Read on for details about each of these gigs or click over to Phoenix New Times' online concert listings for more live music around town from Monday, April 3, to Thursday, April 6.
Xiu Xiu
Monday, April 3Valley Bar, 130 North Central AvenueJamie Stewart speaks in prayers and tongues. These two contrasting forms of speech define the Xiu Xiu singer’s style, the way he can pour his entire being into hushed, contemplative near-whispers or howling shrieks. The power of Stewart’s quavering, raw voice is that it simultaneously possesses the intimacy of a confession and the anguished rage of someone calling out from the bottom of a dark pit. Stewart has been making his harsh, uncompromising, and often beautiful music since 2002. Xiu Xiu’s new album, Ignore Grief, falls into this category, as its offers a mix of experimental, industrial, and modern classical music. In many of its 10 songs, Stewart delves into life's horrors and human tragedies uncompromisingly. With Meet the Sun; 7:30 p.m., $20/$25 via ticketweb.com. Ashley Naftule
Bryce Vine
Wednesday, April 5The Van Buren, 401 West Van Buren StreetNYC-born rapper, singer, and songwriter Bryce Vine first publicly appeared when he was one of 12 finalists in The Glee Project, a 2011 reality TV show seeking to find the next Glee cast member. And while he didn’t win the reality competition, he’s had the most illustrious career of any of his Glee Project peers, as two of Vine’s tracks ("Drew Barrymore" and "La La Land") off his 2019 debut album Carnival charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Vine's vocals may not land as smoothly as in his studio recordings, but his nonchalant confidence and overall stage presence are still infectious. He has a flair for bending genres: His performances blend elements of surf rock and frat rap, with elementary, but admittedly smile-inducing lyricism on hits like “Sunflower Seeds” and “Sour Patch Kids.” He also injects bits of electric punk into pop tracks like “American Dream” and “Empty Bottles,” the latter of which is a collaboration with MODSUN. Vine's latest visit to the Valley comes this week when he plays The Van Buren in support of his Seratonin EP. With bLAck pARty; 8 p.m., $29.50 via livenation.com. Gannon Hanevold
John Mayer
Wednesday, April 5Footprint Center, 201 East Jefferson StreetIt’s hard to describe John Mayer’s career trajectory without sounding like you’ve just had a stroke. How does a guy go from being a singer-songwriter dorm room heartthrob on Room for Squares and Heavier Things to his current role as an honorary Grateful Dead member? What deranged mind could listen to "Your Body is a Wonderland" and go “yeah, this guy would fit right in with the ‘Don’t eat the brown acid!’ crew?” And yet somehow the pivot rocked like a charm. The biggest preppie you know is now on Bob Weir’s speed dial. Mayer's latest solo album, 2021's Sob Rock, is a self-described "shitpost" of an album- Mayer paying tribute to the 80's music that shaped him. Mayer’s indisputable guitar chops are on full display on Sob Rock as he tears through a variety of styles: Spanish guitar, yacht rock, and lilting country-western. What’s also on display is Mayer’s bizarre sense of humor- the singer crooning “why you no love me” with a teeth-aching commitment to the bit or drowning “Shot in the Dark” with so much cheesy synths it feels like he’s pouring Velveeta directly onto the speakers. With Alec Benjamin; 7:30 p.m., $64.50-$424 via ticketmaster.com. Ashley Naftule
Robin Wilson and Stephen Ashbrook
Thursday, April 6Valley Bar, 130 North Central AvenueRobin Wilson and Stephen Ashbrook are cut from the same musical cloth. Both are talented singer-songwriters who first came to prominence in the Tempe music scene of the late ’80s/early ’90s, fronted influential bands during the same era (Gin Blossoms and Satellite, respectively), and largely favor a jangle-pop sound. This week, these two elder statesmen of local rock will team up for a night of music at Valley Bar in downtown Phoenix. Given their popularity and stature, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the gig is officially sold out. If you’ve got the means and the money, you can still score tickets through resellers. 7:30 p.m., tickets are available on the secondary market. Benjamin Leatherman
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thursday, April 6The Van Buren, 401 West Van Buren Street Sunny Day Real Estate had the great misfortune of releasing a multiple genre-defining album right out of the gate. There’s nothing wrong with 1994’s Diary: the album that defined both emo rock and post-hardcore hasn’t lost an ounce of its power. Songs like "Seven" and "In Circles" are enduring anthems for a reason. Where the curse comes in is that oftentimes audiences and critics alike treat Diary as the be-all, end-all of Sunny Day Real Estate as opposed to what it really is: the first stop in a very interesting journey. The Seattle band deepend their sound, pushing it toward abstracted, almost prog-rock extremes on their subsequent albums. Singer Jeremy Enigk's spiritual intensity adds a hallucinatory quality to the band's music. Consider how Enigk's vocals sound on 1995's LP2: smears of melodic watercolor, lyrics barely discernible, that make Michael Stipe circa Murmur sound clear as glass. 1998’s How It Feels to Be Something On displays a level of ambition and scale that few of their many imitators can come close to. Sunny Day is a much bigger neighborhood than that one house everyone squats in. With The Appleseed Cast; 8 p.m., $36.50 via livenation.com. Ashley Naftule
