If neither option suits your particular musical tastes, punk-tinged indie rock favorites Illuminati Hotties will be at Valley Bar while bluesy R&B act The California Honeydrops will take the stage at Tempe’s Marquee Theatre.
More details about these gigs can be found below. And for more live music happening around town from Friday, October 14, to Sunday, October 16, check out Phoenix New Times’ online concert listings.
The California Honeydrops
Friday, October 14Marquee Theatre, 730 North Mill Avenue, TempeClose your eyes while listening to Lech Wierzynski sing and you could swear you’re hearing the blue-eyed soul stylings of Daryl Hall. Hailing from Warsaw, the Polish-born Wierznski learned how to vamp, jazz, and sing the blues as a teenager in Washington, D.C. A dead ringer for Mr. “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” Wierznski has carved out a niche for himself as an old-school blues and R&B guy, cooking up sweaty jams of New Orleans-flavored roots music with The California Honeydrops. While The Honeydrops play a traditional style of party music, their instrumentation is anything but. Look past the pianos, trumpets, and guitars and you can see that the rhythm section has some exotic instruments holding the beat down: a gutbucket bass, jug, and washboard. They may look like a jam band who rehearse in a moonshiner’s cabin but their rootsy sound is a hit for modern audiences looking for something more down-home and funky. Opening for Bonnie Raitt on her tours and playing sold-out headlining gigs at jazz fests and storied venues like San Francisco’s The Fillmore, people can’t get enough of Wierzynski and his Honeydrops. 8 p.m., $30-$50 via ticketweb.com. Ashley Naftule
Mark Farina
Friday, October 14Darkstar, 526 South Mill Avenue, #201, TempeHouse music heavyweight Mark Farina deserves to be called an icon of the DJ world, if for no other reason than the fact he's been producing and performing for more than three decades. A native of Chicago who made his bones as a mixmaster during the city's famed golden era of house, Farina has been crafting and mixing dance sounds of deep house and downtempo variety since the late '80s. His tracks and soundscapes frequently feature funky and mellow vibes, elements of acid jazz, R&B, jazz, and enough grooves to get your rump bumping on the dance floor. His signature Mushroom Jazz compilation series, which he's been releasing since 1992, has been around almost as long. Farina latest visit to the Valley comes this weekend when he performs a solo set at Tempe’s Darkstar nightclub and will fill the joint with his house music magic. 9 p.m., $23 via tixr.com. Benjamin Leatherman
Lamb of God
Friday, October 14Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 West Washington StreetOn a Wednesday afternoon in early September, John Campbell, the bassist of heavy metal band Lamb of God, prepares to head out on the first headlining tour they’ve undertaken in quite some time, straddling the release of their new studio album, Omens. Vocalist Randy Blythe has described Omens as "extremely pissed off," and Campbell agrees, despite his kind and laidback tone during the interview. “Well, I could certainly find plenty of reasons to be incredibly pissed off, as I think anyone who is looking around could as well," Campbell says. "It’s really great to be able to express that in music in a band and go perform and play and kind of deal with these difficulties, the struggles that we all share in this life." Lamb of God are known for confronting social issues in much of their music, and Omens continues in that tradition. Some of the subjects that the band tackle include war, religion, ignorance, lack of accountability, and even environmentalism, a topic that increasingly appears in modern metal. According to Campbell, it’s a subject worth getting pissed off about, and while he doesn’t consider himself an activist per se, it is something that he and the band are cognizant of and find worthy of putting across in their music. With Killswitch Engage, Animals As Leaders, and Fit for an Autopsy; 6 p.m., $49.50-$79.50 via livenation.com. Nicholas Jordan
Illuminati Hotties
Friday, October 14Valley Bar, 130 North Central AvenueForget about Kanye’s “Runaway;” the REAL song for the assholes is Illuminati Hotties’ “freequent letdown.” Singing on her 2020 "mixtape" album Free I.H: This Is Not the One You've Been Waiting For, Illuminati Hotties impresario Sarah Tudzin drops an energetic anthem for all the flakes, fuck-ups, hot messes, and ghosters of the world. “Staying in touch is such a bummer,” Tudzin sings with the kind of glee and bravado that Danzig uses for singing about zombies and Martian teenagers. Finally, people who are bad friends have a song to call their own. Illuminati Hotties are the brainchild of Tudzin, who started her career in music as a recording engineer and producer. She applies her studio wizardry deftly to I.H. songs, giving their buzzy indie rock songs eccentric bursts of noise and odd sounds. Full of punky enthusiasm, Tudzin has a knack for bubblegum melodies that don’t lose their flavor even after repeat listens. While Tudzin may have a knack for writing about being a mess she doesn’t suffer fools lightly: she wrote and released Free I.H just to get out of a recording contract with her deadbeat label. With Enumclaw and Olivia Barton; 7 p.m., $20 via seetickets.us. Ashley Naftule
deadmau5
Saturday, October 15Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 West Washington StreetIf you’re superstar DJ/producer Joel Zimmerman, better known as deadmau5, you’ve essentially done everything there is to do in the electronic dance music world. He’s put out enormous hits (including 2008’s “Ghosts 'n' Stuff”), had a few records go gold, sold out venues and headlined festivals worldwide, and collaborated with the likes of Kaskade, Rezz, and Lights. Zimmerman’s also been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards, composed film scores, and even took on Disney in a legal battle over his signature deadmau5 helmet and won. Earlier this year, Zimmerman joined forces with Kaskade on the project Kx5, which has released three collaborative singles so far: a high-energy house track “Take Me High,” an electro-pop banger “Escape,” and the recently released “Alive.” EDM fans are likely to hear all three when Zimmerman packs up his mask and visits Arizona Financial Theatre this weekend on his We Are Friends tour. Openers for the tour are all signees on Zimmerman's mau5trap label, including British electronic music trio NERO, DJ/producer Kasablanca, and one-time Valley resident Lamorn. 8 p.m., $39.50-$59.50 via livenation.com. Benjamin Leatherman
