Flogging Molly Tempe Beach Park Saturday, March 17, 2012 Owwwww… St. Patrick’s Day is the one day a year where we confuse the warm fuzzies we have for our fellow man for outright hostility. It’s also the one day a year we get to punish our bodies for being Irish…
See also: Clubhouse Music Venue Closes It has been almost two weeks since gang-related gunfire erupted outside the Nipsey Hussle show at The Clubhouse in Tempe, wounding 15 and placing a scar on the face of an otherwise admirable venue. Last Friday, owner Eugenia Ruven was arrested for “failing to…
Fashion experts may tell you that the casual blazer-and-jeans look is going out of style, but apparently bow ties, bare chests and denim will never go away. That’s thanks to the touring troupe of oiled-up abs that is the Chippendales dance revue. As any bachelorette in Las Vegas will tell…
Fabulous Thunderbirds Crescent Ballroom Friday, March 9, 2012 Last night, Crescent Ballroom officially was broken in. Forget the too-cool-for-school crowd. Once a bunch of ladies exiting middle age get drunk and dance at the front of the room, you no longer have the shiniest new venue in town. And, yeah,…
Behold, sluts! You can now combine your love of live music with your desire to get the government to cover your floozy behavior. Just kidding. Sort of. On March 15, those of you who aren’t at Radiohead can visit Crescent Ballroom with Crash Coordinates, French Girls, Chicano Power Revival, Barefoot…
Nuns make perfect athletes. No, really. When you spend your day living sin-free, there’s little room slothful moments in front of the TV, painfully lusting over that latest Ryan Gosling interview. They take the high road. Plus, the no sex thing probably drives a bit of healthy aggression when training…
Since spiraling into the seemingly imminent demise of all Valley radio stations into a “classic” rock format, X103.9’s trademark shows have had the choice to go extinct or find a new way to get the alt out. Former X103.9 DJ Craven Moorehead, who hosted the popular Ska Punk Show for nearly…
The recipe for caramel is mindbogglingly simple, but even the easiest recipes can get botched. The candy can be burned, scorched and ruined if it rises just a few degrees over 250, even though at its foundation, candy caramel is comprised of nothing but sugar, butter, cream and vanilla. Head…
Three-chord alternative isn’t new, especially in Tempe. In the ’90s, bands like The Refreshments and Gin Blossoms rode the style all the way to the major-label bank. Unfortunately for Darkness Dear Boy, they seem to be running a couple of decades behind. But the Tempe-based band, which just celebrated its…
Phillip Hanna is recently single and on the prowl. After spending six years with Tempe indie outfit Tugboat, the keyboardist and his longtime collaborative partner, Wayne Jones, have decided to go their separate ways. Musically, that is. The duo and their band will play three final shows, one in each Arizona town…
Drag queens are some of the most confident people you’ll ever meet. As they saunter about, lip syncing to Gloria Estefan’s “Get on Your Feet,” a kind of beauty emerges that has nothing to do with the layers upon layers of makeup they’re wearing. That inner glow is pride. The…
There’s no quicker way to alienate listeners than to be so pretentious as to describe a band as an “experience,” “lifestyle,” or “state of mind.” Still, despite the groans the following statement may elicit, there’s no way to get around it: Boys and Frogs is more than a band; it’s…
Here’s a familiar story: Conservative candidate plays a rock song at a rally, liberal artist complains. Ronny Reagan and Bruce Springsteen. Mike Huckabee and Boston. Michele Bachmann and Tom Petty. Ron Paul, on the other hand, has a handful of diehard musician fans that are willing to travel and perform…
If a tourist were to walk through downtown Scottsdale without previous conceptions, she might think something along the lines of, “Wow. These Affliction-wearing club hoppers are really fond of bronze statues of horses.” We’d politely disagree, and note that those statues are representative of a cowboy culture that once thrived…
Despite the genre’s radical roots, there’s something about modern reggae that makes it difficult for fans of classic reggae to fully embrace. Perhaps because it’s so easy to denigrate modern reggae as passionless music for stoners — smoke weed, tinker with a guitar, and become a rock star. Mix the…
Arizona is pretty much as Southwest as it gets. What other state can claim Southwestern staples like the OK Corral, Grand Canyon and SB 1070. (We said claim, not be proud of.) It’s only natural that our local bands get some serious stage presence at SxSW, Austin’ yearly arts and music…
Without music education, it’s safe to say there would be no Bears of Manitou. To help foster the local talent of the future, the band is pairing with Ear Candy Charity, a local nonprofit that seeks monetary and musical instrument donations to help with Arizona’s dismal arts education funding, for…
Portraying avid ren fair attendees as basement-dwelling Dungeons and Dragons aficionados who relish the opportunity to use their year-round neckbeards for a purpose is a little shortsighted. Maybe they do dress up, throw on cheap English accents, and use words like verily. Big deal. If we learned anything from the…
Roll Acosta, Field Tripp, and The Foleys Rogue BarFriday, February 3When you first think about modern, professional Beatles cover bands, you’ll likely think of a few things. Primarily, middle-aged men will use any excuse to wear a Sgt. Pepper’s jacket. They’ll also take any opportunity to speak in a Liverpool…
Before the Corporatization of Mill Avenue, the Tempe party center was more about music and less about $3 Long Islands. But the Downtown Tempe Community is looking to bring the street back to its roots with Music on Mill, a weekly music series on Thursday nights that has been a…
When you watch Columbian singer Shakira swing her hips on stage, you’d think she was the greatest thing to happen to belly dancing since the Victorians bastardized the traditional Middle Eastern dance by literally baring bellies. Yet the rules of the USA Belly Dance Queen 2012 Show at Wild Horse…
A little editing sure goes a long way. Not long ago, the members of Phoenix-based dance-rockers Factories used to be in a band called Underwater Getdown, a group with great sounds as unfocused as they were chaotically beautiful. Inspired by the disparate sounds of improvisational jam bands and indie-rock acts,…
