Best Phoenix Concerts This Week: Måneskin, AWOLNATION, Ateez

This week, bands from across the globe will invade Valley music venues, including Japanese noise rockers Melt-Banana, K-pop act Ateez, and Italian rockers Måneskin. You can also catch gigs by costumed comedy rock duo Ninja Sex Party, alt-radio favorites AWOLNATION, and the metalheads of Trivium.

For even more live music happening from Monday, November 7, to Thursday, November 10, check out Phoenix New Times' online concert calendar.

Melt-Banana

Tuesday, November 8
Crescent Ballroom, 308 North Second Avenue

Japanese rockers Melt-Banana have been making a big racket over the past 30 years. The noise-rock band, which formed in 1992 in Tokyo by frontwoman Yasuko Onuki and guitarist Ichiro Agata, has created a sonic car crash of grindcore, punk, prog, and metal that’s not unlike the explosive rock of Foetus' or Drive Like Jehu. Local promoter and music scene booster Robert “Fun Bobby” Birmingham, who has previously booked Melt-Banana in the Valley starting in the early 2000s, calls their music “a weapon to protect humanity from malevolent forces, earthly and otherwise.” If that didn’t paint a vivid enough picture, he has even more allusions to weaponry to describe the band’s music. “[It’s] machine gun-type bursts of percussion; hyperspeed-paced songs with an arsenal of different sounding guitar ray guns slicing through everything with surgical precision and otherworldly timbres and high-pitched staccato vocals all blending together perfectly [and] providing audiences with this sonic environment that yields listeners to feel this pure power and sense of inclusion [at shows].” If you’re up for experiencing such sounds, Melt-Banana is due in the Valley this week. With Ed Schrader's Music Beat, Deaf Club & Psychic Graveyard; 8 p.m., $20-$33 via seetickets.us. Benjamin Leatherman

Trivium

Wednesday, November 9
The Van Buren, 401 West Van Buren Street

Melodic death metal, progressive metal, metalcore — shelve Trivium in whichever genre you please, but you’d be wasting your time. Trivium is a band that is known for consistently putting out technically impressive creations; their music shifts and morphs, pulling influences from a dozen genres and conjoining them into technically impressive compositions, often with complex guitar work, double bass drum patterns, and vocals ranging from melodic to screaming. Listen closely and you’ll hear the evolution, from some of their earlier work on 2003’s Ember to Inferno (hear that thrash?) to the melodies on 2005’s Ascendancy and the blast beats on 2011’s In Waves. No wonder they’ve sold millions of records worldwide. Their latest release, 2021’s In the Court of the Dragon, is a blend of melodic thrash and metalcore with tech and death metal. Distorted Sound praised the album, stating Trivium is still able to “come out firing on all cylinders and [craft] material that offers something new and refreshing” after all these years. With Between the Buried And Me, Whitechapel, and Khemmis; 6:30 p.m., $39/$44 via livenation.com. Lauren Wise

AWOLNATION

Wednesday, November 9
Marquee Theatre, 730 North Mill Avenue, Tempe

AWOLNATION’s monster hit “Sail” was inescapable following its release in 2011, dominating alt-rock radio stations and popping up on the soundtracks for various television shows for years afterward. As a result of its success — not to mention additional singles like "Not Your Fault" and “Kill Your Heroes” — AWOLNATION’s debut Megalithic Symphony went platinum and the act, which is fronted by singer-songwriter Aaron Bruno, became a household name. While followups Run (2015) and Here Come the Runts (2018) did reasonably well commercially (including charting on Billboard’s Top 200), neither release equaled the success of their predecessor. Earlier this year, AWOLNATION dropped a covers album My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers & Me, which features guest appearances by Rise Against, Portugal. The Man, Incubus, Beck, Jewel, and Grouplove. Bruno has been quoted as saying it might be the band’s final album but they’ll continue touring for the foreseeable future. 7:30 p.m., $35-$65 via ticketweb.com. Benjamin Leatherman

Ninja Sex Party

Wednesday, November 9
Orpheum Theatre, 203 West Adams Street

One thing you can’t say about the boys in Ninja Sex Party is that they don’t commit to the bit. With song titles like “Samurai Abstinence Patrol” and “Buttsex Goldilocks” and alter-ego names like Ninja Brian and Danny Sexbang, Ninja Sex Party stay relentlessly on theme. If it’s sleazy and absurd, these two musicians/comedy veterans are all over it. NSP is the brainchild of Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht, two comedians with a deep love of ’80s synth-pop and ’70s MOR pop. They came up with the group’s concept: two horny idiots who try and fail to hit on women. Avidan plays Sexbang, a hypersexual Jewish man who dresses like a superhero, while Wecht plays a violent ninja with erectile dysfunction. While their synth-driven songs are often built around elaborate punchlines, they’re dead serious about their craft. You can hear their love for music on their Under the Covers series, where they put a Sex Party spin on classic songs by The Outfield, A-Ha, and Asia. 8 p.m., $39.50-$139.50 via etix.com. Ashley Naftule

Ateez

Thursday, November 10
Desert Diamond Arena, 9400 West Maryland Avenue, Glendale

Local fans of K-pop (or Korean pop) have been eating pretty good this fall. Over the past few weeks, local concert venues have hosted gigs by the likes of girl group Itzy, the indie pop/indie rock-flavors act The Rose, and boy band Omega X. This week, the eight members of Ateez are set to perform Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena. Like many of their contemporaries, the act is less than five years old and have put out multiple hit albums, owing to K-pop’s ongoing worldwide takeover. Formed by South Korean-based record label and entertainment agency KQ Entertainment in 2018, Ateez mix elements of hip-hop, rap, trap, and EDM into their brand of K-pop. They’re currently touring behind their latest release, Into the A to Z, which came out last year. 8 p.m., $66-$389 via ticketmaster.com. Benjamin Leatherman

Måneskin

Thursday, November 10
Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 West Washington Street

For Italian rockers Måneskin, the ’70s never ended. This quartet of Rome-born musicians wear their love of old-school glam rock, funk, and ’70s arena rock on their coutured sleeves. The arena cock-rock of Zeppelin, Bowie's catty swagger, Fleetwood Mac's coke-fueled balladeering: it's all there but done Italian style. Their rise to prominence in their home country is what separates them from their influences: whereas old-school bands got their start the old-fashioned way with gigging and touring to build their fanbase, Måneskin literally won their spot through contests. Formed in 2016, the band got their big break by coming in second place in Italy's X Factor talent show a year later. Their first album Il ballo della vita drew a big enough following in Italy that they were picked to represent their country in the 2021 Eurovision song contest, which the band won with their song "Zitti e buoni." Since then they’ve made an impression abroad, with their song “I Wanna Be Your Slave” charting in the U.S. and the UK. They’re not Italy’s greatest export (pizza will always get that particular nod), but if you’re looking for some sweet Eurotrash guitar rock they’ll get the job done. 8:30 p.m., $32-$234.72 via livenation.com. Ashley Naftule