Your Weekly guide to having fun in the Old Pueblo.

Food & Booze

2nd Annual Tucson 23: A Mexican Food Festival. This festival celebrates Visit Tucson's "Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food in America." Ticket prices include menu samplings from over 25 local wineries, breweries and local Mexican restaurants. There will also be weekend stay-cation packages, food demo for cooking education, live music and more. Come stuff your face with the best-tasting Mexican food north of the border! 6 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 17. JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort & Spa, 3800 W. Starr Pass Blvd. $49.

Brew at the Zoo. Bearded dragons, bears and beer—just three of many things awaiting you at this year's Brew at the Zoo. This event features local vendors, live music, as well as games and prizes. Enjoy a longneck with Reid Park's “long-necks.” All proceeds from the event benefit the Zoo Project Fund, which works to maintain and improve the Reid Park Zoo. 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 17. Reid Park Zoo, 3400 E. Zoo Court. $20-$45.

The Surf-a-palooza. Hang 10 and catch a wave down to Hotel Congress! Surfapalooza is this summer's premiere surf party with fun for the whole family. Celebrate surf rock with music from Shrimp Chaperone, Grave Danger and The Boogienauts. Experience a night of seemingly endless summer vibes with seaside snacks and cold brews. 6-10 p.m. Saturday, June 17. Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Free.

Tasting the Wines of Southern France. Sample wines from Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Languedoc, Provence, Cahors and some lesser known areas. Maynards Market happy hour is in full swing during the tasting. 6-8 p.m. Friday, June 16. Maynards Market & Kitchen, 400 N. Toole Ave., Suite 100. $10.

Mystery and Magic Dinner Theater Playhouse. Ever wanted to solve a whodunit? Or get sawn in half? All in the same evening? Now's your chance. Five Palms Restaurant plays host to the most exciting dinner theater experience in Tucson. Enjoy the three-act play, magic by Ross the Magician and after-show dance party. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Dinner and show begins at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 16-17. Five Palms Restaurant, 3500 E. Sunrise Drive. $75.

Health & Fitness

Hula Workout Class. Want a more fun way to get your cardio workout in? This class is for you! Jam out to Hawaiian and Tahitian music, shake those hips and burn off the calories from all those frozen summer treats. 6-7 p.m. Tuesdays. Movement Culture, 435 E. Ninth St. $10 per class.

Tour de V3s. Have some Ice cream and try indoor rock climbing in a drop-in instructional clinic. Experienced climbers can expect to get tips on improving. Climbers can also attempt to do all of the boulder problems of a certain grade. This event is for anyone looking to socialize and improve their rock climbing skills. 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, June 20. The BLOC climbing+fitness, 8975 E. Tanque Verde Road, suite 155. $5.

Fun in General

Re-purpose Succulent Garden Workshop. Are you in possession of sundry too good to throw away, but obsolete in your day-to-day life? Glass containers, wooden pallets, wagons, toolboxes and more? If yes, then get your green thumbs ready and allow this workshop to capture your imagination! Gone are the days of thumbing through Pinterest in search of fun summer projects. This upcycling garden workshop allows you to explore your creative side in building your own succulent garden. The only charge is for the cost of materials bought for the workshop; admission and demonstrations free. 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 17. Green Things, 3235 E. Allen Road.

Bisbee Pride Weekend. Celebrate diversity and all the beautiful wackiness that accompanies it at Bisbee Pride Weekend 2017. With events including a lingerie pub-crawl and PRIDE parade, and entertainment from local and national queer performers, Bisbee Pride Weekend 2017 promises to be fun for everyone from allies to out-and-prouders. The fun starts at 3 p.m. Friday, June 16, and 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 17-18. Events occur throughout the days in Bisbee, Arizona. Prices to individual events vary.

Locomotive Saturdays. Take a trip back in time to when coal-powered iron horses carried yankees and confederates alike along the western frontier. During Locomotive Saturdays at the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum you can explore the remnants of old Engine No. 1673, learn the ins-and-outs of a turn-of-the-century rail-worker, and ring the locomotive bell. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. 414 N. Toole Ave. Free.

Ensphere The Rock. Join Ensphere at The Rock to celebrate all of The Rock regulars, friends, family and fans. Enjoy two different sets of live music and record the show to help create a new Ensphere promo video. Local vendors, Tucson's music industry companies, and artists will be set up in booths throughout the venue. This event is for musicians, bands and artists who are looking for networking opportunities. 6-10 p.m. Saturday, June 17. The Rock, 136 N. Park Ave. Free.

Brew HaHA Comedy Showcase Presents Chris Thayer! You may have seen Chris Thayer on Comedy Central and VICELAND. Thayer will be headlining at Brew HaHA Comedy Showcase. Come out and support local comedians. 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Monday, June 19. Borderlands Brewing Company, 119 E. Toole Ave. Free.

Music

Evasion. Node-producing growls summon up wrath and destruction. Chugging guitars make fists clench and heads hammer. Rapid-fire kick-drums shift heart rhythms and somehow pushes bodies into pits. And like all great black metal bands, Evasion has an excellent frontman. In fact, Michael Patch was named one of AZ’s best by none other than Angry Music Magazine. His blistering screams boast killer phrasing and dynamic range, which makes even affronting songs strangely listenable. See, once you learn how to listen, you can parse good lyrics too. Mostly Epherum sticks close to genre tropes—he swears he sold his soul and is “super over” everything. Like the heroes of the genre, Deicide, Evasion’s disciplined precision and their resulting forcefield of aggression summon demons to help others exorcise their own. That, friends, makes the band universal. So leave this show cleansed, bloodied and unbowed. This Evasion CD release show also features O.P.U., Kvasura, and Stands with Fists. Saturday, June 17 at The Flycatcher, 340 E. 6th St. 9 p.m. 21+.


My Jerusalem. So evocative is their blend of shimmering Cure guitar and sultry darkwave vocals, that memories are instantly accessed from the very first spin, and nostalgia is deftly channeled. Much like Interpol, they wink to the ’80s, keeping listeners rapt with precise in-pocket drumming and relentless post-Gang of Four guitar. And much like TV on the Radio, their frontman's voice transmits sex and images of long shadows under street lamps in shitty neighborhoods—it’s equally come-fuck-me and ominous, a deep-throated whisper that nearly evokes the ghost of the mighty Mark Sandman. Hailing from Austin, the combo evokes a smoky cool—blurring lines between nervous hipster and sincere romantic, with lyrics like, "Screaming just to feel like we're alive/Your love a ticking time bomb." It’s sonic juncture where love and time inevitably slip away. With Monsignor, and Wednesday’s Guitar Mass at 191 Toole. Monday, June 19. Door at 7 p.m. $10. 21+.

Hellyeah. As with his other chest-hair-sprouting band, Mudvayne, Chad Gray bends your ear with slow, a capella intros. Then Vinnie Paul's pummeling Pantera drums descend, a double-kick assault that pulls you through the pain. The repetitive-but-melancholy guitar riffs round out hard edges and glues early aught alt-rock vocals to the classic ’80s speed-metal commands. After a decade of recording albums together and touring with Korn and Evanescence, Hellyeah have proved themselves more than just another heavy metal supergroup. Their post-Kid Rock/Texas origin shines through not just in the band's truckstop-cowboy attire, but in their eyebrow-raising, "workingman's" lyrics ("Eighteen wheels are rolling/Eighteen wheels are crushing me down”). Indeed most of Hellyeah’s songs are from the POV of a tough guy with a heart of gold, wronged and destroyed by love. It’s modern white-boy blues replete with anger and defensiveness. Thank god for those drums. With Sons of Texas and Righteous Vendetta at Rialto Theater, 318 E. Congress. Tuesday, June 20. Doors at 8 p.m. $26-$31. All ages.

Troller. They’re a kind of Goldfrapp and Portishead hybrid but with the pipes of Evanescence. Or something. While they are about as subtle as a fire alarm next to the first two greats, there’s something uncannily compelling about this experimental electronic trio; they seem ghoulish and deeply troubled, and their songs haunt. Touring in support of their second album, Graphic, theirs is an aural S&M that punishes the listener with screeching and atonal shrieks, only to reward with moments of bittersweet pleasure. Go with a friend—the night might envelope you in its harsh sparseness and leave you feeling alone between strangers. With Eric Schlappi, Snackbirdy and DJ Castlefreak on Friday, June 16. Club Congress, 311 E. Congress. Doors at 8 p.m. 16+. Free.