Gogol Bordello Live in Albuquerque NM

Written by Kyle

I’ve loved Gogol Bordello since I first heard them in 1999, but I’ve never had the chance to see them live. Bee has seen them a couple of times, but it’s been years., so when we saw they were playing a short drive away in Albuquerque, New Mexico we grabbed tickets right away!

We left Creede on a Tuesday morning, stopping in Monte Vista, Colorado to see the Crane migration. Every year about 20,000 Sandhill Cranes migrate and stop in the area. As we were passing by, we figured we would take a gander. There was an absolute massive amount of them both in the air and on the ground, unfortunately with my phone I was unable to get good aerial shots.

We had an uneventful drive down, and checked into our mid-century hotel in downtown Albuquerque, within walking distance of the theater. After a quick dip in the pool, we cleaned up and headed out for a sushi dinner (no sushi in Creede!), then made our way to the venue.

I couldn’t think of a better venue to see this band, the historic El Rey Theatre, once a movie theatre and now a concert venue. And the best part? A capacity of around 700 people…that is the population of our whole county! I’m not sure if the show ended up selling out, but it was definitely packed. We started the evening up on the balcony watching the opening bands and the beginning of Gogol Bordello’s set. The sound up top was decent, but our view was a bit obstructed so we decided to make our way down to the floor.

It was a great move, we were able to get right up front where we could really see the band and the sound was amazing. The crowd was energetic, singing along and dancing. I can honestly say it’s been years since I felt that kind of energy in a crowd. I took a handful of photos and one short video, but honestly, I was too engrossed in the show!