Before Thursday night, I hadn’t been to the state fair in close to a decade. I spent most of the day there, frolicking through the bright, bursting animal smells and the tantalizing stench of grease. The whole day was an adventure, filled with overstimulation, unbridled joy, and thoughts of “Wow,…
It can often seem that country music has taken a turn for the worse in recent years. As the genre edges closer and closer to nothing more than Top 40 pop, one band stands out as the antithesis to the decay: Zac Brown Band. Like a lone blooming flower in…
Take a deep breath. Concert season is in full swing, and we have a full slate of shows to see this weekend. There is a massive local hip-hop festival, a show by a local hero, shows by rock legends, current rap stars. Everything you could want is happening this weekend…
Psychedelic soul and funk band Chicano Batman have been rocking the Dark Knight moniker since long before Ben Affleck received the nod to be the next Hollywood man to don the legendary cape and cowl. But the Los Angeles-based quartet comprised of singer, guitarist and organist Bardo Martinez, bassist Eduardo…
Crescent Ballroom was packed to the gills Monday night. A whole lot of mega-fans (and some less rabid admirers) of Canadian indie-pop-rockers New Pornographers gathered to see the band play a hearty set of more than 20 songs. The set mixed tunes from all the band’s offerings from the past…
If nothing else, this week’s slate of concerts in and around Metro Phoenix is what you’d call diverse, or, at the very least, eclectic. How else would you describe a five-day span that feature everything from the indie power-pop of The New Pornographers and the Latin-infused trip-hop of French-Chliean emcee…
Check out the best options for music this weekend, and browse our comprehensive concert listings for more options…
I fully expected to hear a night filled with mumbling and complaining. A gin and tonic costs $8 at the Orpheum Theatre, and, after a long, hot summer, I think we all were really excited to go outside, watch some music at Civic Space Park, and actually enjoy ourselves. After…
The burning question has always been: What would Jimi Hendrix be doing now if he were still alive? Shortly before passing away at age 27, Hendrix was considering a move away from rock ‘n’ roll psychedelia to explore aspects of jazz and blues. He’d frequently been jamming with progressive jazz…
With all due respect to the holiday season, right now is arguably the most wonderful time of the year. We’ve got the Arizona State Fair and its tremendous concert series launching by week’s end, Halloween a few weeks after that, and some great shows to check out until both those…
Got any plans this weekend? You probably should, considering there are few (if any) reasons to stay glued to the furniture at home. The weather’s certainly nicer, with nary any storm fronts scheduled to move through Metro Phoenix, and there’s no shortage of live music or nightlife events over the…
Our inbox was hit with an e-mail blast the other day from the proprietors of a local music venue who declared that October was going to be “insane” because of all the fantastic acts they has booked at the joint over the next few weeks. They ain’t the only ones,…
Old white people like the Eagles. That is the biggest takeaway from Wednesday night’s “History of The Eagles” stop at Gila River Arena. That, and history is very easily changed when it needs to be for the sake of some feel-good moments on tour. They also more or less left…
Last night’s Joyce Manor show was arguably the perfect format for a punk show. A couple hundred kids were jam-packed into Yucca Tap Room to sing along to the California punkers’ sweaty, 40-minute set, which was just shy of 20 songs. The stage banter was kept to a minimum and…
Waylon Jennings sure collected a lot of strange items during his life. Now, several hundred of them are going on auction at the Musical Instrument Museum, including a motorcycle once owned by Buddy Holly, a pair of Hank Williams’ boots, Willie Nelson’s braids, and a whole lot of clothing, jewelery,…
It was a weird, wild, and wet weekend. We’re talking about Summer Ends Music Festival, Lucky Man Concerts’ three-day extravaganza scheduled for Tempe Beach Park. But Mother Nature had other plans, and after the second huge rainstorm to hit the Valley in a month dumped more than an inch of…
It’s on. It’s off. It’s the end of the world. The sky is falling and I might die without ever seeing The Replacements. What a crazy, rain-filled day Saturday, September 27, was as torrential downpours, micro bursts, and low levels of chaos hit Tempe and almost ruined the fun for…
Perhaps everyone has a music hangover from this past week, because after a week that saw a giant three-day music festival get washed out by the rain and featured performances by heavyweights Katy Perry, Drake, and Lil Wayne, this upcoming is much calmer. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t musical…
When writing show reviews, I always struggle with the journalistic imperative to report “what happened?” because usually nothing really happened other than some brooding subculture people played some notes and maybe moved around in a vaguely distinct way. The kind of stuff that is so commonplace that it’s not worth…
“How many of you are under the age of 10?” Tegan from indie-pop group Tegan and Sara asked the crowd last night at Gila River Arena. Thousands of girls, including one super-shrieky one directly behind me, screamed in delight as their young age was recognized by a band they’d probably…
Do you like music but hate overly large crowds? Is Tempe Beach Park your idea of hell? Do you hate everything you hear on AAA and alternative radio stations? Never fear. There are other things going on this weekend besides Summer Ends Music Festival, and we’ve got the six best…
Taken a look at a concert calendar recently? Like migrating birds, major music acts are flocking to the Valley as the weather shifts from outdoor sauna to merely hot. What better way to celebrate turning your air conditioner off than heading out to the biggest three-day music festival to happen…
