Matt and KimClubhouse Music Venue in TempeOctober 6, 2010Summer seemed to end about 48 hours ago in Phoenix, when golf balls of hail fell from the October sky, finally banishing triple digit temperatures from the Valley for a few months.You’d never know it inside the Clubhouse Music Venue where Brooklyn-based…
Jonathan McNamaraTed Leo and the Pharmacists Rhythm Room October 4, 2010 It’s sort of rare when a mosh pit is possible but not inevitable. You know, when a band could inspire a little knock-push-bounce action but it isn’t necessarily a forgone conclusion.Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, who played Phoenix’s Rhythm…
O.A.R. The Celebrity Theatre September 28, 2010The Celebrity Theatre’s layout and rotating stage made for a warm performance by veteran jamband O.A.R. that accommodated every seat in the house last night.The design of the venue made the band’s entrance particularly special since fans got to slap hands with the band…
Surfer BloodThe Clubhouse Music VenueSeptember 27, 2010Maybe you remember ‘the bear thing’ or ‘the wolf thing,’ those peculiar eras when seemingly every hotly-tipped indie band adopted one of those ferocious animals as a component of its name? Of course you do.Probably you’ve noticed we’re currently in the midst of ‘the…
RatatatSeptember 25, 2010The Venue ScottsdaleWhen does an electronic rock concert make a person feel like Danny Glover’s irritable geezer cop in Lethal Weapon? The answer: When the concert in question is Saturday’s all-ages Ratatat show at the Venue of Scottsdale, and the person in question is older than some of…
Pixies at the Mesa Amphitheatre Last Night To say that the Pixies performance was underwhelming might be a bit too strong. Mostly satisfactory would probably be a more accurate description. That is to say it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t completely blow-you-away-good, either…full story KISS at Cricket Wireless Pavilion You…
Pixies September 24th, 2010 Mesa Amphitheater Back in June, when Up on the Sun music editor Martin Cizmar put up a blog post announcing that the Pixies would be playing an upcoming show at the Mesa Amphitheater there was one point in the post that I kept coming back to…
What a weekend! We’ve already written extensively about the three-day concert event known as Fall Frenzy, but part of the story can only truly be captured through a lens. Before we put our Fall Frenzy coverage to bed, check out the following slideshows direct from each day of the event…
Fall Frenzy 2010 Tempe Beach Park became the location for rocking out this weekend as bands like Weezer, Stone Tempe Pilots, and Disturbed took to the stage over the concert’s three days. Check out all the photos, reviews, and nonsense you may have missed in our Fall Frenzy coverage…full story…
This weekend, Valley concert lovers ignored record high temperatures (and bomb scares due to suspicious packages) and partied it up at the Fall Frenzy at Tempe Beach Park, taking in big names such as Devo, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots and Disturbed. People Tweeted their thoughts on the shows throughout the…
Day one of Fall Frenzy belonged to the the arena rockers, day two got a little more alternative, but day three was all about the metal.So metal, in fact, that it wasn’t technically day three of the “Arizona Fall Frenzy,” so much as its own separate gig, the Rockstar Energy…
There was something about reggae riffs and smoking weed that really appealed to yesterday’s Fall Frenzy crowd. In between the harder rockin’ lineups scheduled for Friday and Sunday was a hippie day. California bands The Dirty Heads, Sublime and Weezer had a lot to offer locals who enjoy good jams…
Luke HolwerdaWeezer on stage at Arizona Fall Frenzy.New York magazine put it best: “There are few things more terrifying to longtime Weezer fans these days than the prospect of a new Weezer album.”That review of the band’s latest album — sarcastically headlined, “Is Hurley Weezer’s Best Album Since Make Believe?”…
Whoever was manning the hose at Arizona Fall Frenzy had a perfect sense of timing.Temps soared into the triple digit range during the second day of the three-day concert, but luckily the promoters thought ahead and manned a sky-high tower with an industrial-sized firehose. Every so often — particularly whenever…
They weren’t kidding about the “frenzy” part. An abandoned backpack and a few other suspicious packages left near the front gate of Tempe Beach Park created a whirlwind of disruption during the opening evening of Arizona Fall Frenzy. The Tempe Police Department deployed a slew of officers (as well as…
Scott Weiland didn’t take a header off the stage last night at Arizona Fall Frenzy. Nor did he accidentally reveal he was lip-synching or abusing heroin for that matter. In fact, other than a 45-minute delay due to “suspicious packages” found at Tempe Beach Park earlier in the evening, the…
The WalkmenSeptember 17, 2010The ClubhouseHamilton Leithauser smiled between songs during The Walkmen’s set last night. Those smiles stood in stark contrast to his intensely focused, on-the-brink of-destruction singing and pointed lyrics.It was a businesslike show. There was minimal exchange between singer and audience, with most of the music being presented…
Local anti-meth rockers Beyond Our Recognitions of God are playing a benefit/fundraiser show tonight night at UB’s in Mesa for their drummer, Jon Landato, who was stabbed in the neck during an altercation last month following a gig at Goathead Saloon.Landato has made a full recovery, but spent several harrowing…
Paramore September 15, 2010 Dodge Theatre Hayley Williams is quite the little firecracker.Physically, the Paramore singer sort of looks like a firework, with her bright red hair and ruler-straight body. Personality-wise, she’s a dynamic burst of energy. At her show at the Dodge Theatre last night, she ran around the…
HansonSeptember 14, 2010Piper Theater at Mesa Arts CenterRight now, as I write this sentence, I’m listening to Middle of Nowhere, Hanson’s major label debut from 1997. That record of course contains “MMMBop” but it’s the first verse of “Thinking of You” that I’m spinning — it’s undeniable pop goodness.I got…
Mike Posner September 11, 2010 Marquee Theatre Hard-partying, fratty Duke musician Mike Posner played to an undersold crowd (probably due to the ASU football game) at the Marquee Theatre last night. The crowd — what there was of one — was pretty evenly split between high school and college kids,…
When Sea Wolf’s Alex Brown Church called last night’s audience at the Rhythm Room “rambunctious,” I just had to call bullshit.”Rambunctious?” In what world? And don’t give me the sarcasm thing; he’s too earnest. Church was basically singing acoustic lullabies to the crowd all night, so there really wasn’t anything…
