George Strait US Airways Center 2/7/2014 How many songs does an artist have to play to make a great concert? 15? That’s pretty sub-par for a headliner, but some acts skate by on it. 20? There are many renowned tenured musicians who operate at that number. With a reputation in…
If you’ve been waiting for the venue schedules and lineups for the Viva PHX to be announced, said wait is now over. Stateside Presents, which is co-promoting the one-night downtown Phoenix music festival on Friday, March 7, with New Times, released the set times and locations this afternoon. Better start…
When you listen to Mind Over Matter, the new album from Young the Giant, it is impossible not to notice the different energy coursing through the band’s collective vein. With his throaty cries, frontman Sameer Gadhia sounds as if he’s expelling personal demons, and Mind undeniably is more propulsive than…
Hear that? It’s the clock counting down the hours until your weekend begins and it’s nearing the magic moment known as quitting time. To help the time pass more quickly, you might consider what it is you’ll actually be doing during the next couple days and nights of work-free bliss…
Without using too much hyperbole, there is an outstanding number of great concerts happening this month — and they represent a wide variety of genres and styles. The offerings ain’t just indie and alt-folk, but also include upcoming shows by rock royalty (Pixies, Cibo Matto), a king of country (George…
Despite the chill in the air, many of you have been champing at the bit to slip on a wifebeater, draw Xs on the back of your hands, and slam-dance to classic East Coast hardcore and old-school straight-edge thrash. When Boston’s Slapshot makes its first trip to the desert in…
Those who have come to know The Motet as an Afro-centric band should be happy with the band’s directional shift on its eponymous new album. While the African influences that gave the Boulder, Colorado, group its footing in the 1990s can still be heard, The Motet has morphed into a…
What did you wind up doing this past weekend? Yeah, we’re sure in all likelihood that y’all took time out to watch the big game (and that big, lopsided slaughter that went along with it) or attending one of the many parties being thrown in its honor. We got to…
Want to get in a show this week? There are plenty of concerts over the next five days around Metro Phoenix to choose from, as you can see for yourself by viewing our extensive online concert listings. And we’re fairly certain that there’s something for everyone, regardless of your particular…
TKLB? F-Bom Residency Long Wong’s 1/31/14 Kalen Lander, known to many in the local music scene as TKLB?, wrapped up his Friday “F-Bom” residency at Long Wong’s Tempe last night, and it was quite the epic finale. The Tempe indie rapper, who’s the brother of The Sugar Thieves’ Mikel Lander,…
Weezer Coors Light Birds Nest at Waste Management Phoenix Open 1/30/14 As the famous 20th Century Fox fanfare played and the lights dimmed inside the Coors Light Birds Nest at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Friday night, the crowd might have expected Weezer to greet them with all the…
In case you’ve been avoiding the Internet the past several days, thanks for coming back. Now let’s catch up: The Grammys went down on Sunday night (with all the schwag such an industry fete entails) and people are talking about it. While much of the post-Grammy discussion has centered on…
Jake Owen Coors Light Birds Nest at Waste Management Phoenix Open 1/30/14 Country music fans definitely know a thing or two about having a good time — and Thursday night’s concert by Jake Owen inside the Coors Light Birds Nest at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was no exception. Everyone…
Hear that? It’s the clock counting down the hours until your weekend begins and it’s nearing the magic moment known as quitting time. To help the time pass more quickly, you might consider what it is you’ll actually be doing during the next couple days and nights of work-free bliss…
Captain Squeegee Crescent Ballroom 1/29/14 If David Gilmour and Jerry Garcia linked up in Phoenix and decided to begin playing jazz music, it’s a safe bet that said collaboration would sound something like Captain Squeegee. The local atomic jazz-fusion act, still riding high following the release of their sophomore album,…
Local band Dirty Hairy is a bit of an anomaly. Led by frontman H. Shelton Valentine, a raspy-voiced punk rock dervish in the body of an aspiring Buddha, the band cranks out some of the most questionable covers you could imagine, along with a smattering of punk/metal hybrid originals. And…
Skinny Puppy Marquee Theatre 1/27/14 “Do you like Skinny Puppy?” It’s a question that was posed to me at a warehouse rave somewhere in the Midwest in the late ’90s by a fellow wearing combat boots, black BDU cutoffs, and long black dreads atop an otherwise shaved head. He had…
Many a moneymaker got shaken this past weekend, and not just at the various dance clubs dotting the Metro Phoenix night scene. A few off-the-chain and off-the-radar dance parties took place around downtown Phoenix, ranging from the rave-like affair The Underground at The Pressroom to the industrial-strength fun of Fallout.Shelter…
There’s going to be a war going on inside Club Red tomorrow night — and your cochlea may not survive the battle. The Tempe music venue will play host to representatives of some of the music world’s most heaviest and hardest music genres — including Portland’s Toxic Holocaust and Northern…
Want to get in a show this week? There are plenty of concerts and live gigs over the next five days around Metro Phoenix to choose from, as you can see for yourself by viewing our extensive online concert listings. And we’re fairly certain that there’s something for everyone, regardless…
The Rebel Set, The Oakland Raiders, Freaks of Nature Rogue Bar 1/24/2014 There were a few lessons to be gleaned from The Rebel Set’s record release show at the Rogue Bar on Friday night. The sound guy, for example, learned in the middle of the second set, that one might…
Something especially insidious will be lurking just beneath downtown Phoenix after darkness falls weekend. But before you ask, it’s not a C.H.U.D., Balrog, or hellspawn. More like a slew of sinister subterranean creatures of a more fetishistic and rivethead bent. Specifically, we’re referring to the throng of pleather-clad freaks and…
