“School’s out for summer,” sang one of Phoenix’s proudest sons, Alice Cooper. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that per-capita celebrations of summer are lower here than most places in the country. As Arizona State University students go back from whence they came and the…
Chuck Ragan and the Camaraderie Crescent Ballroom Thursday, May 8, 2014 Chuck Ragan’s reputation precedes him. The Hot Water Music singer has now released four albums rooted in acoustic folk, and he’s one of the manliest guys in music (just take a look at his Instagram page). Chuck is also…
There are so many options for concerts this week. Diversity — that’s what Phoenix’s music scene is offering. Like hair metal? Catch Skid Row and Black Star Riders on Friday. Goth DJ nights? We got that, too. Punk? Indie rock? Stoner metal godfathers? Yup; yeah; and yes, please. Check out…
Boys Noize Monarch Theatre May 7, 2014 Wednesday night Boys Noize and L-Vis 1990 headlined at Monarch Theatre, bringing underground house and electro to a relentless crowd. By 11 the third opener, Bijou was wrapping up his set. The local DJ known for playing deep house and Chicago style house…
With the summertime slipping into the Valley like some unwelcome guest that’s gonna wind up hanging around for the next five months (give or take), it would behoove you to start saving up your pennies. Not just to pay the ginormous electric bills you’re likely to accrue with running the…
NEEDTOBREATHE Marquee Theatre 5/5/14 NEEDTOBREATHE is a band of strong suits — that’s not to say that they don’t know how to put on a lively show (they do), that they can’t play their instruments (they can), or that they can’t draw a crowd (they did). Rather, they’re a band…
Johannesburg, South Africa, is not immediately associated with rock music, at least in the United States. However, there is a 25-year-old rocker, born and raised in the African music scene, looking to change the way we view music in the African culture. Jesse Clegg is currently on his first North…
So, it’s May. From the weary looks of Phoenix locals, it appears the desert hell that is a Valley of the Sun summer is about to fall. But fear not, heat-weary Phoenicians: Relief is as close as the bar at your favorite music venue. Here are five shows to check…
Goblin Marquee Theater 5/1/2014 A couple hundred — give or take a few dozen — folks gathered Thursday night at Tempe’s Marquee Theatre to check out Italy’s progressive rock legends, Goblin, whose notoriety skyrocketed via their soundtrack music for classic Italian horror flicks like Dario Argento’s Suspiria and his cut…
Hear that? It’s the clock counting down the hours until your weekend begins and it’s nearing the magic moment known as quitting time. To help the time pass more quickly, you might consider what it is you’ll actually be doing during the next couple days and nights of work-free bliss…
Considering that the operative word in EDM is “dance,” it shouldn’t come as any surprise that a helluva lot of movement tends to happen whenever tracks from the genre get played. It doesn’t matter if it’s happening at a club, in your car, or even in the shower, when the…
George Clinton is 72 years old and he rocked a two-hour set at Tempe’s Marquee Theatre Wednesday night. You can forgive him for taking a couple of sit-downs throughout the set. (When I’m 72, if I can perform for 15 minutes I’ll call it a Roman triumph.) The man is…
Being a local singer/songwriter is never easy, especially at the age when one needs to decide whether to attend college or focus full-time on music. However, 19-year-old Christie Huff has found motivation to move ahead with music. A music video for one of her songs made it into a film…
Man, what a weekend, right? After a week of scarily summer-like temperatures in the mid-90s, the Valley gods blessed us with two days of gorgeous sunshine in which the mercury hardly threatened to break 80. Not ideal if you were, say, at an electronic music festival at a water park,…
Cloudy skies, gushing winds and 60-degree temperatures greeted day one of the East Valley’s annual water-park not-a-rave at Big Surf Water Park in Tempe on Saturday. Although the sun pushed away the clouds in the afternoon, conditions were slightly less than ideal. This is unfortunate for the festival goers, given…
Dandys rule, okay? They have never not ruled, they still rule, and I suspect they always will. Turning 20 years old, Portland’s premier rock band, the Dandy Warhols, can claim one of its generation’s most eccentric careers, making the quartet one of the last great rock ‘n’ roll acts in…
Coachella? What Coachella? Coachella 2014 is dead and gone, and most of the marquee national acts that have graced Phoenix these fast couple weeks are sadly no longer with us. That said, there is still great music happening in Phoenix this weekend. Here are five shows that are sure to…
Holy punk rock, Batman! So, like many of you — some who have earned it, some who have not — I am not easily impressed these days. Whether you call it “jaded” or “been there, done that,” it really doesn’t matter, as long as you call it like you see…
Timothy NorrisBillie Joe Armstrong Joins The Replacements Early in The Replacement’s Friday night set, Paul Westerberg welcomed Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong as their honorary member. Armstrong, matching the rest of the band in plaid suits, seemed beyond giddy to be onstage with his idols, joking “Dreams really do come…
I have never been to Mali, my toes have only touched the edge of the mighty Sahara sands, and yet the connection to these Tuareg desert nomads was instantaneous and moving. The entire audience was transported to another world, where Tamashek is spoken and the pace of live is slower…
If you happen to be suffering from a bad case of “Post-Coachella Depression” after spending one, or even two, weekends out in Indio, we’ve got a few suggestions on how to recover. First, give yourself a day or two to get your bearings back and decompress from the experience. Secondly,…
LA Weekly made an April Fool’s post, about drones at Coachella. Well, it turns out they might have been prophetic. Those hovering propeller-powered crafts have indeed arrived at Coachella. They could be spotted this year floating surreptitiously above the crowds, during performances by MGMT, Outkast and others. So what’s the…
