“Take it easy/ Walk with a light step, baby/ Catch a breezy/ Live amongst the life forms in your day/ Marinate a good piece of beef/ Understand the mind of a leaf/ Swim around ’til the fish float out of the socket in your skull/ Dive deeper/ Corner all the fungus in your brain/ Take it easy/ I don’t wanna live the life in vain/ More you chew things, or leave them to rot/ Woke up with a nose full of snot/ Baked a muffin/ The tops burnt and I had to throw them away/ Woke up this morning/ Daylight sooner than I thought/ The sun was shining/ Plucked a flower from a star/ Smelled good and it made me smile/ So I took a run about a quarter of a mile/ Felt my lungs swell/ So I got myself back home.” “Kim Smoltz” by Ween.Yes indeed, kidz, this week’s reading is from the book of Boognish. By listening carefully to their iteration—and whilst absorbing the drifing yet grandiose musical accompaniment that chases after those golden words most likely penned by Deaner himself—we may come to realize true transcendence as summer wanes and cooler autumn temperatures abide.It’s a perfect time to reflect, to let the night—or in some cases Sunday afternoon—advance knowing that musical experience is right around the corner for those who have gratefully decided to take it easy after grokking plant life on Earth and enjoying a hearty, meaty dinner to boot.Or something like that. At least the nights are beginning to stretch out. With that in mind, we remind you that a caper is indeed afoot but really begins in earnest when you walk through the door of your favorite venue and start jamming the funk out. And facts are facts: With the New Mexico State Fair colliding with the remnants of a gloriously sun-drenched summer, you’ll have plenty of choices, compadres.
Show Up!: Thursday, Sept. 12
There are heaps of awesome live music choices to be taken advantage of on the day when the working week officially transitions into the weekend. Here in Burque on a typical Thursday night in late summer you can listen to, dance to—or just go into a jazz trance to—just about any genre that pleases your sense of beauty, expectation, reduction or revolution. How’s this for a primer to help set off your fin de semana fiesta?El Brujo Trio, a band that features accomplished Santa Fe musician and magician—dude tunes it all in from Indigenous rhythms to flamenco and the blues—D’Santi “El Brujo” Nava has a gig at the New Mexico State Fair Pavilion (300 San Pedro Dr. NE) beginning at 2:15pm. Admission to the Fair is $10 for adults and $7 for students and seniors.Hector Pimentel, a member of Burque’s legendary family of luthiers and classical guitar players, will be gigging over dinner and for all ages at Mykonos Café and Taverna (5900 Eubank Blvd. NE) beginning at 5:30pm. A true master of the complexity and majesty of the classical guitar, Pimentel is considered an authority on the instrument and also performs with piquantly memorable flair.The Chris Dracup Band: While you’re out at the New Mexico State Fair, enjoying everything from pig-racing to pie-eating and fine art displays by our state’s fine artists and craftspeople, stop on by the New Mexico State Fair Pavilion at 6:30pm to check out the inimitable Chris Dracup and and his band. A mainstay of our town’s music scene, Dracup and company can belt out the blues like nobody’s business. Admission to the Fair is $10 for adult and $7 for students and seniors.Emo Night Live: Laugh now and cry later, rockers, as you venture into the heart of Downtown Burkes to Launchpad (618 Central Ave. SW) for a night of emotionally-tinged, SoCal inspired rock and roll from local children of emo Right On, Kid and touring acts Dakota Ave and Coda. 8pm • $5 • 21+.
Show Up!: Friday, Sept. 13
Don’t let triskaidekaphobia take you out for the night, partner. Don’t be lonely. Be brave, in other words. Get on that horse and ride, dammit, straight to The Duke City, N.M. for some Friday night concert action to raise the dead and put a smile on your favorite mount’s very long and equine face. An no matter what, don’t let a truckload of toilets imagined by Edward Abbey stop you.Rebel Borne, an Indigenous country band out of Mesita, N.M.—and winners of the Governor’s Award at the 2017 Laguna Pueblo Feast Day Parade—have a gig at the New Mexico State Fair Indian Village that commences at 2pm. These dudes hit it with all sort of twangy musical interpretations, including smooth covers of “Proud Mary” and “Copperhead Row.”The Jir Project, a local hybrid hip-hop, jam, reggae and blues-rock trio with cajones, follows onstage at my favorite place in the world to get a Navajo Taco—The New Mexico State Fair Indian Village—beginning at 6pm. We’re still digging The Jir Project’s award winning 2016 album, The Pueblo. Admission to the Fair is $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors.Silver String Band, Darlin’ & the Rodeo Runners and The Squash Blossom Boys play the invitingly open air Inside Out (622 Central Ave. SW) on Friday night, Sept. 13. Two of these bands are at the top of Dirt City’s Americana heap, infected with that wholesome roots sound today’s children of rock just dig while the Darlin’ & the Rodeo Runners are a new outfit that features Barney Lopez of Red Light Cameras. Hee-haw! 7pm • $8 • 21+.
Show Up!: Saturday, Sept. 14
As Saturday comes into view, so do the main events for this weekend’s all-city music fest, a thing that isn’t only taking place in my mind, but in your actions, dear listeners, too. Go out and catch some of this middle of the weekend goodness before it turns into a pumkin and becomes the sportsball games everyone of us secretly craves come Sunday Morning.Los Anayas De Santa Fe, a roots-rock ensemble comprised of a rockin’ dad and his cool kids, visits the New Mexico State Fair Pavilion on Saturday morning, starting at 11am, in the event you are down for some hot New Mexican musical soul food served up like a badass breakfast burrito that arrives just in time for elevensies. Admission to the Fair is $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors.Burque Niños Block Party: This joyous and amazing event, meant to have a positive effect on our community through donations being made to CLNkids (formerly Cuidando Los Niños) is being held the Mauger Estate B&B (701 Roma Ave. NW) and includes Burque superstars Red Light Cameras leading a bill of local bands and artists (Def-i, The Riddims, The Porter Draw, The Ordinary Things and DJ Nicolatron) meant to make a difference. The event goes form 1pm until 6pm and there is a $10 suggested donation to gain admission.Smash Mouth is still around, despite the fact that the dude that wrote all the songs for this mighty, mighty LA rock outfit left years ago to head an important recording studio in SoCal. Lead singer Steve Harwell is still hangin’ though he has been known to negatively interact with audience members who resent his gravitas. Find out for yourself why this outfit of backward-baseball cap-wearing rockers is still relevant when they invade the New Mexico State Fair Tingley Coliseum (300 San Pedro Blvd. NE) on Saturday, Sept. 15 at 7pm. If that’s not enough to satisy your soul, then please know that Spin Doctors open this post-PRCA Rodeo rock and roll fantasy. Tickets to this all-ages affair range from $78 to $96. Yeah, that’s right, it’s called “Two Princes.”
Show Up!: Sunday, Sept. 15
Well, it’s Sunday, so you ought to consider taking a rest before you get on with the rest of the week. Except for the facts that there are still shows and it’s still summer. Okay, get it in gear and just go. Rock on while you’re at it and wake me the heck up when you get back so I can tune in The T.A.M.I. Show or something like that.Levi Platero, a fellow of Diné origin who won this year’s Best of Burque Music Award for best blues performance—and, by the way, generated a handwritten letter from a personage known only as “Candyman” who strenuously objected and told us we didn’t know what we were about—has a gig that begins at 7pm at the New Mexico State Fair Indian Village. Despite the static, take our original advice: See this show because this man can play like he is on a beautiful kind of clear and translucent fire. Serio. Admission to the Fair is $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors.That 1 Guy, a musical experimentalist who also manufactures and plays his own creative-sounding contraptions, has a gig at Inside Out (622 Central Ave. SW) on Sunday night. It’s a schtick that doesn’t get tired because the dude is so invested in the entire thing—from his stage persona to quirky musical instruments—that you can’t help but be enchanted as you buy barley pop after barley pop, seeking musical transcendence from plumbing parts and a big beard. 7pm • $10 • 21+.
