It occurred to me as I was swimming through the herds of thousands of people to find my seat that it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to an arena show. I usually stick to festivals and clubs the size of the Marquee Theatre for more prominent nationally…
Here’s the thing: With its swaggering rock riffs and loose, danceable sway, Nikki Lane’s “Right Time,” which opens the South Carolinian’s second full-length album, All or Nothin’, should be a country radio smash. Why not? If Sam Hunt can channel sensitive R&B star Drake, Kacey Musgraves’ mellow contrarian approach has…
The most punk thing about punk is that punk can mean so many, many things. It is an amorphous concept that even I don’t dare pretend to fully comprehend. But when you know it, you know it. And the Melvins with Le Butcherettes at Crescent Ballroom was pretty fucking punk…
Ben McKee’s decision to drop out of the prestigious Berklee College of Music with only one semester remaining to join Imagine Dragons must have seemed foolish at the time. In hindsight, the bassist for Imagine Dragons (whose members also include singer Dan Reynolds, Wayne “Wing” Sermon on guitar, and drummer…
Here are our picks for the best live music in Phoenix this week. Be sure to browse our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. Le Butcherettes – Tuesday, July 21 – Crescent Ballroom Many bands have elaborate stage shows, but not many are as violent or eccentric as Le Butcherettes…
Most probably know Himanshu Suri, a.k.a. Heems, from his work with the irreverent joke-rap group Das Racist. The group was known for its dizzying lyrics and snide social critiques, while rising to prominence with songs about Taco Bell. It was never clear whether they were casting playing a joke on the…
Say “Arizona” to any citizen of the other 49 states, and that person is sure to picture llamas on the highway, absurd state laws, and prejudice run amok. He or she might envision a whole state of starched-collar folks sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic as they quietly make the 40 minute…
McDowell Mountain Music Festival has set a date for 2016. On March 11-13, the festival will return to Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix. Last year’s festival came at the end of March; this year the organizers are moving it earlier in the month to take advantage of (hopefully) better…
Jim Adkins – “I Will Go” Last week Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World launched a fascinating project with the “Jim Adkins Single Series”. Every Friday, starting last Friday, Adkins will release a new song through August 14. Six songs in total consisting of three originals (A-sides) and three covers…
Stripped Up Eternal Summers took advantage of the studio on the band’s new album. Preparing to record its fourth album, Eternal Summers settled on a goal of discovering and incorporating the sort of sounds the band had never put on an album before. “We just really wanted to explore the…
Nothing says ’90s nostalgia like a band that made it big during the dot-com boom, releasing two chart-topping albums, only to face constant struggle in the age of Napster and American Idol. When Eve 6 emerged in 1998, the group revealed itself as a smarter Blink-182 and a less self-pitying…
Here are our picks for the best live music in Phoenix this week. Feel free to browse our comprehensive concert calendar for more options. Wednesday 13 – Wednesday, July 15 – Club Red Wednesday 13 is known as a force to be reckoned with in the world of goth/horror punk/metal…
The only thing Marilyn Manson and The Smashing Pumpkins seemed to have in common, other than cynicism, were successful ‘90s careers. Manson’s was punctuated with public hatorade and embraced for waking a decade to the darkly perverse, and the Pumpkins became spokesmen for the grunged out and pissed off people…
The Pizza Underground is so last year. In terms of this year’s hit junk food parody cover band, it’s so-called “drive-through metal,” brought to you by the greasy sarcasm of Mac Sabbath, who turned Crescent Ballroom into a corporate cesspit for two hours on Friday night. I had a flat…
It’s bad enough to pay full-meal prices for a soda at a concert, but when even the show’s headliner is selling you something, you know you’re being manipulated. Before the popular country artists Lady Antebellum took the stage at Ak-Chin Pavillon on Saturday night, the trio consisting of Hillary Scott,…
Songwriter Dan Stuart has been at it for more than three decades, but his upcoming album, Marlowe’s Revenge, shows he’s still in full possession of his verve, ranking among his finest albums with Green on Red, the band he founded in the early ’80s, which brilliantly straddled the lines between desert rock,…
Controversial, ego-driven, demanding, and at times excessive, Billy Corgan has never ceased to do whatever the hell he wants. Recently, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman publicly lamented the fact that his career-long fans still “live in the past” because they want to hear music from Gish, the band’s 1991 debut album…
Going to a BroLoaf show is like nothing else you can experience around Phoenix. A BroLoaf show is like a full contact sport, complete with all of the free beer and barbecue you can eat. Really, it’s a win-win for everyone, unless you get pulled over on your way home…
There’s no mistaking the popping horns, staccato guitar licks and gritty lyrics pushing the infectious dance groove that’s the English Beat Now, some 30-plus years after the band’s last proper release (there have been at least a half-dozen hits albums), Here We Go Love is being readied. “I can’t believe…
On one of the last, sickeningly hot days of June, Numb Bats are a little on edge. The punk trio are still deciding on a set list for their gig at the Echo in Los Angeles while also trying to wrap up an EP and prep for an extensive Midwestern…
Here are the best concerts happening in Phoenix this week. For more options, browse our comprehensive concert calendar. Lonna Kelley – Valley Bar – Wednesday, July 8 Kelley surmises that to her, happiness means freedom. Her new EP, Take Me Home Spiderman, is a record about the ideal: freedom from…
The way Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy kept bringing up the heat at the band’s performance at Salt River Fields, you’d think the Deadheads who had descended upon their hometown of Chicago the same night had banished the group to perform outdoors in the sweltering summer heat of Arizona as punishment for…
