He’s called himself a cowboy, an American badass, and a host of other names over the years, all in his mission to let us know his one unmistakable message: Kid Rock is an outlaw. He’s done his best to cut a wide swath in the music world, making a splash…
Only one of the shows in this week’s Top Five Must-See Phoenix Shows This Week will feed the homeless, but I don’t think you should really hold that against the other four. I guess it’s harder not to hold it against the other four when it’s framed that way. But…
Have you ever played a Final Fantasy game? If you have, you’ll know that many-if-not-all of them involve collecting an arbitrary number of crystals that a megalomaniacal villain is also chasing, so that they won’t fall into the wrong hands and be used to enslave the world or shoot down…
You missed your chance, over the weekend, to indulge in some multi-band ’60s nostalgia, but tonight, Crescent Ballroom will make up for it by allowing you to resurrect old arguments about whether remaking “Pretty in Pink” was a bad idea (and then, inevitably, whether the end of Pretty in Pink…
At the Happy Together tour, which passed through Talking Stick Resort over the weekend, it’s only natural for a charged-up boomer audience to close its eyes and imagine itself back in the ’60s. But you wonder how many fans closed their eyes, thought they were back home watching a PBS…
Peter MurphyCrescent BallroomSaturday, July 13, 2013 (View the full slideshow.) On Saturday night, goth’s godfather, Peter Murphy, brought his Mr. Moonlight tour to the Crescent Ballroom, celebrating 35 years of Bauhaus, one of the biggest names in early gothic rock. The band formed in ’78 and saw their first breakup…
The B-52’s and The Go-Go’sTalking Stick Resort, ScottsdaleJuly 12, 2013 (View the full slideshow. Two of the bigger names in the ’80s New Wave scene packed Talking Stick Resort Friday night as the B-52’s and the Go-Go’s paid a visit to the Scottsdale casino. As expected, there were plenty of…
MelvinsCrescent BallroomJuly 12, 2013 It might be a good idea to take a drive by the Crescent Ballroom this morning and see if that place is still standing. I am pretty sure that the Melvins’ blistering delivery of their noisy, sludge-y, smart, thick, and furious blend of motherfucking ROCK left…
Black Flag Club Red Thursday, July 11, 2013 The idea of Black Flag coming to town works in principle. Seeing the remnants of an iconic punk band that hasn’t performed in Phoenix in decades sounds good in theory, but the reality is that Black Flag has gone through so many…
Nostalgia acts are heartier than the rest of us. Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé booked themselves all the way into December, when Phoenicians will once again gloat about the weather; everywhere else across the music-act spectrum, things seem to be slowing down, hibernating. But if you’re into campy, accomplished new wave,…
by Chaz Kangas Everybody’s favorite boy band template New Kids on the Block have been taking the stage all summer for their tour with 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men. (They’re coming to Jobing.com Arena on Sunday, July 14.) While most of our New Kids memories could be attributed to…
The B-52s’ funky, flirty and groovalicious party sound is as unmistakable today as it was when the band formed unexpectedly in 1976 after founding members Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, and Cindy and Ricky Wilson downed a flaming volcano drink at an Athens, Georgia restaurant. “We never planned on…
If you’ve been following the hugely popular video-game music scene over the past few years, you’ve no doubt known what a chiptune is. If you have, and you have any self-respect, you won’t admit it. If you’re a normal adult, meanwhile, you have no idea what I’m talking about. Allow…
Spend some time with the guys from Slightly Stoopid, and you’re bound to walk away with a fascination for the band’s business model and a new cologne — of the skunk variety. For almost 15 years the members of Slightly Stoopid have made music together, and somehow they’ve perfected one…
Currents, the latest from indie darlings Eisley, is the sound of a band that’s free at last. At least, that’s the subtext — not just a sense of freedom from Warner Bros., after a brief major-label stint, but also the freedom of having gotten 2011’s bitter, angst-ridden The Valley out…
I can’t really blame Yes for not thinking about this back in 1968, when they formed, but if I were their SEO consultant at the time I would have strongly suggested they go with something that was a little easier to Google. Like “Future Loves Past” or — even better…
Being a rock fan in the early ’70s meant never knowing a year when rock wasn’t moving forward — when newer and bolder innovations weren’t always just around the corner. Yes took the burgeoning progressive rock movement further — and with a longer running time — than anyone else had…
Thousands of people showed up for the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival on Friday, from all walks of life–five-year-olds with their parents all the way to couples pushing 60, meatheads and meth-heads, respected industry figures and pierced and tattooed punks–but there was one definite commonality. All of them came out…
For some party monsters in Scottsdale, the Revolutionary War apparently never ended. It’s been exactly 230 years since the storied conflict with the forces of King George III that gave birth to our nation officially drew to a close, a fact that didn’t seem to matter to a few of…
Dust off your chain wallet: Everclear, Live, Filter, and Sponge are coming to Tempe tonight. Nah, just kidding. There is way more to do than just dust off your chain wallet. To pay proper homage to this packaged concert tour, there are some more fashion details to consider. It’s kind…
Eventually, every single musical variable collapses into time. Live fans and Filter fans and Everclear fans might not have gotten along especially well in the ’90s, but here in the unfamiliar ‘teens (are we going with ‘teens? aught-teens?) they are all bands who were on the radio back when you…
“Late ’90s Confusion Pop” is a genre term that may have been coined, originally, by my friend Daniel Schurgin of the band Gay Kiss. It describes a series of mainstream alt-rock acts from the late ’90s who released very accessible pop hits and whose influences seem myriad to the point…
