Top Five Must-See Shows This Weekend in Phoenix

Awesome ‘ish alert: Drake and Riff Raff are collaborating. Yeah, totally. Along the same lines: It’s the weekend, and all sorts of great shows are scheduled for Phoenix. We’ve gone ahead and rounded ’em up for you, including a broken-hearted industrial party at the Rogue, a night of experimental music…

Rebelution: Reggae Rockers Brave Cold Season for Winter Greens Tour

While Mother Nature continues to wreak havoc on our thermostats, most people are bundling up and keeping indoors during the chilly season. Everyone except California-based reggae rockers Rebelution that is. The Santa Barbara-natives are ditching the warm embrace of their sandy sunny digs to embark on another wintertime road trip…

Pink, US Airways Center, 2/13/13 (VIDEO)

Pink @ US Airways Center|1/23/13 Oh, what fun it is to be the opening city for a two-month-long tour. Pink got to work out the kinks of her The Truth About Love Tour when she played in Phoenix last night to kick-off her love-themed show. “I’m so glad we got…

Jackson Browne, Orpheum Theatre, 2/13/13

Jackson Browne @ The Orpheum Theatre|2/13/13Back in 1975 Olivia Newton John lyrically asked the question “Have you ever been mellow?” Such a question would never be posed to Jackson Browne. The singer/songwriter has to be the mellowest rock star on the planet…

Terror, The Underground, 2/12/13

Terror @ The Underground|2/12/13 H2O and Terror are in the midst of a co-headlining tour that made its way to The Underground last night, until H2O canceled the show a few hours before doors opened. We reached out to Mantooth and Bridge Nine records to find out why H2O canceled…

Authority Zero Is Stronger with The Tipping Point

Mesa’s reggae/punk outfit Authority Zero has come a long way over the course of its nearly two-decade career. The band quickly moved up from intimate (often free) local shows to playing Warped Tour and, eventually, touring the world. Authority Zero is now a household name in the local scene, an…

Eric Bibb and Habib Koité, Musical Instrument Museum, 2/11/13

Eric Bibb and Habib Koité @ Musical Instrument Museum|2/11/13The distance between Memphis, Tennessee, and Bamako, Mali, West Africa, is geographically large, but last night that distance in musical terms was no more than the three feet separating Eric Bibb and Habib Koité on the Musical Instrument Museum stage…

Top Five Must-See Shows This Week in Phoenix

For every up there’s a down. It’s like reading the awesome news that Elton John plays on the new Queens of the Stone Age record the same day you read Christina Applegate is leaving NBC’s Up All Night.. Bummer! So here’s the bad news: It’s Monday, which is the worst…

Steve Aoki, Axis Radius, 2/9/13

Steve Aoki @ Axis Radius|2/9/13If you don’t believe in Jesus, alright, but Asian Jesus is real. Steve Aoki, record producer, DJ, and founder Dim Mak Records, graced Scottsdale’s Axis/Radius with his presence last night, spreading his music to all and making one amazing mission trip to land more followers and…

Top Five Must-See Shows This Weekend in Phoenix

It’s finally the weekend, and you’re ready to cut loose, aren’t you? You’re ready to toss a few back and really party. Us too. There’s a lot of chatter on the message boards re: rumors that Disney’s upcoming stand-alone Star Wars films will concern the adventures of Yoda, Boba Fett,…

NES in the West Tour, Trunk Space, 2/6/13

NES in the West Tour with Mega Ran and The Writer’s Guild @ Trunk Space | 2/6/13Local rapper Mega Ran a.k.a Random completed the Phoenix stop of his latest tour at the Trunk Space and made it a point to drive home the old saying: “You’re only as strong as…

The Who, Jobing.com Arena, 2/6/13

The Who @ Jobing.com Arena|2/6/13If anything stoked the fears that this Who go-round was going to be another case of living legends living off their legends and treading the floorboards only to show off their diminished firepower, it might have been this announcement, which went up on the big screens…

Murs, The Insects, Fashawn, and Prof, Club Red, 2/5/13

Murs, The Insects, Fashawn, Prof @ Club Red|2/5/13It looks like it’s that time of the year again, as Murs gathers a select group of rappers to embark on a nationwise tour leading up to his annual “Paid Dues” festival in March. The endeavor this year, aptly titled “The Road to…

Daniel Johnston, Crescent Ballroom, 2/3/13

Daniel Johnston @ Crescent Ballroom | 2/3/13An enthusiastic young man in the crowd shouts: “We all love you, Daniel!” Daniel Johnston, the grizzled man onstage, backed by a selection of Phoenix all-star players from Jimmy Eat World, Reubens Accomplice, Dry River Yacht Club, Boxhead Ensemble, Limbeck, and Source Victoria, answers…

Digging Up Heavy Metal’s Country Roots

I have always been one of those metal heads that claims to listen to all musical genres–except for country. But in the past year, I’ve realized that classic country songs, with their imagery and energy, are pretty hard to dislike. Take David Allan Coe’s “If That Ain’t Country” for example…

Top Five Must-See Shows This Week in Phoenix

It’s the Monday after the big game, which means you’re back at the office, standing around the water cooler listening to your most annoying co-worker recreate his favorite Super Bowl commercial in vivid, poorly-acted detail. Excruciating, right? No fear. 5 o’clock is on its way, and this week brings a…

Vagabond Gods, Rogue Bar, 2/2/13

Vagabond Gods @ Rogue Bar|2/2/13For a band like Vagabond Gods, Rogue Bar is the perfect place: rough around the edges, obscure, uh, rogue. As we’ve talked about before, lead singer/screamer and guitarist Bryant Vazquez also divides his time between three other projects. First, there’s Sedona’s decker., where Vazquez plays bass,…

Z-Trip, Axis/Radius, 2/2/13

Z-Trip @ Axis/Radius|2/2/13Whatchu know ’bout Z-Trip? In all seriousness, if you asked this question to any of your local peers, I’m willing to bet that nine out of ten will know the ubiquitous DJ name, eight out of ten will know him personally, or claim to know him personally, from…

Jimmy Webb, Musical Instrument Museum, 2/1/13

Jimmy Webb @ Musical Instrument Museum|2/1/13It’s always interesting hearing an alternate version of a popular song. That’s one of the appeals of live music. But that version is especially worthwhile when it’s the original version by the original artist. Such is the case at a Jimmy Webb concert. A prolific…

Paul Oakenfold, Wild Knight, 2/1/13

Paul Oakenfold @Wild Knight|2/1/13Even before veterans like Benny Benassi stepped foot into the EDM worlds, UK DJ Paul Oakenfold was merging the worlds of pop and electronic music. He’s been at it for four decades. He might not be the first name EDM fans name-drop when discussing their favorite DJs,…