The 10 Best Concerts in Phoenix This Weekend

It’s going to be absolutely gorgeous weather in the Valley this weekend, which is the perfect excuse to get out of the house and do something. Fittingly, there are a few outdoor music fests happening around town, including this year’s Blues Blast at Hance Park and the Flying Burrito Festival at Crescent Ballroom. Piano god Billy Joel is also scheduled to perform at Chase Field on Saturday night, and it's likely they’ll have the roof open for the occasion.

Elsewhere on this weekend’s concert schedule, Rezz will invade Rawhide Event Center, punk/New Wave icon Joe Jackson will perform at the Orpheum, and indie Latin band La Santa Cecilia will return to the Valley.

Details about each of these shows and events can be found below in our list of the best concerts this weekend. And for even more live music happening around Valley, hit up Phoenix New Times' online concert calendar.


New Kingston
Friday, March 8
Last Exit Live

There aren’t a lot of great and affordable practice spaces for musicians in New York; the best spots are usually fully booked. So for the three brothers of the traditional reggae band New Kingston to have their own basement in Brooklyn to jam in, it meant experimentation could run freely. On their earlier albums, the group combined elements of R&B and hip-hop with their traditional Jamaican reggae, but on their 2017 album A Kingston Story: Come From Far, they pay homage to their roots while looking forward. Julian Hernandez

Rezz
Friday, March 8
Rawhide Event Center

Befitting the name of her most recent album, Canadian-born electronic dance music artist Rezz delivers a certain kind of magic that has a unique sound. The heavy, rolling bass of her tracks give way to buzzing, hypnotic samples that leave her followers, known as The Cult of Rezz, happy and in the mood to dance. And they’ll be doing just that inside the Rawhide Event Center on March 8 when Rezz performs at the cavernous venue. Drezo and i_o will open. Jack Gorman

Cosmic Music Festival 2019
Friday, March 8, and Saturday, March 9
Buckeye Hills Regional Park

The first thing you should know about this year’s Cosmic Music Festival is that it’s taking place way out on the western edge of the Valley. No joke. According to event promoter Atomic Logic Audio, the outdoor electronic dance music party will go down at Buckeye Hills Regional Park, which is a good 45-minute drive from downtown Phoenix. For EDM fans who are into unique rave-like dance events boasting an enormous lineup, however, it will definitely be worth the lengthy trek.

The otherworldly-themed festival on Friday, March 8, and Saturday, March 9, will feature an array of bands, musicians, and DJs from across several genres (including rock, EDM, and hip-hop) performing on multiple stages during the two-day affair. Artists and acts scheduled to perform include drumste producer Momentum (a.k.a. Mozrt), space rock band Space Pharaohs, violin/dubstep producer Josh Teed, drum ’n’ bass mixmaster Detcord, post-apocalyptic metal group Th3 N9n3, and hip-hop lyricist Noxious. Locals like Nasty Humanz, Excell, Fairydvst, Morgan Laine, Blakeland, and DJ Sid will also perform.

Meanwhile, there will be fire-spinning action by the AZ Firebenderz, various workshops during the day, and live art sessions from such artists as Marsh Sale, Zhoni of the Earth, Andy Adel, and others. The festival kicks off at 6 p.m. on Friday night. Admission is $20 at the door on Friday and $15 on Saturday after 7 a.m. Benjamin Leatherman

Chandler Chamber Ostrich Festival 2019
Friday, March 8, to Sunday, March 10
Tumbleweed Park in Chandler

Don’t let the name fool you. The annual Chandler Chamber Ostrich Festival is way more than just ostriches. Sure, they have the ostrich races one would expect at such a festival, but they also have ducks, tigers, and sharks. Oh, and three days of live music, each capped off with a big-name headliner.

This year’s lineup will include performances by hip-hop superstar Flo Rida on Friday, March 8, funk/soul legends The Commodores on Saturday, March 9, and pop-rock singer-songwriter Andy Grammer on Sunday, March 10. A slew of local bands — including The Harvest, Leon's Juke Joint, The Hourglass Cats, People Who Could Fly, Jim Bachmann and the Day Drinkers, and Casper and the Mighty 602 Band — will also perform at the festival throughout the weekend (the full schedule can be found here). So come for the ostriches, but stay for everything else going on. Evie Carpenter

Billy Joel
Saturday, March 9
Chase Field

Are you a fan of America's pastime? How about smooth sing-songwriter piano maestros of the 1970s and '80s? How about both? Well, have we got news for you: Billy Joel is coming to Phoenix for a show at Chase Field on March 9. The performance continues the relationship between Joel, the beloved performer responsible for hits such as "Piano Man" and "Just the Way You Are," and Major League Baseball. In 2010, the singer performed the final concert at the now-demolished Shea Stadium, formerly home to the New York Mets. He also embarked on a four-date tour of baseball stadiums earlier in 2018. This will be his first-ever stadium concert in Arizona. Douglas Markowitz

Joe Jackson
Saturday, March 9
Orpheum Theater

After classical training as a multi-instrumentalist at the Royal Academy of Music, Joe Jackson dove into punk and new wave with the release of Look Sharp! in 1979. He would forever be labeled as "angry" — which was all the rage at the time, along with those white shoes — but his career has spanned more musical genres than Pink Martini can shake a marimba stick at. Earlier this year, he released Fool (his first studio album since 2015’s Fast Forward) that’s an eight-track effort inspired by both “comedy and tragedy.” It's gotten good reviews so far and many of its songs are being performed on Jackson’s 40th-anniversary tour, which comes to the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix on March 9. Libby Molyneaux
Flying Burrito Festival 2019
Saturday, March 9
Crescent Ballroom

Burrito and music fans rejoice: The Flying Burrito Festival is returning to downtown Phoenix. After a successful first year, the event will return to Crescent Ballroom and Second Avenue on Saturday, March 9, for an evening of heavenly burritos and awesome tunes. This year's lineup includes 25 bands and musicians will share four stages over the course of the evening, including The Suffers, Illuminati Hotties, and Numb.Er.

Don't worry though, they'll be plenty of local bands joining the party. Dance the mambo with Tucson’s Orkesta Mendoza or jam out to Playboy Manbaby's punk tunes. Other guests from around the country include Bane's World from Long Beach, California, Soft Kill from Portland, Oregon, and Donna Missal from New Jersey.

But let's not forget about the burritos and booze. The event boasts more than 50 burritos and samples from local food joints including Ladera Taverna y Cocina, Dang Brother Pizza and Different Smokes BBQ. Casa Blanco Margarita and the Crescent Ballroom Red Sangria will be serving up beers and cocktails throughout the event. Between music sets, you can even catch some live Lucha Libre wrestling. Megan Marples

Blues Blast 2019
Saturday, March 9
Margaret T. Hance Park

Springtime in the Valley means music festivals aplenty — and there’s practically one for every taste imaginable. Fans of down-home sounds of the 12-bar, Delta, or boogie-woogie variety, for instance, will flock to Hance Park on Saturday, March 9, for the annual Blues Blast, a daylong celebration of the genre that’s put on by the Phoenix Blues Society.

This year’s edition will feature sets from such local and touring acts as The Paladins, The 44s, Chuck Hall, George Bowman, Cadillac Assembly Line, and Joe Kopicki. The Guitars4Vets Band will also provide a special performance. Art activities and displays, merchandise vendors, and local food trucks will also be a part of the event. Gates open at 10 a.m., the music starts at 11 a.m. and goes until 7 p.m. Tickets are $25. Benjamin Leatherman

La Santa Cecilia
Sunday, March 10
Chandler Center for the Arts

If there is one band that represents the multicultural mix of the Southwest, it's La Santa Cecilia. Since its Latin Grammy nomination in 2015, the LA-born group has been representing its city at major festivals in Texas and New York. They're also picking up the attention of critics, through pieces on NPR's All Things Considered and Latino USA.

Further, their hybrid of Latin, rock, and world music has caught the attention of groups like Cafe Tacuba, Lila Downs, Ozomatli, and Los Lobos, all of whom have had La Santa Cecilia open shows for them in recent years. Anyone who has attended their concerts can attest that lead singer Marisol "La Marisoul" Hernandez has one of the most powerful voices in any city, in any genre. Eddie Cota

Jody Wisternoff
Sunday, March 10
Ocotillo Restaurant

Jody Wisternoff has been an international superstar DJs for decades now. After getting his start in the biz at the age of 13, he went on become one-half of legendary EDM duo Way Out West, the creators of warm, expansive dance music that knows few genre bounds. At Way Out West's inception in the mid-/late-'90s, progressive house had just completed its ascent to the top of the electronic pile. As such, their early tracks featured many of that genre's hallmarks – slowly building, then crescendoing, rhythms; enveloping, persistent synths; and, often, soulful female vocals.

In the ensuing years, Wisternoff has had numerous hit tracks on Beatport and iTunes, remixed such artists as Above & Beyond and Robert Babicz, tour the world, hosted EDM radio shows, and served as an A&R development role for Anjunadeep. This weekend, he’ll headline the first Ocotillo Open Air session at Ocotillo Restaurant in midtown Phoenix. David Hohme, Sean Watson, and DJ Mykill will open. The event starts at 2 p.m. and tickets are $20-$25. Arielle Castillo