By Jonathan McNamara Friday August 1: Breaking Dawn midnight release party at Changing Hands Bookstore Twilight Series fans are too busy scanning the internet for details about the upcoming book in the series. Harry Potter anyone? If you don’t know about Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Series, get your head out from…
By Steve Jansen The Octopus Project: What dreams are made of I had a strange dream last night. Possibly because I knew I was writing about The Octopus Project today, or I am truly super jacked up to see the Austin-based noise/rock ensemble. Either way, the dream went something like…
I expected a big show rock show. I saw Stone Temple Pilots perform at the Arizona State Fair in 2000, back in Veterans Memorial Coliseum’s “big crack in the ceiling” days. The band sounded great in spite of the venue’s structural damage, and I remember I left that show thinking Scott Weiland was the consummate front man.
Here are a handful of shows that were just announced this week.
By Jonathan McNamara Six rows away from me, wearing a ring master’s coat and miming his way across the stage, Eddie Izzard looked up “Phoenix” on Wikipedia using his Iphone. “It’s got a picture of you looking hot,” he said. A similar heat related joke told to any Phoenix resident…
The New Times Summer of Sound experimental show took place Friday, July 18, at Papillons Too (formerly Cell Block) in Mesa. It was a night of community, costumes, feedback, homemade instruments, and epic jams, courtesy of headliners Estradasphere Trio and four of our best local bands. Without any further ado, let’s wax premature nostalgic:
Here are a handful of concerts that were just announced this week.
By Jonathan McNamara Friday July 18: Minibosses at The Ruby Room If you’ve been perusing Up on the Sun’s podcast entries you already know that the bossest of video game music-based bands will be hitting the Ruby Room tonight. See you there? Saturday July 19: The Dark Knight Has Heath…
By Steve Jansen The B-Side Players apparently aren’t digging some of our local jazz acts. The other night, I ran into Ted Sistrunk, who played bass for two of the four local bands on the New Times Summer of Sound: Jazz bill on Friday, July 11. (I was at The…
By Sarah Ventre Better Than: Any other rainy Sunday afternoon with about 100 underage kids. Ah, summertime! It is a time for remembering one’s youth from endless days of swimming to eating ice-cold watermelon and who can forget summer camp? Certainly not the good folks at Unlimited Enthusiasm, a summer…
Here’s a handful of concerts that were just announced.
By Jonathan McNamara Friday: Ukulele Ray and the KoKonutz We’re unsure how much faith you can put in anything a parody artist says, but if myspace is to be believed, Ukulele Ray is capable of imitating a “cast of thousands.” Come take a gander at the man who dresses like…
All of the *Sadisco events I’ve been to have been fun, but very few shows by the underground productions company/local rivethead collective that I’ve attended have featured full band instrumentation. Usually, there’s just a crew of DJs, spinning a sick mix of underground trance, psycho techno, industrial, and death rock.
By Joseph Golfen Better than: a sauna, but not by much. The little, wooden stage at the Modified Arts was sweltering. The air was still and thick with the type of humidity that rolls in with the monsoons every summer. “I know you guys probably get tired of bands coming…
By Jonathan McNamara While I’m sure all of you are planning to spend the weekend reading biographies on our founding fathers and saluting the flag, here are a few less patriotic suggestions you may wish to employ. Friday: First Friday Just because it’s Independence Day doesn’t mean the monthly spectacle…
Here are a handful of shows that were just announced this week.
By Sarah Ventre Better Than: A release party for a four song EP. The legendary Yucca Tap Room is perhaps best known as a training ground where local bands come up before they hit it big. Many Phoenix stars has graced the stage with the neon beer light situated just…
By Jonathan McNamara Better Than: All the other bands that peaked while I was in high school. See more of Alien Ant Farm bassist Tye Zamora in our slide show: Alien Ant Farm at Tempe Marketplace for Third Thursday Make no mistake that the majority of the crowd out for…
By Adriane Goetz Better Than: Getting attacked by Killa Beez Wu Tang Clan master, The RZA, i.e. Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah, is known by many names (The Abbott, Prince Rakeem, Rzarector, and Bobby Steels, just to name a few) but his most notorious alias is the incorrigible Bobby Digital. Enamored with…
By Paul Rubin The best shows are the ones where you go through some unexpected things in your head as you’re watching and listening. It’s really about the magic — the sound and sights of surprise — that transcendent music and performance can be. It happened to me last night…
Surely Tempe-based Americana/rock bands get tired of the Gin Blossoms comparisons. But that’s the best measuring stick we can come up with for many of the bands making music off Mill Avenue now – including Los Guys and Tramps & Thieves. The music harks back to the days when Mill Avenue was a rock club strip, and heartfelt confessions made their way through lyrics draped over solid Americana strumming and time-tested rock rhythms. The sound always reminded me of Heartland Rock, lost in the desert and trying to find its way back.
By Jonathan McNamara Better Than: Spinal Tap. Sure, this animated band owes a lot to its comedic predecessor, but sheer technical skill from the band that makes Nathan Explosion, Pickles the drummer and all the rest of these rogue rockers live puts Dethklok a few notches higher. See more shots…
