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OCTOBER 14 - 27, 2026

International Nacho Day Pop-Up Event!

October 21st, 2026, 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM Liberto Cash and Carry 830 S. Presa Street, San Antonio, TX 78210 Join us For Lunch From the Ricos Food Trailer to enjoy Loaded Nachos and celebrate interNational Nacho Day!

all proceeds will benefit 2

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

VINCENT VALDEZ'S GENIUS GRANT | GOV'T MULE'S WARREN HAYNES | SAN ANTONIO BEER FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 14 - 27, 2026

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Publisher Michael Wagner Editor in Chief Sanford Nowlin General Manager Chelsea Bourque Editorial Digital Content Editor Stephanie Koithan Contributing Arts Editor Bryan Rindfuss Staff Writer Michael Karlis

in this issue Issue 26-21/// October 14 - 27, 2026

Contributors Abe Asher, Bill Baird, Ron Bechtol, Danny Cervantes, Amber Esparza, Brianna Espinoza, Anjali Gupta, Colin Houston, Kiko Martinez, Mike McMahan, Kevin Sanchez, M. Solis, Dean Zach Advertising Account Manager Parker McCoy Social Media & Marketing Coordinator Jehanna Pena Creative Services Lead Graphic Designer Ana Paula Gutierrez Events and Marketing Events Director Chelsea Bourque Chava Communications Group Founder, Chief Executive Officer Michael Wagner Co-Founder, Chief Marketing Officer Cassandra Yardeni Vice President of Operations Hollie Mahadeo Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon Revenue Operations Manager Rachel Gold Project Manager Megan Nally chavagroup.com National Advertising: Voice Media Group 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com San Antonio Current sacurrent.com Editorial: editor@sacurrent.com Display Advertising: marketing@sacurrent.com The San Antonio Current is published by Chava Communications Group San Antonio Distribution The Current is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Get listed 1. Visit sacurrent.com 2. Click “Calendar” and then “Submit an Event” 3. Follow the steps to submit your event details Please allow 48 hours for review and approval. Event submissions are not accepted by phone. Copyright notice: The entire contents of the San Antonio Current are copyright 2023 by Chava Group LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be emailed to the addresses listed above. Subscriptions: Additional copies or back issues may be purchased at the Current offices for $1. Six-month domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $75; one-year subscriptions for $125.

Jaime Monzon

33 Cheers to 21 Years

San Antonio Beer Festival brings hundreds of brews to San Antonio’s Civic Park

09News

The Opener News in Brief

Bad Takes

Republicans at Trump’s San Antonio rally revisit a tired smear campaign

14 Calendar

Our picks of things to do powerful

21Arts

Anatomy of a Genius

San Antonio native Vincent Valdez lands a 2026 MacArthur Fellowship for his visual art

Leap of Faith

Pair of San Antonio indie wrestlers in on the action at recent WWE Monday Night Raw Approved auditor info as required for public notices per section 50.011(1)(e), F.S. Circulation Verification Council 12166 Old Big Bend Road, Suite 210 St. Louis, MO 63122 www.cvcaudit.com Auditor’s Certification:

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

25Screens

Horror Takes a Detour San Antonio filmmaker Kristian McKay goes off beaten path with Kill Trip

27Food

Tapping New Ideas

San Antonio breweries diversify, create community to keep the taps open VINCENT VALDEZ'S GENIUS GRANT | GOV'T MULE'S WARREN HAYNES | SAN ANTONIO BEER FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 14 - 27, 2026

Cooking Up Conversation

Longtab Brewing’s David Holland talks about giving back with beer after three decades of military service

Survival Guide

How to get the most out of the San Antonio Beer Festival while dodging a hangover

34Music

Straddling Genres

Ahead of SA show, Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes talks cowboys, hippies and a gun drawn on David Allan Coe

Critics’ Picks

n the Cover: The Current’s annual Beer Issue takes the hops by the horns for an indepth look at how SA brewers are adadpting to a challenging market. We also serve up details on the San Antonio Beer Festival. Cover design: Ana Paula Gutierrez.

sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

NLC 8

NVC

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

PAC

SPC

SAC

ALAMO ONLINE

ATI

Attorney General Ken Paxton has traveled widely during his time in office, but a recent analysis by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found that just one in six of his trips have had a listed business purpose. Paxton has taken nearly 1,000 excursions with a state-funded security detail since 2015, costing Texas taxpayers $3.3 million. His destinations have included Vail and Park City as well as an Oklahoma town where he owns a vacation lodge. San Antonio’s three Michelin starred restaurants all kept their designations in the dining guide’s latest Texas listings. The guide did not award any other Alamo City restaurants a star, but Isidore, Nicosi, and Mixtli remain at the top of the city’s dining scene. The guide did, however, elevate new restaurants to its Michelin-recommended status — including 2M Smokehouse, Garcia’s Mexican Food, Leche de Tigre, Little Em’s Oyster Bar, Lover’s Pizzeria and Petit Coquin. At least 19 election deniers are on the ballot across Texas this fall, an analysis by the watchdog group States United Action has found. The organization’s list of election deniers includes U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott, as well as state attorney general candidate Mayes Middleton and a wide variety of U.S. representatives including U.S. Rep. Monica de la Cruz. Each of the election deniers is a Republican. A crowd of some 500 people turned out last Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump’s rally at Freeman Coliseum, while others interrupted the president’s remarks inside the arena. Trump was in town in an attempt to boost Ken Paxton, who trails James Talarico in most recent polls of the state’s pivotal U.S. Senate race. The president has made three trips to Texas over the past month. . — Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

“He needs to stop hiding from the oters.” —Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to meet her on the debate stage

ASSCLOWN ALERT

Embracing the Trump grift with Carlos De La Cruz Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark. Carlos De La Cruz, who’s running to represent Texas’ 35th District in the U.S. House, wants voters to believe he’s a champion of working families. The Republican political novice has repeated that claim in speeches and TV ads. But here’s one problem with the working-class hero act: De La Cruz is also an unabashed cheerleader for a president whose policies have repeatedly kicked those same families when they’re down. During a speech at Dallas’ Republican midterm convention, De La Cruz tried to cast himself as a defender of average folks struggling to make ends meet. “I’m fighting for the family sitting at the kitchen table tonight, doing the math on the rent, the groceries and the gas, and wondering how it all adds up,” he declared. His speechwriters even incorporated this populist nugget: “The economy should work for working families, not for Washington insiders.” That’s rich coming from someone whose campaign ads trumpet President Donald Trump’s full endorsement, not to mention his own MAGA fealty. After all, Trump has dismissed Americans’ legitimate concerns about affordability as a Democratic “hoax.” That’s quite a message to send to families watching grocery bills devour their paychecks as ravenously as zombies do the cast of The Walking Dead. Worse, Trump championed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which delivered enormous tax benefits to the wealthy while slashing Medicaid and food assistance programs that millions of working families depend on. Those cuts aren’t abstract numbers on a congressional spreadsheet. They mean families in District 35 will struggle to afford medical care and put food on the table. And what about those Washington insiders De

ICE has leased another 75,000 square feet of office space in San Antonio, this time in buildings on the South Side. The agency has signed a 15-year lease for space inside the Brooks development. ICE already has two offices in the Alamo City, but City Council is mulling a lawsuit to halt plans to convert an East Side warehouse into an ICE detention site. City Council voted 9-2 last week to have CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) conduct impact studies on ICE’s proposed East Side detention center. The studies, which are expected to be finished in December, will analyze

news

That Rocks/That Sucks

Courtesy Photo / Carlos De La Cruz

La Cruz claims to despise? With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, Trump’s administration has elevated self-dealing to one of its governing philosophies. From the lucrative cryptocurrency ventures of the president’s family to the extraordinary access he’s given wealthy donors and corporate interests to win White House favor, the swamp Trump promised to drain is giving off more noxious gas than ever. Yet as recently as the president’s October rally in San Antonio, De La Cruz was there to kiss the ring. Indeed, the rally was scheduled in part to help drag De La Cruz across the finish line. There’s something profoundly dishonest about posing as a defender of working people while enthusiastically embracing policies that bend them over. If De La Cruz actually wants an economy that serves working families, he should explain where he parts ways with Trump. Which safety-net cuts would he work to reverse if elected? Which insider deals would he investigate as a member of Congress? Until then, his kitchen-table talk is just so much bullshit. This assclown can’t have it both ways. He can either stand with working families or keep riding the Trump train. Pretending he can do both is an insult to our intelligence. — Sanford Nowlin

how the proposed facility might affect the city’s water, wastewater and electric systems. The city and Bexar County Commissioners Court are considering taking legal action to prevent the lockup from moving ahead. City Council last week voted 8-3 to approve a SAWS rate hike that’s set to increase customers’ bills by 29% over the next four years. The increase, which SAWS officials maintain is necessary to update the system’s infrastructure, is expected to raise the average residential customer’s bill from $56.68 per month to $73.22 per month by 2030. It’s set to take effect Jan. 1. — Abe Asher

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

news

Bad Takes

Republicans at Trump’s San Antonio rally revisit a tired smear campaign BY KEVIN SANCHEZ

specter is haunting the United States: the specter of democratic socialism. And all the powers of old have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter — from pundits to politicians, from Baby Boomers to Generation X, from retired San Antonio police chiefs to former White House advisers under Clinton and Obama. “This election, we’re not talking about Red versus Blue,” scandal-tarred U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton explained at a rally held by President Donald Trump in San Antonio two weeks ago. “We’re not talking about a moderate Democrat. We’re talking about the constitutional republic, freedom, the Bill of Rights; we are talking about capitalism. On the other side, we are talking about communism, socialism, the government controlling it … That’s why these elections are really mattering.” Yet Paxton’s opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, has explicitly rejected the socialist label. So does state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a self-described economic populist, who’s trying to cap the 12-year reign of Gov. Greg Abbott. President Harry Truman accurately diagnosed this Republican tactic back in 1952. “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years,” Truman said during one of his iconic whistle-stop tours. ”Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called Social Security. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.” So, to campaign against “socialism” is really just a gussied-up attempt to roll back the progressive victories of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, according to Give ‘Em Hell Harry. Yet red-baiters bang the horrors of 20th-century communism like a cheap drum. “Look at all the countries that have

Michael Karlis

implemented socialism and look at where they are,” D’rinda Randall, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas, said at Trump’s Alamo City rally. “It always leads to death and destruction and severe poverty.” No one is advocating a one-party state except the Texas GOP. Let’s instead take a nation that ranks above ours on both the Democracy Index and the World Happiness Report: Norway. Almost two-thirds of that country’s wealth is in the hands of the government — a far higher share than in China. So if we consider state ownership to count as socialism, when will Norway collapse into “death and destruction and severe poverty?” And when can we expect the imminent demise of the 25 million souls living behind the iron curtain called the Nordic model? Or, if that’s not socialism but capitalism with a robust social safety net, then opponents of universal health care, tuition-free college, paid family leave, and higher union density — all of which most rich democracies enjoy — should stop calling these policies “socialist.” Brandon Herrera, the 30-year-old social media influencer running to represent Texas’ 23rd District against former public school teacher Katy Padilla Stout, added his obsolete pennies. “It’s so incredible to see so many young

people stepping up and doing what we all need to be doing, my generation, taking some agency and some ownership in this country to stand up to socialism,” he said. But the facts don’t bear out that assessment. According to a Gallup survey from August, 57% of adults ages 18 to 34 view socialism positively, with 55% of that same age cohort holding a negative image of capitalism. Upwards of $2 trillion in student loan debt takes a toll, no doubt, as does the fact that so many under 40 are unable to afford to own a home. More than 70% of the 120,000 dues-paying members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are Millennials or younger. By contrast, the average age of a member of Congress is over 60. “That flag does not stand for socialism,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared at the San Antonio rally while pointing to the Stars and Stripes. Odd then that the Pledge of Allegiance I repeated every school day was popularized by a Christian socialist by the name of Francis Bellamy. Look it up, Dan. During his address to the San Antonio crowd, the 80-year-old Trump, spoke for nearly two hours without mentioning socialism once. Perhaps he was still in the afterglow of his joint press conference last month with Zohran Mamdani, the socialist mayor of New York City. “Trump decries Democrats as ‘communists,’ even as he looks to impress China’s

communist leader,” was the Associated Press’ headline for a story on the two leaders’ September meeting. “The White House didn’t answer questions on whether it saw discrepancies between Trump denouncing Democrats as communists while expressing fondness for Chinese President Xi Jinping and having the government take large stakes in private companies,” the wire service reported. To that point, the federal government currently owns stock in 30 corporations, including Intel and U.S. Steel. I guess no one ever died from what Karl Marx termed a “contradiction.” Without evidence, Trump alleged that the brave protesters who repeatedly interrupted his tirade at Freeman Coliseum were paid “by enemies of our nation.” But speaking at Mount Rushmore the day before Independence Day, the president said, “In America, we do not need anyone’s permission to say what we think.” Does that not go for socialists as well? Two GOP representatives from Georgia recently introduced a bill in the House to revoke the DSA’s party status, explicitly harkening back to the McCarthyism of the 1950s. That would effectively outlaw the DSA as a recognized political entity, First Amendment be damned. Ironically, the extreme right never more closely resembles Joseph Stalin than when they seek to prohibit socialist idealism. sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

Civic Park at Hemisfair

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calendar THU | 10.15 TH EATRE

MACBETH Macbeth is one of the bloodiest works attributed to William Shakespeare, second only to Titus Andronicus. However, the former is more refined and as psychologically disturbing as it is gory. The play offers a study of unchecked ambition and its darkest consequences, including deceit, murder, misguided schemes, tyrannical behavior and the inevitable collapse of a royal house rotting from the inside out. Sounds like a suitable bedtime story for the new millennium. For this adaptation by the award-winning Out of Chaos theatre company, two actors will undertake the juggling act of taking on more than 20 roles. $29-$79, 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, 226 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 226-5700, us.atgtickets.com. — Anjali Gupta

Facebook / La Bête Productions

Courtesy Photo / Majestic Empire Foundation

THU | 10.15 - SUN | 11.01 TH EATRE

DRACULA: A COMEDY OF TERRORS

La Bête Productions is capping off its first full season with a run of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, written by comedy duo Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. This fast-moving take on a gothic classic is full of hilarious additions including a buxom vampire-hunting vixen, a stage design fit for Studio 54, outrageous costumes and even more outrageous dialogue. La Bête is the San Antonio theatre company that produced One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest last summer to high acclaim. Let’s see what they do with comedy. $25, 7 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Woodlawn Pointe, 702 Donaldson Ave., labeteproductions.com. — AG

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

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SAT | 10.17 SPECIAL EVENT

BUTTTOOTKING TOUR

As part of the BUTTTOOTKING national Halloween tour, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 standouts Suzie Toot, Kori King and Lydia B Kollins are revving into San Antonio with local rising star Dahlia Gore as the opening act. Following a breakout year in 2025, BUTTTOOTKING is back for a spooky-season edition to showcase the performers’ mix of vintage theatricality, meme culture references and absurdist drag reimaginations. The evening will feature comedy, theater performances, pageantry and, for a seasonal twist, monster-themed drag. The audience is encouraged to join the fun by participating in a costume contest. Gore, San Antonio’s “Rotting Doll,” was selected to open the event after a nationwide contest that drew more than 300 submissions. Her looks range from gothic to gory, making her a fitting addition to a Halloween-themed lineup. $35.75-$110, 8 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., butttootking.com. — Kat McKinney

Coutresy / BUTTTOOTKING

SAT | 10.17 COMEDY

JASON RODRIGUEZ

Jason Rodriguez got his comedy start in California before joining the pandemic-era wave of stand-ups moving to Austin. He quickly became one of the city’s hardest-working funnymen, willing to work any room that would have him. That hustle made him a Moontower Comedy Festival regular and 2026 finalist for Funniest Person in Austin, an annual event hosted by Cap City Comedy Club. He survived the Kill Tony podcast and variety show, where his set and a pushup contest with Bert Kreischer and Bobby Lee earned him the coveted Kill Tony notebook. Rodriguez’s deadpan delivery eases audiences into everyman territory before veering into the absurd, and because he’s constantly reworking his jokes, no two shows ever feel the same. $21.04-$102.33, 7 p.m., Riot Riverwalk, 606 N. Presa St., (210) 255-1115, riotriverwalk.com. — Valerie Lopez Facebook / Jason Rodriguez

calendar SUN | 10.18 CLASSICAL MUSIC

ALIAS BRASS COMPANY

This atypical brass quintet is known for both range and virtuosity. Playing anything from the classics to original compositions and baroque to modern pop, Alias Brass Company has been described as the “chamber music of the future.” Founded in 2013, the ensemble is a collaboration between five accomplished artists and educators from across the country. The group has been delighting audiences from the Midwest to South America ever since. This performance is presented by the Fredericksburg Music Club. Free, 3-5 p.m., Fredericksburg United Methodist Church, 1800 N. Llano St., Fredericksburg, (830) 997-7679, fredericksburgmusicclub.com. — AG

Instagram / spurs

Courtesy Photo / Alias Brass Company

TUE | 10.20 SPORTS

SPURS VS. THUNDER

After an epic seven-game series in last season’s Western Conference Finals, the most exciting rivalry in the NBA resumes on opening night when the Spurs square off against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Heading into training camp, reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lamented the loss of longtime teammates Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, who were traded by OKC in the offseason for a slew of second-round draft picks. San Antonio added veteran free agent Tobias Harris to its young core, whose connection to Spurs General Manager Brian Wright goes back to their time together with the Orlando Magic. Entering his 16th season, Harris adds size and versatility at the power forward position. He was also a key contributor in Detroit’s run to the top of the Eastern Conference standings last season. “I pride myself on team chemistry and making sure the group understands we can’t go anywhere if we’re not together,” Harris told reporters on Media Day. $139 and up, 8:30 p.m., Frost Bank Center, 1 Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com, Peacock, NBC. – M. Solis

THU | 10.22 SPECIAL EVEN T

ANXIETYLAND BOOK SIGNING

Courtesy Image / Gallery Books

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

Inspired by a weeks-long panic attack that led to a hospital stay, cartoonist, writer and illustrator Gemma Correll created Anxietyland, a graphic novel with a page count rivaling that of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. She will be promoting the tome with this San Antonio appearance. Anxietyland traces Correll’s lifelong struggle with mental conditions revealed during her treatment, including severe anxiety, depression, agoraphobia and dissociative disorder. In the graphic novel, she creates an imaginary theme park in her mind that includes The Worry-Go-Round, the Emotional Roller Coaster and House of No Fun. At the very least, Correll proves once and for all that being a smartass is a legitimate coping strategy. Free, 6-7 p.m., Nowhere Bookshop, 5154 Broadway, (210) 640-7260, nowherebookshop.com. — AG

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SAT | 10.24 COMEDY

BERT KREISCHER

Bert Kreischer is the guy you want to party with. His propensity for gregarious, scene-stealing antics served as the inspiration for the main character in Van Wilder. With nearly 30 years in comedy, a long-running Bertcast podcast and four Netflix specials under his belt, he’s not slowing down. Years ago, he rode roller coasters on Bert the Conqueror to beat his fear of heights — early proof of a comic willing to push himself. Today, he plays a fictionalized version of himself on Netflix’s Free Bert. That relentless drive is what makes him The Machine, the nickname behind his 2016 special and 2023 feature film. Onstage, audiences can expect high energy, warm nice-guy charm and, of course, a shirt that won’t stay on. With the Permission to Party World Tour, Kreischer is inviting San Antonio to the party, and he’ll make sure everyone has a good time. $25-$349, 7 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — VL Wikimedia Commons / Zach Catanzareti Photo

MON | 10.26 FI LM

HORROR CLASSICS AT LAS PALMAS: HOUSE OF WAX The final installment in a series of scary movie screenings at Las Palmas Library showcases the first 3D theatrical release by a major motion picture studio. House of Wax (1953) stars Vincent Price as a sculptor driven mad by his business partner, who burned down their museum for the insurance money. Professor Henry Jarrod (Price) decides to replace his beloved wax sculptures with real people he encounters who resemble his lost lovelies, among them Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette. Bonus: A very young Charles Bronson plays Jarrod’s sidekick, Igor. Free, 5-7 p.m., Las Palmas Branch Library, 515 Castroville Road, (210) 207-9200, mysapl.org. — AG Courtesy Photo / San Antonio Parks and Recreation

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OCT

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ATG E N T E RTA I N M E N T V E N U E S

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10

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CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

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arts

Anatomy of a Genius San Antonio native Vincent Valdez lands a 2026 MacArthur Fellowship for his visual art BY ANJALI GUPTA

ore often than not, an artist’s prowess at mark-making supersedes the need for content or context. This practice makes for technically complex works that exude an understanding of history akin to amnesia. Artists, just like any neonate, are often born without teeth. With any luck, as their skill set grows as fast as their canines, so does their understanding of the world around them, as well as their ability to successfully parse their reality. Vincent Valdez splits his time between his native San Antonio and adopted city of Houston. His work shares characteristics with the top tier of Gen X Chicano artists, straddling hyperrealism and conceptualism while exploring themes of social justice. The result is provocative, nimbly shifting from the personal to the political with relative ease. Valdez’s skills have earned him a Ford and Mellon Foundations Latinx Artist Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors and, most recently, a 2026 fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary impact in their respective fields. MacArthur awards are commonly referred to as “genius grants,” with up to 20 annual fellows receiving $800,000 in unrestricted funds paid out over five years. The grants offer recipients the freedom to explore their practice without the pressure of financial stress. Some artists are quick to respond to the accolades of others with sanctimonious, thinly concealed jealousy. But the bottom line is, without an unyielding drive to push himself and his work ever further, Valdez would not be situated where he finds himself today. He has said that his aim is to “incite public remem-

Courtesy Photo / Artpace

brance,” and to loosely quote Gore Vidal, combat the “social amnesia that surrounds us.” Valdez’s stylistic evolution from muralist to figurative painter, and figurative painter to conceptual artist was gradual. Take his 2006 series “Stations,” for instance. In some of the images, the facial features of both the hero and the audience are distorted and stylized much like paintings of the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 — a common subject of Chicano paintings that engage with subject matter that vilifies black and brown men in an era of racial hysteria. Others of Valdez’s works edge toward photorealism. All take on the gritty urban feel of the Ashcan School a là George Bellows, as if he was illustrating a Hemingway short story for The Atlantic. The title, however, implies that our pugilist hero is a surrogate — a stand-in for Christ as depicted in The Stations of the Cross, imparting this struggle with a significance loftier than the dirt-, blood- and sweat-stained floors of an illicit boxing arena. Jump ahead to 2014 and the series The Strangest Fruit, exhibited at Artpace San Antonio. Its inspiration is the anti-lynching poem originally penned by schoolteacher Abel Meeropol and popularized in the song “Strange Fruit,” recorded by Billie Holiday. Valdez co-opted the civil rights-era anthem to deal specifically with the lynching of brown men in the Jim Crow South, a subject often ignored by history. Using friends as subjects, the artist depicted them with all matter of context removed — ropes, trees, jeering crowds of on-

Courtesy Image / Vincent Valdez

lookers — leaving the contorted body of each man floating against a white background. Again, we encounter the idea of historical amnesia and erasure — of forgotten or whitewashed aspects of American history. In Los Angeles artist Ken Gonzales-Day’s photographic Erased Lynching Series (2002-2005), the artist erased horrifically contorted bodies and ligatures, leaving only trees or gallows and the warped expressions of onlookers. Despite the visual reversal of their approaches, the artists are addressing the same underlying social context that allowed such atrocities to occur in the first place — a state in which the noose itself becomes a metaphor that continues to sublimate history. Valdez’s The City I (2015–16) is a four-part canvas mural that depicts a group of people in Ku Klux Klan garb overlooking a city at night. This massive, cinematically scaled work gives the viewer the nauseating feeling of turning the wrong corner and stumbling onto this scene firsthand. Just as the young men in The Strangest Fruit are dressed in contemporary clothing, visual cues including cell phones and a late-model truck place this imagined encounter firmly in the present. The City I took the artist nearly a year to complete. While there are exceptions, it is this level of skill and dedication that catches the eye of a fellowship. Anything short of this amount of effort is just window dressing. Valdez is also the inaugural artist-in-residence at Alamo Colleges District (ACD) in San Antonio, where his latest exhibition, La Línea/ The Line: Works by Vincent Valdez, opened on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Common Ground Gallery. The exhibition includes paintings, drawings and sculpture created over the past two decades — works that earned Valdez his accolades. Free, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., ACD (ACCESS) Common Ground Gallery, 2222 North Alamo, (210) 4850000, alamo.edu

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

Halloween Fest at Rainbow Gardens FREE family-friendly event Calling all kids and families! Join us at Rainbow Gardens for a fun-ﬁlled Halloween Fest packed with festive activities, treats, pumpkin patch, and plenty of Halloween fun. Costumes are welcome, so dress up the little ones and come celebrate with us! Enjoy FREE face painting and FREE cotton candy provided by Mi Casa Child Centers, and pick out the perfect pumpkin for just $5. With the purchase of a pumpkin, kids can stop by our pumpkin painting station to decorate their very own Halloween creation. We’ll also be joined by Mary Brown, author of the Ekpen series, for a special storytime featuring her latest book, All Types of Hair. After the reading, kids can stick around for a fun craft activity with the author.

Saturday, October 31 10 AM–1 PM Rainbow Gardens 8516 Bandera Rd. LEARN MORE

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

arts Leap of Faith

Pair of San Antonio indie wrestlers in on the action at recent WWE Monday Night Raw BY ALEX ROUSH

an Antonio pro wrestlers Brock Ali and Casey Blackrose got a major publicity boost when they appeared in a recent WWE Monday Night Raw brawl in Milwaukee. The pair were invited to appear as extra talent on the Sept. 28 card and took a leap of faith, unsure how — or even if — they’d be included. “We waited all day to be told what we were going to do,” Ali said. “After the security guards got picked, we were picked as fans, still not knowing what we were going to do. They finally told us and we were like, ‘Wow, hopefully this goes through,’ and it did! It was a lot of fun.” Indeed, after they arrived at the Fiserv Forum, they found themselves in the center of the action. Ali and Blackrose were incorporated into a throwdown between the Bloodline faction (Jacob Fatu and the Usos) and the heel stable the 946 (Royce Keys, Bronco Nima and Lucien Price). Tensions couldn’t have been higher between the rival groups, and their six-way brawl escaped the confines of the ring. After Bloodline’s Jimmy Uso jumped from the barricade, the 946’s Price grabbed him and hurled into the audience, straight into Ali. Blackrose, who narrowly avoided being toppled by Uso, opted for a more direct altercation. He confronted Nima and, despite his best efforts, went down after a swift hit to the jaw. The segment ended shortly after with the two factions taking their feud backstage. The Alamo City wrestlers’ appearance was brief, but it gave them a chance to perform at one of professional wrestling’s highest-profile events. Schooled by the best Like their Greyhound bus journey to

last month’s Raw, Blackrose and Ali’s wrestling careers began in San Antonio. Both are graduates of the Hybrid School of Wrestling, where they train under the guidance of head coaches Sho Funaki, a WWE legend, and independent wrestler Chris Marval. San Antonio-born Blackrose got the wrestling bug early. He attended his first WWE show at the age of 9 and saw legendary El Paso-born wrestler Eddie Guerrero in action three weeks before his untimely death. “Years later, I attended a [River City Wrestling] show, and that’s when I discovered independent wrestling,” Blackrose said. “I asked RCW promoter Brandon Oliver about joining the business, and he gave me the information for Hybrid, where I’ve trained since 2019. I have also evolved into a coach and help train the next generation of wrestlers, like Brock Ali.” Months after graduating from Hybrid in 2021, Blackrose faced San Antonio grappler Keith Lee in a dark match at the AT&T Center — now the Frost Bank Center — before a separate WWE Raw. While the match itself was already a huge accomplishment, the moment held more sentimental value for Blackrose. “Being able to wrestle someone I used to watch at RCW, inside the same arena I got to see Eddie Guerrero in, was a surreal and full-circle moment,” he added. Ali graduated from Hybrid in 2025, before he’d even finished high school. “Balancing wrestling and high school is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do,” Ali said. He credits his wrestling family for supporting him through the process, and even remembers displaying his honor roll certificates on the training facility fridge. As he wrestled in more shows, Ali began to notice a difference at school. Increasingly, students recognized him as a wrestler before they knew him as a classmate. ‘History and culture of San Antonio’ Ali and Blackrose are back in San Antonio and still carrying the flag for indie wrestling. Indeed, the pair were scheduled to face each other on Sunday, Oct. 11, for the United210 championship. A South Side staple, United210 is rooted in hard work, tradition, and community. The promotion draws in large crowds and loyal fans while show-

Alex Roush

casing both local and out-of-state talent such as Las Vegas-based Michael Jackson tribute wrestler Santana Jackson, who will face San Antonio’s Kalientita at a Nov. 28 show. Run by independent professional wrestlers StudStache and Rob Love, United210 has created a place for people of different backgrounds to share a common connection. The action-packed shows feature elite talent, but the sense of community may be an even bigger draw. “One of the things I love most is seeing different generations of fans connect,” Love told the Current. “You’ll see longtime fans welcoming newer fans, sharing stories and memories, and telling them about the wrestlers and moments that helped shape San Antonio wrestling. It’s almost like passing down a family history. I think that’s why wrestling continues to matter here. It’s not just entertainment. It’s part of the culture and history of San Antonio.” Stache, who’s also a U.S. Army combat medic veteran, makes it clear that the talent at these shows isn’t just in the ring. “Local wrestlers, promoters, media, vendors and fans put a tremendous amount of work and passion into creating something that belongs to the community,” he said. “It gives local talent

MCasey Blackrose (left) and Brock Ali (second from left) engage in a San Antonio bout. a place to tell stories, build characters, take risks and connect directly with the people watching.” United210 has weathered its share of setbacks, including moments when it would have been easier for Love and Stache to walk away. But Love said that’s not an option. “Every time we see the fans show up, every time we see a new wrestler get an opportunity, or we see people from different parts of the wrestling community come together, it reminds us why we’re doing this,” he said. Although Blackrose was unable to attend last week’s United210 show, his absence was purposeful. Marking the fourth time in three weeks he’s worked for WWE, those watching Saturday’s WWE Money in the Bank may have seen a familiar face at ringside during both ladder matches. As more of these opportunities appear, Blackrose, Ali and other local talent continue to prove San Antonio wrestling is a force to be reckoned with. sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

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CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

San Antonio filmmaker Kristian McKay goes off beaten path with Kill Trip BY KIKO MARTINEZ

lthough classic horror films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hitcher inspired San Antonio native and writer-director Kristian McKay, the 1992 Churchill High School graduate wanted his first horror movie to be distinct. “I was trying to make a film like Sonic Youth makes music — like your guitars are deliberately out of tune,” McKay, 53, told the Current during a recent interview. In Kill Trip, shot in the Central Texas town of Bastrop early last year, McKay follows a group of friends traveling to a music festival. When their car breaks down, they accept a ride from a charming van driver, only to find themselves on a detour where survival is anything but guaranteed. The film was produced by McKay’s production company, Obscura Film, and his producing partner, Daunesh Alcott. During our interview, McKay talked about what it took to make Kill Trip feel “off” and what he really thinks about the film incentives in Texas. Kill Trip is available to stream on several VOD platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play and Fandango.

Kill Trip is your first horror movie. What led you to that genre?

Yeah, most of my other films are dramas and thrillers. But you can only convince somebody to give you the money if they think there’s a possible chance the film will get in the black. So, I took the idea to write something that had my sensibilities but was buried in the horror genre. I’d like to think of Obscura Film as a micro-Blumhouse sort of thing.

What is it about Kill Trip that makes it different from other horror films?

I think a lot of older people dig it because it’s not a slasher gore horror movie. I think everything today looks like a Netflix movie, so I wanted the film to feel different. I wanted the acting to be stilted. I put a lot of attention into the film to make it feel off.

Off how?

I wanted to play with ideas on acting, so I asked the actors to slow down their performances

screens

Horror Takes a Detour

Courtest Photo / El Jefe Diablo

so the viewers would have to sit there for a second. I wanted it to be like [author] Sherwood Anderson’s book, Winesberg, Ohio. Once you read every chapter, you know the town because every chapter is a character. You may think the bad guy is the bad guy, but there are also things going on outside of that narrative. It’s like Natural Born Killers meets Clue.

Who are some of your filmmaking inspirations? Visually, David Lynch (Blue Velvet). Probably Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon) too. I don’t necessarily want to follow anyone directly, but Lynch was definitely an inspiration. He was on my mind when I was making Kill Trip because he had just passed away right before we started filming.

Why is the Texas landscape such a good setting for a horror movie?

Texas is a place where it feels like anything can happen because there’s miles between cities. When you’re in New York, everything is so dense. In California, one city begins where one city ends. In Texas, there’s all this landscape where you could discover a body or find a bag of money. Anything is possible.

But again, this is an obscure horror movie rather than something typical, right?

Yeah, we got feedback from certain distributors that were like, “This is a love-story drama.” They didn’t buy it at all. The blood is very subtle. I wanted to focus more on performance or the oddity of non-performance. [Actor] Todd Jenkins, who plays The Glove Man, didn’t really want to do the movie at the beginning. He doesn’t speak a line. It’s very Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird. He was like, “What is this?”

So, you’re not too worried that someone is going to rent it on Prime thinking it has a large body count because of the title?

It’s already happened! Classic horror fans on Letterboxd are very rude. Some of that stuff is toxic. You can only listen to “Dave from Tampa” for so long. But you live to fight another day.

Your next film, Do Not Open, was shot in San Antonio. Tell me about that.

Yeah, we wrapped in July. We wanted to do something a little bigger, so we went out and got [actor] Freddy Carter from Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Lulu Wilson from The Wrath of Becky and Mark McKenna (Overlord). I had this great story set in a storage facility unit. It’s kind of like Christine meets Videodrome. We’re looking at a 2027 release. There’s still a lot of post-production work to be done.

Did the Texas film incentives help?

No. We’re talking about going to New Mexico for our next film. The incentives are for projects that are over a million dollars. It’s fluff. It’s not for independent filmmakers. It’s for [Matthew] McConaughey and [Taylor] Sheridan. In New Mexico, you can go there and make a $50,000 movie and ask for 35% of it back. I mean, what independent filmmaker in Texas is running around with $250,000?

How did you talk him into it?

I told him there was a challenge in playing the role. It was all about trying to become relevant without any dialogue. Once we got through that door, he took it on and made it his own. We could have been bloodier, but it was more of a challenge not to do that. Some people hate it, and some people love it. I’m proud that the film is undeniably a distinctive piece.

Find more film stories at sacurrent.com

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Tapping New Ideas San Antonio breweries diversify, create community to keep the taps open BY TRAVIS E. POLING

he 2020s heaped havoc on San Antonio-area brewers and their compatriots nationwide. Those craft brewers who survived the changes in drinking trends and other economic challenges found diversification was key to keeping the doors open. With at least half a dozen brewery closures in the San Antonio area so far this decade, getting new customers in the door takes more than making a great beer. “From the start, we always looked at it as a third space of sorts,” said Dustin Baker, who runs Roadmap Brewing Co. on the edge of downtown with his wife Hannah. The brewery doesn’t distribute but made the most of COVID-19 shutdowns by selling canned beer online for drive-by pickup. When the people returned, Roadmap doubled down on giving customers reasons to come back more often and stay longer. Hannah Baker had a background in coffee before the brewery opened and worked with San Antonio roaster Merit Coffee to develop a product that could be sold at Roadmap starting at 7 a.m. “Adding coffee wasn’t so much a pivot as it was an add-on,” Baker said. Besides an additional revenue stream, the coffee shop had another effect: people who came for the java would often try the beer and become regulars on both fronts. The Bakers now have some customers who bring their laptops in the morning and turn the coffee shop into a workspace. By late afternoon, they switch to beer. A new point-of-sale system also allows Roadmap to track customer frequency, and the Bakers found that their September clientele was an even split between repeat customers and those who were first-timers or hadn’t frequented the brewery in at least six months. Part of that was attributable to being one of the closest breweries to the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center and convention hotels. However, a good portion of the customers are locals drawn by the brewery’s varied offerings. “We have been operating the last couple of years on the saying ‘Good business is focused on getting people in the door. Great businesses focus on keeping them there,’” Baker said.

Instagram / blacklaboratorybrewing

Hallmark of survival While the tumultuous operating conditions of the past few years have made diversification a necessity, it’s actually been a hallmark of survival going back to craft beer’s 1990s infancy in Texas. The state’s oldest surviving brewpub, Fredericksburg Brewing Co., not only has a restaurant in the heart of that Hill Country town’s tourist district, it also operates guest rooms above the brewpub to serve up a beer-and-bed experience. San Antonio’s Blue Star Brewing Co., the state’s second-oldest brewpub, initially didn’t pull as much tourist traffic as it does now. So it relied heavily on a bike-rental business, hanging the cycles from the balcony above its

Black Laboratory Brewing added an on-site card shop as an attraction.

serving tanks. The 30-year-old brewery has since moved the thriving bike shop next door, opened the Blue Star Provisions next to the brewery for groceries, to-go beverages and sundries, and operates an outpost serving its brews at North Star Mall. The operation also distributes to the owner’s other two bars, across-the-parking-lot drinkery Joe Blues and Joey’s on the North St. Mary’s Strip. Flix Brewhouse on West Loop 1604 blends viewing with brewing. Although part of a

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CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

food chain, the brewing is done in-house at the location so moviegoers can get the freshest beer and in-theater dining to pair with the latest blockbuster. In New Braunfels, 5 Stones Artisan Brewery operates the Elah Wine Bar in the back room and has an onsite pizzeria called Slinger Kitchen. The brewery also has an affiliation with downtown New Braunfels coffee shop and cocktail bar Kinnor, which serves an assortment of 5 Stones brews. Near the coffee shop, the brewery has an adjunct biergarten in the works at the site of the shuttered Faust Brewing Co. Longtab Brewing Co. in Leon Valley doubles as a gastropub and has added a coffee bar. Meanwhile, Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery in The Pearl has a sister restaurant at The Rim, Southerleigh Haute South, that features the beers. And Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling balances its beer operations with the spirits side of the business. Cards and pints Black Laboratory Brewing Co. on San Antonio’s near East Side has reinvented itself twice in the past three years, going from brewing only beer and doing some distribution to producing hard seltzers sold exclusively in its taproom. “They were at a point where they might have to sell the [brewing] equipment,” said current head brewer Rey Duque. “It was like grim times for them, but that pivot helped get them out of the hole.” But, earlier this year, after an ownership change, Black Lab returned to its beer roots while still creating seltzers for fans of the beverage. Duque, formerly of the Mad Pecker and Kunstler breweries, now has 10 house beers on tap and is building up the inventory since he joined full time in July. He said that the beer drinkers are coming back in greater numbers than when the business was just tapping seltzers and guest brews. Even though the brewery is finding success in making its own beer again, former general manager and now-owner Diego Garcia is keen on keeping the seltzer fans it made during the earlier transition. “We’re keeping some of the seltzers alive,” Duque said. “We still get requests for the Grape Kool Aid, Rodeo Tea and the Left on Red.” The last is a hard soda seltzer for lovers of the Big Red soft drink beloved in South Texas. Other businesses renting space in the building also draw customers to the brewery, including 2-1-Dough, a complementary pizza kitchen. A separate sports card shop, co-owned by Garcia, also keeps people coming in and frequenting the brewery after dropping cash on collectible cards. “There are days when the card shop does more business than the brewery,” Duque said. “The whole card industry is red hot right now.” Mature market Matt Gacioch, staff economist for the Brewers Asso-

Instagram / longtabbrewing

ciation, the largest trade group for U.S. independent brewers, said the volume of beer produced is no longer the chief determinant of success. One reason many breweries went under was that their business plans relied on annual double-digit percentage growth. When debt loads became too much and overhead increased, it was a death knell for many. A combination of pandemic-related strain and an overall decline in beer consumption led to another round of closures. Success for the survivors and those now entering the market looks different now, Gacioch said in a recent entry to his “Insights & Analysis” posts on the Brewers Association’s website. “A brewery in steady-state production is rarely a

A number of local brewers rely on food and coffee to bolster their beer sales.

brewery in steady state overall,” he wrote. “Consumer preferences continue to change, both in the products and in the hospitality experiences they seek. Breweries that remain open over the long term will evolve along with them.” Even if the amount of beer produced is flat year over year, the locations, products, service models and brewery operations may continue to change, he added. “That is not necessarily stagnation. In a mature and competitive market, it may be one of the clearest signs that success just looks different than it used to,” Gacioch said. sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

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food

Cooking Up Conversation

Longtab Brewing’s David Holland talks about giving back with beer after three decades of military service BY KATHERINE STINSON

avid Holland took up brewing brewing beer after retiring from 30 years of service in the U.S. Army’s Special Forces. Not content with brewing just being a hobby, he launched San Antonio’s Longtab Brewing Co. in 2020. Six years later, his brewpub at 4700 Timco West #105, serving up beer, coffee and pub fare while giving back to the military and veteran community. We caught up with him talk about his military background, the meaning behind his brewery’s name and the loyalty that’s helped him weather a downturn in beer consumption.

Tell us about your time in the Green Berets.

Probably showing my age here, but I joined the military in 1988, and I served 20 years as a Special Forces medic. And then I served another 10 years as a Special Forces warrant officer. I’ve traveled all over Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and went to Afghanistan early in the war in 2002.

Why get into beer?

I had already retired and was working overseas, and my wife had been diagnosed with cancer. She was at home going through chemo, and she’d bought me a beer kit as a present. The beer kit turned into a hobby, and then the hobby turned into a business. So, after I retired, you know, I wanted to do something to kind of give back, and opening up a brewery dedicated to something I had spent 30 years doing seemed like a good idea.

Explain the meaning behind Longtab Brewing.

I love the name, because it’s not so direct like Special Forces Brewing or something like that — it’s Longtab Brewing, and there’s a little bit of mystique behind it. There’s a lot of tabs in the Army that you wear on your uniform — there’s a Ranger tab, there’s an Airborne tab, there’s a Sapper tab. Special Forces is the longest of the special skills tabs, so that’s the reason why Green Berets are nicknamed Long Tabbers. The Special Forces tab on the uniform is called the Long Tab. I like that there’s a little bit of mystery behind it. It kind of forces people to ask the question about what Long Tab means. That happens a lot!

Courtesy Photo / Longtab

The beers themselves have special names inspired by the military, don’t they?

One of the things I realized a while back is that if you drew a family tree off of our taps, they would all connect, because every name ties into military or Special Forces culture in some way. The Special Forces was founded in 1952, but prior to that there was an organization called the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). When the OSS was dismantled, a lot of those folks went on to create the Special Forces, so we look at that as part of our lineage. We have a lot of beers that have names that date back to events or organizations from 1942 all the way to present — it’s all connected in some way.

Brewery have been commonplace not just in San Antonio but nationwide as beer consumption dwindles. What’s your strategy for staying afloat? Veterans love beer. Not all of our patrons are veterans, but a good bit of them are, and they’re very loyal. So we’ve been fortunate to have that loyalty — customers with us today that have been with us since day one. We’re always trying to uncover ways to make things better. Whether it’s improving our process in beer, making our coffee better, making our food better, buying higher quality ingredients, better furniture or maybe even something as simple as a nicer napkin. We also try to figure out a way to improve our

customer service. I like to send my staff on research trips. I’ll give them a budget to go eat dinner at a nice place around town, and I tell them to pay attention to everything from the minute they walk in the door to the minute to when they leave — the customer service, the plateware, the way they serve the food, how they ask questions. Because we can embody all those things, even though we’re a little brewpub in a warehouse, there’s nothing that says that we can’t offer the same level of service as some of the best restaurants in town. We’re always striving to make things better, and I think the customer response has been very positive to that.

Is there anything about Longtab Brewing that you wish more people knew?

We do a lot of beers that raise money for charity. We’ve done beers for fallen Green Berets who have died or were killed in action. We work directly with the family to come up with the name and the beer style, and then they help us choose whatever charity they want a portion of the proceeds to go to. So, we’ve done 14 or 15 of those so far. We’ve also done some for women who were part of the Special Forces legacy. We did one for Virginia Hall, who was a spy in World War II — an OSS spy. We’ve also done beers that were specific to a Special Forces-supporting charity, like the Special Forces Trust. We’re the only brewery in town that actually brews a beer called Military City. We’re officially recognized by the Military and Veterans Affairs Office of the City of San Antonio to brew this beer. We’re the only ones that can do it, and it’s and it’s one of our best sellers. sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

CURRENT | October 14 - 27, 2026 | sacurrent.com

food

Cheers to 21 Years

San Antonio Beer Festival brings hundreds of brews to San Antonio’s Civic Park BY KATHERINE STINSON

he San Antonio Beer Festival will return Saturday, Oct. 17, to raise a glass — or two or three — for a sudsy 21st season. Organized by the San Antonio Current, the festival celebrates local and global brews, offering attendees a chance to choose from more than 200 beverages to sample, from beers and ales to seltzers, meads and non-alcoholic brews. As with last year, the festivities will be spread out across Hemisfair’s Civic Park with last call at 6 p.m. Attendees will be able to enjoy live music and other entertainment. Local food trucks and arts and craft vendors will also be on site. While the event will feature beer purveyors from across the globe, expect a strong showing from Alamo City breweries, including San Antonio Cerveceros, Alamo Beer, Pinthouse Brewing, Back Unturned Brewing Co., Cactus Land Brewing, Idle Beer Hall, Blue Star

Survival Guide

How to get the most out of the San Antonio Beer Festival while dodging a hangover BY TRAVIS E. POLING

undreds of beverages are available to sample at the 2026 San Antonio Beer Festival, and most of us only come equipped with a single mouth. That means it’s good to have a plan for tackling the city’s original beer fest, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 17 at Hemisfair. It’s also wise to take a few precautions to maximize enjoyment of the day and avoid pain the day after. Let’s run them down. 1. Stay hydrated. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, some truths are self-evident. The founding father drank a good bit of wine but usually added a little water to it as he grew older. Hydrating is key to enjoying a festival that includes an abundance of great beer, meads and seltzers. Drink water and alcoholic beverages on a one-to-one ratio at the minimum. And remem-

Brewing Co., Black Laboratory Brewing, Dos Sirenos Brewing, Longtab Brewing, Breakaway Brewing Co. and more. Each guest will receive a tasting card good for a dozen 2-ounce samples to enjoy during the festival. Additional tasting cards will be available for purchase for $12 each. Three ticket tiers are available for beer lovers, including general admission and general admission plus. General admission offers access at 2 p.m., while general admission plus allows guests to enter at 1 p.m. True beer aficionados may want to consider the VIP Keg Level tier, which grants access right at noon plus additional perks such as an exclusive VIP SA Beer Festival tote bag, an SA Beer Festival T-shirt, a tasting cup, VIP restrooms, an exclusive VIP zone and first access to rare, limited or one-off beers. The San Antonio Beer Festival is pet-friendly, but nobody under the age of 21 will be allowed onto the festival grounds. A variety of nonalcoholic beverages and a limited selection of wines will also be available. As with previous years, a portion of San Antonio Beer

ber, you can always make non-alcoholic beers part of the hydration process while keeping the party going in your mouth. 2. Plan for a safe ride home. While getting that bottle of water and purchasing tickets for extra samples, remember that designated-driver tickets are just $20 and a rideshare is sometimes not that much more. 3. Watch out for the sun. The fest is outdoors in South Texas, so pack sunscreen and a hat even though it’s October. Hot, red, painful skin sucks. 4. Make a plan. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but pick something to anchor your tasting. Set a goal of sampling from five breweries you have never tried before. A lot of U.S. brewers have also improved their lager game, so don’t hesitate to frolic among the Feststyle beers most popular this time of year in Germany — the sweeter Märzen lagers we most commonly call Oktoberfest brews in America or the thirst-quenching pilsners with their many regional interpretations. 5. Branch out from beer. Even if ales are the main attraction, taste some of the alternatives available, including a variety of meads. Fermented honey is at their core, but the craft has come a long way from the somewhat frightening versions evoked in Beowulf. Seltzers also remain popular as a lower-calorie alternative. You can also follow a theme like fruit beers, explore how different breweries use a particular hop or just sample brews from booths near the musical act you most want to hear.

Jaime Monzon

Festival proceeds benefit the San Antonio Food Bank. The nonprofit is dedicated to fighting food insecurity in San Antonio and surrounding areas. The San Antonio Beer Festival is a rain-or-shine event. Guests may transfer tickets to friends before the event, but once a ticket is scanned, it can’t be rescanned. $45-$91, noon VIP entry, 2 p.m. general entry, Saturday, Oct. 17, Civic Park at Hemisfair, 434 S. Alamo St., sanantoniobeerfestival.com.

Jaime Monzon

6. Keep supporting the brewers. Breweries from across San Antonio, the region, the state, the U.S. and the world are represented in the festival. They brought a piece of their tap rooms to you, so do them a favor and drop by their tap rooms at a later date if you liked what you sampled. Craft brewers depend on loyal customers, and any out-of-town trip becomes more lively with a brewery visit. sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

music

Straddling Genres Ahead of SA show, Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes talks cowboys, hippies and a gun drawn on David Allan Coe BY STEPHANIE KOITHAN

uitarist Warren Haynes has occupied a space at the intersection of cowboy and hippie his whole career. After bandmate Dickey Betts recruited him to join the Allman Brothers in 1989, Haynes found himself playing with his childhood heroes — and kept playing with them for over two decades. As a side project with a couple other members of the Allmans, Haynes later formed Southern jam band Gov’t Mule, which is performing at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 14 with Ziggy Marley. Ahead of the show, Haynes spoke to the Current about his myriad influences and how they’ve featured throughout his career. Truth is, Haynes comes with bona fides. From Southern rock to jam bands to country, he’s played with some of the greats — including the Dead, Jack Bruce and Les Claypool. He even penned a song for Garth Brooks and — barely — survived touring with outlaw country wildman David Allan Coe. This amalgamation of influences comes through in his psychedelic slide guitar playing and in the contrast between his languid drawl and long hair. Haynes picked up those eclectic tastes while growing up in the Southern hippie town of Asheville, North Carolina. In fact, Haynes pays tribute to his hometown on his latest album, Dreams & Songs, where he revisits some of his most memorable tunes with backing from the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. Because when you’ve spanned so many genres, why not throw in some classical as well?

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The Allman Brothers were one of your influences from an early age, and you later played in the band that had that profound influence on you. What was that like? Yeah, I was a big fan even before I started playing guitar. My oldest brother had the first Allman Brothers record when I was 9 years old, and I had already started to sing, and I really loved Gregg Allman’s voice and just the overall sound and feeling of the music. But then a couple of years later, I started playing guitar. And when the Live at Fillmore East album came out, every guitar player I know was studying that record. And I could never have imagined that, fast forward, I would wind up eventually in the Dickey Betts Band in the ‘80s. And then in 1989, I joined the Allman Brothers and was a member for 25 years.

You were also deeply influenced by Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Mountain and Johnny Winters, and Howlin’ Wolf and other blues greats are also some of your influences. Where does your country side come from?

My dad listened to country music. My dad had a beautiful voice. He never pursued it professionally, but he would just sing around the house. And he could sing like Hank Williams. He loved Hank Williams and George Jones and Merle Haggard and Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe. And then later on, he would ask me to make him tapes of, like, Elmore James and Muddy Waters and stuff that he heard me playing. I grew up in Asheville, which has a strong bluegrass thread running through it — and Appalachian music. So, I was hearing that stuff and had a lot of friends that were bluegrass musicians when I was growing up. I went through all sorts of phases. My first love, musically speaking, was soul music. James Brown, the Four Tops and Temptations, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. But then when I started hearing Cream and Hendrix and Johnny Winter and Jeff Beck and stuff like that, that’s what really made me want to play guitar.

Even just your guitar playing style is very interesting because it’s slide, but it’s also kind of psychedelic. And then, of course, Gov’t Mule is a Southern rock jam band. You also have dub and reggae and jazz influences. Why is it important to you to have a variety of influences?

Wikimedia Commons / Andreas Lawen, Fotandi

I think just because I love all those different genres of music, so to only feature or utilize a few of them doesn’t really make sense to me. And I feel fortunate that I’ve been given the opportunity to express myself in a lot of different ways. I understand that that’s not necessarily the norm. It’s something I’m grateful for, because I think a lot of artists feel like they’re kind of trapped in a stereotype, and if they go too far outside of it, they’re gonna alienate their audience. But I’ve been lucky throughout my career to have kind of experimented in a lot of different directions and sort of built an audience that likes that and goes on the journey with me.

Take me back to when you joined the Allman Brothers. They reunited and recruited you to join the band, and you played to your biggest audience ever at Woodstock ‘94. How did you feel?

It was sort of a gradual process because I joined the Dickey Betts Band in the ‘80s when the Allman Brothers were broken up. And I had three years of playing him — and playing with him in much smaller venues. And we made one record together in 1988, and then in ‘89, they asked me to join the Allman Brothers. And it was just overwhelming. You know, it was such a major change in my life from the very beginning. It was

music

You famously wrote “Soul Shine” when you were stuck in traffic and you had to hum it all the way home to remember it. How do songs normally come to you? Do they normally come as a melody first or lyrics? You know, it depends. A lot of the uptempo songs start with a guitar riff or some sort of musical hook. The midtempo stuff, and especially the ballads usually come from a lyrical idea. It just varies. You know, Gregg Allman used to say, there’s as many ways to write a song as there are songs. One thing we all learned as songwriters is that it’s not always going to come at a convenient time. I learned early on, if you’re lying in bed and you get an idea for a song, you better get up and deal with it, because you don’t want to forget it. It might be gone the next day. Now we have cell phones, so you can sing something into your cell phone or play a guitar riff into your cell phone, or put lyrics in there. But I used to sleep with a notepad or a spiral notebook by my bed.

Early in your career, you were a guitarist for David Allan Coe. How do you remember him?

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fantastic. The rehearsals were amazing. But then once we got on stage for the first time, it far surpassed rehearsals. It was like there was an extra gear that we didn’t shift into until we got on stage. And, you know, I had played a lot of those songs growing up in cover bands and bar bands and stuff, but not like that. I never experienced what it was like to play that music with those people. And at that time, it was just for a reunion tour. Nobody knew it was gonna keep going, and I wound up being there for 25 years. And Woodstock was amazing. You know, 350,000 people, which was by far the most people I’ve ever played to. We had played a lot of big crowds at that point, but that was really something else. And a lot of great bands and artists on stage that I was able to at least listen to a few of them before we had to leave because we had another show that night and couldn’t stick around.

After Alan Woody’s passing, you worked with a revolving door of musicians on tour to support the Deep End Sessions, including Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, George Porter Jr. of the Meters, and others. What was that like? And who are some of your favorite musicians that you’ve worked with over the years?

Well, the Deep End sessions were amazing in a very bittersweet sort of way, because we had

just lost Alan Woody, and we weren’t sure we even wanted to continue. And we came up with the idea that since we were supposed to make another record, that maybe the best thing to do was to invite all his heroes and favorite bass players to come and join us each for one song. And so while we’re mourning our partner and founding member every day, we’re walking into the studio and recording with someone that he grew up learning from. That’s standing where he used to stand. And it was cathartic in so many ways. You know, it was a learning experience being in the studio with all these amazing musicians, but it was also forcing me to write songs that kind of utilized and encompassed their styles, but still felt like and sounded like Gov’t Mule. So that was a challenge. It pushed me at a time when I really needed to be pushed. But people like Jack Bruce from Cream and Chris Squire from Yes and Roger Glover from Deep Purple. Jack Bruce is no longer with us. You know, Chris Squire is no longer with us. Gregg Allman was part of those sessions. Bernie Worrell from Parliament/Funkadelic, who was recording with us along with Bootsy Collins. Bernie was a dear friend, and he’s no longer with us. It was just such an amazing time to look back on, but at the time, we were going through such an emotional whirlwind that we weren’t fully able to appreciate except in the recording process.

I was really young when I took that gig, and at the time, knew nothing about him or his music or his lifestyle. It was like being thrown into the fire. A lot of life lessons really quick. He was a very controversial character, you know, a great songwriter in his own right. But it was not for the faint of heart.

Do you recall him doing anything crazy?

Well, I had been in the band less than a month before someone pulled an automatic weapon on us. So we were off to a great start at that point.

Who pulled it on him?

A club owner pulled it on him. And I was standing about three feet away.

Oh, wow. Do you recall what the reason was?

Yeah, there was a dispute between the two of them regarding the show. We were just starting to set up for the show, which we wound up leaving and not playing.

How do you grapple with his complicated legacy. Or do you think he’s misunderstood?

I just kind of, you know, steered clear of the controversy to the best of my ability. I remember someone asked Willie Nelson one time when Coe was going to play at the 4th of July picnic, and somebody asked Willie, “How do you plan on controlling David Allan Coe?” And Willie had the perfect response. He said, “Why would I want to control David Allan Coe?” $60-$248, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-5700, us.atgtickets.com.

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AN OKTOBERFEST AND HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION OCTOBER 31, 2026 12 PM TO 10 PM SCAN FOR EVENT DETAILS

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critics’ picks Wednesday, Oct. 14 Dent May Dent May plays LA songwriter pop heavily indebted to Harry Nilsson and Warren Zevon. The work is infused with a playful irony that can be hard for normies to swallow sometimes — a lot depending on one’s capacity for cute, twee-adjacent stuff. It doesn’t rock, but that’s not the aim. Regardless, Dent has a knack for melody and a good sense of humor. He doesn’t take things too seriously, which gives us permission to have fun and veer into the goofy. $24, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Bill Baird

The Chicks

Friday, Oct. 16 Jimmie Vaughan Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan is Texas music royalty, having cut his teeth in the mid-’70s Austin blues scene and exploded nationally with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds made catchy blues rock and hit their commercial peak with the synth-driven hit “Tuff Enuff.” Vaughan has kept on cranking since then, even performing at campaign rallies for Libertarian politician Ron Paul. Don’t hold that against him, though. The guy is a solid guitar player carrying the torch for the Texas blues tradition. $43-$108, 8 p.m., Stable Hall, 307 Pearl Parkway, stablehall.com. — BB Sleeping With Sirens Emo and screamo primos will unite for one night when Sleeping With Sirens brings its catchy brand of post-hardcore and pop-punk music to town. The band is touring behind the album An Ending in Itself, which was released a few months ago and keeps nostalgia for highpitched vocals and skinny jeans alive in the year 2026. If you’re over 30, get ready to relive those middle school and high school heartbreaks. $62.46, 7 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport.com. — Brianna Espinoza Dying Fetus, Sanguisugabogg, Crowbar, Deterioration, Left to Suffer Part grindcore, part death metal with a sprinkle of technicality, Maryland band Dying Fetus has been a prominent fixture in the extreme metal genre for 35 years. The high-profile headliner is supported by a stacked bill of bands who also know how to beat audiences into sonic submission with guttural vocals and brutal riffs. $48$112.10, 6 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 812-4355, theaztectheatre.com. — BE

Saturday, Oct. 17 Modest Mouse, Caroline Rose Portland-based Modest Mouse is touring to support the 2026 album An Eraser and a Maze. Formed in 1993, Modest Mouse is one of the foundational bands of the alternative and indie-rock boom during the early aughts. Found-

Instagram / Dixie Chicks

ing frontman Isaac Brock continues to drive the bus and maintain the band’s eclectic and roughhewn ethos. $57.92-$228.88, 8 p.m., Boeing Center at Tech Port, 3331 General Hudnell Drive, (210) 600-3699, boeingcentertechport.com. — Danny Cervantes

leaned into its progressive views, performing the national anthem at the 2020 Democratic Convention. Sold out, 8 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-5700, majesticempire.com. — DC

Lil’ Wayne, 2 Chainz Dwayne Carter, aka Weezy, aka Lil’ Wayne, is bringing “20 years of Carter classics” to Wemby’s house on his latest tour. The New Orleans-born rapper hit the road when he was 12 years old as a prodigy and signed to Cash Money Records. Lil’ Wayne has since gone on to sell more than 120 million records worldwide while becoming a cultural icon. With 2 Chainz opening, your Saturday is set to be lit. Sold out, 8:30 p.m., Frost Bank Center, One Frost Bank Center Drive, (210) 444-5140, frostbankcenter.com. — DC

Loud and Local Fest The title says it all, and what’s not to love? This festival brings together 20 San Antonio acts for an $8 cover. Previous showcases have featured bands with fun names like Urban Casket, Dying With Dignity and Daisy Killers. Sounds like a good reason to celebrate life and live music. $8.25, 1 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 803-2101, therockboxsa.com. — BB

Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 17-18 The Chicks The hit-making Texas trio that rose to fame as the Dixie Chicks is still popular enough to sell out two nights in the Alamo City. The Chicks have been back together for roughly a decade after taking hiatus from a run of stardom that included both ’90s pop-culture ubiquity and headwinds after they criticized George W. Bush during the Iraq war. Since then, the trio has

Sunday, Oct. 18

Monday, Oct. 19 Nekrogoblikon You have to give metal band Nekrogoblikon credit for delivering quality music to back up its schtick. The band is known for harsh vocals that sound like they could indeed have been sung by a goblin along with sweeping choruses and eerie electronic fills, all of which take melodic death metal to the next level. John Goblikon — the band’s mascot and live-show hype man — has his own roster of side projects that include a podcast, a self-help style memoir and being the face of the group’s line of hot sauces. $39.99,

7 p.m., The Rock Box, 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 803-2101, therockboxsa.com. — BE

Friday, Oct. 23 Tom Rush Tom Rush was a major force in the late ’60s, helping to usher in the singer-songwriter era with his covers of tunes by Joni Mitchell and others. Rush’s rendition of “Urge for Going” is a sonic highlight of that musically rich decade. At 85, he still does it better than just about anybody. $58, 8 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — BB

Saturday, Oct. 24 Fred Wesley and the New JB’s Fred Wesley played with the J.B.’s, James Brown’s insanely tight backing band from 1970 through the early 1980s. After walking out over a pay dispute, Wesley took the group on its own, and the New JB’s have been dealing out fury and funk for decades. In addition to these musicians delivering the ultimate in good-time dance music, they have also been inspirational to generations. Hip-hop mined their music for samples, and aspiring funk and R&B acts took notes as well. $95, 8 p.m., Jo Long Theatre at the Carver Community Cultural Center, 226 N. Hackberry St., the carver.org. — BB sacurrent.com | October 14 - 27, 2026 | CURRENT

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“Y’Know, Like Michigan”--it’s good for the gander. by Matt Jones © 2026 Matt Jones Across 1. Agglomerate 5. It flies around a rink 9. Frequent “Wait, Wait ...” panelist Poundstone 14. A thing ___ itself 15. Worker protection agcy. 16. Pompeo of “Grey’s Anatomy” 17. “___ Academy” (2026 sci-fi series with Holly Hunter) 19. It’ll come back to you 20. Spinning that will just make you more weary? 22. Airport shuttle vehicle 23. Demolishes 24. Prefix for puncture 26. Block housing? 30. ___ polloi 31. Seafood stew for young dogs? 36. “Eighth Grade” star Fisher 37. West end? 38. “Heard, chef ” 42. Group of women who roam about? 45. Singer with the 2015 #1 hit “Cheerleader” 48. “Our Flag Means Death” (and real-life) pirate ___ Bonnet 49. Letters before a stage name 50. Charges 53. Plummet 56. Optimal instruction not to be questioned? 62. “Ad ___” (2019 film) 63. It may cover Watergate, but not Waterloo 64. Do the dishes, maybe

65. Upright wall timber 66. Golf goal 67. Mammal whose males can reach nearly 10,000 lbs. 68. Non-feral 69. Minecraft collection Down 1. Have to 2. Oppositionist 3. Seed money seekers 4. More peeved 5. Screed 6. The “U” in EULA 7. “Clueless” heroine 8. Bruce Lee’s role in TV’s “The Green Hornet” 9. “American Splendor” comic book writer Harvey 10. Get ___ start (not begin on time) 11. Metallica drummer Lars 12. Classic French film “PÈpÈ ___” (which inspired the cartoon skunk name) 13. Trickster god of African folklore 18. Approver of new meds 21. Lacking depth, for short 24. King Kong or Magilla Gorilla 25. ___-de-sac 27. Belgian treaty city 28. “Royals” singer 29. Possessed 32. “Smiling Friends” main character ___ Pimling 33. “___-haw!” 34. Shakshouka ingredient 35. King of Cannes? 39. Stage opening? 40. Kind 41. Airport screening gp. 43. Italian sparkling wine town

44. Colorful algal bloom that’s a beach concern 45. Jerry who played Det. Lennie Briscoe 46. Cereal and fruit mix 47. Arched foot part 51. Backpack component 52. “A Bell for ___” (1944 John Hersey novel) 54. Sigur ___ (Icelandic post-rock band) 55. Lawn care brand 57. Oxidation indication 58. “øDÛnde ___ la biblioteca?” 59. Pal 60. Perry Mason creator ___ Stanley Gardner 61. Bread aisle choices

28126 HWY 281 N. • 210.248.9153 | 7325 N LOOP 1604 W STE 101 • 210.988.3720 | 19422 U.S. HIGHWAY 281 N. STE 105 • 210.251.4058

Named Best Cocktail Bar three Years in a Row! Cheers, San Antonio!

Answers on page 25.

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