McDowell Mountain Music Festival (March 27-29 at Margaret T. Hance Park) announced its the lineup for the local stages this week, all but solidifying the festival lineup for the end of March.
On the bills are Pastries With Teeth, Snake! Snake! Snakes!, The Senators, Captain Squeegee, Gus Campbell, Wooden Indian, Playboy Manbaby, Small Leaks Sink Ships, The Haymarket Squares, UFN -- Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding contest winner -- and a few more to be announced later.
One you might not have heard of is 15-year-old phenom rocker Gus Campbell.
See also: National Headliners Schedule Finalized for McDowell Mountain Music Festival
"My dad popped Stevie Ray Vaughn's Texas Flood into the CD player, and that was it," Campbell, who was just 2 when MMMF started, remembers of his inspiration to pick up a guitar.
Offering something for every ear is a staple of MMMF and this year remains unchanged with electronic due Pastries With Teeth offering up classic cuts from their album EATEN ALIVE. Combining break beats with a hefty haul of bass and orchestral music makes these glitch-happy DJs, whom Sean Dhalberg of Phoenix Contemporary Dance Company once called "the cigarette you have after making love," another act that can't be missed.
The 100 percent nonprofit music festival (this year benefiting the Phoenix Children's Hospital and UMOM, the largest homeless shelter for families in Arizona) didn't stop at bringing genre-bending EDM and classic funk to the valley. Eccentric punk outfit Playboy Manbaby will be bringing the decadent mayhem that recently shared a sold-out stage with Andrew Jackson Jihad at Crescent Ballroom.
Fresh off the release of a special edition of their album "Harsher Than Whiskey, Sweeter Than Wine" The Senators will also be sharing the stage performing the syrupy folk that the band has come to represent in the Arizona desert. Composed of long-time friends and a pair of brothers, The Senators have taken the transforming and challenging experiences of separate lives in Memphis and Phoenix and created a labor of love rooted deeply in Appalachia bluegrass and Dust Bowl folk.
Returning to the local stage of MMMF is the metaphysical horn-rock of Danny Torgerson's trumpet and the wacky weirdness that is Captain Squeegee. Defying genre classification since 2003, Squeegee brings quirky back with a sound that is guaranteed to spark a new synapse in the puny milkshake you used to call a brain.
To take away the notion of discovery at a music festival is sin, so grab tickets online at mmmf.com to see other bands like Small Leaks Sink Ships, The Haymarket Squares, Wooden Indian and Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding Winner "UFN" for the late March festival that promises to show you Arizona from a different perspective.
Find any show in Metro Phoenix via our extensive online concert calendar.
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