By Mitchell L. Hillman Sometimes you go to a show and there simply is a vibe, a certain ephemeral quality, a momentary zeitgeist that can be described in no way other than “perfection.” It could be any number of things, but usually it comes down to first, a carefully casted…
Bust myths, get Nick Kroll-style bottle service, and pump it up with Predator in and around Phoenix this weekend. Mythbusters Live @ Mesa Arts Center You have to love any show that has to run a disclaimer for viewers to not try at home what they’re about to do. The…
The weekend before Thanksgiving can’t help but disappoint you. It’s trying as hard as it can, and it’s perfectly happy to remind you that you’ve got a short week coming up, but really the only positive you can take from it is that you won’t get trampled chasing down a…
Images courtesy Lionsgate.Ritchman and Schlund in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.By Carolina del Busto In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, opening this Friday, Alan Ritchson and Stephanie Leigh Schlund play two of the story’s fiercest bad guys. But tucked away in a hotel room on the 17th floor of the…
From the Shangri La art Tell this guy about the death of the album.By Michael Corcoran “The album is dying in front of our very eyes,” Variety columnist and music business know-it-all Bob Lefsetz wrote recently based on weak LP sales, including Katy Perry’s Prism, which sold only about 220,000…
One Direction[Editor’s Note: In his column Serrano Time, award-winning scribe and goofball Shea Serrano writes about his life and times.] Last week, I wrote about why One Direction’s “This Is My Story” sucks. Usually, whenever one of these pieces goes up (and they go up often), I get a handful…
Sometimes it seems like wishing for a band to be famous is just the most polite way imaginable of wishing for all of its members to lead miserable, unloved, unfulfilling lives. Rest assured that when our writers got together to talk about Phoenix bands who deserve to be famous none…
By Patrick Montes In the hype and haze surrounding the timeframe between the viral success of ASAP Rocky’s song “Purple Swag” and the release of Rocky’s first mixtape, much of the internet’s gaze was directed squarely at the flamboyant, charismatic young Harlemite. Yet, when his “Live.Love.ASAP” mixtape was released part…
Photography, crafts, and the Phoenix Coyotes round out the five things you have to do in the Valley this week. “Western Eye Photography” @ Eric Fischl Gallery This year, the 2013 Western Eye Photography Competition received submissions across each of the Maricopa Community Colleges. Of those entries, 35 were selected…
Every Pearl Jam joke has been made. Every Eddie Vedder impression has been performed, and some of them were very funny, although others were just enormous successes on the Modern Rock chart. All that’s left is to just see Pearl Jam, and listen to Eddie Vedder say “Ah’m still alive”…
We spent the past year putting together a list of the best breakfast spots in the Valley for the 2013 Best of Phoenix® edition. Print this off, bookmark it, pocket it, or make your own list for the next time you feel like rolling out of bed and having someone…
Lit-inspired theater, a night as a curator, and the end of 2013’s Arizona Fall League round out this weekend’s must-attend events in the Valley. Have at ’em. 50 Shades of Felt @ Phoenix Theatre There have been plenty of satirical spins on 50 Shades of Grey since the erotic romance…
I’ve been to a lot of different shows in my day, in a lot of different genres, but I’m honestly unable to imagine what a George Clinton show would be like in person. So that’s one option…
By Tina Riddle Famous for her vampire fiction, Anne Rice has set out to redefine the supernatural genre of werewolves. In her new series, The Wolf Chronicles, which launched in 2012 with The Wolf Gift, she introduced a new hero, Reuben Golding. After being bitten by a mysterious beast, Golding…
By Aaron Thompson For 20 years, Japan’s Melt-Banana has been one of those overseas acts that is nearly impossible to accurately label. With a scant discography, given their tenure, but an influential footprint on everything from grindcore and power violence to math rock, noise, and even space rock, Melt-Banana’s secret…
Courtesy of Columbia/SycoZayn and the crew[Editor’s Note: In his column Serrano Time, award-winning writer and goofball Shea Serrano writes about his life and times.] Song: One Direction’s “Story Of My Life” History: A long time ago, there were barbershop quartets. After that, there were the New Kids on the Block,…
Spring into action this week with sports, art, and science events in metro Phoenix. “Imaginate” @ Arizona Science Center “Dream. Create. Build.” is the theme for “Imaginate” at Arizona Science Center. The concept behind the exhibit is to help viewers unlock their minds to ponder and pose the questions that…
Easy mode is making a Boris Yeltsin joke when Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin comes to town. Hard mode is not making a Boris Yeltsin joke. Really hard mode is not making a Boris Yeltsin joke even though you think you’ve got a great one. Because it’s probably not…
By Brad Cohan “I wanted to name the album using a word that was cute and started with ‘F,'” says screeching vocalist Yako about the impetus behind fetch, the first album in six years from legendary Japanese noise-makers Melt-Banana. That happy-go-lucky vernacular is no shocker considering Yako and guitarist/partner-in-crime Agata…
Theater, festivals, and shopping round out this weekend’s must-attend events in and around Phoenix. Prodigy @ Brelby Studio Now that Brelby Theatre Company’s in its official venue, the troupe’s wasted no time scheduling not just a mainstage season but a Studio Series of new, relatively obscure plays. Through Saturday, November…
You’ve got less than a month of shopping days until you think about doing Black Friday for a minute and then just decide to go closer to Christmas instead. In the meantime, consider giving yourself the gift of any of these five must-see Phoenix shows…
Every year, we put a spotlight on Scottsdale in the form of Shine, a pocket guide to the food, drink, art, and entertainment in this little ‘burb. This time around –– looking for some comic relief –– we drop-kicked our favorite illustrator, Luster Kaboom, into the middle of the city…
