By Michael Lopez

Taking the stage in his Army of Darkness t-shirt accompanied by Zombie Nation’s hit “Kernkraft 400,” (as heard in many sports arenas) Illinois’ own MC Chris welcomed the flood of cheers from his loyal, nerdy fan base. Chris Ward IV knew just how to get them riled up for his entrance, showing his favorite clips from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 before he took the stage. I knew going into this concert I would encounter a lot of sci-fi themed fanboy antics, so having “Bruce Campbell” (the star of the Evil Dead series) act as the buffer between opener Totally Michael and MC Chris made all the sense in the world.

By Martin Cizmar

As promised, we’ve got a link to New Times Staff Writer, and former Music Editor, Niki D’Andrea’s review of last night’s Metallica show for Spin.com.

By Martin Cizmar

It’s not often that a band’s only top 10 hit is the low point at a concert – let alone by a band that’s been around 25 plus years and released 40 plus singles – but that’s exactly what happened Tuesday night in Glendale.

By Martin Cizmar

OK, I admit it, I’ve been neglectful of my old friend Rivers Cuomo. I haven’t really paid much attention to Weezer since The Green Album and I haven’t seen him since 2002, when I went a couple shows to see The Strokes, who I was spending a lot of time with at the time, open for him. As far as I knew, though, Rivers was a little nutty, in a harmless sort of way, but seemed like a pretty cool dude. I wasn’t in touch much, but hearing the singles off the last three albums filter through the radio, it seemed like things were pretty normal. Rivers was doing his thing, I was doing mine, everything was cool. We weren’t close, like we had been back in my high school days, but I had no reason to suspect he’d fallen on hard times.

By Martin Cizmar

Maybe it’s that I recently read John Sellers’ Perfect From Now On, a memoir which ends up being all about indie outfit Guided By Voices, but I couldn’t help but think about the band who gave We Are Scientists their name Monday night.

By Martin Cizmar

There were a bunch of upcoming shows announced this week, but nothing super high profile. For my money, the top announcement was Flo Rida, which will come to the Venue of Scottsdale on Nov. 1.

By Martin Cizmar

Depending on who you ask, Cat Power is either really good or really bad live. In her younger days, as a notoriously stage-frightened boozehound, Chan Marshall didn’t impress anyone. Now sober and enjoying life, the indie diva mostly gets great write-ups praising her energetic sets and mesmerizing stage presence.