By Rudolfo Carrillo
Danny Chavez wants you to
Revel. That’s right, you read that correctly.
Chavez, a local mover and shaker in Albuquerque’s entertainment and production communities told Viva New Mexico that he wants local citizens of all sorts to come on down to
Revel ABQ, a collection of clubs, pubs, and musical venues housed in one centrally-located, professionally equipped and most importantly, totally fun place in the heart of one of Albuquerque’s growing business sectors.
Chavez knows what he’s talking about; Albuquerqueans have been flocking to Revel ABQ to hear the latest sounds, watch their favorite teams on huge television screens, or to have a tasty meal before hitting the dance floor since 2020, when Revel opened its doors at
4720 Alexander Blvd NE.
After braving COVID, an evolution in audience attendance habits here in Albuquerque, and a constantly shifting national concert booking scene, Revel ABQ is usually packed for shows and on the weekends.
That sort of success demands attention; it’s also a situation that calls for meeting the folks behind the roaring crowds. That’s why we sat down with Danny Chavez to talk about Revel, its history, as well as what’s happening now and in the future with one of our town’s most exciting public venues.
Viva New Mexico: We’ve been hearing about the work you do around Albuquerque for at least 30 years, going back to NRG Staging doing shows like Nirvana at the Albuquerque Convention Center in 1994; Could you please tell us about your latest project, Revel ABQ?
Chavez: I was born right here in Albuquerque, as a matter of fact, about a mile from where Revel currently sits, on the edge of the north valley. If you recall, I started NRG Services at the PaoloSoleri Amphitheater in Santa Fe. That took place in 1985. It wasn’t a legitimate business for the first year, it was just a group of renegade guys that wanted to be stagehands. We were doing production work for concerts up north, and also doing security at the time.
Little by little, that company grew. We started working at the Kiva Auditorium in Albuquerque. We went into Tingley Coliseum a couple years after that; we worked with the New Mexico State Fair for about thirty years! When the amphitheater south of town opened back in 2002 — back then it was called Mesa Del Sol — we were there. I was there as the production manager for about nine years and I hired my own stagehands and production crew.
Viva New Mexico: Moves like that must have exposed you and your enterprise to the wider world of concert
production … what happened after that?
Chavez: Well, that took us to the Phoenix market, and by 2005 we were working as NRG Southwest in Phoenix, Flagstaff, a little bit of Tucson … in 2011, we got into the Austin and the Texas markets as NRG Lonestar. We worked at a place called the Austin City Limits. We’ve done a lot of really cool shows there. We also do some festivals there, like SXSW, and some other festivals that have been around forever. It’s something we really enjoy. In 2014 we got involved in the Oklahoma scene but this thing called COVID came around and knocked us out of the saddle for a little while.
Viva New Mexico: How did your business and business sense survive?
Chavez: Prior to the pandemic, NRG — all the different companies — had hired over 1000 people. Kiss, in Lubbock, was one of the last shows we cancelled [when the pandemic began in March 2020]; they all fell like dominoes. We ended up like everyone else, struggling for the next 18 months, wondering what to do next. In 2015 I started a dueling piano bar in uptown Albuquerque. The bar was doing well before COVID; we were in an unusual location, the ground floor of a 15 floor building in the middle of uptown. Nobody thought it would work. It actually worked really well.
During COVID, we did lose the dueling piano bar; it became nearly impossible to deal with issues like artist travel. But also, in 2019, we came across a huge building in the Renaissance area that used to house [a big box department store called] The Sports Authority and I came up with an idea: I really like sports and I really like music and I do have some background in the production side of things, here in Albuquerque and New Mexico, doing shows at arenas and for festivals … I figured that if you gave me four walls, I could probably put together a pretty decent concert and sports venue.
Viva New Mexico: That dream went head to head with COVID, right?
Well, seventeen days after we opened, COVID struck Albuquerque. We had completed phase one of Revel, the bars and restaurants; we took a couple years after that to open the [stage] venue behind the big metal doors, just because of the nature of what was happening in the world. We tightened our belts and rode it out, we made it work, its a success for my family.
Viva New Mexico: Is Revel a local, family-run business? Who’s involved in that success?
It is a family-run business. My daughter, Danielle, is the general manager. My son, Julian is actually our box office manager. We have a really solid team here at Revel.
Viva New Mexico: What is that team bringing to Albuquerque, now and in the future?
Fortunately, we’ve been working with the biggest promoters in the world, including Live Nation and AEG, Lensic 360. We’ve had a pretty good run and have great plans for this year and the future too. Albuquerque is becoming a music town and I think we just needed some more viable options. Downtown has had its heyday, and I’ve been honored to work at venues like the Kiva Auditorium, but at some point I felt like Albuquerque was missing a 3,000 seat venue and I felt like I should get the jump on that. People were looking at it [Revel] like a mirage for a while, asking me, ‘is this viable’, or ‘is this going to happen’ … but my years of experience gave me a clear idea of what was needed from all angles from production to appearance to amenities. We even have a full gym for our artists. They love that.
Viva New Mexico: What shows, upcoming or recent, are you really proud about? What shows really show
off who you are and what you do in Albuquerque, NM?
Chavez: Some of the more notable shows we’ve done include DJ Diesel, who is AKA Shaquille O’Neal. Steve Aoki gave an amazing performance recently. Teddy Swims and Queens of the Stone Age come to mind. Heavy metal continues to be a big seller in Albuquerque. We had Baby Metal and that was sold out. They’ll be headlining [with us] this year. What’s really fun to see about these shows is that these acts are also playing places like Madison Square Garden or
Red Rocks or the Hollywood Bowl. That makes it pretty insane that they are playing at Revel. I think we’ve found our niche.
Viva New Mexico: Why should folks flock to Revel ABQ to revel?
The weather is warming up, we’ve got some really cool party shows coming up, including a House Party Rave (18+) on Saturday March 7. How’s this: Black Label Society on Monday, March 9 and Ryan Caraveo on Sunday, March 22!
It’s funny, the list of great shows over here has become so extensive that even I have a hard time thinking of all the names and dates. But I do invite everyone who still hasn’t been to our place to check us out at
Viva New Mexico: Algo mas?
Chavez: We are going to be adding 600 more parking spots to the east of our main building. Stay tuned because there’s something related to that; it has to do with a new venue at Revel ABQ. As soon as we break ground, I’ll reach out to our community here in Albuquerque about our new [building] project.
Viva New Mexico: That sounds mysterious and exciting!
Chavez: I don’t want to jump the gun, but we do have an amphitheater in the works.
