Events on Central

In the Box Mainstage runs a full long-form improv show at The Box, one of the few dedicated performance spaces actually on the Central corridor. The 10:15 p.m. start time...

The Lobo Sports Vault, tucked inside the Historic Lobo Theater on Central, runs the full college football slate across its screens every Saturday, with a buffet from 11 AM to...

The New Mexico Music Hall of Fame is putting on a four-hour evening concert at the Route 66 Visitor Center, part of a fall centennial series that suggests something more ceremonial than your average weekend show. Hall of Fame involvement usually means the lineup skews toward recognized names rather than emerging acts, which is either...

Watermelon Mountain Jug Band brings their old-time, washboard-and-strings sound to the open-air gazebo at the heart of Old Town, one of the more charming outdoor stages on the corridor. The plaza setting means ambient noise from tourists and foot traffic is part of the deal, so this plays better as a relaxed Saturday-evening wander than...

Benny Bassett brings his bass-forward sound to Sawmill Market's communal food hall space on a Saturday night. The open layout means sound bleeds across vendor stalls, so this plays more like background-turned-foreground depending on where you plant yourself. Grab a spot near the stage side early if you're actually there to listen.

Three blues acts worth taking seriously share the Civic Plaza stage, headlined by Judith Hill, whose vocal range and stage presence have drawn comparisons to Mavis Staples by people who don't make that comparison lightly. Levi Platero is a Navajo guitarist with a tone that tends to quiet a crowd within the first two minutes,...

Ed Allan plays Marble Brewery's Westside taproom, one of the more reliably good rooms on this stretch of Central for catching a solo performer without fighting the sound. The brewery format means a relaxed, standing crowd that tends to actually listen, which is rarer than it should be. Admission isn't confirmed in the listing, so...

Levi Dean & The Mesa Rats bring their dusty, Central Avenue-adjacent sound to one of the corridor's better small-room stages. Thirsty Eye keeps the volume at a level where you can still talk to the person next to you, which either sounds like a selling point or a dealbreaker depending on who you are. Admission...

Three serious players share a bill for Blues Night, the capstone evening of the 20th Annual New Mexico Jazz Festival: Judith Hill (a vocalist who has worked with Prince and...