Concerts and Tours

Last Exit Live to Open on March 22

There's been a growing cacophony coming from inside Last Exit Live in recent weeks, including plenty of banging, thumping, and grinding. Such clamor isn't from any ear-crunching local hard rock acts testing out the soon-to-open downtown Phoenix bar and music joint, however, but rather from a flurry ... More >>

Rebelution: Reggae Rockers Brave Cold Season for Winter Greens Tour

While Mother Nature continues to wreak havoc on our thermostats, most people are bundling up and keeping indoors during the chilly season. Everyone except California-based reggae rockers Rebelution that is. The Santa Barbara-natives are ditching the warm embrace of their sandy sunny digs to embark o ... More >>

Valley Metal Act Blessedbethyname Returns for Benefit Show

The terms "black metal" and "benefit show" may not seem like they go hand-in-hand, but you'd be amazed at the amount of love coursing through veins of local act Blessedbethyname. This industrial black metal band is one of the best known metal bands to come out of the Valley of the Sun, where they ... More >>

Bounce Music Festival @ Mesa Amphitheatre

Citizen Cope, Marquee Theatre, 9/25/12

Citizen Cope @ Marquee Theatre| 9/25/12I understand that going to a concert isn't like going to the movies. What I want to know is why. Why should it be any different? You pay more for concert tickets. You're expected to behave in a particular fashion during them. But Citizen Cope's performance ... More >>

Judd Makes Its Songs Up on the Spot

When most bands perform, they've had plenty of time to rehearse their set and get it down perfectly before getting on-stage. For the members of Judd, they won't have any idea what lyrics or melody they're singing until their show, and that's how they like it.

Metal Band Vektor Goes Back to the Future

Fear and Loathing Music Festival @ Club Red

Banda La Llegadora Bring Best Of Sound to La Casa del Mariachi

Best of Phoenix winners, Banda La Llegadora, charge a pretty penny for their services: Something to the tune of $600 per hour the last time we checked. The whopping fee fetches you a Mexican musical menagerie that really know how to carry a puro pinche parii. Lucky for you, the troupe frequents loc ... More >>

Nicki Minaj Is Bringing Her "Pink Friday" Tour to Phoenix

Hip-hop superstar Nicki Minaj is bringing her "Pink Friday" tour to Phoenix on Tuesday, August 7, at Comerica Theatre. The 14-date North American tour finds her skipping some pretty big cities (L.A. and Philadelphia get radio shows) on her first headlining tour, but returning to Phoenix after suppo ... More >>

Sandy Point

Rock the Block

Up on the Sun: The Podcast, with Howe Gelb, Black Milk, and More

Welcome to the first episode of Up on the Sun's new weekly podcast, Up on the Sun: The Podcast. In this week's episode, we speak with Detroit MC and producer Black Milk about his collaborations with Danny Brown, and the "Detroit sound." We also speak with Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, about his new rec ... More >>

Weekend: Keith Sweat, Adam Warrock, Hugh Cornwell & Glen Matlock, Treasure Fingers, Arizona Legends

Say "Sex Pistols" and the names Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten might come to mind. Less likely is someone shouting out, "Glen Matlock." But they should; not only is he the band's original bassist, but drummer Paul Cook suggests he wrote most of the songs on the infamous Never Mind the Bollocks, Here' ... More >>

Fountain of Truth

Powersurge Music Festival @ Madison Event Center

They Might Be Giants' John Linnell: "It Can Be Really Hard to Play For Kids"

30 years is a long time. You might think that after 30 years in a career as unique and unpredictable as They Might Be Giants, (college rockers to children's rockers) principals John Linnell and John Flansburgh might be wondering how much longer they can keep it up, but that's not the case according ... More >>

Fishbone, The Lesser Saints, WTFunk Fridays, Leo Kottke, and Willy Tea Taylor This Weekend

​It's another packed weekend in the Valley. Tonight, Sound Striker-Immortal Technique performs a benefit show at the Puente Office, and Mr. Meeble brings its crazy-as-hell laser show to Crescent Ballroom. On Saturday, you've got folk from Loudon Wainwright III and John Prine, and funky pop cou ... More >>

Las Vegas 48 Hours Festival: The Best and Worst of the Debauchery, Bands and Backstage

​48 Hours Festival was insane. Picture this: more than 20 heavy-hitting rock bands, VIP pool cabanas in the middle of a Vegas parking lot, and lounges with such names as Debauchery and the Godfather, moonshine, strippers, and massages, all fenced in at the Luxor Festival Grounds in Las Vegas. ... More >>

Iamwe Use Indie Rock to Tell the Tale of a 100-Year-Old English Woman

Deadmau5 Rocks Parties and Bodies

Summer Concert Survival Guide

Wikimedia CommonsOutdoor concerts: Survival of the fittest.​As temperatures continue to rocket upwards of triple digits here in the Valley, the idea of going to an all-day concert at an outdoor venue sounds like an adventure in masochism. Today, the Rockstar Mayhem Festival (featuring Disturbed ... More >>

Phoenix Rockers This Century to Kick Off National Tour in Scottsdale

This Century​The Young & Useless Tour may not be so aptly named. While the performers -- Austin Gibbs, Carter Hulsey, and headliners This Century -- are young, they're not exactly useless. Locals This Century, in particular, has been generating buzz around their feelgood, melodic indie rock. A ... More >>

The Whisperlights @ The Duce

Sound Strike Responds To One-Sided Salon.com Article

Zack's been coming to AZ long before 1070 was an issueWhen I read the recent Salon.com article "How a boycott meant to save Arizona is hurting it," I wondered to myself how its author, a woman by the name of Drew Grant, ended up writing such an insipid, one-sided piece about the Sound Strike, a piec ... More >>

Janet Jackson

Enrique Iglesias Bails on Britney Spears' Tour in No Time Flat

​Enrique Iglesias wasn't down to be on board with Britney for an upcoming tour after all, according to the Amplifier.Only two hours after Britney made the tour announcement on Good Morning America, Enrique bailed from Britney's tour, and I sure don't blame him.Enrique dropped out without an explan ... More >>

Lady Gaga @ US Airways Center

311 @ Marquee Theatre

Coachella 2011 Official Lineup Announced

​In perfect Girl Talk fashion, the good people of Goldenvoice set up a surprise late night release of Coachella's overwhelmingly impressive lineup.Many of Michael Lopez's lineup predictions were spot on. The Strokes made the cut, as did Duran Duran, although on a different day than what Billboard ... More >>

Dispatch Announce Summer Tour

​It's official: Dispatch will be touring this summer. Indeed, a reunion is in order.The band made the announcement after an ongoing countdown on their website that ended at midnight on New Years Eve.Sorry, Phoenix, but they're not coming here. They will be at Red Rocks though.

Scottsdale’s Ultimate Block Party @ Craftsman Court

Jimmy Eat World, Rx Bandits, Ed Kowalczyk, and Other New Year's Eve Concert Options

Rx Bandits are scheduled to perform on Friday, December 31, at Scottsdale's Ultimate Block Party.​Without being too hyperbolic, New Year's Eve is a major night when it comes to revelry. Besides the endless amounts of nightclub events and parties that will take place in an around the PHX, some big ... More >>

Taylor Swift to Headline Country Thunder 2011 in Arizona?

​Taylor Swift may be headlining the 2011 version of the Country Thunder music festival in Arizona.The event's organizers sent out a press releases today announcing the dates for the annual hootenanny: April 7-10, in Florence where the festival has been staged at Canyon Moon Ranch since outgrowing ... More >>

Blue Oyster Cult, & Foghat @ Celebrity Theatre

X Japan Is the Biggest Rock Band in Their Homeland -- Can They Finally Break Through in the States?

The Maine Plot Massive National Tour with Never Shout Never

​The Maine are playing a much-hyped show at The Nile Theatre in Mesa next Friday.Actually, though, that's just the mid-point in a massive tour to promote their Billboard-charting second album Black & White. They team up with Never Shout Never for a tour of small theaters and large clubs starti ... More >>

The Big Event

Matt Hires

George Wendt

Shake! Down

William Reed’s five-year-old baby goes out with a loud bang

What about Bob?

Folk rock legend finally gives Phoenix a show

Strange As Angels

Motörhead meets Mr. Rogers at cave-jam dance party

The Big Boss Man

Massive Attack

Here come the big boys of summer

Cause Célèbre

Do-gooders spread the wealth with unorthodox rock fest

If It Ain't Baroque, Fix It