By Barry Heifner, Western Institute for Lifelong Learning

Terrance Simien sings traditional Louisiana Zydeco, often in French, Saturday, Oct. 23, at Western New Mexico University Fine Arts Center Theater in Silver City. (Photo by Barry Heifner/Western Institute for Lifelong Learning)SILVER CITY, NM — If you missed the opening of the Western New Mexico University Fine Arts Center Theater Oct. 23 to live shows — you missed a killer show.

Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience opened the season before a small but enthusiastic crowd Saturday with concert-goers dancing in the aisles to their high-energy Zydeco music.

Simien said this was his first visit to Silver City and he was impressed.

“Silver City has a San Francisco-like vibe, only smaller. I like it,” he said before the show.

Simien said he would make sure and bring his band back to WNMU in the future.

During the two-hour concert he joked that the altitude was impacting him but it did not appear to slow him down — even in his traditional barefoot state — as his band played Louisiana Zydeco favorites and a variety of other genres. Simien connected with the crowd and offered up his usual on-stage practice of tossing Mardi Gras beads to those in attendance — making sure that even the youngest concert-goer had the opportunity to snag a string or two.

The highlight of the show was the encore when the Zydeco Experience took audience members on a rollicking tour of New Orleans with “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Some band members, including trombonist Revon Andrews, joined the crowd and led a line dance through the auditorium and back onto the stage.

It was a fitting finale for venerable Zydeco icon Simien, who mingled with fans after the show in the lobby of the Fine Arts Center Theater. If you want to see what you missed, head to the Washington Center in Olympia, Wash., for Boogie from the Bayou., for their Oct. 29 show.

The concert was jointly sponsored by Western New Mexico University and the Western Institute for Lifelong Learning.

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Photo by Barry Heifner/Western Institute for Lifelong Learning

Terrance Simien sings traditional Louisiana Zydeco, often in French, Saturday, Oct. 23, at Western New Mexico University Fine Arts Center Theater in Silver City.