Jane Lynch should have a show on NPR. After seeing her performance “See Jane Sing!” at the Virginia G. Piper Theatre at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, I felt like I saw the jazz equivalent of A Prairie Home Companion with one gay joke and some cussing thrown…
Here are our concert picks for this week. Check out our comprehensive concert listings for more options. All Them Witches – Tuesday, January 26 – Rebel Lounge The quiet, almost Americana-ish intro to All Them Witches’ latest album, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, is something of a false lead. Beginning…
Here are our picks for best concerts in Phoenix this weekend. Check out our comprehensive concert listings for more options. Chief Keef – Friday, January 22 – Livewire Chief Keef caught Interscope’s eye (and everyone else’s) after a raw, ghetto-chic music video for his song “I Don’t Like,” featuring Lil’…
There has always been a bluesy edge to Big Head Todd & The Monsters’ ever-expanding sound. Now, more than 30 years after forming in Boulder, Colorado, the band’s 2014 blues-infused Black Beehive and the recent Live at Red Rocks June 6, 2015, serve as strong affirmation of the band’s roots…
Coachella has not been the kindest to rock en español fans these past few years. Sure, Venezuelan funky acid-jazzers Los Amigos Invisibles played the festival’s first year, in 1999. Then the following year featured L.A.’s cross-cultural music circus of Ozomatli along with Tijuana’s beat-heavy-banda grupo Nortec Collective. Then, all the…
During a conversation with singer/songwriter Mike Doughty, two things come to his delightfully twisted mind about playing music in Phoenix: “Shopping at Zia Records” and being here “when it was 125 degrees outside.” Luckily for Doughty, who is playing Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix on Sunday, January 24, he can…
Here are our picks for best concerts in Phoenix this week. Browse our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. The Maension – Joe’s Grotto – Monday, January 18 The Maension plays an intriguing combination of ’90s grunge and ’00s nu-metal, filled with slogging, heavy riffs and hard-hitting breakdowns that brings…
Last Saturday, 25 local musicians met at Crescent Ballroom to become five randomly selected bands, each tasked with creating three new songs and tackling a cover by the time the evening’s show began. For the third year in a row, the Phoenix Rock Lottery was another rousing success, with pretty stunning results…
Say what you want about the quality of Weezer’s new material, you have to hand it to the band: They sure keep their nose to the grindstone. Weezer is set to release its 10th studio album in 2016, just two years after releasing its previous album, and has announced a…
The song has one of those universally recognizable intros that everyone who has ever listened to the radio or streaming music has heard. It opens with an iconic bass line, followed by echoing finger pops, and the opening vocals, “I got sunshine on a cloudy day.” Few songs more epitomize…
Looking for something to do this weekend? Look no further. Here are the best concerts happening in Metro Phoenix this weekend. Check out our comprehensive online concert calendar for even more live music options. Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour – Friday, January 15 – Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts…
For years, Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch have worked as a team writing acclaimed and, at times, harrowing songs bridging the country music world and the back porches of Appalachia. In this context, almost exclusively, Welch has been the lead voice. It is a rare and blessed occasion when Rawlings…
When I first interviewed Ben Haggerty, better known as Macklemore, a little over three years ago, my first call to him was marked by the appearance of his alter ego Raven Bowie, who picked up the phone and hammered out a series of unintelligible words in a heavy British accent…
Queensrÿche is a band that has had its fair share of ups and downs, especially in the past decade. Since its birth in 1982, the American metal act has released 14 studio albums, one of which was ’88’s Operation: Mindcrime, considered one of the best concept albums of all time…
The College Football Playoff National Championship game won’t be the only battle of brawn hitting Phoenix this weekend. CAMPVS, a Universal Music Group-backed company that brought universities across the country Battle of the Bands and MovieFest, is hosting the final throw down for its EDM competition right in the heart…
Representatives of every punk subscene will be at Leftover Crack’s gig at Mesa’s Nile Theater. The reason being is that Leftover Crack is really good at being punk. There are a lot of bands that describe themselves as makers of punk rock, but very few of them embody the attitude…
Phoenix music fans love visiting our kindred desert sister city of Indio for Coachella, and the lineup for the mega-festival published yesterday. In addition to headliners LCD Soundsystem and Guns N’ Roses — both groups haven’t played publicly in years, and remember when LCD Soundsystem “retired”? — some big names…
Here are our picks for best concerts to catch around town this week. For more options, check out our comprehensive concert calendar. Puddles Pity Party – Crescent Ballroom – Monday, January 4 It could be said that a lot of clowns grace the stage at Crescent Ballroom, but just over…
Happy New Year, metal music lovers! From one metalhead to another, I hope your 2015 closed out on a happy note, filled with love, many cheers, and great music. While 2015 was a year for the books when it came to metal in the Valley — just check out the…
The year 2015 A.D. is pretty much in the books, so its time to turn the page and start looking ahead at what’s on tap for the new year, starting with the first “can’t miss” concerts that will kick things off. And during the first weekend of 2016, that includes…
It could be said that a lot of clowns grace the stage at Crescent Ballroom, but just over a year ago, the term held a little more weight when Puddles Pity Party visited for a fun night of music and, uh, you know, clowning around. Puddles himself is a sad…
Only a handful of days remain until 2015 turns into 2016 and there happens to be great concerts and live music events to check out almost every night. That’s especially true of Thursday, December 31, as tons of local bands and DJs will be out celebrating the occasion. Check out…
