This week, I came up with an improved methodology for letting Albuquerque audiences in on the mostly likely to be fantastic shows coming to the Duke City. I decided to be telgraphic, consise. On weeks like this, when there’re so many excellent musical choices in these parts, that’s easy; we’ll see how the formula holds up later on in the year when my best choices are a set by Kansas at one of the casinos or a reunion show of Rage Against Martin Sheen at whatever business is filling the void at a location formerly occupied by the Atomic Cantina.
Show Up!: Friday
Contrary to published reports, David Bowie is not dead. He lives on through the life and work of Shoulder Voices, the glittery rock project of former Unit 7 Drain balla Little Bobby Tucker. A Burque music community stalwart of some sparkling note, Tucker recently penned a courageous letter to Hizzoner Mayor Berry regarding conditions at Burque’s BioPark. Besides social activist, Tucker will be demonstrating one of his other intensely human personas—Bowie demonstrating the essence of Euro-PoMo rocanrol grandeur—at the Young Americans tribute to the Thin White Duke. This glamorous all-ages show takes place at the Co-Op (415 Central NW) on Friday, March 11, at 7pm and also features the elvish, otherworldly talents of Sweet Nothin, Duke City Riots and Apricity. For just $12, you too can freak out in a moonage daydream. Fancy dress encouraged.
Show Up!: Friday Part Ii
San Holo
Via Facebook
Sander van Dijck, otherwise known as San Holo, relies on Apple’s Logic Pro to compose and perform a viscous variant of EDM. The Dutch composer and producer’s work is based in breakbeat rhythmics with elements of the strangely alluring booty bass found in nascent Miami hip-hop recordings. That saucy combination of sounds is mixed up mysteriously with the trappings of trap music. It’s kinda mind blowing when you think about it: 2 Live Crew combined with Zaytoven and filtered through mid-twenty-first century technology by the visionary mind of a continental wunderkind. Anywho, San Holo lays down an 18+ rave-up at the Historic El Rey Theater (622 Central SW) on Friday, March 11, at 9pm. $5 and a distinct interest in the swirling light of primal experience gets one through the doors.
Show Up!:
This Saturday’s one of those nights that’s so caked with the mud of musical genius that I’m going to have a hard time wiping off the windshield to get a clear view of the splatter’s impending significance. Suffice to say the town rocks. Brevity being the soul of wit, here’re the briefest of glimpses of other heady destinations to consider on Saturday, March 12:
Show Up!: Saturday
Back in September I had the fine and fresh opportunity to check out New Mexican madman Larry Goodell and some notably Falstaffian Chicano poet (JK it was my brother) reading at a joint in Barelas called The Tannex (1417 Fourth Street SW). Damn, I thought to myself, this is a great venue. As sure as eggs are eggs, The Tannex offers some of this city’s most powerful and provocative performances by local and touring artists encompassing a myriad of genres. Burqueña composers and experimentalists Lady Uranium, Anna Mall, Star Canyon (Ceciia McKinnon) and Sing Down the Moon are scheduled to perform there on Saturday, March 12. Taken as separate aesthetic entities, each of the musicians on the evening’s program represent different aspects of Burque’s re-blossoming electronic realm, from Uranium’s plangent pop sensibilities to Mall’s coolly complex discourse and Star Canyon’s folk-ambient goth analytics. The music begins at 7pm; bring $5 to get in and dress warmly besides; Tannex can be chilly in late winter.
Show Up!: Saturday Part Ii
Bigawatt, the expansively avant-garde musical project of Marisa DeMarco is one of several Albuquerque-based badass experimental ensembles performing at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice (202 Harvard SE) for free and for all ages on March 12, at 7:30pm.
Show Up!: Saturday Part Iii
Also on March 12, AMP concerts manifests it’s worldwide vision of musical expression at the Simms Center for the Performing Arts (6400 Wyoming NE) with a recital by Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro, a musician who combines traditional elements with classical and rocanrol influenced technique. Admission ranges between $27-38 for this 7:30pm island idyll.
Show Up!: Saturday Part Iv
Cactus Tractor
Beth Rodgers Photography
Sister (407 Central NW) gets soulful, saturated and sly on Saturday, March 12, with the sounds of local Latin fusion proponents Baracutanga, Albuquerque’s ascendant meta-folkies Cactus Tractor and neo-soul hipsters Hello Dollface, a surprisingly evocative duo from Colorado. This 21+ show costs $10 and starts at 9pm.
Show Up!: Mountain Blood Fest Iii
If none of the above lights a breathy, beautiful and boundless fire in your brain’s musical control center then you may be ripe for a visit to Mountain Blood Fest III: All Mountains Must Crumble. That’s the name of the completely cray and awesomely awesome DIY music festival to be held between March 11 and 13 in various venues around the city and in the surrounding hills. Originally an event created by and made real by the mysterious and now dissipated Goathead Record Collective, this year’s revisioned epic includes all-ages performances at Duke City Soundstage (2013 Ridgecrest SE). On Friday night, March 11, punk rockers Weedrat and Radio Flyer, a band from Tejas take the stage at 7pm; the Saturday night, March 12, 7pm iteration of the festival features a reunion set by Arroyo Deathmatch and the folk metal meandering of Nevada’s Firewater Folklore among other esoteric and engaging acts. The completely huge and blazing schedule of events and bands (30+) as well as a list of venues and ticket information is available.
