San Antonio Current — October 5, 2022

San Antonio Current

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33 Feature Tried and True

San Antonio craft brewers helping classic beer styles make a comeback

09 News

The Opener

News in Brief DeLorean Dispute

Experts say San Antonio should have investigated electric vehicle startup’s potential legal issues before offering incentives

Fentanyl Failures

Gov. Greg Abbott boasts about stopping the deadly synthetic opioid. Critics say he’s failed on multiple fronts.

Bad Takes

For all of their pride in not having an income tax, Texans pay more back to the government than Californians

CityScrapes

Why does San Antonio have a $200 million performing arts center but no symphony filling its seats?

19 Calendar

Calendar Picks 27 Arts

Lost & Found

San Antonio artist Karen Mahaffy charts an icy expedition with her Trinity exhibition ‘Objects of Absence’

31 Screens

Game On

South Texas native and TikTok star Sara Echeagaray joins second season of BigShot on Disney+

33 Food Sudsy Survival Guide

San Antonio Beer Festival pros share their tips for making the most of South Texas’ premiere brewing event

Raising a Glass

San Antonio Beer Week has moved to October and now boasts a more diverse board

Hot Dish 42 Music Still Flex-Able

Ahead of San Antonio show, guitar virtuoso Steve Vai discusses his long career of sonic exploration

Dos Culturas

The Last Bandoleros may have left San Antonio, but their Tex-Mex roots still shine through

Music Listings

On the Cover: For the first time, the San Antonio Beer Festival and San Antonio Beer

Week are happening during the same week. Design: Samantha Serna.

Instagram / @dorcolspirits

Matthew Broussard

Luz Pazos

Ian Bagg

Vlad Caamano

Bexar County Judge Candidates' Forum

Join us to hear from the candidates!

Bexar County Judge Candidates' Forum

Bexar County Judge Candidates' Forum

Bexar County Judge Candidates' Forum

Bexar County Judge Candidates’

Forum on October 13 at 6 pm

Join us to hear from the candidates!

Join us to hear from the candidates!

Join us to hear from the candidates!

Join us to hear from the candidates!

In November, Bexar County will elect a new County Judge for the first time in morethan 20 years. AARP in San Antonio is partnering with NowCastSA to present theBexar County Judge Candidates’ Forum. Join us on October 13 at the Palo AltoCollege Performing Arts Center to hear Bexar County Judge hopefuls answerquestions important to older adults and their families.

In November, Bexar County will elect a new County Judge for the first time in morethan 20 years. AARP in San Antonio is partnering with NowCastSA to present theBexar County Judge Candidates’ Forum. Join us on October 13 at the Palo AltoCollege Performing Arts Center to hear Bexar County Judge hopefuls answerquestions important to older adults and their families.

This event is free, but space is limited! Reserve your seat today.

Thursday, October 13, 2022

This event is free, but space is limited! Reserve your seat today.

In November, Bexar County will elect a new County Judge for the first time in morethan 20 years. AARP in San Antonio is partnering with NowCastSA to present theBexar County Judge Candidates’ Forum. Join us on October 13 at the Palo AltoCollege Performing Arts Center to hear Bexar County Judge hopefuls answerquestions important to older adults and their families. This event is free, but space is limited! Reserve your seat today.

In November, Bexar County will elect a new County Judge for the first time in morethan 20 years. AARP in San Antonio is partnering with NowCastSA to present theBexar County Judge Candidates’ Forum. Join us on October 13 at the Palo AltoCollege Performing Arts Center to hear Bexar County Judge hopefuls answerquestions important to older adults and their families.

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

In November, Bexar County will elect a new County Judge for the first time in more than 20 years. AARP in San Antonio is partnering with NowCastSA to present the Bexar County Judge Candidates’ Forum. Join us on October 13 at the Palo Alto College Performing Arts Center to hear Bexar County Judge hopefuls answer questions important to older adults and their families. This event is free, but space is limited! Reserve your seat today.

This event is free, but space is limited! Reserve your seat today.

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Thursday, October 13, 2022

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Palo Alto College Performing Arts Center 1400 W Villaret Blvd San Antonio, TX 78224

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Palo Alto College Performing Arts Center 1400 W Villaret Blvd San Antonio, TX 78224

Palo Alto College Performing Arts Center 1400 W Villaret Blvd San Antonio, TX 78224

Haveaquestionforthecandidates?Submititonlinewhenyouregister.

Haveaquestionforthecandidates?Submititonlinewhenyouregister.

Palo Alto College Performing Arts Center 1400 W Villaret Blvd San Antonio, TX 78224

Haveaquestionforthecandidates?Submititonlinewhenyouregister.

RSVP at events.aarp.org/BexarJudges22 or call toll-free1-877-926-8300.

RSVP at events.aarp.org/BexarJudges22 or call toll-free1-877-926-8300.

RSVP at events.aarp.org/BexarJudges22 or call toll-free1-877-926-8300.

Haveaquestionforthecandidates?Submititonlinewhenyouregister.

RSVP at events.aarp.org/BexarJudges22 or call toll-free1-877-926-8300.

That Rocks/That Sucks

HA new study by Environment Texas named CPS Energy’s Calaveras Power Station as the 10th-worst toxic polluter in the nation. The report is based on data the city-owned utility reported to the Environmental Protection Agency about the quantity and toxicity of material the power-generation facility released into Calaveras Lake and stormwater in 2020.

HTexas is moving forward with a plan to build more than 50 new electric car charging stations along major highways. The Federal Highway Administration last week approved the state’s proposed use of $408 million in federal infrastructure money to build the stations, which will be primarily located on interstates between San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, Houston and Dallas.

HRepublican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz broke with his party last week to vote against an election reform act designed to prevent a repeat of the efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential contest. The Electoral Count Reformand Presidential Transition Improvement Act seeks to close loopholes Trump tried to exploit, including le ing senators singlehandedly object to a state’s election results.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled again last week that A orney General Ken Paxton can’t unilaterally prosecute election cases, affirming that he needs the permission of local prosecutors to do so. It’s a defeat for the Republican AG, a Trump ally and 2020 election denier, who without evidence called the decision “devastating for the integrity of our upcoming elections.” — Abe Asher

ASSCLOWN ALERT

Shutting down science and research with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn

Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has never been particularly enlightened when it comes to cannabis reform. Anybody remember his ludicrous claim from last year that he couldn’t support legalizing pot because it would lead to more opioid overdoses?

(Yes, he actually fucking said that.)

Turns out the Texas Republican isn’t even willing to green light more medical research into the plant, Marijuana Moment reports.

Last Thursday, Big Bad John objected to a

Texas A orney General Ken Paxton was widely mocked after reportedly fleeing from his home in an apparent a empt to avoid being served with a subpoena last week. The Republican AG, who’s under indictment for securities fraud, reportedly made his getaway in a vehicle driven by his wife, State Sen. Angela Paxton. The a orney general said that he was concerned for the safety of his family. His Democratic opponent, Rochelle Garza, called him “an embarrassment to Texans.”

plan to fast-track a bipartisan bill created to expand cannabis research, the news site reports, then he declined to explain his objection to the proposal.

Even though Cornyn has previously said he wants more research on weed’s medical effects, he objected to the new bill being put on an expedited track called “hotlining.” Had he not created a roadblock, it would have moved through the Senate and ended up on President Joe Biden’s desk for final approval, Marijuana Moment reports.

Cornyn’s office offered no explanation to the news organization as to why he rejected the bill. However, a Capitol Hill source told Marijuana Moment that Cornyn is blocking all House bills taken up under unanimous consent because he’s pissed off that the Democrat-controlled House hasn’t advanced more of his own proposals.

If that’s true, it’s nice the assclown is staying true to his frequent calls to end partisanship in Washington. — Sanford Nowlin

Watchdog group Democracy Forward has filed an open records request in a bid to secure new data on maternal mortality in Texas that state officials have delayed releasing until after the midterm elections. The pending report, the first in nine years on maternal mortality in the state, was supposed to be made public Sept. 1. However, that date was pushed back to sometime next summer as the state’s top Republican officials a empt to secure re-election. — Abe Asher

— Bar owner Aaron Peña during District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo’s shambolic Sept. 24 public meeting to discuss a proposed parking ban near the St. Mary’s Strip.

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. has reportedly promised to pay another $15 million to help finance the construction of a San Antonio underground tunnel project. The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority is backing the plan, which would connect the city’s airport and The Pearl by tunnel, despite serious concerns about feasibility and environmental impact.

YOU SAID IT!

“I wanna talk to my neighbors, I wanna speak to the community and I wanna offer solutions that aren’t as performative as this bullshit.”

Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

#1 BEER RETAILER #1 BEER RETAILER

DeLorean Dispute

Experts say San Antonio should have investigated electric vehicle startup’s potential legal issues before offering incentives

BY MICHAEL KARLIS

Last month, executives of San Antonio-based electric vehicle startup DeLorean Motors Reimagined LLC responded to a lawsuit accusing them of building their venture with trade secrets stolen from their previous employer, California-based Karma Automotive.

In a court filing, DeLorean CEO Joost de Vries, Karma’s former vice president of marketing, and his colleagues maintain that their one-time employer gave them permission to “pursue investors outside of Karma Automotive” as they worked to electrify an original DeLorean — the discontinued sports car popularized by the ’80s film Back to the Future — that de Vries and others worked on while employed there.

The claim is the latest salvo in a legal ba le that experts warn could take months, if not years, to play out. The court fight began unfolding mere months after San Antonio and Bexar County approved an incentive package worth roughly $1.1 million to a ract DeLorean Motors Reimagined to Port San Antonio.

Despite the ongoing legal dispute — which includes allegations of IP theft and claims of trademark infringement — San Antonio’s Economic Development Department said in a statement that the legal wrangling does “not impact our agreement with DeLorean.”

Just the same, the signs of impending legal trouble were there, said Michael Connelly, a Washington, D.C.-based a orney with more than 25 years of experience litigating intellectual property disputes. He and other experts maintain that those issues should have raised a red flag as local officials weighed whether to offer incentives to the company.

Local officials should have been especially cautious, Connelly added, because the electric vehicle, or EV industry, is susceptible to lawsuits.

“You have a relatively small pool of very talented people that get drawn around in different directions,” Connelly said. “These lawsuits are popping up, where they’re always under the guise of trade secret theft for anything from hiring practices to customer lists to ba ery technology or design elements.”

When asked whether the lawsuit could be the end of CEO de Vries’ DeLorean dream, Connelly responded, “It certainly could be.”

Connelly pointed out that Lordstown Motors, another EV startup helmed by former Karma employees, also faced a lawsuit from Karma alleging intellectual property theft.

Further, the Wall Street Journal last year reported that Lordstown is under U.S. Justice Department investigation, and the company also is the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry based on vehicle pre-orders. The company has said it’s cooperating with regulators on both.

The speed at which DeLorean Motors Reimagined was able to form a company, launch an ad, secure public subsidies and debut a prototype at a car show in California made a lawsuit even more likely, according to Connelly.

“I mean, it’s just crazy fast,” Connelly said. “I imagine all of that would leave Karma in disbelief about anything they read that said this happened from February to now.”

Even so, taxpayer money has yet to reach the coffers of the fledgling DeLorean venture, and the availability of those funds is contingent upon the company hi ing local job-creation targets, according to city and county officials.

Superbowl shuffle

DeLorean Motors Reimagined grabbed national headlines in February when it aired a commercial during Super Bowl LVI. The next morning, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg took a victory lap on social media, tweeting that the company, which wasn’t even incorporated in Delaware until more than a week later, would establish its new headquarters in the Alamo City.

Soon after, city council unanimously approved up to $562,500 in grants for DeLorean Motors Reimagined to lure the company to locate its headquarters at Port San Antonio and create 450 jobs.

Bexar County Commissioners Court followed suit, clearing the way to offer the car manufacturer an additional $513,000 in tax incentives over the next 10 years.

Following the death of John DeLorean, the founder of the original DeLorean Motor Co., in 2005, there have been at least three lawsuits involving the DeLorean trademark. Two were filed by DeLorean’s estate against Stephen Wynne, the owner of a DMC Texas, a company that provided parts for owners of the original DeLorean vehicles.

Wynne’s company has since been merged into the San Antonio-based DeLorean Motors Reimagined, according to the online auto-industry news site Autoevolution.

The question of who has the right to use the DeLorean trademark hinges on a 2014 legal se lement in which Wynne’s company admi ed that DMC Texas never acquired the licensing rights to the DeLorean name. As part of that se lement, the estate of John DeLorean agreed to never again sue DMC Texas over the trademark, the Express-News reports.

Although Wynne is likely in the clear regarding the use of the DMC trademark, managing to fightoff a following lawsuit by the DeLorean estate in 2018, John DeLorean’s daughter, Kathryn DeLorean

Seymour, has expressed her disdain for the new San Antonio-based start-up.

In a June Instagram post, DeLorean Seymour asked the EV automaker to “stop lying and stop speaking about John now, he despised you.” DeLorean Seymour also appeared to hint that she and others related to John DeLorean are working on their own version of the distinctive ’80s car, with renderings of their own revamped DeLorean featured in a video posted on her Instagram account.

‘Basic due diligence’

The controversy surrounding the DeLorean trademark was one of the first things that popped into economic development scholar Nathan Jensen’s head when he first read about the EV startup.

Jensen, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said city and county officials should have scrutinized the potential intellectual property issues before moving to approve an incentives package for DeLorean Motors Reimagined.

“This does seem like, at least on the surface, that some basic due diligence would reveal at last a hint of a problem,” Jensen said.

During municipalities’ incentive negotiations, it’s common for them to ask companies about prior or existing lawsuits, tax records and financial records, according to Jensen. The state’s Texas Enterprise Fund, which provides grants to companies looking to relocate here, requires two years of financial records and statements, for example.

In an email to the Current, San Antonio Economic Development Department officials said they completed “a review of legal and business history” of the team behind DeLorean Motors Reimagined but declined to reveal further details.

Jensen said the disputes swirling around the EV startup raise questions about why San Antonio is targeting economic development incentives to companies with lofty ambitions instead of investing in what he calls “community goals.”

Providing be er services to small businesses often does more to foster local economic development than spending money to lure startups, Jensen said. But, he added, the most significant contributing factor to robust economic development is a stronger investment in education.

“Instead of giving money to the business, you’re creating a workforce,” he said. “That’s particularly valuable, and the great thing about that is that even if these businesses move or they fail, you’ve invested in the people in your community.”

Courtesy Photo / DeLorean Motor

Fentanyl Failures

Gov. Greg Abbott boasts about stopping the deadly synthetic opioid. Critics say he’s failed on multiple fronts.

BY SANFORD NOWLIN

Gov. Greg Abbo wants you to know that he’s doing everything he can to stop the terrifying scourge of fentanyl.

The synthetic opioid rated multiple mentions in his sole debate with Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, and the Abbo campaign regularly airs TV ads featuring law enforcement officials touting the governor’s work to rid the drug from the streets.

The Republican governor’s focus on fentanyl as he faces a tough reelection fight is understandable. Synthetic opiates, including fentanyl, were responsible for two-thirds of U.S. overdose deaths during the 12 months that ended this March, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

But here’s the problem: Abbo ’s war on fentanyl has largely centered around his Operation Lone Star, a $4 billion program to step up arrests of migrants crossing the border. Meanwhile, under his watch, the state has shown li le appetite for fostering efforts to prevent overdose deaths.

While Abbo ’s pricy border crackdown has grabbed plenty of headlines and appealed to immigration hardliners in the electorate, a recent report by the Cato Institute based on federal drug-apprehension data shows why it’s misdirected.

More than 90% of fentanyl seizures occur at either legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, according to the libertarian think tank’s report, and 86.3% of convicted traffickers of the drug last year were U.S. citizens.

In contrast, just 0.02% migrants apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that year for crossing illegally had any fentanyl in their possession.

While that data applies only to federal arrests, there’s no evidence to suggest the state numbers would widely diverge. Just the same, Abbo and other Texas officials have trumpeted major victories in confiscating fentanyl along the border.

Multiple media investigations have since poked holes in those claims. In one of the most glaring examples, Abbo last year lauded Operation Lone Star for seizing 887 pounds of fentanyl, but a review by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune showed that less than 20% of that total was confiscated in counties involved in Abbo ’s border initiative.

Overdose prevention

Taken together, the federal statistics suggest that the most effective way to mitigate the fentanyl crisis

isn’t scapegoating migrants but working to stop overdoses, wrote David J. Bier, the author of the Cato study.

“Reducing deaths requires figuring out the cause, not jumping to blame a group that is not responsible,” according to Bier. “Instead of a acking immigrants, policymakers should focus on effective solutions that help people at risk of a fentanyl overdose.”

And, according to critics, Texas under Abbo ’s leadership has also failed miserably on that front.

In one of the most glaring examples, a state program that helps local police and health departments obtain Narcan, an easy-to-use medication that can save the lives of overdose victims by blocking the effect of opiates, went unfunded for most of this year.

Operated out of the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing, the program relies on federal grants. When that funding ran out in January amid the national rise in overdoses, state officials let it languish until a new federal funding cycle started in September.

Supporters of the program have argued that the state should be pu ing its own money into the program given its potential to curtail overdoses amid the crisis.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t receive a desperate request for low or no-cost nasal naloxone from health departments, first responders, health systems, community pharmacies, you name it,” Joy Alonzo, co-chair of the Opioid Task Force at Texas A&M University in College Station, told the Texas Tribune in August. “All say the same thing, there aren’t any low or no-cost options, and their patients can’t pay $135 for a naloxone rescue kit.”

Stripped of strips

What’s more, another significant tool in combating fentanyl overdoses is outlawed by the Lone Star State.

Despite rising overdose deaths in some of its largest cities, Texas is among the nearly half of U.S. states where fentanyl test strips remain illegal.

The easy-to-use strips allow addicts to check whether the drugs they’re using contain the synthetic opiate, potentially staving off deadly outcomes.

The state ban hasn’t stopped harm-reduction groups from distributing the strips to people at risk of overdose. San Antonio’s Bexar Area Harm Reduction Coalition, for example, continues to pass them out to its clients.

However, BAHRC founder and board member Curt Harrell said their current classification as illegal drug paraphernalia makes them hard to come by, and that raises the risk to users on the street.

A bill to make the test strips legal made it out of a House commi ee during the last session of the Texas Legislature, but it failed to advance in the Republican-controlled body.

Harrell said he’s befuddled by the resistance.

“One of the things I’d like our illustrious governor to understand is that these strips don’t have fentanyl in them, they detect fentanyl,” Harrell said.

However, there’s li le reason to believe the ambivalence of Texas’ leadership will change. Abbo ’s office declined to answer an inquiry from the Current about the part Narcan and test strips can play in reducing fentanyl deaths.

O ce of the Governor

MGov. Greg Abbott examines a bag of fentanyl at a press event in Houston earlier this year.

For all of their pride in not having an income tax, Texans pay more back to the government than Californians

BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

Editor’s Note: Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.

Iguess the trouble was we Americans didn’t have any self-admi ed proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed millionaire.”

John Steinbeck, A Primer on the 30s

Cu ing Texans’ exorbitant property taxes has emerged as the atypically bipartisan watchword of the governor’s race. Both Democratic contender Beto O’Rourke and incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbo are promising voters much-hankered-for relief.

“Ad valorem” is an old Latin term meaning “according to what your shit’s worth,” and when the appraised value of your shi y home abruptly skyrockets, so does your shi y ad valorem tax bill.

For some reason unknown to the four U.S. Supreme Court justices who dissented in 1973’s precedent-se ing San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriquez case, Texas chose to draw the bulk of its local school funding from taxes on nearby properties. That’s great if you happen to live next to multimillion dollar real estate. It’s less than great if you live in Section 8 housing. To the five justices in the majority, the Equal Protection Clause was an old American term meaning “you’re on your own.”

Half a century later, Texas still doesn’t have a progressive income tax, and wealth-guarding governors are still campaigning on the plight of the beleaguered taxpayer. Voters are well within their rights to ask an embarrassingly obvious question: why didn’t Abbo fix this during his seven years presiding over a state with one-party Republican rule?

Maybe because not fixing the problem allows the GOP to sing its favorite tune whenever there’s a budget surplus around election time: “This is your

money; you should decide how best to spend it.” Except, dearest leaders, we chose to give you that money so you could keep the lights on, keep the air and water clean and keep the schoolchildren semi-literate and semi-cognizant of U.S. history.

Abbo ’s flawless reasoning appears to have trickled down to our own San Antonio City Council, which recently decided to give the average CPS Energy customer back a whopping $29 on their next electric bill instead of, say, investing those aggregated tens of millions of dollars into weatherization, which would save us many-fold that paltry rebate down the road. Bexar County’s 40 largest corporations, however, will make off with around $100,000 a piece.

To gauge the exact length and breadth of the shaft, Texas can expect twice as many days of 100-degree-plus heat by the year 2036, according to the climate risk assessment database Heat Factor, set up by a former executive at the Weather Channel. Apparently, economic forecasts can appear much brighter if you don’t factor in sustainability.

But at least we can console ourselves in knowing we’re be er off tax-wise than the People’s Republic of California, right? RIGHT?

Nope.

As pesky facts would have it, the high property and regressive sales taxes Texans fork over mean that all but the luckiest of us pay a higher effective tax rate than Californians do. If your household earns less than $55,000 a year, for example, more than 10% of what you make heads to the state capitol. If you’re in the richest 1%, only 3% does. That must be what Texas Republicans mean by “tax fairness.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom

gleefully gloated as much during his appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin earlier this month. “Your bills are higher in Texas than they are in California for residential electricity,” he even added to rub things in.

Texans pay $154, while Californians pay $123, according to a recent analysis by financial site WalletHub.

While California has experienced zero blackouts in 2021 and 2022, six of Texas’ power plants shut down thanks to extreme heat in May. And the Texas freeze in February of last year exacted nearly $200 billion in damage and killed hundreds. Renewable energy sources including wind and solar saved us from far worse disaster.

Now, it’s true that when the world’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, moved from Los Angeles to Austin, he saved an estimated $13 million on his state taxes. And Rogan’s compadre in pandemic misinformation, Elon Musk, saved at least $1.1 billion with his recent move to the Lone Star State. That surely buys a lot of awkwardly fi ing cowboy hats.

But that’s them — not most readers of this column. And if you’d enjoy wiping that annoying smirk off Gavin Newsom’s face as much as I would, remember that you and I, Rogan and Musk, each get one ballot this November.

“It is difficult to believe that if the

children of Texas had a free choice, they would choose to be educated in districts with fewer resources,” Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote in his dissent to the San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriquez case. “That a child forced to a end an underfunded school with poorer physical facilities, less experienced teachers, larger classes, and a narrower range of courses than a school with substantially more funds may nevertheless excel is to the credit of the child, not the State. Indeed, who can ever measure for such a child the opportunities lost and the talents wasted for want of a broader, more enriched education?”

In terms of opportunity costs, imagine how different a country this would be if funding schools with property taxes had been ruled unconstitutional 49 years ago and low- and middle-income students had significantly more material advantages with which to flourish.

Or if, 28 years ago, Democrat Ann Richards hadn’t lost the Texas governorship to Republican George W. Bush, whom five justices saw fit to appoint as president, leaving catastrophes in his wake from the Middle East to New Orleans.

Let’s not allow our failure to elect Beto O’Rourke become a similarly consequential regret in retrospect.

UnSplash / Kelly Sikkema

Why does San Antonio have a $200 million performing arts center but no symphony

filling its seats?

BY HEYWOOD SANDERS

Editor’s Note: CityScrapes is a column of opinion and analysis.

Let the oohs and ahhs begin.”

So began Hector Saldaña’s September 5, 2014, Express-News story on the grand opening of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, the “new home of San Antonio’s symphony, opera and ballet companies.”

The center, completed at a cost of over $200 million, with much of that total coming from a “venue tax” imposed by Bexar County, opened to an enthusiastic chorus of superlatives from both music lovers and local officials.

“Just the electricity walking in,” County Judge Nelson Wolff offered. “It’s unbelievable.”

But the real promise from the remake of the city’s Municipal Auditorium was that it had the capacity to transform the local cultural landscape and the city’s larger economy. For former Mayor Phil Hardberger, there was the promise of luring new business to San Antonio. He contended that a big reason for building the Tobin Center in the first place was to give the city another selling point for employers looking to relocate by boosting the local quality of life.

Sebastian Lang-Lessing, the symphony’s music director at the time, saw the new structure as a means to drive more recognition for the arts organization.

“I knew with the Tobin Center, I could move the orchestra on a different level of recognition and of performance, which is important,” he said. “And I also knew that despite all the troubles that the orchestra landscape has at the moment when it comes to financing, this has the impact of boosting our recognition, our donor base and our capacity to be recognized in the community and outside, even.”

So here we are now, in 2022, eight years after that grand opening. The San

Antonio Symphony is gone, together with Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Somehow, this community could manage to build a grand new performing arts center, and yet fail to support and sustain a symphony orchestra originally founded in 1939.

Despite all the gli er of the Tobin, all the recitations of San Antonio being the “seventh largest city” and all the new population and development the city and county have witnessed in recent years, the San Antonio Symphony limped from one financial crisis to another.

Some symphonic music will no doubt continue under the aegis of the new San Antonio Philharmonic — although, at least for now, not at the Tobin. Of course, the Tobin’s other two “resident companies,” Ballet San Antonio and Opera San Antonio, are still using the facility. Yet it’s far from evident that those organizations have prospered in their new home. Ballet San Antonio’s 2022-23 season schedule shows three productions, including the perennial Nutcracker, while Opera San Antonio will put on Pagliacci in November and Romeo and Juliet in the spring.

Then there is the similar tale of the Museo Alameda in Market Square. Boosted by funding from the Ford Motor Company and the promise of being the first Smithsonian Institution affiliate museum in the nation — one with a unique focus on Latino art and culture — the Museo opened to great fanfare in the spring of 2007, even garnering a review in the New York Times, though the one element of the museum that warranted praise in that piece was the gift shop.

City leaders promised that the new museum would a ract 400,000 visitors a year. But it was soon evident that without its own collection and funding, not to mention a clear vision

or direction, the museum was failing both as a cultural addition and a visitor draw. The city and county governments and Texas A&M-San Antonio made a empts to jumpstart the space. It now sits as the underused, city-owned Centro des Artes gallery.

In the annals of failed grand projects here, few can surpass Hemisfair. The folklore is that the development of the fair in 1968 boosted San Antonio into international prominence and secured our place as a great tourist destination. But once the fair was over, failing to reach its projected a endance and out of money, there was nothing left over to turn many of its leftover structures and facilities — from the skyride and mini-monorail to the waterskiing lake and pavilions — into something useful and valuable.

In the mid-1980s, the city finally got around to demolishing much of the fair’s remnants, turning the fairgrounds into a park. Yet only recently has the Hemisfair Park Redevelopment Corp. managed to make the fair site into a truly functional public and private space.

Why does San Antonio appear to be so good at building civic buildings,

yet so manifestly poor at supporting their use and sustaining the arts and culture? In part, it’s because we remain a relatively poor city, despite all our growth. There’s a razor-thin stratum of wealthy, potential donors, both individual and corporate. And they appear far more interested in pu ing their names on buildings than in supporting artistic performance.

But perhaps the most important reason is that this remains a city whose big decisions are fundamentally driven by land and development deals.

So, while local grandees like County Judge Wolff celebrated the wonders of the newly opened Tobin Center, the most telling assessment came from Pat DiGiovanni, the long-departed assistant city manager and former head of Centro San Antonio. He said the Tobin “should be a magnet for continued revitalization. … Part of the strategy for a revitalized downtown is enhancing the cultural aspect of our community.”

We can still hope to enhance that cultural aspect.

Heywood Sanders is a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Wikipedia

A Haunted Cocktail

COMEDY

TOM PAPA

Tom Papa got his start doing standup in the early ’90s and has since crossed over into multiple creative outlets, appearing on podcasts, radio, TV and in movies. He toured with Jerry Seinfeld in 2005, which seems appropriate given the wealth of YouTube clips showing off Papa’s observational comedy skills. His riffs on Disney theme parks and the advantages of marriage serve as good introductions to his style. Papa has also starred in five standup specials, including Live In New York City, directed by Rob Zombie. And his association with Zombie doesn’t stop there. Papa showed up in the shock rocker-turned-horror maestro’s 2019 movie 3 From Hell. The comedian’s other film credits include Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! and Behind the Candelabra Somehow, the comic also finds time to host the SiriusXM show Come To Papa and is frequently featured on Chris Thile’s show Live from Here $29.50-$49.50, 7:30 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Mike McMahan

JOHN MULANEY

Expect actor, comedian and Emmy Award-winning writer John Mulaney to draw laughs from anything including his childhood, the pandemic and his past drug addiction on his new tour John Mulaney: From Scratch. During the one-hour set, Mulaney — whom Entertainment Weekly once called “one of the best stand-up comics alive” — is likely to deal with some subjects that use comedy to deal with uncomfortable truths. During one show in Rhode Island, he ended the show by reading excerpts from an interview he gave GQ magazine when he was high on cocaine (and eating a bowl of Froot Loops). In May, Mulaney drew criticism from his fans when he brought fellow comedian Dave Chappelle to open his From Scratch show in Columbus, Ohio, and Chapelle told what some described as “transphobic jokes.” Chappelle himself faced blowback for his 2021 Netflix special The Closer, which included jokes about the trans community. Aside from his standup work this year, Mulaney lent his voice to Chip, one of the titular chipmunks in the live-action film version of Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers on Disney+. Later this year, he’ll play another animated character, “Big” Jack Horner, in the sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish $79.50-$299, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — KM

SAN ANTONIO BLACK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The fourth annual San Antonio Black International Film Festival (SABIFF) is a four-day event highlighting the talents of Black film and TV-series creators from around the globe. This year’s events will jump between venues including the Carver Community Cultural Center, St. Philip’s College, Magik Theatre and the Carver Public Library, with some tak-

ing place virtually. Thursday’s opening night will begin with a screening of an episode of the Disney+ animated series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder. Then, SABIFF will present Bruce W. Smith, the creator and executive director of the show, with its 2022 Ankh Achievement Award. Screenings, workshops, panels and parties will fill the next three days. Some of the 58 films screening during the festival include Khadiga, a narrative short from Egypt; Black Daddy: The Movie, a documentary from California; and Big Man Dan, an animated short from Trinidad and Tobago. “SABIFF 2022 will open your eyes, thoughts and hopefully inspire action for novice or suppressed talent [to] be rejuvenated,” said Ada M. Babineaux, SABIFF founder and director, in a statement on the festival website. “If you naturally gravitate towards the skillset of writing, drawing, IT, computers, graphic arts or gaming, this festival is for you.” Free-$60, various times and locations, (202) 744-2641, sabiff.tv. — Kiko Martinez

day film festival is presented by Pride San Antonio, which was founded in 2004 by local community activists and organizers to celebrate LGBTQ Pride and create an all-inclusive organization that could meet the needs of the queer community. Official selections included in this year’s festival include Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor (dir. Shelley Thompson), a story about a young trans woman who a empts to repair her relationship with her dad after the death of her mother; and Ekai (dir. Arantza Ibarra), a short documentary about a transgender boy named Ekai Lersundi, who took his own life in 2018 after struggling with the bureaucracy of hormone replacement therapy. $20-$40, various times, The Public Theater of San Antonio, 800 W. Ashby Place, pridesanantonio.org. — KM

calendar

Reminder:

SAN ANTONIO

LGBT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The 9th Annual San Antonio QFest LGBT International Film Festival strives to bring awareness to the residents of the Alamo City about LGBTQ issues through queer cinema “created for, by, or about the LGBTQ community.” The three-

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

Courtesy Photo / Tobin Center

Courtesy Photo / Empire Theatre

Courtesy Photo / SABIFF

Courtesy Photo / Pride San Antonio

NATIONAL ARAB ORCHESTRA

The 25-member National Arab Orchestra, a Michigan-based group established to “preserve and integrate Arab culture,” will perform a trio of high-energy San Antonio concerts featuring collaborations with outside musicians and dancers. Organized by Karen Barbee — founder of Alamo City dance school Karavan Studio — the performances are

SAT | 10.08

part of the three-day GoLive! conference on Arab music and dance, which also will include classes, workshops and panel discussions. The orchestra, which made its national debut in 2014, is led by founder and conductor Michael Ibrahim, a maestro of the nay, a wooden Arabic flute whose origins date back 5,000 years. The National Arab Orchestra’s Friday, Oct. 7 performance will feature Ibrahim and his musicians collaborating with the Georges Lammam Ensemble, whose leader is a virtuoso of the Arabic violin, and with San Antonio-based R&B act the Fatsauce Band. A Saturday, Oct. 8 performance will showcase the orchestra on its own, while the group’s Sunday, Oct. 9 gig will pair it with the Houston-based Ghafour Brothers Band. An international collection of belly dancers, including Karavan Studio members, will perform with the orchestra all three evenings. Registration for GoLive! is $345 through Karavan’s website, although the orchestra’s three performances are open to people not a ending the conference. $25 per performance, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday, Buena Vista Theater, UTSA Downtown Campus, 501 W. César E. Chávez Blvd. (Friday and Saturday), Doubletree by Hilton Hotel San Antonio Downtown, 502 W. César E. Chávez Blvd. (Sunday), (210) 232-3035, karavanstudio.com/concerts. — Sanford Nowlin

ARTPACE CHALK IT UP

Houston Street will transform into a conduit of color as chalk artists come together to decorate the pavement with large-scale murals themed after the San Antonio River. During 2020 and 2021, pandemic precautions dispersed Artpace’s annual street art festival to library locations throughout the city. This year marks its downtown return. At Chalk It Up, attendees can grab chalk from awaiting buckets to create ephemeral sidewalk masterpieces. The family-friendly event allows people of all ages to explore their creative side and connect with working artists from the community. A slate of featured artists also will compete with teams in Artpace’s Chalk It Up TeamWorks mural competition. Free, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Houston Street between North Presa and North Flores steets, (210) 212-4900, artpace.org/chalk-it-up. — MC

an commi ed to nearly an entire month of performances at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, which was supposed to end with him recording a new Netflix special. However, a few days before the big night, Iglesias caught COVID-19 and canceled the remaining handful of shows. Unfortunately, Iglesias never got the opportunity to shoot that special in San Antonio. Instead, the new special Stadium Fluffy, which premieres on Netflix Oct. 18, was shot at Dodger Stadium last May. Iglesias became the first comedian to ever perform at the storied field. We won’t hold any grudges, though, because Iglesias had to move on. When he spoke to the Current last year for his residency, he reminded us that “it’s no secret that San Antonio is one of my favorite cities, if not the favorite city outside of being home.” So, maybe an SA-taped special might work out in the future. During the interview, Iglesias also talked

MONARCH BUTTERFLY & POLLINATOR FESTIVAL

San Antonio’s Seventh Annual Monarch Bu erfly and Pollinator Festival will celebrate the distinctive orange-and-black-winged pollinators’ migration through Texas to Mexico for the winter months. The San Antonio Zoo train that cruises around Brackenridge Park has been made over for the celebration as a striped Caterpillar Train, which will start off the festival celebrations on Saturday with a lap around the park, followed by a People for Pollinators Procession. Other activities include bu erfly tagging in honor of lost loved ones, a “Forever Journey” altar built by local artist Terry Ybañez and numerous educational booths and vendors. The event is suitable for folks of all ages who have

an interest in the natural world. The San Antonio Parks Department will even be on hand to facilitate a tree adoption. The monarchs have a tough journey ahead this year due to extreme weather conditions, so fans may want to show up and cheer their flying friends on for their annual trip down south. Free, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Brackenridge Park, 3700 N. St. Mary’s St., texasbu erflyranch.com. — Macks Cook

SAT | 10.08

COMEDY GABRIEL IGLESIAS

The last time Gabriel Iglesias was in San Antonio, the superstar comedi-

Courtesy Photo / Karavan Studios

Francisco Cortes

Unsplash / Erin Minuskin

Jose Guerrero

Ultimate

TUE

AIN’T TOO PROUD – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS

Get ready to travel back to the ’60s soul empire of Motown. The Tony Award-winning jukebox musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations depicts the multi-platinum R&B group’s rise from humble beginnings on the streets of Detroit. Featuring beloved hits including “My Girl,” “Get Ready,” “Just My Imagination” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” Ain’t Too Proud’s se ing at the center of the civil rights movement makes for an electrifying, inspirational journey brimming with betrayal, brotherhood and the healing power of music. $45-$150, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, noon and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — Caroline WolFF

FRI | 10.14SUN | 10.16

DANCE CINDERELLA

There’s more to the classic Cinderella fairytale than a billowy blue ballgown. The songs and images from Disney’s 1950 animated film may be entrenched in the public imagination, but another melodious interpretation of the story came out around the same time — Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet Cinderella, which debuted in 1945. Using Prokofiev’s lush score, Ballet San Antonio will present a retelling of the tale that features the world premiere of all new choreography by Conny Mathôt, specially commissioned by the troupe. “This delightful version is sure to charm all ages and prove there’s much more to ‘Happily Ever After,’” Ballet San Antonio says of the performance. “Through Cinderella’s adventures we are captivated on an emotional journey which reminds us that the road to happiness is sometimes paved with adversities and how we respond to challenges, ultimately helps us find the true happiness and magic in our lives.” $25.20-$132, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Kelly Nelson

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NOVEMBER ON THE BANKS OF THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT LAKES

Many of us are familiar with the disarray of Thanksgiving Day: the bickering, the in-laws, the clamoring in the kitchen to make sure the turkey doesn’t get overcooked and — somehow, through it all — the enduring

sense of togetherness. A Beautiful Day In November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes documents this companionable chaos in the form of a comedy following the antics of the Wembly family. The mileslong title isn’t the only offbeat thing about this production. Despite its seemingly mundane premise, the show is characterized by avant-garde elements, like a commentators’ booth where two announcers call the Wembly Thanksgiving dinner as if it were a sporting event. A Beautiful Day In November has been praised for its original, subversive and authentic portrayal of the family dynamics often associated with one of America’s most dreaded — yet cherished — holidays. $15-$45, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, The Public Theater of San Antonio, 800 W. Ashby Place, (210) 733-7258, thepublicsa.org.

FRI | 10.14

CLASSICAL MUSIC

LA MALINCHE: TRAITOR/SAVIOR

Both hailed as the iconic mother of Mexico and condemned as a traitor, La Malinche will be brought to life once again in an interactive chamber opera performance at the exhibition opening of “Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche” at the San Antonio Museum of Art. The SAMA exhibition explores La Malinche’s historical and cultural

impact on communities across borders. Wri en by San Antonio-based composer Nathan Felix, Malinche: Traitor/Savior will feature Latinx singers Celeste Morales, Thomas Soto and Lucianna Astorga. The exhibition is organized by the Denver Art Museum, and it is curated by Victoria Lyall in collaboration with Terezita Romo. “Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche” will be on view from Oct. 14-Jan. 8, 2023. $30$40, 7 p.m., San Antonio Museum of Art, 200 W. Jones Ave., (210) 978-8100, samuseum.org. — Ashley Allen

Emilio Madrid

Dria Ballew

Courtesy Photo / Public Theater of San Antonio Courtesy of Nathan Felix

Lost & Found

San Antonio artist Karen Mahaffy charts an icy expedition with her Trinity exhibition ‘Objects of Absence’

BY BRYAN RINDFUSS

Ordinary domestic objects often take on extraordinary significance in the work of Karen Mahaffy — a San Antonio artist whose mixed-media projects quietly defy categorization.

An Illinois native who earned an MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and now teaches art at Palo Alto College, Mahaffy has been exhibiting locally since the mid-’90s and has shown at Artpace, Blue Star Contemporary, the McNay Art Museum, Sala Diaz and the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Arguably one of her most recognizable works due to its permanent location in Hemisfair’s Yanaguana Garden, a laser-cut steel shade structure PLAYhouse explores concepts that continue to influence her work — memory, place and moving shadows — while also referencing the historic neighborhood all but erased for the 1968 World’s Fair. It’s simultaneously playful and poignant and like much great art only gets be er the more you know about it.

Mahaffy’s new body of work “Objects of Absence,” on view at Trinity’s Neidorff Art Gallery through Saturday, Oct. 15, began percolating back in 2019 when she was invited to be the pilot artist in a summer residency program in the university’s Department of Art & Art History. Although the pandemic caused a two-year delay in the timeline, Mahaffy waited it out and started the residency this past June.

“There were so many things that I knew that I wanted to explore while I was here,” Mahaffy told the Current during a recent gallery visit. “It had been a really long time since I’d had a gallery to myself — a large space where I could do something more

MA 23-foot curtain dubbed Arctic Dreams anchors Karen Mahaffy’s Trinity exhibition “Objects of Absence.”

installation-based. So, I hung on to it. … I was almost protecting it.”

As Mahaffy explains it, having access to the university’s facilities — especially while students were on summer break — gave her “locked in a museum” vibes. Making the most of the situation, she worked in the digital lab and the sculpture and printmaking studios to create components for “Objects of Absence.”

Organized into distinct zones, the body of work sews an array of seemingly disparate threads — from the stories and secrets held by personal objects to Victorian-era polar expeditions — into a cohesive yet decidedly mysterious exhibition.

The waiting room

Although the zones in “Objects of Absence” can be approached in any order, the first that viewers will encounter is a domestic-looking

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space that explores the passage of time. At first glance, one of the objects in the room might suggest an antique relic but is in fact a wooden hand mirror Mahaffy created from reclaimed longleaf pine using both hand-carving techniques and CNC technology. Obscuring its reflection, she sandblasted the glass with a map of Antarctica’s Eagle Island, which experienced unpredicted largescale snowmelt during a heatwave in February of 2020.

“A very simple read is that it’s about aging and loss — looking at these sorts of unforeseen events and your own sense of identity,” Mahaffy said of the piece.

Just beyond the mirror lies a wallsized installation rooted in floriography. Popularized in the Victorian era and now amusingly likened to “19th-century emojis,” the practice involved creating symbolic bouquets based on the language of flowers.

“Some of them could be downright ca y,” Mahaffy said. “If you were jilted, you could take revenge by merely putting an arrangement together.”

Nodding to the hallmarks of floriography as well as our “collective experience of illness and loss” amid the COVID era, her installation places a grid of 12 ghostlike images of flowers — all found in a digital archive — atop wallpaper featuring hand-drawn bouquets that progress from fresh to withered as they repeat up the wall.

“There’s something about the wilted flower that is both sad and beautiful at

the same time,” Mahaffy mused.

Curious gallery-goers can find the names of the depicted flowers and then try to decipher the bouquet’s meaning with the help of a handy floriography book at the reception desk.

Lost and found

Just beyond Mahaffy’s contemporary exploration of floriography, a threewalled space painted deep blue-green — a Sherwin-Williams color aptly dubbed Raging Sea — evokes the depths of the ocean.

etched with maps — the combs best divulge the underlying narrative since they’re presented like specimens in a cedar box lined with sand.

of Absence”

“I have always had a fascination with journeys into the unknown — in particular mountaineering and polar exploration,” Mahaffy said. “Expeditions into realms like the sea or extreme environments require meticulous planning and a focus of vision but can also be full of hubris and ego — which then often fails. When it doesn’t, we call it heroic. In the remains of ill-fated expeditions like those of the Franklin Expedition, we are often only left with artifacts to reveal a story.”

Referencing personal effects recovered from that 1845 expedition, Mahaffy created brass spoons, forks and combs using a jeweler’s saw. While all of these pose their own mysterious questions — the forks are Frankensteined together and the spoons are

Other objects amid the Raging Sea zone are inherited pieces that Mahaffy manipulated to great effect. An antique coffee urn outfi ed with an LED is perforated with the navigational constellations Cassiopeia and Polaris, allowing it to cast tiny stars on the wall. She also grew crystals on a silver-plated sugar bowl and creamer, and on an upholstered chair that’s a ached to the wall in a skewed position, suggesting the distress of SOS.

Icebound

Easily the largest piece in the show, Mahaffy’s Arctic Dreams (Land is the Measure of Time) anchors the gallery’s central zone. Comprised of an impossibly long white curtain hung from a brass curtain rod — both handcrafted — Arctic Dreams is a dramatic example of Mahaffy’s mastery with recontextualizing ordinary objects.

Propped up on the wall and rippling across the floor, the piece transcends notions of domesticity, instead suggesting a frozen landscape. Like her spoons, forks and combs, it too references recovered Franklin Expedition artifacts, which oddly include two brass curtain rods.

MMahaffy’s exhibition conjures artifacts recovered from Victorian-era polar expeditions.

“I just like that notion of this thing in the middle of an environment or a landscape where it just has no business or use or purpose,” Mahaffy said. “There’s a lot of ideas and conjecture about why — why did they grab this? What does it say about the people who brought it? … I wanted to relate that to the idea of personal objects, domestic objects, things that are left behind in chaos — maybe after we’re gone.”

Hanging on a nearby wall, another of Mahaffy’s mirrors reflects the icy allusions with an etched composite illustrating the melting retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier.

Functioning as something of a closing statement in the gallery’s far corner, a suite of snowy white prints blind-embossed with personal effects — gloves, keys, a wallet, a comb — lie in a shiny white display case. The effect evokes blocks of ice.

“I wanted them to live horizontally and not be framed as images,” Mahaffy said of the prints. “So there’s a bit of push and pull between object versus image. You’re looking at an impression — the object that was once there — and you could almost read them as things being uncovered or unburied in the snow.”

Bryan Rindfuss

Game On

South Texas native and TikTok star Sara Echeagaray joins second season of Big Shot on Disney+

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

After racking up 7.4 million followers on TikTok, South Texas native Sara Echeagaray has landed her first break in Hollywood.

The 21-year-old star — born in Edinburg and raised in McAllen — will soon make moves on the hardwood in Season 2 of the Disney+ original series Big Shot

In the series, Echeagaray plays Ava Navarro, a hot-headed beach volleyball phenom who becomes the newest recruit of Coach Marvyn Korn (John Stamos), a fired NCAA Division 1 basketball coach who now heads an all-girls team at a private high school.

Echeagaray finished high school in Las Vegas and is now based in Los Angeles. She tried college for a couple of years but decided against the traditional academic route.

“I knew that’s not what I wanted at the end of the day,” Echeagaray said. “So, I decided to pursue acting to the fullest and crossed my fingers.”’

She continues to stay busy with TikTok content, ranging from lip-synced movie dialogue to one-woman comedy sketches.

The second season of Big Shot premieres Oct. 12 on Disney+.

What was the most challenging part about coming into a TV series that had already aired for a full season?

I think the most challenging aspect was just joining a new cast that is already established. So, I was just very nervous that I wasn’t going to be welcomed as a new cast member. I was shaking in my boots. And when I first arrived at basketball camp, I met [the cast] and I was like, “Why was I so nervous?” They’re literally the greatest human beings ever. It was just a great experience overall.

What are some of the similarities between you and your character?

I would say one similarity is that she is a perfectionist. She wants to be No. 1 at everything, which sometimes I kind of catch myself wanting to do. I’m just like, “I’m going to be the best!” At the end of the day, I have to tell myself, “That’s not how it happens, honey. Let’s calm down.” But my character is like, “No, I’m going to be No. 1.” So, she’s a more intense version of what I actually am. But it’s great to see some similarities.

How athletic are you in real life? Did the

basketball and volleyball come naturally for you?

Volleyball came pre y naturally to me since I played volleyball for four years. At the same time, it was a different type of volleyball. I’m used to indoor volleyball, and my character plays beach volleyball, which is tremendously different. I learned that the hard way, because there’s only two people on your team in beach volleyball, and in indoor, there’s six. I was just like, “Wow, props to actual beach volleyball players!”

Not to mention having to run in sand, right?

Yeah, that’s a cardio workout in itself.

Do you have any favorite sports teams?

You’re originally from Texas, so the correct answer is the Spurs.

Oh, for sure, the Spurs. “How ’bout them Cowboys,” as well. I know that’s football, but we love the Cowboys and anything Texas related. Go Texas!

What was it like working with John Stamos, someone with a lot of TV experience

screens

and who’s well known for his role in Full House?

Full House was one of my favorite shows growing up. I would always watch it with my sister because my mom would put it on for us. My mom had the biggest crush on Uncle Jesse, of course — as everyone else did on the planet. It was so surreal working with him because he was such a household name. I was like, “Oh my God, it’s John Stamos, the guy with the amazing hair!” Then, I got to know him on a personal level, and I was like, “He’s a goofball!” He is literally Uncle Jesse. He’s kind of like a grown-up child. He’s so much fun to work with because he always has you laughing.

I watched one of your TikTok videos where you pretend to be in a Marvel movie. Is that something you’d like to experience sometime in your career?

Oh, for sure. I have always dreamed of being in a Marvel movie or just a superhero movie in general. That just seems like such a surreal dream to accomplish. It’s like, “There’s magic shooting out of their hands!” That’s definitely on the bucket list.

Courtesy Photo / Disney+

Tried and True

San Antonio craft brewers are helping classic beer styles make a comeback

BY TRAVIS E. POLING

It’s not unusual to see a group of seasoned craft brewers talking shop over pints and wishing that more imbibers would show an interest in their favorite brewing styles.

In many cases, those brewers are harkening back to a time when Americans were just discovering classic beer styles — mostly of European heritage — that had been lost during a century of homogenization by U.S. breweries.

In recent years, many of those classics, from the once-ubiquitous pale ale to the rich and velvety porter, occupied a space between the still-strong market for mass-produced domestic light beers and specialty brews that are competing as adult smoothies or something akin to a liquid patisserie.

However, a new trend seems to be emerging from both ends of the spectrum as light beer drinkers discover more flavorful pilsners made in their own city and dessert-beer

drinkers find happiness in a well-made Irishstyle dry stout where the grain does most of the work instead of ingredients from the candy aisle.

Everything old is new again for these consumers, and more Alamo City brewers and breweries are welcoming them with full hearts and fermenters.

“I guess I’ve gained a reputation as a classic brewer, but I’ve never thought of myself as that at all,” said Jim Hansen, founder of Second Pitch Beer Co. “I like to brew beers that have a history and a story behind them. I don’t want to throw Oreos or doughnuts or what have you into the mash.”

Hansen brewed professionally in California for a decade before moving to San Antonio and planning Second Pitch, which has a lineup that includes the California common-style Hometown Lager, a West Coast IPA and trueto-style Bavarian hefeweizen.

A fan favorite at the brewery, especially for

MSecond Pitch Beer Co. founder Jim Hansen gives a tour of his brewery to fans.

the warmer months, is the Czech-style pilsner Duke of Bohemia, made as a passion project of Paige Martin, who heads Second Pitch’s quality control and sales.

“People are looking for more eccentric beers,” Hansen said of some imbibers seeking out beers that taste like cake, pie or pickles. The fact that he doesn’t make those kind of beers “doesn’t come from a place of snobbery at all. People are drinking for fun.”

To Hansen’s mind, those boozy, flavored stouts and other a ention-ge ing brews can serve as gateways to the classics.

“The curiosity of the consumer is helping not only the curiosity beer, but also the classic styles,” he said. “They might ask, ‘What is this pilsner I’ve been hearing about?’”

The opposite was true for most of the past three decades. The lighter-style classics were the gateway to full-bodied ales and sometimes to hop-forward interpretations of Old World brews.

Blue Star Brewing Co., the Southtown brewery that’s Texas’ second-oldest surviving

Instagram / @secondpitchbeercompany

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brewpub, has stuck with the same basic recipes for pilsner, pale ale, dry stout, amber ale and American wheat beer for 26 years. For many in San Antonio, Blue Star provided their first taste of American craft beer and broke them out of the comfort zone of mass-produced light lagers.

By the late 1990s, that curiosity drove consumers to places like the original 54-tap Hills and Dales and the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium to try imported English ales and German lagers alongside American-brewed representations of tried-and-true styles from a handful of breweries, mostly outside of Texas.

“It’s kind of always been this way. It’s been cyclical since the craft beer movement started,” said Jason Davis, director of brewing operations at San Antonio’s Freetail Brewing Co.

Davis, a professional brewer in Austin and the Alamo City for more than two decades, has noticed a progression in the tastes of beer makers as they learned their craft in the early days of the movement: lagers to pale ale to IPA, then back to lagers.

Mastering those classics and their variants, along with porters and stouts, provided brewers a base from which to experiment with different malts, hop varieties and yeast strains, Davis said. That experimentation gave us West Coast IPA early on and now even more American IPA interpretations such as the dry brut IPAs and hazy IPAs.

Starting with those classics was key to ge ing everything else right, Davis added. Those tried-and-true brews offered a template to follow and clear goals for

proper clarity, color range, malt character, aromas and specific gravity, a measure used to reach a desired alcohol content.

That early mastery has led to what might seem like big swings in craft beer trends, but they were all built on a combination of historical data, experience and experimentation.

For example, Freetail’s Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal-winning La Muerta, a Russian imperial stout, could build off a few examples of the rare classic British style exported to Russia and a handful of even boozier American interpretations.

Now there are numerous variants of La Muerta unveiled every fall, often featuring fruit additions — this year’s special variety includes cherry and cocoa nibs — or aging in different barrels.

Classic styles, while never gone, seem to be finding new fans in San Antonio even as sweet adjunct beers and hazy IPAs bursting with tropical flavors continue in popularity.

“I wish I had a lot of forethought to know classic styles would come back around,” said Randy Ward, brewer of the High Wheel line of beers and co-owner at Dorćol Distilling + Brewing Co. Instead, Ward just set out to brew what he enjoyed and wanted to share that with others.

English ale imports such as the creamy Boddingtons and Newcastle Brown Ale, along with German lagers including Paulaner’s hefeweizens, Oktoberfest Märzens and crisp helles provided Ward’s introduction to the wider world of beer in the early days. They

MSan Antonio-based Second Pitch has won awards with brews that adhere to classic beer styles.

also informed his eventual foray into homebrewing and professional beer making.

High Wheel’s biggest seller, which is on draft and in cans and retailers such as H-E-B, is a classic Kolsch beer dubbed Be y, and it makes up half of the brewery’s sales. An Irish red ale, a roasty porter, a West Coast-style IPA and a Belgian farmhouse beer-inspired saison round out the regular offerings.

“Ironically, when we started making Kolsch, I felt like we were an outlier,” Ward said.

In 2017, there were fewer than 200 Kolsch-style beers entered in that category for judging at the Great American Beer Festival. The style is now second in entries only to IPAs, boasting more than 400.

Ward says he’s now venturing into the hazy, New England-style IPA trend, but only after having spent time at the Vermont brewery where the style was created and learning the dos and don’ts of making it right.

“It makes the industry so much be er that there are people out there doing creative stuff,” Ward said. “But sometimes someone just dives in there and starts throwing things together. ... You have to walk before you can run.”

Instagram / @secondpitchbeercompany

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Sudsy Survival Guide

San Antonio Beer Festival pros share their tips for making the most of South Texas’ premiere brewing event

BY NINA RANGEL

Imbibers will soon convene at the 16th Annual San Antonio Beer Festival to sample 400-plus craft and premium beers from more than 150 local, regional and international breweries.

As those numbers suggest, there will be plenty of malty deliciousness in which to imbibe as the day-long event unfolds on Saturday, Oct. 15 at historic Crocke Park.

A daunting amount of malty deliciousness, in fact. Especially for a first timer.

That’s why we tapped some of San Antonio’s best-known brewers and beer experts, all veterans of the fest, to offer their sage advice. They’ve got the goods about ge ing the most out of the gathering, avoiding that deer-inthe-headlights feeling and — perhaps most importantly — avoiding the hangover from hell.

A recurring theme emerged: stay hydrated and remember that Beer Fest is a marathon, not a sprint.

Marcus Baskerville

Head brewer, Weathered Souls Brewing Six-year San Antonio Beer Festival veteran

Do be courteous to other a endees. No one likes a Debbie Downer or an asshat. Beer is something to bring people together and build friendships, so let’s enjoy all this amazing beer together.

Do hydrate properly so you can sample as many great SA beers as possible.

Do try as many local breweries as you can. We all have our favorites, but you never know what you might discover or what your palate will enjoy.

Don’t arrive on an empty stomach. Food is key to Beer Fest survival. Small bites and snacks at the festival will keep you from overindulging.

Don’t speak negatively to brewery employees. Brewers and servers are as excited to serve one-of-a-kind products

as you are to try them. Support our local beer community and show love.

Jim Hansen

Owner and head brewer, Second Pitch Beer Co.

Four-year San Antonio Beer Festival veteran

Do talk to the brewers and owners about their beer. It’s their life’s work and their passion, so they’ll be happy to discuss all things beer. Introduce yourself and say, “Hi!”

Do get rid of a sample if you don’t care for it. Not all samples need to be consumed.

Don’t wave a cup or snap at the person pouring. We’re happy to help, but we aren’t servants.

Don’t say, “Whatever has the most alcohol,” when making a sample selection. It’s a 21-and-over event, so we all left high school behind.

Don’t wear sandals.

Dustin Baker

Owner, Roadmap Brewing Co.

Five-year San Antonio Beer Festival veteran

Do try beers you wouldn’t normally order.

Do drink water. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

Do use rideshare.

Do wear pretzel necklaces.

Don’t drink the same thing twice.

Don’t simply go for the highest alcohol beers you see.

Don’t forget to check the weather. It’s been sunny, rainy, muddy and scorching hot for past festivals. It’s always a good time if you are prepared.

Jeremy Banas

Author, Celis Beer: Born in Belgium, Brewed in Texas and Pearl: A History of San Antonio’s Iconic Beer 11-year San Antonio Beer Festival veteran

Do lay a base. Get some food in your belly to soak up that beer.

Do be kind to other a endees. Everyone else is trying to have a good time too.

Don’t be a dick. Period.

Don’t lose sight of why you’re there. Relax and have fun.

Don’t forget to be nice to those pouring your beer and thank them.

body will thank you.

Do use rideshare. Parking downtown is a pain in the ass, so it’s worth it to splurge for a ride. You’ll also guarantee yourself a safe ride home while avoiding the parking frustration.

Do enjoy yourself. We know you’re here for the beer, but there’s also music, games and giveaways as well as entertaining sponsor and vendor activations. Lawn chairs and blankets are welcome, so feel free to grab yourself a shady spot with friends and just relax. You deserve it.

Don’t rush to the VIP section if you’re a VIP ticketholder. Try all the beers you want in the general admission area first, then head to VIP once general admission opens.

Don’t come unprepared. This is a 21-and-up event, so pack that ID and plan to flash it at entry. Also remember to check the weather to determine whether you’ll need sunscreen or an umbrella. Having the necessary equipment could make all the difference.

Chelsea Bourque

Organizer, San Antonio Beer Festival 15-year SA Beer Festival veteran

Do plan your beer hit list. Pros don’t come to the festival blind; they visit the event website and pick out their musttry selections so they don’t risk missing out on their favorites.

Do pace yourself. After every beer or two, grab some water or tasty eats from one of our many food booths. Your

Don’t arrive without good vibes in tow. The San Antonio Beer Festival is designed to bring the beer community together and celebrate all the hops and malts that we love, so leave any drama or bad vibes at home.

Don’t arrive late. “Fashionably late” isn’t a thing at this event. If you’re expecting to roll into the festival at 5:30 p.m. and get the full experience, you’ll be disappointed. Beer will run out.

Jaime

Raising a Glass

San Antonio Beer Week has moved to October and now boasts a more diverse board

BY NOAH ALCALA-BACH

After a two-year pandemic hiatus, San Antonio Beer Week has made its return.

From Oct. 15-22, local breweries will highlight and celebrate their creations — and, for the first time, the event is timed to coincide with the San Antonio Beer Festival. Previously, it took place in June.

This year’s return also marks another first. Beer Week’s board of directors will feature two female brewers for the first time in its 11-year history.

Those board members are Paige Martin, sales and quality manager at Second Pitch Brewing Co., and Mara Young, owner and managing member at Community Cultures Yeast Lab, which develops commercial yeast strains, custom blends and bacteria used by local breweries.

“We weren’t necessarily chosen because we’re women. I’m happy simply that we were the best people to fill the positions, regardless of gender,” Young said. “I never once had anybody say to me, ‘You’re gonna do great here because you’re a woman.’ But I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘You’ve started, founded and run a business. I think you can get things done. I’m voting for you.’”

Even so, Young said she was surprised to be nominated because she isn’t a professional brewer but rather the owner of a business serving craft breweries.

Martin says she’s excited but a li le

nervous to be a board member this year.

“Even though San Antonio Beer Week is a small, kind of grassroots movement, within our beer community, it’s a big deal,” Martin said. “It felt good that the other breweries in town trusted us to take the lead.”

Martin is heading into San Antonio Beer Week following a summer in which Second Pitch won four medals between the U.S. Beer Open and the World Beer Cup, two of the highest-profile brewing competitions.

San Antonio Beer Week 2022 kicks off with the San Antonio Beer Festival on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Crocke Park. That’s followed by the Brewer’s Olympics on Thursday, Oct. 20 at Freetail Brewing Co. — an event which pits local beer makers against each other in events including a malt sack race, keg bowling and a hose-and-clamp race.

The Saturday, Oct. 22 closing ceremony will take place at Flix Brewhouse and feature the unveiling of a collaborative beer — a double cold IPA — produced by participating Alamo City breweries. The closing ceremony is a ticketed event.

This year, local breweries had the freedom to customize the collaborative beer and offer their own versions. For example, Second Pitch plans to do a fruited version, and Young is lobbying for breweries to try a hazy IPA version.

Visit sabeerweek.org/events for the full San Antonio Beer Week schedule.

OPENINGS

Georgia-based Round Table Pizza has opened its first San Antonio location, slinging pies with the company’s homemade dough and signature three-cheese blend in a renovated space near North Star Mall. 842 NW Loop 410, Suite 110, (210) 314-3805, roundtablepizza.com.

Chicken-and-waffle chain Chick’nCone is now serving its proprietary fried chicken-filled waffle cones in Olmos Park. 223 E. Hildebrand Ave., (210) 462-1000, chickncone.com.

Colorful, family-friendly food truck park Rancho 181 has opened on the South Side. Located near Calaveras Lake, the park is one of few businesses in the area offering food and adult beverages. 13514 U.S. Highway 181 North, (210) 540-4839, rancho181.com.

The long-awaited La Gloria location at the South Side’s Brooks development is now open for dinner. Expect lunch service to follow in coming weeks. 7622 Kennedy Hill Drive, (210) 375-6861, che ohnnyhernandez.com.

The Co age Irish Pub is now open, offering cozy, lived-in vibes and more than a dozen beers on draft. The Broadway corridor establishment also includes a sizable menu of pub grub. 3810 Broadway, (210) 463-9111, theco ageirishpub.com.

Helmed by chef Luca Della, CasaNonna Osteria has opened its long-awaited second location, this one on the city’s North Side. 434 N. Loop 1604 West, Suite 1106, (210) 483-8989, nonnasa.com.

NEWS

Hotel Contessa has named Michael Collins executive chef of its recently renovated Ambler Texas Kitchen + Cocktails. The restaurant is marking the hiring with the unveiling of new menus. Among its new offerings are grilled Bandera quail and goat cheese crème brûlée prepared in a cast iron skillet. 306 W. Market St., (210) 298-8040, amblersanantonio.com.

Smoothie shop Kineapple, located in the Pearl’s Bo ling Department Food Hall, closed Sept. 25, to make way for a new concept from the owners of Bo ling Department tenant Chilaquil called El Diente de Oro 312 Pearl Parkway, Building 6, (210) 564-9140, instagram.com/eldientetx.

A federal investigation found that Texas’ iconic Black’s BBQ chain illegally let managers keep $230,000 in worker tips at restaurants in Austin, New Braunfels, Lockhart and San Marcos. Company officials said the ma er was an oversight by an outside bookkeeping contractor and has been corrected.

Sofia’s Pizzeria and Pepe’s Barbacoa have partnered on a puro San Antonio barbacoa pizza, available at both Sofia’s locations now through the end of October. Multiple locations, sofiaspizzeriatx.com.

Freetail Brewing Co. will open a full kitchen at its Southside taproom in November, offering the wood-fired pizzas currently only available at its Northside brewpub. 2000 S. Presa St., (210) 6256000, freetailbrewing.com.

Instagram / @sabeerweek

Instagram / @nonnaosteria

Hoppy Trails

When exploring San Antonio-area breweries, don’t snooze on these day-trip worthy spots

BY NINA RANGEL

San Antonio is home to more than 20 locally owned craft breweries, all worth a visit. But as October sets in, beer aficionados may want to broaden their horizons with a fall road trip.

A bevy of towns just outside the Alamo City also boast breweries that produce great products and are eager to welcome visitors.

It should go without saying, but drink responsibly when road tripping to visit these spots. Most breweries offering growlers, growler fills and cans to go. So, consider taking some home to avoid over-imbibing.

Free Roam Brewing Co.

Owned by one-time San Francisco Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt, Free Roam began pouring beers inside the old Boerne Liberty Stable in January of this year. Its beer lineup includes American light lagers, hefe-

weizens, stouts and porters as well as IPAs of both the West Coast and hazy variety. The revamped facility features an indoor tap room plus a beer garden, and it often hosts live music, which always goes down be er with a cold brew. 325 S. Main St., Boerne, (830) 582-9741, freeroambrewing.com.

Real Ale Brewing Co.

Among Texas’ oldest breweries in continuous operation, Real Ale has survived the myriad ups and downs faced by the industry since it emerged in the 1990s. Real Ale’s brewery and taproom in Blanco, an hour north of San Antonio, offers ample outdoor seating for soaking up the sun plus a friendly staff to guide you through tastings. Sure, you can find most of Real Ale’s brews in local grocery and liquor stores, but there’s something pleasant about making a quick jaunt to enjoy them in a Texas Hill Country se ing.

Fredericksburg Brewing Co.

This self-proclaimed “grand daddy” of Texas brewpubs has been cranking out a variety of craft brews on Fredericksburg’s Main Street since 1994. The staff brews more than 20 varieties throughout the year, rotating between staples such as its Peacepipe Pale Ale, Enchanted Rock Red Ale, Not So Dumb Blonde Ale and Pioneer Porter along with seasonal selections. This destination even offers a Bed & Brew, an adult retreat above the brewery featuring a dozen uniquely designed rooms. 245 E. Main St., Fredericksburg, (830) 997-1646, yourbrewery.com.

Cactus Land Brewing Co.

Located in Adkins, a half-hour southeast of San Antonio, this brewery is known for its unique creations and sprawling, family-friendly venue. Cactus Land is typically open on the first and third weekend of every month, so a li le planning is necessary. In addition to their beers, owners Dustin and Erica Teague dole out wine and nitro cold brew coffee from nearby eatery The Blockhouse and host a rotating schedule of food trucks for day-trip sustenance. 368 County Road 325, Adkins, (210) 802-7361, cactuslandbrewing.com.

2250 U.S. Highway 281 North, Blanco, (830) 833-2534, realalebrewing.com.

Instagram / @cactuslandbrewery

SAN ANTONIO BEER WEEK RETURNS FOR 2022! October 15 - 22

San Antonio Beer Week is a special week dedicated to celebrating beer and the community that enjoys it. It offers an exciting opportunity for small and independent craft brewers and the community of better beer retailers in San Antonio and the surrounding area to celebrate the ever advancing beer culture. Whether you're a beginner or a full-fledged beer geek, this is your week to celebrate.

Still Flex-Able

Ahead of his San Antonio show, guitar virtuoso Steve Vai discusses a long career of sonic exploration

BY MIKE MCMAHAN

It seems like every established musical act was forced to postpone or cancel a tour in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But guitar legend Steve Vai had to push one back due to something completely unrelated to the coronavirus.

Vai scheduled a tour for early this year, including a stop at San Antonio’s Aztec Theater, but was forced to postpone due to a shoulder injury.

Those road dates are now back on, and Vai is set to rock the Aztec on Sunday, Oct. 9.

For fretboard fanatics, Vai needs no introduction. The fleet-fingered musician literally set the bar for six-string virtuosity during a career that’s spanned five decades.

The guitarist got his professional start at age 20, joining the backing band of legendary musical iconoclast Frank Zappa. During the ’80s hair-metal era, Vai moved into the mainstream thanks to stints with Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and veteran hard rock band Whitesnake.

However, by the early ’90s, Vai transitioned into a successful solo career as an instrumentalist. His popular and critically lauded 1991 album Passion & Warfare served as a calling card. He’s continued that path to this day, dropping his latest instrumental record, Inviolate, in January.

The Current talked to Vai on Zoom in both the fall of 2021 and the summer of 2022 about his unconventional musical path, his injury and the challenges of wrangling a triple-neck guitar. What follows is a hybrid of those interviews, edited for clarity and length.

We talked last year about a pending San Antonio date, and that tour was postponed due to a shoulder injury. Has that been a chronic thing for you? It’s come up before. Yeah, oddly. I’m very healthy. You go to the doctor, and you fill out those things: “Have you ever had this?” “Do you have low blood sugar?” “Are you taking anything?” It’s “No, no, no.” I’m in good shape, except my struc-

ture has taken a beating. I had a disc taken out of my neck and lower back in my 20s. I grew up hunched over a guitar, you know?

My shoulder started three or four years ago, doing a particular type of exercise that started to tear things up. It progressively got worse. Three years ago, I had the first surgery and they fixed three tendons. But then halfway through the healing process, I had an accident and tore another tendon. So, I had to push the tour.

The music industry is coming out of the pandemic slump. Do you feel like the delay in your tour maybe helped a little? That maybe the road is an easier place than it was in early 2022?

When the road is empty for that long, a lot of things can change. It’s gonna take a while to catch up. I did a European tour, and for years all the buses had been si ing. They weren’t being used. The bus drivers went to drive trucks, where they get paid be er and it’s easier. Suddenly, all of the bands that haven’t toured for two years are on tour. One of the challenges is finding a bus that doesn’t keep breaking down. I went through four buses on my last tour. For audiences, it’s different. They’re like, “should I go?” But I think this is all going to pass. These viruses have been

Larry DiMarzio

around forever. They do have an effect and they can compromise aspects of your livelihood and your work. But it’s part of the evolution of species.

There’s this crazy three-neck guitar you designed and are wielding these days, the Hydra. There’s even a song from Inviolate, “Teeth of the Hydra,” written for the instrument. That must be heavy. Are you physically able to play it live?

I’ve asked my guys to weigh it, because I get that question a lot. But I haven’t go en that number! (Laughs.) The Hydra is a visual kind of thing. When it’s on you, on the waist strap, it feels kind of good. That’s the easiest way to play it. But it’s so heavy, so unwieldy, that if you start moving, it throws you right off. I had to work to be able to hold it for a period of time. Your legs give out. There’s no weight on anything but your waist and legs. The equilibrium of it … If you lean a certain way, the Hydra thinks you want to go to Chicago! But I have a stand for it, and I’m probably going to take the stand on tour.

Putting together a setlist 40 years into your career must be different from when you were just getting started. You’ve got a lot more ground to cover now than you did when Pas sion & Warfare dropped in 1990. Many artists build their set and include the things the audience is expecting. For me, that’s “Tender Surrender,” “Bad Horsie,” “For the Love of God,” tracks like that. I’ll choose a handful of tracks that I’ve never played, or maybe played years ago. Then I work the new stuff into it. I try to create an ebb and flow that keeps people engaged. [Too many] piercing guitars can be enough to give anyone an icepick to the forehead.

Your first solo album, Flex-Able, has an unmistakable Zappa influence. That record was done with a lot of freedom. You can hear the Zappa influences in it, but it’s all the things I liked before I heard Frank. Crazy guitar playing, comedy, composition. But then I changed. I was innocent and naïve back then. Those were formative years. That record is so much fun. Like the story of how I titled “There’s Something Dead in Here.” I wrote it out for eight guitars because I had just go en an eighttrack recorder. At the time, I had a boa constrictor and it got out of its cage and made it into the wall of the studio. It killed something, like a rodent. This rodent was decaying in the wall. The studio smelled like there was something dead in there. And there was!

You also spent time in David Lee Roth’s solo band in the ’80s. At the time Roth’s second solo album, Skyscraper, came out, I recall you expressing disappointment in the record. Bassist Billy Sheehan left the band before the tour. How has that record aged?

Our perceptions of our past work changes through time, and my perspective of that record has changed. It was challenging. We were going to hire [longtime Van Halen producer] Ted Templeman to come in and produce the record, but we were having such a good time doing demos that Dave decided to produce it himself. Dave had done live-in-the-studio [recordings] his whole career, and he was interested in doing more dimensional things. You can hear that on Skyscraper. I had a lot to do with that too, because that’s the world I was coming from. Some of the songs I was maybe not so crazy about at the time. That record was an opportunity for me to make transitions. I couldn’t have produced [Roth’s debut long-player] Eat ‘Em and Smile and have it come out that way. I’m like this forensic guy, but Ted Templeman is like, “Just get in there and play.”

What contemporary artists do you enjoy?

My wife likes pop music, so we get into things like Harry Styles. I like his record. A band that I didn’t think

I would like because I saw a picture and made a mental judgment, is the band Ghost. [Vocalist and bandleader]

Tobias [Forge] is a pure genius. Some of it is funny to me, in a way. But it’s totally inspired and done so well. And there’s theater in it. And a mystique. And melody

What’s the biggest misconception about you and your music?

“Steve Vai is a shredder that plays notes with no heart and no feel.” That’s true. To that person. There are no misconceptions. Whatever you believe about something is true to you.

During his Zoom calls with the Current, Vai also told us more about his time with Zappa, explained why he declined to play on the album of a daughter of a Russian oligarch, spilled details about recent sitins with Whitesnake and Living Colour and more. A full version of the interview is available online at bit.ly/SteveVaiInterview.

$35-$49.50, 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com.

music Dos Culturas

The Last Bandoleros may have left San Antonio, but their TexMex roots still shine through

BY MIKE MCMAHAN

Any way you look at it, San Antonio-bred band The Last Bandoleros is having a bang-up 2022.

The innovative pop-rock-Latin music trio dropped a new album called Tex Flex early this year and has a second LP due out later this month. Beyond that, it toured Europe, opened for Sting and is scheduled to appear Thursday, Oct. 6 on Good Morning America, its second appearance on the long-running ABC show.

The Last Bandoleros’ forthcoming album Tex Flex Folklórico, due out Friday, Oct. 28, explores the band’s roots and influences and features three songs from Tex Flex re-recorded in Spanish. The group, now based in Nashville, will celebrate the release with a Día de los Muertos-themed outdoor gig that same night at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

Given this relationship between the two albums, why not release both at the same, maybe as a package?

“It started with a backing track of what we thought would be an extended version of our song ‘In Between’ on Tex Flex. And it turned into a new song,” said drummer-vocalist Emilio Navaira IV, the son of the late Tejano star Emilio Navaira III. “Then we started digging on playing ‘Mi Amor’ and all that mariachi stuff live.”

After that, things snowballed and the band members found themselves commi ed to releasing a second album this year — just in time for Día de los Muertos.

Tex Flex, on the other hand, was comprised of preexisting ideas the members worked on during downtime in hotel rooms during their two months in Europe last summer.

Aside from having time to fine-tune material on the tour, bassist-vocalist Diego Navaira — drummer Emilio’s brother — said the band was happy with the response it got from European audiences. Particularly since many of the dates were opening for The BossHoss, a country act big in Germany but unknown Stateside.

“We’re three dudes who walk on stage in mariachi suits, and our first song is ‘Maldita,’ so it’s Spanglish,” Diego Navaira said. “At first, [audiences] are like, ‘What is going on?’ And that’s not a bad thing. We just want to make people feel good and dance, you know?”

The Last Bandoleros’ upcoming Tobin show will mark the San Antonio debut for its stripped-down trio format. The band weathered the departure of guitarist-vocalist Derek James early this year and came out on the other side swinging.

Of course, losing a musician required the remaining members to step up, taking on more vocal and instrumental duties. For drummer Emilio, that meant relying on some prerecorded tracks and electronic flourishes.

But those are only window dressing, he stressed — something to “beef up” the sound. The band proudly remains a live act and doesn’t rely on backing tracks to prop up a show. If there’s a technical glitch, it can ditch the electronics and keep on playing, he added.

Rise and shine

While it’s not quite as monumental as releasing a new album, The Last Bandoleros are excited about the upcoming Good Morning America performance.

“I grew up ge ing ready for school and Good Morning America would just be on in the background. I think … there’s not a lot of Spanish-oriented acts [featured on the show],” Emilio said. “It’s gonna be cool for some Mexican kids ge ing ready for school to say, ‘Hey, I know that!’”

During the appearance, the band will play “Vamos a Bailar (Bilingual Version),” a retooled version of the Tex Flex single “Every Time We Dance.”

“This showcases what we do,” Diego said. “When you listen to Tex Flex, it weaves in and out of English and Spanish. ‘Vamos a Bailar’ is one of the highlights of our show right now.”

Both the Spanish version and bilingual take will appear on Folklórico

National platform

Guitarist-vocalist Jerry Fuentes, the only non-Navaira in The Last Bandoleros, said he fully understood the vitality of having influences from both sides of the border after working as a studio intern with Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers.

The two San Antonio legends broke ground in the 1960s by weaving together rock, Mexican music and myriad regional influences. That approach was also on display during the pair’s time with the ’90s supergroup Texas Tornados.

“I remember seeing the first time the Texas Tornados played on [Late Night With David Le erman],” Fuentes said. “I said, ‘That’s so crazy that they got a New York national platform. And it’s Spanglish. It’s Hispanic, you know?”

The Last Bandoleros is still finalizing the setlist for the Tobin show, but the members are leaning toward including a cover of an Emilio Navaira III song. Both Navaira brothers got their start in his band as teens, meaning that their father’s influence carries through their current work.

Whatever ends up in the setlist, the band’s varied South Texas influences are bound to be on full display.

“We are excited and have a lot to say and share,” Emilio said.

$25, 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, Will Naylor Smith Riverwalk Plaza, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org.

Courtesy Photo / The Last Bandoleros

music listings

5

Fiel a la Vega

Formed in 1994 by musicians Ricky Laureano and Tito Auger, rock en español practitioners Fiel a la Vega — or Los Fieles as fans call the act — reveal their Puerto Rican pride on songs such as “Salimos de Aquí” and “El Wanabí.” Since the release of its 1996 self-titled debut album, the band’s popularity has only grown, and many now consider Fiel a la Vega Puerto Rico’s most important rock group. Its Salimos de Aqui tour celebrates 25 years in the business. $48-$68, 8 p.m. Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com.

Thursday, Oct. 6

Charlotte Sands, No Love for the Middle Child

— Marco Aquino

Charlotte Sands

While the world locked down in 2020, pop-punk found a new voice in Charlotte Sands. While the pandemic prevented her from completing her first headlining shows, inspiration for new work came from an unlikely source: conservative blowhards. Her song “Dress” was a reaction to the right-wing backlash to Harry Styles’ appearance in a gown on the cover of Vogue. Sands’ powerful vocals and TikTok drove the song to viral success. In addition to her solo work, Sands has collaborated with pop-punk and emo mainstays such as Taking Back Sunday and The Maine. $16-$18, 8 p.m., Vibes Underground, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, facebook.com/vibeseventcenter. — Danny Cervantes

Ceramic Animal, Trash Panda

The Regan brothers form three-fifths of Doylestown, Pennsylvania-based indie rock outfit Ceramic Animal. Chris, Erik and Elliott Regan employ the throwback influences of David Bowie, The Kinks and the Rolling Stones from their father’s record collection to inspire their combination of psych and post-punk rock. Guitarist Ant Marchione and bassist Dallas Hosey round out the lineup. Signed by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys to his Easy Eye label, the group is supporting its latest release Sweet Unknown $15$18, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx. com. — DC

Revolting Cocks

Also referred to as RevCo, this supergroup of industrial musicians blends abrasive noise with dance vibes. Half of the band members are alums of the more metallic Ministry — even the main man himself, Al Jourgensen, once was part of the Cocks. $32, 8 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 2232830, samsburgerjoint.com. — BE

Dead Boys, Suzi Moon

One of best-known bands from the first wave of U.S. punk, the Dead Boys — now led by original member Cheetah Chrome — are still nothing to fuck with. Despite soldiering on without original singer Stiv Bators, who died in 1990, Chrome and crew seem determined to live up to the last two adjectives in Young, Loud and Snotty, the band’s defining album. $20, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com.

— BE

Friday, Oct. 7

Manchester Orchestra, Petey, Creeks

Manchester Orchestra, the Atlanta-based alt rockers, have become fixtures on the alternative charts behind the songwriting duo of Andy Hull and Robert McDowell. Their 2017 hit “The Gold” pushed the group to new notoriety, accelerated by a downtempo re-release featuring the delicate vocals of Phoebe

Bridgers. The 2021 release of the sixth Manchester Orchestra album, The Million Masks of God, garnered much acclaim including being named one of Consequence of Sound’s “Top 50 Album of 2021.” The single “Bed Head” peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart and sparked a Local Natives remix. Like the 2009 release “I’ve Got Friends,” Manchester Orchestra seems to have them in all the right places. $29.50-$35, 8 p.m., Aztec Theater, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — DC

Lost Trees, Voltreus, Severed Sanity

Lost Trees is the musical equivalent of the sandwich you make at 3 a.m. when you can’t find anything else to eat. The band is a mix-and-match conglomeration of multiple heavy rock subgenres, including metalcore, post-hardcore and even djent. With one EP and various singles under their belts, these Floridians are still climbing the ladder, but who knows where their sound will land once they finally release an album. $14-$16, 7 p.m., Vibes Underground, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, facebook.com/vibeseventcenter.

— BE

Tracy Lawrence

With a catalog that includes eight No. 1 hits, including “Sticks and Stones,” “If the Good Die Young,” and “Texas Tornado,”

Tracy Lawrence ruled the mainstream country airwaves for much of the 1990s. At times, his life has also resembled a classic country tune. The singer has been married three times, accused of spousal abuse, charged with reckless endangerment after a highway dispute and was shot four times while protecting a female companion from an assault. $30-$150, 8:30 p.m., John T. Floore’s Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Road, (210) 6958827, liveatfloores.com.

— Mike McMahan

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt has enjoyed the kind of career longevity that seems evasive in the music industry of today. The 72-year-old singer-guitarist, whose music pulls from Americana and roots styles, first gained wide recognition with her hit “Nick of Time” in 1989, and her LP of the same title snagged a Grammy for Album of the Year. But that success was hard-earned. Raitt spent nearly two decades prior with intermittent critical praise but only minor chart success and sales. In the early ’90s, she was a household name thanks to her ubiquitous single “Something to Talk About.” Music fans who want a break from the crassness of modern music may want to give Raitt’s classy, textured style a chance. $59.50-$667, 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com. — MM

Instagram / @ charlottesands

music listings

Christian Nodal Minuit Machine

Oct. 8

The Lost Gonzo Band

Formed in the early ’70s, this veteran group typifies the cosmic cowboy sound and may appeal to red dirt country fans raised on more recent releases. The outfit has also served as the backing band for other legendary country performers, most notably Jerry Je Walker and Michael Martin Murphey. The current lineup includes original members Gary P. Nunn, Bob Livingston and John Inmon. $39.50, 9 p.m., Gruene Hall, New Braunfels, 1281 Gruene Road, (830) 606-1281, gruenehall.com. — MM

Gruesome, Immortal Bird, Cartilage, Cheese Grater Masturbation

Looks like San Antonio’s extreme metal fans have one more show to pencil into their already busy calendars. Headliner Gruesome is known for its modern take on old-school death metal. Heavily inspired by the band Death, Gruesome vocalist Matt Harvey even embarked on a tour that stopped in SA a couple months ago that paid tribute to the seminal band’s legacy. For those who like both gore and catchy ri age in their extreme music, Gruesome delivers on both. Don’t sleep on Immortal Bird, a creative, woman-fronted ensemble with one foot in grind and the other in proggier sounds. $18-$20, 7:30 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 772-1453, therockboxsa.com. — BE

Tuesday, Oct. 11

Minuit Machine

Hailing from Paris, France, the electronic dance duo Minuit Machine is best known for powerful drums and inventive synth lines. Two women behind the outfit, Hélène de Thoury and Amandine Stioui, describe their music as “disrupted, emotional and terribly addictive.” $12- $50, 8:30 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., 210-223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — MA

Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 11-12

The Lineage Trio

Guitarist Graham Dechter, bassist Alex Frank and drummer Ryan Shaw are known for session work for the likes of Michael Bublé, Quincy Jones and Je Goldblum. Playing together, the trio pays homage to The Poll Winners, the 1957 album recorded by another trio with serious chops — that of guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne — and merges that sound with a newer generation of jazz. The two San Antonio shows are album release parties for the group. $25-$35, 7:30 p.m. Jazz, TX, 312 Pearl Parkway, Bldg. 6, Suite 6001, (210) 3329386, jazztx.com. — MA

Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 12-13

Conan Gray, Baby Queen

Although born in California, Conan Gray used his isolated upbringing in the Central Texas town of Georgetown to inspire the deeply intimate lyrics that make up his pop sound. Born of a Japanese mother, Conan was the only student of Asian descent in his middle school class, and while struggling to find his place, found comfort in the lyrics of Taylor Swift and Adele. TikTok boosted Gray’s 2020 single “Heather” and pushed his fame to new heights. $70-$169, 8 p.m., Aztec Theater, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. – DC

Friday, Oct. 14

Julieta Venegas

Born in Long Beach, California but raised in Tijuana, Mexico, Julieta Venegas is best known for her eclectic mix of pop, rock and Mexican music on hits such as “Limón y Sal.” The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has sold more than 25 million records worldwide and took home the 2007 Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. Beyond those endeavors, she was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador by UNICEF in Mexico and by the Council of Ministers of Women of Central America. $31$61, 8 p.m. Tech Port Arena, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210)

Saturday, Oct. 15

Christian Nodal

Since bursting onto the scene in 2017, Christian Nodal has become one of regional Mexican music’s most important artists, revitalizing the genre with his unique brand of urban-infused sounds. Nodal’s debut single, “Adiós Amor,” hit the top spot on the U.S. regional Mexican charts and racked up more than 1.2 billion watches on YouTube. That puts him in the elite company of artists such as Justin Bieber, Ozuna and Maluma, all members of the platform’s Billion Views Club. $65-$195, 8 p.m., AT&T Center, 1 AT&T Center Parkway, (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com.

Hell Fire, Screamer, Violent Practice, Saintpeeler

— MA

Sometimes the band names spell out just what kind of evening you’re in for. Hell Fire hails from San Francisco and brings a classic metal sound: dual guitars, slightly raspy high end-screams and galloping rhythms. Sweden’s Screamer dwells in similar realms. If you enjoy early Iron Maiden, take note. Seems like a perfect bill for old-school headbangers turned o by the kids and their crazy, newfangled extreme metal with Cookie Monster vocals. $12, 7 p.m., 502 Bar, 502 Embassy Oaks, (210) 2578125, 502bar.com.

— MM

Tuesday, Oct. 18

Wednesday 13, Brave the Elements, Excodex, more Horror rock act Wednesday 13 is embarking on part two of its 20th anniversary tour — and wouldn’t you know it, the band’s hitting the road just in time for the spooky October feels. After getting its start playing creepy mid-tempo tunes, Wednesday 13 has undergone a musical transition and slowed its tempos to a ghastly crawl. One thing hasn’t changed, though: the group still rocks the face paint all these years later. $20-$100, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com.

— BE

600-3699, techportcenter.com. — MA

Courtesy Photo / Christian Nodal

Courtesy Photo / Minuit Machine

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