Project Acoustic mandates that bands strip down music to its base — that is, without the bass.
Local acts from Albuquerque will play acoustic sets Friday at the El Rey Theater.
Event organizer Helmut Perzi said acoustic minimalism is unusual in concerts.
“What we’re trying to do is — you see a lot of these bands, and you see them in their same way all the time,” he said. “What we really forced on the performers for this year is to bring a very organic, raw sense of themselves. We don’t want electric guitars. We don’t want bass. We want just that really organic sound coming from these performers.”
Joshua Herrera, a member of The Noms who will play at the show, said the group will have to be creative.
“If there are certain songs we want to play but they’re not necessarily acoustic, we have to make it work, so we’ve been working on stuff like that to make these songs acoustic — coming up with new ideas to make it sound good,” he said.
Matt Witkowski, one of the project’s founders, said Albuquerque musicians have gone unnoticed, except in smaller venues.
“They’re playing in little coffee houses, and people maybe hear them, but this way it’s a little more focused toward them,” he said. “It’s a business in the end, but it’s also so we can help promote these guys, and see them take off and go places and bring some light to the New Mexico music scene.”
Perzi said he wants to take Project Acoustic to Seattle and Denver to spread word about Albuquerque’s music scene. He said Albuquerque musicians should be respected like their counterparts in Seattle, Nashville and Austin.
“You’re going to find musicians on every street corner, in every coffee shop, and people love it,” he said. “They’ll pay out good money for these local musicians to put on a coffee shop show. You don’t really find that here, and we’re trying to make that happen — make it so local musicians are more appreciated and more noticed, because we have talent here. It’s just not really seen.”
*Project Acoustic
El Rey Theater
620 Central Ave. S.W.
Friday
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
$12 in advance, $15 at the door
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