with a melodic touch.
Holy Faint’s songs filter the catharsis of live theatre through the lens of post-punk. From the inception of the project, it was important for singer/guitarist Sophie Gibson-Rush that the band capture the heightened emotion and drama of contemporary society. Like the punk and folk movements of the past fifty years, numbness was never an option.
When Pete and Andrea Connolly (of Tucson-based folk-rock duo Birds and Arrows) joined the band in 2022, they took the project from a bedroom recording experiment—to a full-fledged ensemble. Ryan Green (Ryanhood) was enlisted as an assistant producer and multi-instrumentalist when the group entered the St. Cecilia’s studio to record the firsts tracks for their upcoming EP ‘Charisma 1’. Just ahead of their first show, Jordan Prather (Head over Heart) completed the quintet as synth and guitar player.
Their first single, “Jimmy Jolts”— a fuzzed-out, guitar heavy punk anthem—is out now on all streaming platforms! Find out tour dates and more at www.HolyFaint.com.