This Saturday, misfits and harlequins of all shapes, sizes and flavors are invited to indulge in surreal reverie as one of Downtown Albuquerque’s most imaginative performance spaces is taken over by a peculiar circus. On March 1, FUSION (708 First St. NW) will become the stomping ground for performers and attendees clad in bizarre, beautiful and horrifying costumes during the second annual Sadness, Madness & Mayhem: A Haunted Costume Carnival event. New Mexico’s alt-rock orchestra Dust City Opera will leave their mark on the masquerade with an insane musical performance, and they brought some freaky friends along for the show.
Sydney Counce manages Dust City Opera and helped coordinate the events that make up Saturday night’s show, but she says the members of Dust City Opera are the collective masterminds behind the madness.
“You don’t need to wait for Halloween,” Counce says. “This is your chance to get dressed up, put on a mask, become somebody else for a night, and really just let out your inner mayhem.”
Dust City Opera morphed onto the music scene in 2018 and have amassed a worldwide cult of fans with an appetite for their brand of humorous, sad and sometimes horrifying mix of folk and alt-rock. The quirky quintet is comprised of vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Paul Hunton, bassist Scott Brewer, Clara Byom on clarinets, accordion and keys, Travis Rourk on trombones, vocals and synth and Jesse Culberson on drums and sampler. They have amassed accolades including winning New Mexico Music awards for Best Rock Album in 2023 and Best Music Video in 2022 and 2023. In 2019 they were chosen Gold Artist of the Year at the Modern Music Awards.
Dust City Opera will be accompanied onstage by the Giovanni String Quartet, and Movement Caravan circus troupe will be performing in the crowd throughout the night. The carnival also features tarot readings from Bonnie Bigheart. Counce says Saturday’s six-person fire-throwing performance will be a mini-production in itself and will be much bigger than last year’s very popular fire show.
“For the finale, we are bringing Giovanni String Quartet on stage with Dust City Opera for this big grand true folk rock orchestra experience with strings and electric guitar and accordion,” Counce says. “We’re going to pull out all the stops.”
Once the music ends around 10 p.m., the wicked VIP afterparty begins! VIP passes give revelers access to the main event plus a private meet and greet with entertainers and gourmet food and drinks. Counce says each VIP will receive a gift bag packed with merch worth hundreds of dollars, so it’s well worth the $150 ticket price.
“Whatever that thing is in your closet that you think, ‘This is cool, but I don’t ever have a chance to wear it,’ this is the night to do it,” Counce says. “We’re living through really crazy times. Everybody deserves a chance to get out, let loose, turn off the news for one day and just go crazy.”
Check out the video for “The Unkind” from Dust City Opera’s award-winning second album Alien Summer here.
Visit Dust City Opera on Instagram or watch the promotional video for Saturday’s event here.
For tickets and more info about the show click here.
Sadness, Madness & Mayhem: A Haunted Costume Carnival with Dust City Opera
March 1, 7:30 p.m.
FUSION
708 First St. NW
$25 advance, $30 day of show, $150 VIP