“While the poor people sleepin’/ With the shade on the light/ While the poor people sleepin’/ All the stars come out at night/ After closing time/ At the Guernsey Fair/ I detect the El Supremo/ From the room at the top of the stairs/ Well I’ve been around the world/ And I’ve been in the Washington Zoo/And in all my travels/ As the facts unravel/I’ve found this to be true/ They got the house on the corner/ With the rug inside/ They got the booze they need/ All that money can buy/ They got the shapely bods/ They got the Steely Dan t-shirt/And for the coup-de-gras/ They’re outrageous”—“Show Biz Kids” by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen writing and performing as Steely Dan, a band named for a prop in a particularly lurid bit from Naked LunchSummertime means many shows. The stars are out in Burque; even worldly sorts like myself (did I ever tell you about the time I wrestled a hungry yak in upper Mustang for a piece of stale flatbread? No?) are digging the chance to see some great performances this week. Ok, here’s the scoop; it’s outrageous!
Show Up! Thursday
Keb’ Mo’ plays the KiMo Theatre (423 Central NW) on Thursday, July 9. He’s a master bluesman whose commitment to deep river guitar deviltry earned him the kind of cred reserved for the likes of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Though his blood definitely runs blue, his work is knowing—it acknowledges and often incorporates a plethora of other modern musical genres.Keb’ Mo’ got his start jamming with notorious Jefferson Airplane violinist Papa John Creach and has gone on to work with luminaries including Bobby “Blue” Bland and Martin Scorsese. Oh, and the dude favors a red custom Stratocaster. He makes it howl and sing like life and death itself. Tickets for this all-ages concert range from $45 to $55; the curtain rises at 7:30pm, and the doors open an hour prior.
Show Up! Friday
In the mythology of pre-European America, the south symbolized the mystic world, a place where heaven descends from the sky and mixes it up with the Earth. This creative fecundity is apparent in the work of Brazilian composer and musician Vinicius Cantuária, who will be performing Friday, July 10, at the Outpost Performance Space (210 Yale SE) as part of the 10th annual New Mexico Jazz Festival.Cantuária has been a rocker as well as embraced the avant-garde. His first band, O Terço, distilled rocanrol music through the heady rhythmic filter of Brazilian culture. Afterwards, the artist flew to New York and became an influential member of the jazz scene, also taking time to collaborate with Laurie Anderson and Bill Frisell. Complex, colorful and compelling describe the work of this man from the southern lands. All ages are welcome at this recital. It costs between $25 and $30 for admittance. Doors open at 7:30pm. Music commences at 8pm.
Show Up! Saturday
Celebrating summer is an American tradition that often takes a musical form. On Saturday, July 11, the Jewish Community Center of Albuquerque (5520 Wyoming NE) welcomes troubadours UpStaged Cabaret for “In the Good ‘Ole Summertime,” an event focused on a shared proclivity to joyfully experience the bright days and warm nights of the season. The performers, William Dudeck, Stephanie Larragoite, Chrys Page and pianist Todd Lowry, specialize in evocative renditions of works from the American Songbook.Songstress Page, a vocal coach, grew up in New York, immersed in the sound of America, while Albuquerque pianist Lowry is active as an arranger of blues, jazz and classical literature for publisher Hal Leonard. Dudeck, a talented tenor, serves on the board of directors of Musical Theatre Southwest and worked closely with the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus; Larragoite’s recent stint in Albuquerque Little Theatre’s production of Noises Off! was notable for its humor and vitality. This seasonal shindig comes with tickets ranging from $18 to $20. The show begins at 7pm.
Show Up! Sunday
Lord Huron in concert
Courtesy of the artist
Lord Huron sounds pretty damn serious. I mean their name, sabes? Actually, the sound of this quintet of earthy entities from the City of Angels by way of Michigan veers luxuriously between ghostly lonesome and epically rocked out. LH evokes the heart of the country through the vision of Ben Schneider. They’ll drop in on Sunshine Theater (120 Central SW) Sunday, July 12, for a few tunes that will mostly be about water, the wild world and the wind. Schneider, an art school veteran (like other musical enfant terribles such as Syd Barrett, Nick Cave and Thom Yorke), brings a PoMo multimedia sensibility to his oeuvre, a rarity in the often simply stated world of Americana.Lord Huron was originally a solo project about the great lake up north. With the addition of Mark Barry (percussion, vocals), Miguel Briseño (bass, percussion) and Tom Renaud (guitar, vocals), the group reached past the boundaries of genre. Traveling into a great beyond populated with rambling, accoustic epiphanies and shimmering echoes of forest romance described with spare percussive accents, Lord Huron captures a sound as deep and lordly as their name implies. Their latest recording Strange Trails verges on a sort of musical spell-making that might have been something thought up when Jeff Tweedy dreamt of Bob Dylan dreaming about Buck Owens. Lord Huron appears in all their glory with openers, witchy alt-country Widowspeak at 8pm. You have to be at least 13 to enter into this jangly realm, and it’ll cost ya 18 bucks to pass through the doors; they open at 7pm.
Show Up! Wednesday
Steely Dan, they of mu major, astral chops—and a vision of the world gleefully overrun with lost souls—return to Burque on Wednesday, July 15. Off the casino circuit and back on the big venue bus on the strength of constant touring and bitchin’ performances, they’ll be gigging at Isleta Amphitheater (5601 University SE).Donald Fagen leads a band that kills; his skills on keys have chaotic tendencies that somehow always work out sublimely, compellingly. Walter Becker’s playing and arranging are as languid and sly as ever. Cultural treasure and former punk provocateur Elvis Costello opens. Lawn tickets start at 40 bucks, and you can get a private VIP box for 666 clams. Serio. I suppose that says something about rock music, but who knows. Concert time is 7:30pm.
Show Up!
Listen: I detect the El Supremo in the air and all that other mierda, but I still wanna see the stars come out at night. So tell you what; I’m going to forgo my plans to reread Naked Lunch and go see some summery shows instead. See you after closing time, under the stellar vault, eh?
