Popejoy Hall

Popejoy Hall sits on the University of New Mexico campus at Cornell and Central, and it reads exactly like what it is: a proper concert hall built to do serious work. The room is large, the kind of space where you actually sit in an assigned seat and the person next to you isn’t spilling a beer on your shoes. The layout is traditional proscenium theater, tiered seating, good sightlines from most of the house, and acoustics that were designed with amplified and unamplified performance both in mind. The crowd here skews older than the bar venues a few blocks west on Central, more dressed up, more deliberate about being there. You don’t stumble into Popejoy on a whim.

The programming is what puts this place on a different tier from most of what’s on this corridor. Broadway touring productions come through here, the kind with full sets and union crews. Dance companies of national standing. Classical and orchestral performances. The recent booking of Tori Amos tells you something about the range they’re willing to work with, because she’s not exactly a safe, middle-of-the-road pick. The pattern is: serious productions that require a serious room, with enough capacity to make the economics work for acts that couldn’t fill an arena but deserve better than a club stage.

Hours vary by event, so call ahead at (505) 277-8010 or check the website before you show up. Tickets are almost always required and should be purchased in advance, because the productions that come through here sell out regularly. Parking on the UNM campus is workable but not effortless, and it shifts depending on whether school is in session, so give yourself extra time. If what you want is a cocktail in one hand and the freedom to wander, this isn’t your spot. If you want to actually hear something the way it was meant to be heard, in a room built for the purpose, Popejoy is the only option on this stretch of Central that even makes the argument.

Upcoming Events

Everything else on Central is on the full calendar.