After a summer schedule full of interesting bookings, Naglee Park Garage will host two more concerts before ending its live music season for the year. Doctor Nurse brings atmospheric indie rock on October 17 and the Golden State Ramblers close the season October 24 with folk, Irish and novelty tunes from the 20s-40s.

The shows are always free at Naglee Park Garage and are held every Wednesday during the extended summer season outside on the patio. The lineup this year included young indie-rock acts (Curious Quail, Orangutang), alt-folk artists (The Wild Reeds, Will Sprott), roots-rock groups (Careless Hearts) and reggae-world beat fusions (Los Hot Boxers, The Champions, inc).

According to owner Chris Esparza, the weekly Wednesday shows were consistently successful. People enjoyed the combination of good live music and outdoor dining. He plans to have live music return in 2013 every Wednesday, most likely beginning in May.

Doctor Nurse play Naglee Park Garage on Wednesday October 17th at 7pm. The Golden State Ramblers play Naglee Park Garage on Wednesday on October 24th. Both shows are free.

If a day filled with 25 different food trucks, each offering completely different variations of tacos doesn’t already sound like an excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon, how about adding to that a full day of cutting-edge, eclectic bands?

The organizers of the San Jose Taco Festival made a concerted effort to book some interesting, up-and-coming bands for what they are hoping will be an annual festival in San Jose. They didn’t want the typical classic rock/cover bands that tend to serve as background music to most food-themed festivals. They wanted the kind of lineup people would check out even if there were no tacos.

“We wanted to book bands that were on the cusp of technology, but also bands that are more organic, really get a mixture of both worlds,” says music organizer Matt Gonzales.

At one end of the spectrum, they’ve booked acts like Turbo Sonidero Futuristico, who mix experimental electronic music with traditional cumbia, and Squareweezy, one of the DJs from San Jose’s innovative hip hop crew, The Bangerz.

On the other end, they’ve booked the Tumbleweed Wanderers, an acoustic Americana group with heartland rock and roll passion, and Los Hot Boxers and a local reggae, dancehall group with earnest doo wop elements.

While the bookings were deliberately diverse, they did want to make sure Latin music was represented. Besides Turbo Sonidero Futuristico, La Misa Negra plays strictly traditional cumbia, with a full horn section and lots of danceable percussion to work off those taco calories.

Probably the oddest nod to Mexican music at the festival will be the air accordion festival.

“They originally wanted to do an air guitar contest, but everyone does that, so they came up with an air accordion contest instead,” Gonzales says.

The Taco Festival will be held Saturday, April 14, at History Park, 1650 Senter Rd, San Jose, 11am-5pm; $7. More info.