“I don’t care if Monday’s blue/ Tuesday’s grey and Wednesday too/ Thursday I don’t care about you/ It’s Friday, I’m in love/ Monday you can fall apart/ Tuesday, Wednesday break my heart/ Thursday doesn’t even start/ It’s Friday, I’m in love/ Saturday wait/ And Sunday always comes too late/ But Friday never hesitate/ I don’t care if Monday’s black/ Tuesday, Wednesday heart attack/ Thursday never looking back/ It’s Friday, I’m in love”—“Friday I’m in Love” by The Cure from the album WishIs your life filled with one existential crisis after another lately? Is your spirit black and blue over the whole deal? If so, may I suggest you take in a show? Here in Burque we’ve got a week chock-full of awesome concerts that may assist you in reclaiming a sense of earthly pleasure. Take a look at what’s on offer this week; you’ll be in love before you know it.
Show Up! Friday-Sunday
Lindy Vision
The weekend of Friday, March 6, through Sunday, March 8, marks the ruddy, triumphant return of local DIY showcase Mountain Blood Fest. A variety of venues throughout the Duke City play host to this year’s festival. Advertised as an immersive experience that will be joyfully drug, alcohol and violence free, this series of events illuminates some of our burg’s best music makers and creative artists while also attracting some of the best and boldest independent touring acts from across this great nation.This multi-genre happening begins on Friday afternoon at Wagon Wheel (310 Stanford SE) at 2pm with performances by trance-inducing folk experimentalists Morticai from Ogden, Utah, and Goathead Records Collective poet Gabe Barva. On Friday night Mountain Blood Fest II reconvenes at Tortuga Gallery (901 Edith SE) with a performance by new wave-noise trio Lindy Vision, plus Colour Me Once and Thermocycler. Two additional concerts further diversify the fest on Saturday, March 7. A host of rarefied touring acts and Burque’s own pizza-obsessed Rudest Priest will rock The Bungalow (2101 Silver SE) starting at 2pm, and attendees can experience sets by local music mojo masters Arroyo Deathmatch and Five Mile Float at The Dojo (319 Mountain NE) at 7pm. The fest wraps up on Sunday, March 8, at The Tannex (1417 Fourth Street SW), where local low-frequency/high-volume provocateurs Chicharra are featured. Heaps of other notable acts are playing Mountain Blood Fest II. To scope the entire schedule, learn about related activities and purchase tickets to individual performances—festival passes are sold out—visit bit.ly/MountainBloodFestII.
Show Up! Friday
A Place to Bury Strangers
If that doesn’t get your blood boiling, traipse over to Sister (407 Central NW) on Friday, March 6, to witness A Place to Bury Strangers. That’s not a local criminal cartography term, but rather a power trio from Brooklyn, Nueva York, that will grace the bar’s notoriously rocking stage with a sound exploring everything that is icky, evil and dangerous, according to lead singer Oliver Ackermann.A Place to Bury Strangers has an intense vibe, and the music on their latest album Transfixiation sometimes sounds deliberately delirious. But it can also be excitably rocking with tempos ranging from slightly sludgy to fast and furious. Bassist Dion Lunadon’s formidable technique and execution rests at the epicenter of it all.Philadelphia foursome Creepoid purveys wistfully slowed-down emo-meets-grunge with languid, melodic tendencies. Creepoid plays middle man on a bill that also lends spectacular, worthy credence to the shoegaze somersaults of Sad Baby Wolf. This 21-plus excursion into the emotionality of eternal repose only costs 7 bucks. Doors are at 8pm, and the journey to the land of nod begins at 9pm.
Show Up! Saturday
John Dahlbäck
On a lighter, more repetitive and much more danceable note, Swedish DJ and producer John Dahlbäck makes an appearance at the Santa Ana Star Casino Stage (54 Jemez Dam Rd., Bernalillo) on Saturday, March 7. Known for his eclectic and sometimes minimalist approach to house music, Dahlbäck’s clinically atmospheric take on electro can be traced back to his roots in a musical family that also produced deep-flying DJs like the mysterious Jesper.Dahlbäck’s own output has been ascendant ever since he became involved with Deep4life Records in the early aughts. His recordings Man From the Fall and Shades of a Shadow demonstrate a tendency toward trippy time signatures while maintaining a spaced-out groove that portends movement for the masses. Tickets for this 21-plus safari to the outer colonies cost between $15 and $25, and one may enter at 8pm for a 9pm encounter with a stealthy but steady 4/4 beat.
Show Up! Monday
Destruction Unit
If things are falling apart on Monday night, embrace the chaos with a trip to Launchpad (618 Central SW) to experience Sacred Bones recording artist Destruction Unit. Anti-pop, pro-noise and punk rock to the fucking max, Destruction Unit made their name on the awesome power of tunes like “Night Loner,” “The World on Drugs” and “Slow Death Sounds.” Supporting these fine lads on their Loud Sonic Death Tour are local grungy, noise-laden shoegaze outfit Gusher. A recent Gusher recording, “New Fashion Fuck Song,” combines startling Crazy Horse-like moments with a wicked preoccupation with distortion. Opening act Adult Beverage, also from Burque, adds some lo-fi pop to the dissonance parade with tunes like “Tongues” and “You’re So Lovely” powering their rocanrol love wagon. This journey to the center of several minds (yours included) costs but five bones. Doors open at 8pm, and the gig goes off at 9:30pm.
Show Up! Tuesday
Shpongle
Infuse your grey Tuesday with a plethora of psychedelic color on a jaunt to Sunshine Theater (120 Central SW). British psytrance collective Shpongle, known for their catalog of world music-inflected, hallucinogenically satisfying sonic sojourns, plays the historic venue on Tuesday, March 10. Led by Simon Posford and Raja Ram, Shpongle is a widely popular band self-tasked with combining traditional music forms with synthesizer-based space explorations. The result is an experience that reflects on the psychedelic while also drawing listeners to the dance floor to explore the infinitely groovy world all around them.Now known as the Shpongletron Experience, the duo shares stage time with an opener; DJ Rain, performing as Phutureprimitive, willfully combines glitchy IDM with trip-hop electronica … all in the service of opening the mind and freeing the body. The price of attendance is a mere $20, and it’s an all-ages be-in complete with pulsating lights and heart-attack inducing bass frequencies. Enter the venue at 6pm, and feed your head starting at 7pm that evening.
Show Up!
So are you in love yet? If not, stop listening to that damn-depressing mop-top Robert Smith; never hesitate, never look back, and instead of filling your head with gloom, go see some shows this week in Burque.
