The third annual Viva PHX festival will take over downtown Phoenix this Saturday, March 12, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever. With 70 bands spread across 17 venues in one night, there will be something for everyone. Whether your tastes are country and cumbia or hip-hop…
Looking for a great show to see this week? Here are our picks for the best concerts to see this week in Metro Phoenix. For more options, visit our comprehensive online concert calendar. Steep Canyon Rangers – Monday, March 7 – Musical Instrument Museum Approximately 73 million bands have formed…
Since branching out on her own from The Fiery Furnaces, Eleanor Friedberger has moved closer and closer to the classic-rock sound she grew up with. On New View, her third solo album, Friedberger puts her own spin on the sound of 1970s rock touchstones like George Harrison, Neil Young, Bob…
It’s a great month to be a music fan in Phoenix. The weather is (more or less) tolerable at the moment and the concert calendar is overflowing with “must see” shows featuring a staggering amount of tastemaking and chart-topping artists. Its due in part to the fact that Arizona just…
Phoenix’s own SXSW just got a little easier to plan. Viva PHX has released its official schedule, breaking down where and when the 70-plus acts will play next Saturday, March 12. Organizers have also added a new venue — Melinda’s Alley, the speakeasy bar beneath the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown. Fittingly,…
You’ve probably read numerous articles over the years that talk about the different pre-show rituals of popular musicians. For instance, Coldplay doesn’t take the stage without having a group hug (yes, you can gag if you want to). Others, who eat before performing, have specific things they like to ingest…
Saints and The Hellions – “Goodbye My Sorrow” Saints and The Hellions just released their debut EP Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles online and in record stores over the last few weeks and it’s a solid four-song punk rock affair from beginning to end. Saints and The Hellions are a…
March always brings a packed calendar of events to the Valley of the Sun — we have Spring Training, which brings more than 100 baseball games spread across a dozen fields, lots of outdoor festivals, and the calm before the 100 degree days. The spring also prompts bands out to…
Arizona, which can be somewhat of a mystery to the outside world, impacts musicians in ways that only the West can. For Brian Weitz, better known as Geologist and as one-fourth of Animal Collective, his academic stint at southern Arizona’s Biosphere, while a Columbia University undergrad, caused him to revisit…
After the carnage that was January 2016 when we lost David Bowie AND Glenn Frey and two members of the Jefferson Airplane on the same day, media outlets felt it was their duty to tell us that since they ain’t making classic rock musicians anymore, we’d better get used to losing…
With more than 30 years of making groundbreaking albums — including the latest, Shockwave Supernova — teaching a legion of future rock superstars (Steve Vai, Metallica’s Kurt Hammett), and supporting the upper echelon rock elite (Mick Jagger, Deep Purple), Joe Satriani should be a household name. Still, the strictly instrumental…
The Phoenix. A symbol of revival, of taking something that once was an all-powerful force and giving it new life. Phoenix, like the name of legendary guitarist/songwriter Peter Frampton’s favorite guitar (lost, reunited with Frampton 30 years later, and actually spelled “Phenix”). Also the name of one of the cities…
Sumerian Records, Ash Avildsen’s D.C./LA-based label, is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a home for metal and prog bands with a showcase tour featuring Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, After the Burial, ERRA, and Bad Omens. Sure, it’s been a while since finding a record label became something a…
East Valley residents will have one less place to celebrate during Saint Patrick’s Day later this month as one of the two R.T. O’Sullivan’s in Mesa is no longer in business. The Stapley Road location of the Irish-themed pub and sports bar reportedly closed recently after four years of serving…
Love him or hate, you cannot deny the artistic impact of Kanye West. Since his debut album, The College Dropout, came out in 2004, West has managed to influence and sculpt the hip-hop world, whether is through the speed-up soul sampling of his early days to his avant-garde, auto tune-heavy sound of…
Lita Ford picked up the guitar when she was 11 and has been shredding the hell out of it ever since. As a kid, she was inspired by classic rock and spent hours learning her favorite songs, and jamming with other musicians in her California ‘hood. In 1975, at age…
For my money McDowell Mountain Music Festival – taking place Friday, March 11, through Sunday, March 13 – is the best festival in the Valley by far. The first festival I ever went to was Bonnaroo 2011, and those four days on the farm changed my entire life, and while 3MF…
It is clear that hip-hop star Fetty Wap likes to have fun whenever and however he can, a face that was apparent prior to his concert at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe this past Friday. When I first drove up to the venue, a small crowd of a people was…
Punk rock music blares from a scrappy classroom inside the Phoenix Center for the Arts, but inside isn’t a pierced, tatted-up group of Kurt Cobain-looking rockers, but a group of adolescent girls. On February 27, Girls Rock! Phoenix hosted it’s first official rock and roll camp. Girls Rock is a…
Looking for a great show to see this week? Here are our picks for the best concerts to see this week in Metro Phoenix. For more options, visit our extensive online concert calendar. Mutemath – Tuesday, March 1 – Crescent Ballroom The emotional documentary-style short film for Mutemath’s latest single,…
Major changes are afoot along Grand Avenue in downtown Phoenix these. New businesses and art spaces — such as Tuft and Needle’s new showroom and galleries like Chartreuse and Unexpected Art — have been debuting along the thoroughfare the last several months, helping to bring a new life and energy…
Think the idea of a Donald Trump as president is the absolute worst? As repugnant as the billionaire blowhard and bigot might seem, however, he ain’t got nothing on the late Andrew Jackson. Our country’s seventh president was an all-around vile bastard and tyrant who gladly endorsed slavery, locked up…
