Howdy folks,

My wife and I are moving to ABQ in a few months and I'm looking for input on the scene, venues, and the like. We're coming from Oakland, CA, which has an incredibly bloated, fractured scene. I could pick two or three shows nearly every night that I would be interested in checking out. I know ABQ's scene has got to be much smaller, but I assume there are some decent venues in town, bands with nice followings, and enough to keep me occupied. I currently play in 5 or 6 bands out here, and while I will be having a kid in July and slowing down, I'd still would like to stay active musically. I have a solo project that I'd love to get off the ground, but playing music with other people is what I truly love.

I've only been through ABQ on tour once and played the Atomic Cantina with four out of town bands (I was touring in two), so the night was obviously a stinker. The last time we tried to book ABQ, it fell through at the last minute. Normally we tour through Denver or are on our way from Austin and hit up Las Cruces. I'm friends the guys in The Answer Lies, but they are my only musical acquaintances in the New Mexico.

I am very much looking forward to moving, slowing down a little bit and working on less projects, and enjoying a new state for a while.

Here's some general questions. Feel free to chime in and I look forward to meeting some of your down the road.

- What's your favorite venue to see a show at?
- What's your favorite venue to play a show at?
- Are there differentiated cohesive scenes? Or is it more of a large, intermingled scene? (I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that, but maybe it'll make sense to someone.)
- How is the all-ages scene? Good all-ages venues?
- Is there much pay-to-play bullshit? (One of the reasons booking in LA can suck.)
- Any decent hip-hop?
- Do you guys tour much?
- My buddy who will also be moving out at around the same time is a reggae/dub DJ. Do you think there are many places for him to spin?
- Are there often house parties?
- Do good touring bands (of any size) come through often?

That's probably more than enough for now. Here are the bands I currently play in if you are interested.

Giant Haystacks -- http://www.gianthaystacks.com or http://www.myspace.com/gianthaystacks
Lord God Bird -- http://www.myspace.com/lordgodbird
Fear of the Outdoors -- http://www.myspace.com/fearoftheoutdoors
Hidden Tracks -- http://thehiddentracks.com or http://www.myspace.com/hiddentracks
nasturiums -- http://www.myspace.com/nasturtiums
Manface -- http://www.myspace.com/mannface

N8, I would like to welcome you to the alb. music scene. To answer a few of your questions;

My favorite venue would have to be sunshine Theatre. Also my favorite place to play.

For the most part, it is a intermingled scene out here, and most everybody gets along well.

All ages scene? whats that?

No pay to play out here, fuck all that shit, "payed to play", is more like it at most of our descent venues.

Hip Hop? I have no idea, nor really care.

Alot of the bands do tour, but alot dont, 237 does not. (yet anyway)

There are plenty of dance clubs for your buddy to spin at. Dont ask me where cause Im not into that shit.

House parties, not really, they are pretty stiff on the noise ordinance out here.

We pretty much get all the big touring bands here surprisingly enough. Lamb of God was here last night, then we have tool on the way, 36 crazyfists, etc. etc. During the summer we have a huge pavilion, were all the main tours roll through, ozzfest, lala paluza, warped tour, basically everything.

Albuquereue's music scene is better than you might think, and slowly getting better and better. So dont think your movin to a shithole for music. And dont judge that off of the Atomic Cantina, though there are some great shows there, it is small, but there is lots of others bigger and better to play at.

I meant to make a short response but shit, I guess I fell into a typing frenzy. Peace!

- What's your favorite venue to see a show at?
Albuquerque Press Club, Kimo (though they don't book many concerts), Launchpad

- What's your favorite venue to play a show at?
Albuquerque Press Club - it's like playing in your living room.

- Are there differentiated cohesive scenes? Or is it more of a large, intermingled scene?
There are some scenes that a kind of off on their own a bit...like the country scene or the folk scene, but there seems to be a lot of cross-genre moral support among ABQ musicians.

- How is the all-ages scene? Good all-ages venues?
Not so sure on this...does the Launchpad still do all-ages shows? There's always the Blue Dragon Coffeehouse and a small assortment of performance spaces that do all-ages.

- Is there much pay-to-play bullshit? (One of the reasons booking in LA can suck.)
Not really a problem. But getting paid to play is another matter...

- Any decent hip-hop?
Can't help much there.

- Do you guys tour much?
Some do, some don't. My band pretty stays around town. Day jobs, families and all that keep us here.

- My buddy who will also be moving out at around the same time is a reggae/dub DJ. Do you think there are many places for him to spin?
I think there probably are a lot of options, but other folks would be able to answer this better. I know places like Gulp and OPM have DJs.

- Are there often house parties?
If you mean house concerts, there are actually quite a lot of those. Neil Copperman with AMP House Concerts is the man for the big house concerts that bring in national touring musicians on the house circuit. Less official house concerts with local bands crop up periodically as well...but usually it's with the folk, Americana, blues, bluegrass types that are less likely to create a loud ruckus in a neighborhood. I love playing house concerts!

- Do good touring bands (of any size) come through often?
Yep...coupled with some that just stop in Santa Fe, we get a decent variety of touring bands at all levels (except for some of the really giant tours like The Who, Rolling Stones, etc.)

- What's your favorite venue to see a show at?
Burt's
- What's your favorite venue to play a show at?
Burt's
- How is the all-ages scene? Okay
- Good all-ages venues?
Sol arts, winnings coffee house
- Do you guys tour much?
yes.
- Do good touring bands (of any size) come through often?
yes, it's not a huge spot for bigger name acts usually, but a lot of good midlevel sized touring bands come though.