Living Rootless: El Paso: Independence Day at the Chamizal

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

El Paso: Independence Day at the Chamizal

Independence Day at the Chamizal, El Paso. July 2017.

Independence Day 2017.

My go-to Meetup group, El Paso Live Music, hostessed by the gracious Yadira, got together at the Chamizal National Memorial for the combo Music Under the Stars and Independence Day celebrations.

Although I arrived fairly early, it wasn't early enough to avoid the need to park many, many, many blocks away. Fortunately, this enabled me to discover a tidy, interesting neighborhood.

Two other members of our group, Sara and Duane - constant early arrivers like me - found each other and we set up our homestead in readiness for later arrivals. Sara knows I love jicama and she thoughtfully brought fresh, juicy, cold, crispy, crunchy slices with her. Plus Tajin, of course. Mmmmmm.

A video of the fireworks below before I get distracted:

The band for the night was Neon Circus, a Brooks and Dunn tribute band.

And here is a good place to suggest that El Paso might be the center of the tribute-band universe. Which stands to reason, I guess, because El Paso is kinda off in a corner geographically (and US-centristically, it goes without saying), so we're more likely to attract tribute bands than the real thing.

Our Meetup group was in a shady spot faaaaaaar away from the stage, so our own conversation among the cool grass and leafy trees, along with the ambient energy of thousands of chuckling, amiable families around us, stole the show, so to speak.

And then when I swam upstream to the stage for some snaps, I was more taken with the genius body language of one of Neon Circus' lead singers than the music. Damn photogenic.