8 Best Concerts in Metro Phoenix This Weekend

Here are our picks for live music this weekend. For more options, visit our comprehensive calendar. Jill Scott – Friday, August 28 – Comerica Theatre R&B artist Jill Scott went from speaking her heartfelt thoughts to singing them, after she was discovered by Questlove from The Roots at a poetry reading…

Kid Rock – Ak-Chin Pavilion – August 26, 2015

Kid Rock is getting old. And he seems fully immersed in the phase where he really wants to explore his aging. If there was a pervasive sentiment to Wednesday night’s jam-packed show at Ak-Chin Pavilion, it was the idea that time changes a person. No earth-shattering news there, but at…

Mystic Braves Are Okay Being Called the “Mexican Beatles”

You can take one look at California band Mystic Braves and see the 1960s oozing from its members — from their shaggy bangs to their fashion sensibilities, which include everything from colorful striped pants to swirly paisley and floral-print shirts. The look is surely what helped inspire their landlord to…

Luna Aura Shines Her Light on the Phoenix Pop Music Scene

January marked one of the hardest moments of Luna Aura’s life: the tragic passing of the singer’s 15-year-old brother in an accident at a boys’ camp in northern Arizona. Instead of paying tribute to her sibling mournfully, the 22-year-old pop singer released an upbeat song she says her always-happy brother…

6 Best Concerts in Phoenix This Week

Here are our concert picks for this week. Check out our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. Roar – Crescent Ballroom – Monday, August 24 Changes are incoming for the band New Times awarded Best Local Band in our 2013 Best of Phoenix issue. Longtime bass player Aaron Burke is leaving…

Summer Slaughter Tour – Marquee Theatre – 8/20/2015

Metal is a way of life that isn’t suited for the average radio listener. It’s a genre that, more often than not, is in your face and relentlessly assaulting your ear-drums from the beginning of an album to its conclusion. Metal can be violent with its lyrical content and in its live…

Chris Cornell Concert at Orpheum Theatre Postponed

Chris Cornell’s concert on September 17 has been postponed until November 4. Tickets for the old date will be honored at the new one, and tickets can be returned at point of purchase if necessary. No reason was given for the announcement. So for now, just remember the time Cornell,…

Jesus and Mary Chain – Marquee Theatre – 8/14/2015

When you set about the task of marking a musically milestone 30 years in the making, you plan out carefully and try to execute to make the event a living embodiment of that landmark. The Jesus and Mary Chain did exactly that as it hit the stage of the Marquee…

Lindsey Stirling – Comerica Theatre – 8/13/15

“I call it my nerd medley,” Lindsey Stirling explained to the crowd at downtown Phoenix’s Comerica Theatre Thursday night after performing her own blend of the themes to video games The Legend of Zelda, Skyrim, Dragon Age, Halo, and Assassin’s Creed. She thanked her longtime gamer fans as well as…

George Clinton Funked Up the Pressroom Last Night

It’s not like George Clinton is underrated.  After all, Kendrick Lamar featured Clinton on the opening track of To Pimp a Butterfly, the very funky “Wesley’s Theory,” which finds Clinton spouting vintage P-Funk psychobabble — wise observations encased in psychedelic word play (“Lookin’ down, it’s quite a drop / Lookin’ good…

7 Best Concerts in Phoenix This Weekend

Be sure to browse our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. Circuit Des Yeux – Friday, August 14 – Valley Bar With the release of In Plain Speech, Circuit de Yeux singer Haley Fohr’s fearless forays into cinematic drone have shifted from solo production to collaboration inspired by collective living…

Screaming Females Is Done With Taylor Swift Covers

Together for a decade, with six albums and a whole lotta touring under their belt, New Jersey band Screaming Females aren’t losing any steam. In fact, they don’t seem to stop evolving into a stronger, more abominable force. Featuring Marissa Paternoster on guitar and vocals, King Mike on bass, and…

Heaters Explores the Darkest Recesses of Vintage Psych Rock

“It feels good to get into weird stuff,” Heaters bassist/vocalist Nolan Krebs says of the trio’s deep, spaced-out, fuzzy psychedelia, the kind that comes only from full immersion into the darkest recesses of the form. “It’s hard to say why that is, and I don’t think any of us feel…

Rock That Bleeds: Metz Will Bust Open Your Cranium

If you’re headbanging on stage and happen to smack your bass with your skull and split open your forehead, splattering blood all over yourself, what do you do? If you’re Metz’s Chris Slorach, it’s a no-brainer: You duct-tape that shit and keep going. The musically abrasive Toronto trio is bloodied…

Meat Loaf, Flo Rida, and More to Play 2015 Arizona State Fair

Leave it to the Arizona State Fair to bring in a consistently entertaining concert lineup each year.  Last year, the fair hosted Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, an d Wiz Khalifa. At one point, Nirvana played the fair.  The fair announced this year’s lineup today, and Meat Loaf, Flo…

5 Best Concerts In and Around Phoenix This Week

My Favorite 15 (Songs of All Time): AZ Record Label Edition – Monday, August 10 – Crescent Ballroom This cool concept night at Crescent Ballroom brings together five representatives from local record labels and asks them to curate a playlist of their 15 favorite songs. On the bill will be…

Concert Review: Fifth Harmony at Comerica Theatre

Do you know the secret language of hair flips? Ally Brooke Hernandez, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane Hansen, Camila Cabello, and Lauren Jauregui — the five ladies of Fifth Harmony — have the same length of locks. They reach just short of halfway down their backs. Most girls recognize this as…