“Let me drink deeply from the water and the wine/ Light colored candles in dark dreary mines/ Look in the mirror and stare at myself/ And wonder if that’s really me on the shelf/ And each day I learn just a little bit more/ I don’t know why but I do know what for/ If we’re all going somewhere let’s get there soon/ Oh this song’s got no title just words and a tune”—Activities to undertake during a week of cool concerts, courtesy of Bernie Taupin.This is the week when time catches up, when there is light again, well past supper. The evening activities that await seem to stretch across the mind’s eye like the lonesome stretch of old Route 66 that trails off into nothingness at the edge of Burque.You know there’s something out there, unnameable, intangible. But as the days lengthen and the nights grow warm, you can hear that immutable force droning or banging or just slowly, soulfully jamming in the distance.And you know what, it’s only gonna get hotter. That sound you keep hearing—even in your dreams when it drones derangedly in the broad dark afterwards—will become more defined as the days pass; and louder too.There’s this weekend, of course, to test the science of those statements and here are the concerts to prove it. What’s more, you can see and hear more in the coming weeks.Weekly Alibi’s Best of Burque Music Showcase is only two weeks away; it’s happening on Saturday, March 30 in Downtown Albuquerque, in the midst of spring and all of that. Let that sink in a bit as you search for sunshine and sound in the coming days, partners.
Show Up!: Friday Part I
Nosotros is headlining a gig at Launchpad (618 Central Ave. SW) on Friday, March 15 and that says something totally awesome about the audience attraction and allure of Latinx music in Albuquerque’s popular Downtown rock club circuit. Over the years, as I’ve done this job, I’ve discovered that this flava of in-concert goodness is likely the most appreciated form of popular music in the wide-spanning settlement stretching north from Isleta Boulevard to Paseo and west from Tramway to Unser. En serio that’s just a natural consequence of the psychogeography of the area but it took awhile for some folks to catch on. In any case you can dance your arse off whilst grooving to some of the most authoritatively authentic nuevo mexicano sounds on Friday when the aforementioned chingones are joined by cross-genre, cross-border music without frontiers conjunto Dulce Mal, an El Paso outfit comrised of Helen Vargas, Allan Cisneros, Gabriel Deambulante, and Abraham Alvarez. Sol de la Noche, the newish local, variable-sized Latinx ensemble project of guitarist Diego Manrique and percussionist Gabriela Garza fills out the bill and DJ MRVL opens. Que suave, que chido! Lleve. 9pm • $5 • 21+.
Show Up!: Friday Part Ii
Darlingside
NPR.org
Who woulda thunk that a ’70s-style steak house, The Cooperage (7220 Lomas Blvd. NE), ensconsed at the edge of the Northeast Heights, in the midst of a former mesa that now mostly features car lots and small retail outlets straight outta, well 1976, could have the potential to become a jazz-inflected, outré destination for digging the diverse sounds emanating from a city that’s certain to get hit if we go war with the Russians? ?You can thank Neal Copperman over at AMP Concerts for that first conceit and probably Donald Trump for the latter. In any case, let’s focus on the positive. Darlingside, a dang delightful band of Beantown folk-rock adepts with a sci-fi twist will be jamming like crazy—and maybe in the fashion of CSN on “Wooden Ships”—when they invade this otherwise quiet and respectable repository of meat, memories and scrumptious seafood on Friday, March 15. River Whyless, another plangently powerful folk-rock outfit, is touring with Darlingside, making for an introspectively intense, instrumental evening balanced by beatific vocals. How’s that for an accompaniment to your sumptuous surf and turf with a mad-man martini on the side? Memorable, one would guess. 8pm • $17 • 21+ without parent or guardian.
Show Up!: Saturday
Get Action
courtesy of the artist
The pleasant poster for the St. Patricks Day celebration—hereafter refered to as Saint Punktrick’s 2019—to be held at Sunshine Theater (120 Central Ave. SW) on Saturday, March 16 features the ubiquitous, time-tested and deep green image of emerald-colored beer in a frosty cold mug that has come to represent certain cultural activities associated with said holiday affirming our deep and brotherly connection to Ireland. James Joyce woulda been proud of that last sentence and so should you, by Christ. Although neither represent the depth of influence that Irish culture had on all things American and Mexican and Nuevo Mexicano too, from drinking to writing, it’s a decent reduction that says we all ought to count our blessing and party on, even as the bazaar prepares to close for the evening. Or something like that. The bands of course represent that hope and horror, being all punk all the time, as it were. They include headliners, Canuck Celtic punks The Real McKenzies and for realz Tex-Mex rockers and SXSW favoritos Piñata Protest. Support and shamrock-like shenanigans will be provided by legit locals like Rock Jong Il, Moonshine Blind, Get Action and Subtle Knife. Yes. 5:30pm • $12 • All-ages (13+)..
Show Up!: Sunday
James Supercave
courtesy of the artist
James Supercave, an arty psych-pop trio straight outta Califas, is gigging at Launchpad (618 Central Ave. SW) on Sunday, March 17 and you ought to check this show the heck out if you want to get a solid clue as to what is up with the au courant, sometimes DIY with literary strokes faction of rocanrol currently slithering like a psychoactive snake from the West Coast and headed our way, wavelike, rocklike. The project of frontman Joaquin Pastor in collaboration with keyboard player Patrick Logothetti and guitarist Andrés Villalobos, James Supercave does effortlessly what Cali bands are usually noted for—bridging the gap between punk and pop with gritty, lo-fi tuneage that casually references forces beyond their control from the East Coast and Europe (read: Radiohead and Talking Heads). I dig that nonchalant complexity in my rocarol stew and you may too after grokking tunes like “Body Monsters,” “A Million Days” or “K Town.” And yes, in case you are wondering, it’s a rare thing for this music critic to be enthused by current shape of America’s rocanrol animal; but this is somewhere between the savage and the sublime. It’s dang salty. Five Mile Float, Bogan Via and Karen open. See you there. 8pm • $7 • 21+.
Show Up!: Tuesday
Heather Hanson
The inner working of the soul of Portlandia will be in full effect—complemented as it were by the presence of indigenous, queer and feminist voices extraordinaire—when Reptaliens land at Sister (407 Central Ave. NW) on Tuesday, March 19 for a show that also feautures the notable and noisy rock work of Black Belt Eagle Scout, Weedrat and Nizhóní Girls. In case you wanna know, Reptaliens is a project fronted by husband and wife Cole and Bambi Browning. These love cats fashion tuneage concerned with the fringe (hence their name) and its occult beyond by referencing the ideas as music expressed through retro-like instrumentation that most certainly contains analog synths and the bass as melody maker, a la Paul McCartney and Wings. The result is spooky and astonishingly listenable for its detail and discursive turns. On top of that, Katherine Paul aka Black Belt Eagle Scout, represents the latest wave of self-aware identity confirming and sometimes plaintively confessional work being done by Indigenous queer and women rockers. She’ll be totally supported in such efforts by local stalwarts Weedrat and Nizhóní Girls, bands whose musical force has grown awesomely and authentically in the past couple years on the scene. 9pm • $5 • 21+.
