If there’s only one other thing you do after hanging out at the wine festival all day, it should be one of the best events of the Labor Day activities in Albuquerque -- The Alibi Fall Crawl.

It's sponsored by the independent weekly newspaper the Alibi and takes over a sizable portion of downtown Albuquerque's streets and clubs.  Over 50 national and local acts participated in the 2007 event, covering 12 different downtown venues.  We're talking about over 8 hours of musical entertainment!

Albuquerque is home to a unique music community where lead singers work as explosion experts during the day and hardcore rockers by night. It’s a small community where everyone knows your name and your drink.

The ringmaster of events, Joe Anderson, owner of the Launchpad and the Sunshine Theater, both host to national touring bands, wrangles the bands and venues each spring and fall crawl in tandem with the Alibi.

For bands, it's a huge honor to be selected for a crawl. The venues themselves furnish Joe with a "wish list" of which bands they'd like to have play at their establishments. These are the bands they have either personal relationships or know will bring in a solid crowd (read: thirsty patrons). Joe and his staff figure the logisitcs, add or deduct bands at their discretion, and enlist the available groups.

At just 10 bucks for 50 bands and 8 hours of fun, we couldn't miss it.