That includes performances by the phenomenally talented vocalist Darlene Love, synth-pop singer Lights, indie rock act Typhoon, and experimental electronica artist Coppé.
There are even more notable shows happening in Phoenix this week, like Walk the Moon’s appearance at The Van Buren, Pink Martini's classy gig in Scottsdale, and T.O.S.O.’s album release show at Rebel Lounge.
Details about each of these shows can be found below in our list of the best concerts in Phoenix this week. And for even more options, check out Phoenix New Times' concert calendar.
Silverstein
Monday, February 5
Marquee Theatre in Tempe
Although they're forerunners of the post-post-post-hardcore generation, like so many of their peers, the guys of the Canadian quintet Silverstein largely reject the "screamo" tag. And sure, pigeonholing sucks, but let's be real. The band's sound hinges on many of that tag's lynchpins: loud, distorted guitars that love breakdowns, shrieked vocals, and emotional (perhaps sometimes self-involved) narratives told in lyrical fragments.
But what helps set the band apart from the similar-sounding crop is its geographical pedigree, and a real reverence for its more underground hardcore and emo forebears. This week, Silverstein hits the Marquee Theatre in Tempe. Tonight Alive, Broadside, and Picturesque will open. Arielle Castillo
Pink Martini
Tuesday, February 6
Highlands Church in Scottsdale
Pink Martini’s blend of Latin music, jazz, and classical music celebrates the world’s diversity while honoring the deep musical traditions formed by musicians long passed.
Founded in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-’90s, the group features multiple singers and around a dozen horn players, all skilled in the Neapolitan blend of styles that is practically the perfect lounge music. The group’s debut album, Sympathique, became a worldwide success, earning the group awards from countries as far away as France. The group is a callback to the early half of the 20th century, when America still searched outward for culture, and singers like Eartha Kitt and Doris Day sampled the cultures of the world for songs like finger foods at a fine gala.
If anything, Pink Martini is a reminder to the world that Americans still can appreciate music not served on a blue plate under an American flag. David Accomazzo
Coppé
Tuesday, February 6
The Rebel Lounge
If you’re familiar with the name Coppé, there’s a good chance you’re either a longtime veteran of the Phoenix music scene or a fan of experimental and avant-garde electronica. Or both.
The Japanese-born artist, who was a child star and MTV Japan’s first VJ, spent several years in the Valley during the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Besides performing as a vocalist with organic trip-hop/drum ‘n’ bass ensemble OTO, Coppé honed her skills as an electronic musician and founded the label Mango + Sweetrice Records.
As a musician, Coppé (pronounced "co-pay") creates soundscapes that are trippy, twisted, and weirdly beautiful. Her vocals, which range from dreamy to nightmarish, also add an extra dimension to her works.
Coppé is also quite fearless, according to her former band mate, Micah Huerta. "I think she's one of bravest musicians I've ever had the pleasure of playing with, because she kinda lives in her own space and always has and doesn't make any apologies for it," he told New Times in 2013. "“She's got those screamy, weird vocals. She's not necessarily singing with a melody like a pop singer; it's different. But musically, no apologies."
Coppé returns to the Valley this week for a show at The Rebel Lounge. Locals Terminal 11, Lana Del Rabies, and Tsone will open. Doors are at 9 p.m. and admission is $6. Benjamin Leatherman
Walk the Moon
Wednesday, February 7
The Van Buren
Cincinnati pop-rock group Walk The Moon is using this year's Press Restart Tour to do just that: restart and enter a new phase of their existence as a band. The band has been out of the limelight for the last two years as frontman Nicholas Petricca cared for his ailing father.
Walk the Moon’s new album reflects those shifted priorities; it dials the energy back a bit and offers more contemplative lyrics. Even so, the band tore through an appearance on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve, revving up the crowd and sporting its trademark war paint. Walk the Moon also has big plans for this tour, including a collaboration with creative content maker FragmentNine, which has provided a live-action spaceship and laser lights to the show. Jeff Strowe
Darlene Love
Wednesday, February 7
Mesa Arts Center
Darlene Love was the most powerful singer in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and has sung on records with everyone from Buck Owens to Bruce Springsteen. For 28 years, Love's performance of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" was a holiday tradition on David Letterman's talk shows. She's a legend among American vocalists but largely unknown to the average American.
After her career began in late-'50s Los Angeles, Love often had to mask her vocal power. She was the leader of The Blossoms, a group whose members quickly became known for being able to tailor their voices to any genre of music. They sang on records with Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Paul Anka, and Jan & Dean. Brian Wilson used them to fill out the Beach Boys' sound on "In My Room" and several other classics.
She joined Phil Spector's operation in the early '60s, and though their work together brought her some notoriety, she faults him for her career never hitting the big time. "He pushed for himself, not for us. He never helped me to become a star. He didn't put my name on songs — just 'Produced by Phil Spector.’”
It was worse than that. He took her work and credited it to his other groups. Just one egregious example: the Crystals' No. 1 hit, "He's a Rebel." That's Darlene Love on lead and her group, The Blossoms, backing her up — no Crystals involved.
In 2013, Love finally got her due with the release of the documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom, which chronicled her nearly endless misses with fame and success, proving that good things come to those who wait. B. Caplan
Lights
Thursday, February 8
Marquee Theatre in Tempe
Valerie Poxleitner, better known by her stage name Lights, has done well for herself over the years. Since her debut in 2006, a few of the Canadian singer-songwriter's studio albums, including Siberia and Little Machines, have made it into the top 50 on the U.S. Billboard charts and broke into the charts in her native country. Poxleitner’s latest album, last year’s Skin & Earth, also cracked the Top 100 and featured the hit single “Giants.”
She also has a yen for upbeat synth-pop tunes, including such songs as the dreamy “From All Sides” or the cheery “Running with the Boys.” That’s not to say that she doesn’t have some more emotional or introspective material in her repertoire, as the track "From All Sides" from Little Machines features her singing of vulnerability over guitar riffs that would sound right at home on an Interpol album.
Poxleitner’s voice is her strongest asset, offering pitch-perfect delivery and a robust growl that provides a backbone to her live performance that isn’t always heard on her professionally recorded tracks. You can hear this for yourself when she visits Marquee Theatre in Tempe on Thursday, February 8. Matthew Keever
Typhoon
Thursday, February 8
Crescent Ballroom
Oregon-born indie rock band Typhoon features a lineup of eleven different musicians. This may seem like a gratuitously sprawling lineup, but one listen to any of the band's releases – including four studio albums, two EPs, and several seven-inch singles – makes it obvious that each member is making an important contribution to the deceptively simple but lushly textured sounds on each track.
Typhoon, whose music has appeared on such shows as Being Human and Chuck, sounds like it absorbed some of the downbeat pacing of Black Heart Procession or the defiantly melancholic emotional timbre of Red Pony Clock's later material.
The group is never short on subtlety as it weaves together stories that cover deeply personal territory without becoming mired in maudlin self-righteousness. Frontman Kyle Morton isn't exactly an anti-star in the vein of John Lydon; rather, his modesty and quiet dignity are the core of Typhoon's unconventional charm. Tom Murphy
Sabaton
Thursday, February 8
The Van Buren
When a band is named after a knight’s foot armor, you can probably bet on two things: It’s either a power metal band, or Swedish. Enter Sabaton. Lyrical content focused on war (particularly WWI and WWII) and historical battles make up the majority of the band’s music. Seven of the band's albums are all about these themes, while the final tracks pay tribute to legendary and influential metal bands.
So it makes sense that, in 2012, almost all the members left to form a band called Civil War, leaving vocalist Joakim Broden and bassist Par Sundstrom to recruit new members for their heavy international tour gigs. The band is still loved worldwide though, and they host an Open Air Sabaton festival, as well as a Sabaton cruise. Lauren Wise
T.O.S.O. is serious about having fun.
Jim Louvau
Thursday, February 8
The Rebel Lounge
T.O.S.O. is a psychedelic-grunge rock band with an extra hint of weird. The band usually dresses wildly onstage and involves the crowd in some random thematic or interactive adventure during their set, all the while incinerating your earholes with existential ranting lyrics and pure rock ’n’ roll.
Piled on top of the psych-grunge rock sounds, you may also witness hints of surf, jazz, metal, or more mellow numbers. Rock ballads worthy of headbanging and moshing are also a highly common thread at a T.O.S.O. show. The band consists of Zac White on rhythm guitar and vocals, Evan Dorney on lead guitar, and brothers Marc and Eric Ellis on bass and drums, respectively.
On Thursday, February 8, T.O.S.O. will release their latest album, The Cleanse, which they describe as a “six-step program to mental and spiritual purity.” Local bands The Sink or Swim, Exxxtra Crispy, and Fear and Love will also perform. Kayla Clancy
Blues legend Hans Olson
Benjamin Leatherman
Thursday, February 8
The Handlebar in Apache Junction
Hans Olson arrived in Phoenix from San Bernadino, California, in the late '60s, not long after many of the town's musical rising stars – like Alice Cooper and Mike Condello – had departed for bigger cities.
With self-deprecating wit, the guitarist, songwriter, and blues harp-blower says there was no one else around to keep him from becoming the city's biggest musical name. Since that time, Olson has shared stages with Muddy Waters, offered Tom Waits a couch to crash on when the hobo-like singer bummed into town in the '70s, and helped open the Sun Club, which would become instrumental in launching acts like the Gin Blossoms.
Olson himself has kept busy recording, too: His 2013 album, Dust to Dust, simmers with a distilled variation of the blues energy he's put to tape since arriving in Phoenix. It's a record that sounds very "Phoenix," from a man who's furthered the legacy of his adopted hometown. Robrt L. Pela
