Look, there's no sugar coating it. The closure of the Trunk Space earlier this year was a major bummer for the Phoenix arts community. There are plenty of places to see shows in town — great places, in fact — but the Trunk Space was a special case, a place for sometimes unrefined creativity, open to all ages, and catering to the far out, weird, and earnest. While there's hope that the venue will relocate from its Grand Avenue digs, in the meantime the Trunk Space staff has dedicatedly hosted pop-up shows at places like 51 West, the Newton, and the Coronado. The roving shows have helped keep the spirit of the Trunk Space alive, but luckily its legacy extends beyond even those gigs, apparent in the vibrant work of bands like iji, Dogbreth, and AJJ, all of which got their start at the Trunk Space, where they developed, grew, and learned lessons which are now registering on a national stage.