Red Elvises w/ Vertigo Venus, 5/17 @ Corazon (Santa Fe, NM)

Having never seen the Red Elvises, (which is sad, considering how often they make their way through Albuquerque), I was pretty psyched to get to finally catch a set by them (much less open for them!) I wasn’t let down in any way shape or form, that’s for damn sure. The last time a band got me this jazzed up was The Gluey Brothers reunion at Launchpad in December of ’09, and before that, I can’t even remember. I’ve rarely seen a band with this kind of energy and awesome skill on a stage at once. Igor’s one of the finest frontmen you could ask for, with a distinct ability to control a crowd. Oleg’s giant bass is actually outshined by his giant smile he flashes constantly while playing. Milka, on backup guitar/vocals, had a voice that you would never have expected to come out of her frame – like Tom Waits mashed up with an army of gospel singers, this girl delivered. Elena on keyboards was officially one of the most awesome keyboard players I’ve ever seen, with so much energy it almost hurt, I have no idea how she was able to do what she did in high heels. Finally, Kyle on drums held it down like a fucking metronome, and his drum solo was by far one of the most expressive and original I’ve ever seen.

In the two (yes, two) sets that the band played, they did everything from “Your love is better than Cocaine”, to “I wanna see you Bellydance”, and even the most amazing cover of Chris Iasaak’s “Wicked Game” I’ve ever heard.

I can’t wait to see this band again, they’re obviously hardworking and deserve all the success they’ve had. My only regret of the night? Forgetting my “Six String Samurai” movie poster to have the band sign

I should also make a mention of Corazon, which is officially one of my favorite venues in New Mexico. Mikey Baker is a man who knows how to run a quality space, with great staff and sound. This is a great club that I hope has much success.

I do understand that they’ll be back in September, though, so when they are, I urge you to see this band.

Hey all, my band, Vertigo Venus, has got a TON of great shows coming up, and we hope to see you out!

Firstly, we’re opening for the RED ELVISES at Corazon in Santa Fe, NM on May 17th:

This is sure to be an AWESOME show!

Next up, we’ve got a great gig in Santa Fe again, at Warehouse 21 – ALL AGES and FREE!

We follow that up with a REALLY IMPORTANT GIG. On May 26th, we’re playing an instore appearance at Hot Topic at the Coronado mall in Albuquerque. yeah, that’s right.

So here’s the deal. We need as many people as we can get at this gig. Why? Because if we can show HT management that we kick ass (which we do), they’ll sell our new CD. That means a lot of good things for us.

so, what we need YOU to do is show up at 5:30pm to Hot Topic in Coronado mall, ready to rock. Bring EVERY FRIEND YOU HAVE with you! PLEASE! I know we ask a lot of you, but this is REALLY important!

And Finally, we are still selling tickets for our june 6th show with SLICK IDIOT, featuring former members of KMFDM and PIGFACE, for only FIVE DOLLARS! This is sure to be an AMAZING GIG. Get in touch with us at vertigovenus@gmail.com to purhcase your tickets, do it now!

Thank you as always for your support, it means THE WORLD to us!

-brian, drums

I played a DJ set on Feb. 27th in Santa Fe, NM for Audiobuddha’s monthly series, “Monsoon”.  The event was at Cafe Phenix, a new cofeeshop in Santa Fe which recently garnered some praise from the NY Times.   A nice little place, I had a visuals stream going behind me which was good to add some ambience.

Audiobuddha did a dubstep/techno set leading up to mine, and got things going nicely.  I got to see some of my old friends who stopped in for my set, including Mario, Craig, Michael and Chris.  Even my sister made an appearance!

I had planned on doing primarily chillout for this set, but I ended up dropping a minimal techno set.  Unfortunately, my laptop and/or Ableton Live decided to bomb out on me multiple times in the middle of my set, with tons of audio dropouts.  I couldn’t fight it, so I had to work with it.  Luckily, most of the crowd was pretty forgiving.

The overall night was great, and Audiobuddha put on a great production.  I think this will grow to be a recurring series in Santa Fe.

Tonight, I’ll be DJing for Monsoon, a monthly event thrown by Audiobuddha in Santa Fe, NM.

From the event page:

Monsoon is back and with a vengeance! AudioBuddha’s monthly showcase has found a new home at Cafe Phenix, 1414 Second Street, Santa Fe, NM 87505. The audio is more replenishing, the beats more succulent than ever!

To give Monsoon the proper send off in its new home will be none other than Brian Botkiller doing a special DJ performance! The show is all ages and the cover is only $5. Cheap for a full night of great music and food!

Cafe Phenix just recently got a write up in the New York Times as “Santa Fe’s best” place for music coffee and food. So come and support what will surely become a new institution in the local scene. Looking forward to seeing all of you there!

Info is here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=295899963691