I went to every possible musical performance I could cram into five hours on Saturday night during Fiesta weekend—everywhere from Rockin' Rollers to Fusion and quite a bit inbetween—and, I’ve gotta say: Santa Fe, you don’t mess around.

I usually take notes when I go to see a show—little things here and there that I don’t want to forget or that make me laugh. I went to see Albuquerque’s The Grave of Nobody’s Darling at El Paseo on Sept. 4 and made the following astute observations.

You didn’t think I would come at you with an indictment of the local music scene [Music, Sept. 2: “Got the Blues?”] without giving some well-deserved credit to those who work their asses off to bolster and diversify it, did you? That would have been weird.

How many blues-rock bands can one small town have?

Word on the street is Mary & Mars is one of the best local bluegrass outfits in town.

False. This band is one of the best bluegrass outfits I’ve seen anywhere, period.

Fearful of communism, the US initiated Operation Peter Pan, a program that moved children out of Cuba between 1959 and 1962. Some 14,000 children were shuttled to the US via Catholic organizations. One was Santa Fe musician Victor Alvarez.

I recently went to Milagro Lounge to see the Sean Healen Band in action. This was kind of a personal sacrifice for me; Milagro kind of freaks me out. The building is certainly beautiful and I’ve heard the food is incredible, but the vibe is cold and the grub is expensive.

What, forsooth, wouldst thou say were I to informest thou of a group of minstrels from yon hamlet of Portland, Ore. who call themselves “bardcore” and perform musical delights akin to Iron Maiden or Judas Priest?

I was recently standing outside a show at the Aztec Café, when a guy—who I had never met in my life—overheard someone refer to me by my full name.

He walked over to me and asked, “You’re Alex De Vore? Have you been beaten up for your awful writing yet?”

Formed in Bath, England, Venus Bogardus is comprised of James Reich, Hannah Levbarg and Luke Carr. Reich and Levbarg are married and began collaborating on songs in 2005. The pair moved to Santa Fe in March of this year. They hooked up with Carr and began playing shows everywhere. With an album forthcoming from the band’s record deal with New York’s Five03 Records, Venus Bogardus hopes to tour in the coming year.