Sound Bites SMILE! There's a new addition to the Hotel Congress Tap Room, and although you may not have noticed it, it has certainly seen you. Mounted above the men's bathroom door is the black, unblinking eye of Big Brother. Unlike the notorious Club Cam that broadcasts revelers at their boogie-best onto the HotCong website, this latest gizmo is a 'security measure' beaming a wide-angle view of all your presumably private Tap Room doings into an office monitor at four-second intervals. Granted, most surveillance equipment is installed by management to spy on employees rather than the clientele, but in essence this device is a backhanded slap in the face regardless of which side of the bar you're on.

The installation of the Spy Cam in the Tap Room is a sly breach of an implicit social contract: Certainly one of many reasons people go to bars is to relax outside the realm of constant accountability, to let the proverbial hair down and take refuge from prying eyes. Granted, so-called security cameras are nothing new, but I never thought the Congress Tap Room would follow behind legions of prefab sports bars in this regard. It's an affront to any notion of a cowboy code of the West--a notion that accounts for much of the Hotel's tourist appeal. The Hotel Congress does all it can to cash in on Dillinger lore and grasp every vestige of a "Wild West" end-of-the-line desert mystique. Yet at least in the case of the Tap Room, the Spy Cam heralds a surrender to the transition from a bar rich in history to some sort of strip-mall mentality. It's hard to imagine that pefer-to-remain-anonymous visitors--say, Tom Waits, who soaks up some Tap Room ambiance every now and again--would applaud the offending appliance.

The Tap Room has always been distinctly separate from the Club: a bar room with its own homespun attitude, its own eclectic music and a unique charm. That sense of separateness is a large part of the beauty of hanging out at the Congress. Ranting about a little video camera may seem like much ado about nothing, but the installation of the Spy Cam registers not just as a diminishment of an experience or an ideal--it is, however seemingly insignificant, a violation of privacy and freedom. "Just ignore it," they'll say, "and after a while you won't even notice it's there. After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, then you don't have anything to worry about--right?" Whatever. We still think its presence is double plus ungood.

YAQUI NATION BENEFIT: The Yoemen Tekia Foundation, founded eight years ago to preserve and perpetuate Yaqui Indian language and traditions, is sponsoring a fundraiser at 7 p.m. Saturday, September 20, at the TCC Leo Rich Theater. Featured performers are headliner poet, activist and musician John Trudell (even the F.B.I. is quoted as describing Trudell as "extremely eloquent"), who will be joined by Samalulukut drummers, and Native American hip-hop performer Btaka Brown. Funds raised will benefit several Yaqui Tribal organizations, including the Yaqui Reservation-Based Youth Group, formed to educate "at-risk" Yaqui youth of their cultural heritage; the Youth Cultural Documentation Project, the Yaqui Living Museum and the Yaqui Oral History Documentation Project. Tickets for this special performance are only $10.75 in advance, available at the Dillard's and TCC box offices. Call 883-7565 for more information.

LAST NOTES: The Theater Congress, 125 E. Congress St., in conjunction with Umlaut Productions, welcomes a hats-off fall season of shows with a spectacular triple bill featuring Spectrum, the Radar Brothers and Shallow, at 9 p.m. Thursday, September 25. Frankly, I'm still reeling from the fact that any of these three bands is finding its way to Tucson, much less that they'll appear together. Formerly of the late, great British space-noise band Spaceman 3, Pete (Sonic Boom) Kember's new project, Spectrum, is currently touring its widely acclaimed Reprise release Forever Alien. The Radar Brothers was founded by Jim Putnam, former member of Medicine and Maids of Gravity, who was last in Tucson in March supporting Scenic. Its self-titled Restless debut had all the critics busting out comparisons to Palace, Swell, Spain and most aptly Pink Floyd, due to its languid, subtly bent lo-fi demeanor. In my humble opinion it's easily one of the best releases this year. Catchy, noisy pop trio Shallow hails from Overland Park, Kansas, and boasts the production efforts of Keith Cleversley (Flaming Lips, Hum, Mercury Rev, Spiritualized) on its sophomore Zero Hour release, High Flyin' Kids Stuff. Cover for the show is $8 at the door. Call 623-7852 for more information.

Remember the Tubes? ("She's a Beauty" is the song that probably comes to mind...) Well, Tubes "founder and inventor" Bill "Sputnik" Spooner is fronting a new band of decorated troops (Scott Beyer, Chris Lockheed, Hank Maninger) snidely hailed Sputnik's SNAFU. Touring to support its debut release, Mall to Mars, Sputnik's SNAFU flies a sortie into The Airport Lounge, 20 E. Pennington St., on Friday, September 19. Call 882-0400 for more information.

Teddy Morgan returns to Tucson Saturday, September 20, with an appearance at the 3rd Stone Bar & Grill, 500 N. Fourth Ave., bringing with him from Austin a fresh approach to traditional blues. Morgan will be trotting out a variety of material from his latest release on Antone's/Discovery Records, Louisiana Rain. The show starts at 10 p.m. and admission is $5 at the door. Call 628-8844 for more information.

If you're up for making an appearance on the Club Cam while taking in a good show, then don't miss the Artificial Joy Club with Tito and the Tarantulas (yes, that band that Quentin Tarentino featured in Dusk Till Dawn) and local rockers Super Monkey, all on Friday, September 19, at the Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Cover is only $5 at the door. Call 622-8848 for more information. TW

--Lisa Weeks


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