Seven years and 99 performances ago, the Bosque House Concerts were almost another New Mexican What If—a fantastic idea that, somewhere along the way, disappears into the lazy obscurity of mañana. But praise la Virgen de Guadalupe! After this week’s Sunday, Aug.12, show, the Bosque House Concerts will have collected a nice round number’s worth of happy memories. The 100 th Bosque House Concert will also be its last. Roughly every month since 2000, 50 guests and one or two spectacular, relatively obscure music acts from outside New Mexico began assembling in a private home just west of Old Town. The concerts, organized by AMP promoter Neal Copperman, have been a boon to Burqueños who love contemporary, up-and-coming music but lack the iron-livered endurance for bar hopping. "We’ve presented a handful of semi-famous performers," Neal says in an AMP e-mail, "but the bulk of the house concerts have been with great artists who didn’t have much name recognition." (For a complete list of past performers, click here.)The Band of Heathens (named "Best New Band" at this year’s Austin Music Awards) close out the Bosque House Concerts this Sunday with concert No. 100. Space is very limited—reservations are definitely in order. Contact Jeff at abqmusic@att.net or 842-5073, or use their online reservation system one last time.Even as the Bosque House Concerts come to an end, the AMP folks are preparing to launch another monthly concert program, The AMP Gallery Series, to be held at the Windchime Champagne Gallery (Downtown at Central and Seventh Street), has the potential for more accessibility—hopefully not at the expense of the house concerts’ intimacy. Neal says the new event "will strive to keep the house concert spirit and community alive" by engaging a "similar type of artist in an intimate listening room environment." We’ll see how it all plays out when the AMP Gallery Series begins in October. (Opening salvo courtesy of Czech performer Druha Trava on Tuesday, Oct. 2.) For more information on this and other AMP shows—remember, their ¡Globalquerque! world music festival is just around the corner on Sept. 21-22—at www.abqmusic.com.
Remember The Bernco
Just a quick reminder that the first-ever Bernco (that’s Bernalillo County) Battle of the Bands springs into action this Friday, Aug. 10. at the KiMo Theatre. Some of your favorite newbie local bands—the list of contenders wasn’t available at press time—have been rendered sufficiently "family friendly" with an early 4 to 9 p.m. showtime and cheap admission ($5 general, free for youngun’s under 12). Tickets will be at the KiMo Box Office on the day of the show, or available in advance with a credit card weekdays from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at 768-3544.
