The Red Dirt Concert Series will conclude its eighth season of performances on Friday, Sept. 27, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Posse Grounds Pavilion, featuring Rick Cucuzza’s opening act evoL-ution and Reel Big Fish cover band The Originals as the headliner. 

“The last show is a big, fun, ska-filled blowout,” Parks and Recreation Special Events Coordinator Jason Vargo said. “The Originals” are from Flagstaff, they cover ska from the ’90s. The point of ska was fun and these guys are a tribute to that.” 

“The Originals”

“[Attendees] can expect a fun show,” The Originals frontman Eddie Waters said. “We record every show. I was going back and watching the footage, and I was commenting to myself that ‘We’re a fun band’ … Everyone’s going to have a good time, and be able to dance, and be able to enjoy the show.” 

Reel Big Fish rose to prominence during the third wave of ska with their best-known album, 1996’s “Turn the Radio Off,” that showcased the band’s horn section in the hit single “Sell Out,” which was about selling out one’s artistic integrity for fame. 

“Myself, our saxophone player and original trumpet player, we were all in a ska band in high school in Prescott,” Waters explained. “This is the mid-’90s, and all of us went on our own way, doing other things, family jobs. But we wanted to come back together and do a ska band again. Then we saw Reel Big Fish at a festival, and we saw 15,000 people jumping around for their songs, and we said … ‘This looks like a ton of fun,’ so that’s how [The Originals] came to be.”

This will be the first Sedona performance by The Originals in five years, and they now have 40 Reel Big Fish songs in their repertoire. 

“It’s nostalgia,” Waters said. “The ’90s kids are now in our late 30s to early 50s, and I think there’s an appetite for things of our youth and to remember the fun that they had when they were in high school and college … let’s go back and relive the time we had when we were having a great time and you can’t deny that it’s fun music.” 

“This band is built for the big open-air outdoor venues, and we haven’t played one since the Coconino County Fair two years ago, so I’m really looking forward to doing that kind of outdoor venue in Sedona,” Waters said. 

Rick Cucuzza 

Cucuzza, a solo guitarist who performs in a variety of genres, will open for the finale. Cucuzza is the creator of evoL-ution, a live musical routine that involves looping tracks during performance. He plays a range of genres, including rock, blues, funk and contemporary jazz, to appeal to all tastes. 

“The main crux of my [act] is my pedal board that I have invented and created and am constantly updating that allows me to do this,” Cucuzza said. “I have my guitar MIDIed, so I can play piano, bass, sax, all the different instruments, and then I do what’s called livelooping. So I build the song in front of people, and then play the song. Nothing is ever prerecorded. I do everything live.”

 “The Red Dirt Concert Series takes place in a beautiful place and it’s an amazing event that we only get to [do] twice a year,” Vargo said. “Everybody has a great time, and I can just imagine more people coming out and more people having a great time together.