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Concert Review
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Duke City Fix, Concert Review >>
¡Globalquerque! Review
Posted by cnorborg on October 5, 2010 at 3:35pm
Had the pleasure of winning a couple tickets to go see ¡Globalquerque! on Friday night, September 17th and I realized that I've been remiss in not writing a review here on it! So here goes...
If you haven't been to it ever before, it takes place at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on 4th and Avenida César Chávez. I definitely recommend showing up a bit early as parking is limited on site. The shows start at about 6pm and end after 11. If you haven't been to the Hispanic Cultural Center, its a very large area that is nicely spread out. The shows take place on 3 stages each with their own look and feel. The Albuquerque Journal Theater (not to be confused with the Journal Center) is a beautiful theater with comfortable seating and great acoustics. It was a bit warm early in the evening and this is the only enclosed and air conditioned of the 3 stages. The Fountain Courtyard is tucked away behind a building and is just as it sounds, a very pretty courtyard with a fountain near the entrance. Nicely shaded and cool while the sun was still up. The Plaza Mayor is centrally located and one of the bigger stages. You will hear this music while walking to from the other areas for sure! Off to one side is "The Global Village", which is a collection of various arts and craft shops from around the world. You can also find food here from various countries, my favorite being the Brazilian food with a good Guarana to wash it down! You can also find some more traditional food in the Fountain Courtyard, but your best bet flavor-wise was definitely in the Global Village!
What are the shows? The only way to explain it is a little bit of everything. Some of my favorites included Mariachi Mystery Tour from New Mexico, mixing the Beatles up with a Mariachi band and doing a great job! The Flatlanders with Tom Russell was a group of 4 singers and guitar players who take turns playing you some of their favorite songs and entertain you with stories. Deolinda, a very interesting Portuguese act that has some awesome strings and a mix of different styles of music all brought together to tell a story. Luckily they guide you through it pretty well since all the words were in Portuguese, of which I speak very little! The two acts that got everyone up and dancing the most had to be Emeline Michel from Haiti, an awesome singer who gets the audience fired up and dancing along with her, and Non-Stop Bhangra, kind of a mix of hip hop and traditional Punjabi folk music. NSB does this along with teaching you the traditional Bhangra dance you see in movies from India, which I think the organizers shouldn't have put them in the Fountain Courtyard because of this. The audience had trouble seeing the dancers for instruction because of the layout, would have been much better received if it was on the Plaza Mayor, but fun just the same!
I also can't forget Bill Miller, a Mohican singer / songwriter who entertained everyone with his music and stories. My favorite being about how Eagles are different than other birds. He was with a friend during a high wind storm when his friend pointed out that the Eagle handles 60mph winds quite differently than other birds. While the other birds turn with the wind and try and land as quickly as possible, the eagle locks its wings in place heading into the wind and rises above the wind and storm. He equated this about how in life we must sometimes do the same in times of adversity and lock our wings and head into the storm. Definitely catch him if you can!!
The greatest thing about the whole event was how free and open it was. They try and schedule the performers so that you can see as many of them as possible, and there is always something going on. You are free to wander between the different performances as much as you want and everyone looked like they were having a good time. I only regret not having the time to go on Saturday too! I'm sure there was more of the same then... 10/05/10 >> go there
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