The Sky Ute Fairgrounds is going to rock Saturday.
For the 10th year, REZ-olution X, the Southern Ute Tribal Fair Youth Concert, will feature an afternoon of rock and metal bands, most from the Four Corners. The drug- and alcohol-free event will be capped off with a bonfire and fireworks display.
The concert is part of the 98th annual Southern Ute Tribal Fair & Powwow.
Robert Ortiz, the concert’s founder and organizer, does the scouting for bands to play the show. He said that over the years, he has built up a network of musicians who keep him updated about new groups. A tight-knit group, he says they are like family.
“The Four Corners area has a really large underground metal scene,” he said. “I’ll go to local shows in Farmington, Bloomfield, Shiprock, Durango. Through the years, I’ve become friends with a lot of the people in these bands, and they’ll say, ‘Hey, there’s a show in Dulce, come check it out.’”
The bands set to play Saturday include:
Souls on Monday from Louisiana Blinddryve from Albuquerque Graves Of The Monuments from Page, Arizona Suspended from Albuquerque Shiprock’s Under Exile Born Of Winter from Window Rock, ArizonaEthnic De Generation from Kayenta, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico;Testify01 from Coolidge, New Mexico; Ethan 103 from Window Rock Condemn the World from Red Valley, ArizonaDurango-area’s 1000 RoguesA reunion of sorts, Ortiz said some of the bands have performed at the concert before, and it has been interesting to see how the bands have grown and gotten better over the years.
“We’ve been focusing on bringing Native American bands to the Southern Ute reservation,” he said. “The hope of this is to give exposure to the youth that Native American musicians are making and playing music, and maybe inspire the youth of the community to do the same ... to see them on stage and meet these guys as just normal, everyday guys – or girls – who are playing in a band, and they can be inspired and say, ‘If they can do it, why can’t I?’”
The concert is a community event, and it wouldn’t be as successful as it has been without the community’s support, Ortiz said, adding that he has young people offer to help with the show.
“We promote this event for the kids to have at least one night to have fun and listen to good music with friends and hang out,” he said. “It’s a community event because we get different entities in the tribe to help. I do it, I organize it, but there are a lot of other people behind the scenes to help make it work. It’s always about the kids. The community is really supportive.”
Ortiz said the bands that perform are committed to inspiring young people, too.
“Some years aren’t as big as others, but one time I asked a guy, ‘What’s it like to get to a venue and there are maybe five or 10 people?’ He goes, ‘As long as we reach one kid, that’s all that matters.’”
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