WOW Fest coming to Tucson in April

An interview with Cameron and 1/2 the brain behind Tucson's coolest 3-day event.

TPStank • Saturday, February 19, 2011 • 1:41 PM

Unless you've been holed up in an underground bunker preparing for Arizona's race war, you've probably been hearing a little bit about the 3-day punk rock W.O.W. (Way Out West) Fest hitting Tucson in April. This massive festival of loud music, possible drunken and disorderly conduct, really really good friends, and a whole bunch of fuckin fun has been an idea that's been brewing for two of Tucson's local punk rock show-goers, Cameron Combs and Billy Brooks, since last summer.

In September of last year, Cameron and Billy began gathering music from punk bands across the West Coast and putting together compiltion albums to help promote the awesome sounds that travel in and out of their home town of Tucson. This was something of a concept that was near and dear to AZPunk's collective hearts, so we wanted to catch up with Cameron to pick his brain about these W.O.W. Fest compilation albums, and the upcoming 3-day W.O.W. Fest happening in Tucson on April 8th-10th. If you haven't done it already, you can pick up your 3-day event pass for $26 at their website, wayoutwestfestaz.com. Hurry up while tickets are still available!

Cameron Combs: 1/2 the genius behind the W.O.W. Fest

Excerpt taken from wayoutwestfestaz.com:

"Last summer, while dreaming about the amazing weather that Tucson has to offer in the Spring, we had an idea. Let's invite a ton of great bands and a bunch of people out for a shindig. Six months later and countless hours of organizing, Way Out West Fest is born. On the weekend of April 8-10th, it all comes to a head. 60+ bands are bringing the jams and we want you here for the party. This entire event is a not-for-profit endeavor, all money generated is going to the bands and any overhead we encounter. This promises to be an amazing weekend chock-full of friends, sing-a-longs, cheap drinks and awesome weather. So plan on bringing your party pants, cutting em into shorts and wearing em all weekend. This is gonna be a celebration you won't want to miss."

AZP: So this is the 4th W.O.W. Fest compilation album and the first show. We've been helping promote local punk rock for 9 years now, how come this is the first time we're hearing about this awesome album and shindig?

CC: Yeah, this is the first year for Way Out West Fest. We just posted a new comp (vol.4) to our bandcamp page a few days ago. We started doing the comps as a way to get the word out about the fest and to give folks a chance to here some of the bands playing. So far, they have been well received. We've been fortunate in having bands offer up songs. Not all bands are comfortable doing stuff like that. This latest one actually has an unreleased track from Summer Vacation that rips. All the comps are free and available for download only, here. If you hear a band that tickles your fancy go buy their record(s) or donate some cash to them. Downloads are cool and everything but having a physical copy is way better. Early on, a majority of the promoting was done through all the major social networking sites. Since then we've launched our website and started selling passes, printed some really cool posters and flyers, done a few interviews with local papers and AMP magazine and run some ads with AMP and Razorcake. So, hopefully the word is out and people are making plans to spend a weekend in Tucson. I just want to point out that this event is completely not for profit. All money is going to the bands and any overhead we encounter. In fact, we're paying for our own passes. The success of this entire event rests on people showing up. Passes are available on the website and only cost 26$. If you don't have a paypal account, you can buy passes directly from Billy or myself for 25$. We had to add a dollar onto the price due to the cost of doing transactions via paypal. If you don't live in Tucson or don't know Billy or I, just send an email or contact us via FB and we'll work something out.

AZP: Why Tucson?

CC: Tucson is our hometown. We both grew up here. So naturally we're going to have our fest here. AZ has a great music scene and more folks should know about it.

AZP: Organizing a 3-day event is no task for the faint of heart. How did you two come up with this idea, and what kind of madness did you guys have to endure to make it happen?

CC: So far, we haven't had much in the way of problems. We've had a few bands that had to drop off but for the most part it's been smooth sailing. I guess the idea came from going to other fests in other cities.

It's always a blast hanging out with friends, seeing bands and partying all weekend. It's a foolproof recipe for good times. It seemed like a good idea to make it happen in our hometown. I'm sure there's some headaches on the horizon but we'll deal with them as they come. It's just under 2 months away and it's been going pretty good. The only upsetting thing that has happened is dealing with the so called "punk venues". Oddly enough a lot the venues that claim to be supportive are really just money-centric fronts in my eyes. That could just be me getting old and jaded though.

AZP: This is one hell of a lineup you guys have here. It looks like you've got at least 64 bands playing ranging from local heavy hitters like Casket Life and Good Men Die Like Dogs, to national acts like Toys That Kill and The Underground Railroad to Candyland. How did you guys go about gathering this massive collection of bands? Did you mainly want to focus on Arizona bands, or were your trying to reach out all over the southwest?

CC: Yeah, we're really excited about the lineup. We have some really great bands coming out. If all goes as planned, we'll be announcing a few more that are gonna put the lineup over the top. We definitely wanted to showcase AZ bands but also get a good mix of bands from all over. For the record, URTC had to drop off but Stoned at Heart is coming in their place and Toys That Kill is still gonna make it out. Going about booking bands was actually pretty easy. We've manged to meet a lot of band members by just going to shows, hanging out partying and putting them up when they come through town.

There's been times where my house turns into a flop house for touring bands. So, knowing a few people has come in handy. We've also gotten some help from guys like Tim Neilson aka Johnny Volume, Party Marty from The Party's Over Productions and Chris Mason from Dirt Cult Records. You've heard of The Seven Degrees of Kevin bacon right? We've been calling this Three Degrees of Paddy Costello. Now, neither of us know Paddy but we probably know someone who does and if they don't, then they know someone who does. Folks involved in the "punk scene" are usually pretty accessible. For a little bit we tried getting some really big names out but bands like that want huge guarantees and we simply don't have the resources to pay a band 1500$. The upside is that we've had to deal with very few booking agents and that's a good thing.

AZP: So, what can show-goers expect to find at this first W.O.W. Fest?

CC: Shows are taking place at The Hut, O'Malley's and Skrappy's. Now anyone familiar with Tucson knows that The Hut and O'Malley's are not the typical punk type venues but I assure you, they know what to expect and have done an amazing job accommodating our needs. They'll also be running be food and drink specials all weekend for fest goers. Skrappy's will be doing all ages/donation based shows on Friday and Saturday night. This is a community oriented youth collective so I ask that people attending shows at Skrappy's be respectful and not drink on the premises. They do a lot of great things here and the last thing I want is for them to come away from this fest with a bad taste in their mouth. That's pretty much the gist of the weekend. We're gonna start working on the schedule in the next few days, so folks will have a better idea of who's playing where. Just keep checking the website for updates.

AZP: Who are you guys looking forward to seeing play the most this year?

CC: O boy, I can't even begin to answer this question. There's just too many bands to list. Hopefully I won't spend the whole weekend running from venue to venue trying to keep shit running smoothly. Shark Pants.

AZP: You have 4 volumes of music people can download from your bandcamp page for free. Any chance you guys will be pressing some comps in the future that people can buy, or are CDs pretty much irrelevant to you guys these days?

CC: At The moment, we don't have any plans to release any physical copies of the comps but who knows, crazier things have happened. I can't speak for Billy on this one but I prefer vinyl. A huge majority of the music I have is either vinyl or digital format on my ipod. I love buying records with digital download cards. If it plays on my turntable and my ipod , I'm stoked.

AZP: Any plans for a W.O.W. Fest next year?

CC: I'm not even thinking about next year yet. If everything goes well this year I don't see why wouldn't do it again next year.

For more details about this year's W.O.W. Fest and up-to-date schedule info, keep your potatoes peeled to wayoutwestfestaz.com. And if you haven't done it already, download the 4 W.O.W. Fest compilation albums below, and then go buy your tickets for the raddest punk rock event to hit the desert this year.

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