Albuquerque suffered a major loss this week. The popular live music venue “Burt’s Tiki Lounge” (Burt’s) permanently closes its doors. Musicians all over town have been responding to the seemingly sudden shutdown of one of Albuquerque’s best spots to play. Look at Burt’s Facebook page. The news are official when the facebook page administrators go in to change the operation hours to “permanently closed” in order to let their followers know that they are no longer in business.
Burt’s sound engineer, Weekly Alibi nominee for Best of Burque Sound Engineer, Lee Sillery posted the terrible news on facebook March 19th around 2 pm
People responded with grief and confusion. A lot of people were left wondering what’s going to happen to the shows they have lined up in the coming months of spring and some even as far as summer. Other people pay tribute to Burt’s and herald it as one of the best spots to play in town
Some other people were joyed or happy that Burt’s was closed down. Read this angry person bashing Burt’s as a “Nazi gathering spot”
The incendiary opinion doesn’t sit well with very many people and they make sure to let them know in the comments.
Burt’s Tiki Lounge was home to fantastic shows. Anyone and everyone involved in the music community recognized Burt’s as one of the musical powerhouses in town. Burt’s hosted open mic nights on Monday nights where full bands could go on stage and play a short set. “Manic Mondays” it was called. As of yet, we don’t have any official information regarding the closedown motives. Burt’s was featured in our “Bathroom Article” click here to read.
Editorial: I loved the atmosphere at Burt’s and I made many friends playing and attending shows there. It holds many memories for me. However, I hope to see some improvement in the nightlife scene in spite of this terrible loss for the musician community. As local musicians, it is our duty to help the venues that help us. We have to pull together and support local music venues like Burt’s that promote growth in the local community
The Albuquerque Music Scene has lost a great venue: Burt’s Tiki Lounge. In the past 2 years I’ve been to many wonderful shows there plus my band performed at Burt’s this past February and had a gig lined up for April. I never once encountered anyone who I’d who I could identify as a “white supremacist”, a “brown supremacist” , nor even a “black supremacist”. I did make friends with a wide variety of music lovers.
Thanks for the comment. I agree with you 100 percent
Sadly another branch has fallen from the Albuquerque live music scene family tree.
musician here, played Burt’s over the years at both the gold location and the central location. great venue, excellent dive.
there was a time when the atomic shut down years back, and then a phase where launchpad burned down and closed doors, and there was no sister yet — and burts kept going. it was the go-to band-bar-dive downtown.
im a rock musician, and i noticed that in recent years they didn’t only cater to bands. some evenings a dj would be playing, i saw hip hop artists performing a few times too. it felt like they were reflecting an openness to changes in music culture, and i respected that. but man i pretty stunned about this turn of events.
nothing spectacular to add about all this except that I am hoping the amazing staff of burt’s land on their feet given the suddenness of this news. so many great memories. end of an era for sure.