But Nob Hill isn't the only arena Midget Mogul is setting its sights on. Eventually, Peter wants to bring funk music to the barrio. Or more specifically, to El Madrid—a tough bar on the dead-end side of southeast First Street that, more than a decade ago, was home to a few infamous punk shows. Now it's so gruff and isolated that only the railyard bums ever step inside. Kind of a rough place to host a funk show, isn't it?
“It is,” admits Peter, “but we like the realness of it and it can hold a lot of people. And we like those rough edges—we think it'd be a lot of fun.” They're calling it, appropriately enough, the Wrong Side of the Tracks Jam. And it doesn't stop there.
“We're going to throw these music parties twice a month, at new and creative spots for each show.” Peter lists an airplane hanger and a warehouse as some of the potential show spaces, adding that each one will be accompanied by different styles of live music.
While they weren't quite able to get the El Madrid gig off the ground in 2005, Peter says to look for it, plus lots of other fun stuff from Midget Mogul, in the coming year. Another Nob Hill bar crawl is in the works for Saint Patty's Day, and they hope to pull off a three-day festival with national acts by late May. But ultimately, Peter says it all goes back to local music. “That's what this is really about—promoting the Albuquerque music scene, because there's so much talent here.” Nothing lilliputian about that.
