Orkesta Mendoza come back to La Rosa the night after Thanksgiving

The Tucson big band that played the converted church's opening weekend returns on Fri, Nov 27, with Agua de Coco on the bill.

The day after Thanksgiving, most of Tucson will be full of leftovers and looking for a reason to get off the couch. Orkesta Mendoza are offering one. The band plays La Rosa on Friday, November 27, with Agua de Coco also on the bill. The show was announced October 27.

Here's what to know. The music starts at 8pm. Tickets are $61.19 through See Tickets. It's three and a half weeks out, which leaves time to make it a family plan, a friends-in-town plan, or both.

For this band, La Rosa is something close to home turf. The venue sits in the restored Benedictine church at 800 N. Country Club Road, and Orkesta Mendoza kicked off its opening weekend with a show billed "La Noche Primero," according to Tucson Weekly and the Arizona Daily Star's This Is Tucson. Coming back to the room they helped open feels a bit like a homecoming inside a homecoming.

The band's own story starts with a tribute. Bandleader Sergio Mendoza formed the group in 2009 out of a one-off tribute project to the Cuban mambo king Pérez Prado, according to Wikipedia. It was originally billed as Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta. That mambo foundation is still there, and over the years the band has become one of the acts most closely tied to Tucson's sound, with Tucson Weekly describing it early on as a Latin-jazz big band.

A mambo tribute that became a Tucson institution, back in the church it helped christen.

Agua de Coco and Orkesta Mendoza have crossed paths before. When Orkesta Mendoza hosted a New Year's Eve Spanish Masquerade at the Rialto Theatre, Agua de Coco played the salsa and cumbia after-party, according to KXCI. That makes them a natural pairing for a night that's built for dancing.

That's the real draw of a holiday-weekend show like this. Thanksgiving week brings people back to Tucson: college kids, relatives, old friends who moved away. A Friday night with a hometown big band in a room this distinctive is the kind of plan that gets everyone out of the house together. Bring the cousin who hasn't been back in years and show them what the old church on Country Club looks like now.

The ticket runs about $61, so it's more of an occasion than a casual night out. Given the holiday crowd, buying before the weekend arrives is a good idea.

Save some energy from Thursday's dinner. You'll need it for Friday.

Sources: A new events venue, La Rosa, will open in October at 800 N. Country Club Road – Tucson Weekly (tucsonweekly.com); This Is Tucson – La Rosa opening (thisistucson.com); Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Arizonan Bandstand – Tucson Weekly (tucsonweekly.com); Spanish Masquerade with Orkesta Mendoza – KXCI (kxci.org); Orkesta Mendoza at La Rosa – See Tickets (prod-nts-api.seeticketsusa.us)