Billy Joel turned 65 years old on May 9. When you’re as old as he is, you retire, have a party, collect your pension, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. But when you’re the sixth best-selling recording artist of all time, you just keep on working. The audience at…
The sold-out audience talked back to sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg in Swedish accents, which caused the siblings, better known collectively as First Aid Kit, to blush and laugh. The duo, who are in their early 20s, stepped onto the stage of the Crescent Ballroom to a crowd that knew…
If you had never laid eyes on singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons, you’d never think that his wispy delicate voice came from the body that walked on stage. When he entered. his large tattooed arms carried his guitar while his worn-looking boots stomped across the Crescent Ballroom. He glanced at the audience…
I love Billy Joel. I can get pretentious about the music I like, but at the end of the day, I always go back to the Piano Man. He could be soft or edgy. Songs like “Pressure” were futuristic and others like “Uptown Girl” could wax nostalgic. He was the…
Looking at local musician Brian Chartrand’s musical biography, you might say he has an identity crisis. There are his solo acoustic releases, which include his unique arrangements of well-known songs from contemporary artists as well as strong guitar work on his original numbers. There’s his work with the critically-acclaimed local…
It was 10 years ago when indie rock started to seep into pop culture. The Internet had emerged as a way to distribute music (legally and illegally) and became a barometer for 20-somethings who wanted to discover something new and obscure. The popular television show The O.C. was actually shining…
In 2004, singer-songwriter Matt Pond quietly released his critically acclaimed fifth album Emblems with his band, Matt Pond PA. Documenting the artist’s stressful relocation to Brooklyn from Philadelphia, the album delved into the creative highs and lonely lows of a new city. It showcased a musician at an artistic peak…
At first glance, the image appeared to be just another photo, the kind of day-to-day self-documenting that floods online interactions these days: A young man sitting on a chair holding a guitar against bare white walls. Around him are keyboards, amps, and other equipment. It could have been anyone: someone…
Say you’ve been waiting for your favorite band to perform at a music festival. You’ve spent some time scoping out the best spot on the lawn, and you’ve sacrificed any object you can spare to carve out your spot. It’s a tough decision to give it up to check out…
As Bombay Bicycle Club singer Jack Steadman walked up to the microphone in the middle of the band’s show, he lifted his hands above his head. The sound of a church organ filled the crowded Crescent Ballroom as his bandmates slowly worked toward the finale of the title track of…
Broken Bells Marquee Theater 4/10/2014 There’s a line from the LCD Soundsystem song “Drunk Girls” that resonated through Broken Bells’ show last night at the Marquee Theatre: “Drunk Girls know that love is an astronaut / It comes back but it’s never the same.” It was clear that the duo,…
Those who follow the music charts across the pond were surprised when Bombay Bicycle Club’s fourth album, So Long, See You Tomorrow, debuted at the top. For purveyors of fine indie music, the band’s first No. 1 album didn’t seem like a shock at all. The young eclectic quartet, who…
Punk pioneer Jonathan Richman looked small on the stage at Crescent Ballroom last December with an acoustic guitar and his drummer, Tommy Larkins. The crowd shouted requests at him in hopes that he would play something by Richman’s seminal 1970s band the Modern Lovers. He appeased them by putting a…
When it was announced in 2009 that James Mercer from The Shins and producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton were going to collaborate under the moniker Broken Bells, it seemed like another interesting experiment in a year glutton with odd collaborations (Monsters of Folk, anyone?)…
STS9, Gramatik, Lettuce McDowell Mountain Music Festival 2014 3/28/14 It was a great spring night to spend outdoors at Hance Park for day one of the McDowell Mountain Music Festival before the brutal summer swoops in for the next six months or so. There was an excitement in the air…
The headliners at each year’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival have always been a little hard to classify or pigeonhole into a certain genre, much like the annual three-day event itself. Ditto for singer/songwriter Dwight Yoakam, who ostensibly can be classified as country-rock, but doesn’t easily fit easily into either category…
Liquid Sol Music Festival Sportsman’s Park in Glendale 3/15/14 Nostalgia was one of the many themes at Liquid Sol Music Festival on Saturday at Sportman’s Park in Glendale. It was arguably one of the last nice days before the summer heat starts to bloom, and the daylong festival was the…
Augustines Crescent Ballroom 2/15/14 You should never mess with a band’s encore. If you do, it might lead to some unexpected consequences, like with what happened at the end of last night’s Augustines show at the end of last night’s Augustines show. As midnight approached at the Crescent Ballroom on…
Weezer Coors Light Birds Nest at Waste Management Phoenix Open 1/30/14 As the famous 20th Century Fox fanfare played and the lights dimmed inside the Coors Light Birds Nest at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Friday night, the crowd might have expected Weezer to greet them with all the…
