Tijuana's Hong Kong Fuck You hits Club Congress on Thanksgiving weekend

One drummer, three bassists and a lot of noise: the border powerviolence band plays an early $20 show downtown on Saturday, Nov. 28.

If Thanksgiving weekend leaves you needing something loud enough to shake off the leftovers, here it is. Hong Kong Fuck You plays Club Congress on Saturday, November 28, and it's an early one: music starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 through DICE. The show was announced October 30, so it's less than a month out.

First, the name. Despite it, the band isn't from Hong Kong. Hong Kong Fuck You, also billed as HKFY, is a powerviolence outfit from Tijuana, and its lineup is the first thing that sets it apart. Los Angeles Taco describes the group as the brainchild of Christian Hell, who sings and plays drums, backed by three bassists. One listing sums the sound up as a mix of "anti-music, punk, metal & industrial," and JamBase files them under punk and metal. Three basses through loud amps in a 400-capacity room is less a concert than a physical event, and that seems to be the point.

The band's Bandcamp page gives a sense of the humor running underneath the noise. Releases there include Third World Fighting Music, Happy Shitting Rainbows and a compilation cheekily titled Greatest Hits Vol. 69. Powerviolence has always been a genre of short songs, fast tempos and a straight face it doesn't really mean. HKFY's catalog leans into all three.

Three basses through loud amps in a 400-capacity room is less a concert than a physical event.

As for the room: Club Congress is about as storied as Tucson venues get. It sits inside Hotel Congress, built in 1919 across from the railroad depot to serve train travelers, according to Downtown Tucson Partnership. The hotel's most famous moment came in 1934, when it played a part in the capture of John Dillinger. The club opened in 1985, the year Richard and Shana Oseran bought the hotel. According to local history accounts it started out as The Counter Club, with weekly theme parties, before turning into the music room Tucson knows now. It's described as the longest continuously operating club of its kind, music, art and performance, west of the Mississippi.

That history is part of why a booking like this works here. Club Congress has spent four decades as the place where touring bands of every stripe come through downtown. A border band with a name designed to get bleeped on the radio and a lineup designed to rattle your sternum is a natural fit for the room.

The early start is worth noting. A 6 p.m. show on a holiday Saturday means you can be in and out with the night still ahead of you, or head straight from the Congress stage to a late dinner downtown. It also means the people who show up on time get the full set.

Bring earplugs. Bring a friend who thinks they've heard heavy music. Twenty dollars is a cheap price for finding out what three bass players can do to a room.

Sources: Hong Kong Fuck You punk – Los Angeles Taco (lataco.com); HONG KONG F*CK YOU aka HKFY – POFTX listing (poftx.com); Hong Kong Fuck You – Bandcamp (hongkongfuckyou.bandcamp.com); Hotel Congress – Downtown Tucson Partnership (downtowntucson.org); Hotel Congress – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Historic Hotel Congress – Tucson LocalWiki (localwiki.org); Hotel Congress at 100 – BizTucson (biztucson.com); Hotel Congress – Tucson Weekly (tucsonweekly.com); Hong Kong Fuck You tickets – DICE (link.dice.fm); Hong Kong Fuck You at Club Congress – JamBase (jambase.com)