The 11 Best Concerts in Phoenix This Week

We’re officially in the holiday season, y’all, which means Christmas is everywhere. It's even found its way into our list of the best concerts in the Valley this week, as jazz artist David Benoit will pay tribute to A Charlie Brown Christmas at the MIM.

What else is on tap for this week’s concert scene in Phoenix? Plenty of big shows, including much-anticipated shows by Fleetwood Mac, Jorja Smith, Justin Timberlake, and local parody metal band Okilly Dokilly.

Plus, in the true spirit of the holidays, you can also lend a hand to those in need, specifically the cats behind local DIY venue The Lunchbox.

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

Steven Page Trio
Monday, November 26
Crescent Ballroom

There’s more to musician Steven Page than cheeky songs about alternative girlfriends, mac and cheese, and Brian Wilson. Besides his history as a founding member of Barenaked Ladies, the Canadian-born singer-songwriter has accomplished plenty on his own. Since leaving the band in 2009, he’s toured the world, got his music onto the soundtracks of several movies and television shows, hosted his own television show The Illegal Eater, and released a half-dozen albums, including 2016’s Heal Thyself Pt. 1: Instinct and this year’s Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II. This week, he’ll be at Crescent Ballroom with his latest ensemble, the Steven Page Trio. Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $35. Wesley Stace (better known as John Wesley Harding) will open. Benjamin Leatherman

A Charlie Brown Christmas feat. David Benoit
Tuesday, November 27
Musical Instrument Museum

Christmas music can be bad (we’re looking at you, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”), but the Vince Guaraldi Trio neatly righted that ship in 1965 with its now-iconic soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. Renowned jazz musician David Benoit and guest vocalist Sara Gazarek stage a yearly tour in honor of both the special and its soundtrack, which stops by the Musical Instrument Museum on Tuesday. It's a festive reminder that holiday music can be an art and will feature many of your favorite tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas, as well as some originals from Benoit, who took over as the composer for the newer Peanuts Christmas specials. Showtime is 7 p.m. and tickets are $53.50-$73.50. Lauren Cusimano

La Luz de Luna
Tuesday, November 27
Valley Bar

This Mexican folk band is a collaborative duo or trio, depending on when you catch them; the band consists of Andria Bunnell and rotating members. Bunnell also does percussion and vocals for Las Chollas Peligrosas, an all-female quintet that has been gaining traction in the Valley. La Luz De Luna draws inspiration from their heritage and classic musical styles like rancheras and boleros. In an era inundated with the same styles of music over and over, this band brings a fresh and much-needed take. Angelica Cabral

Metalachi
Tuesday, November 27
The Rhythm Room

What would happen to a young Mexican-American musician, who decades ago, was brought up with traditional mariachi music, but in his teens discovered bands like Black Sabbath and the multiverse of hard rock and heavy metal? This is how the concept for Metalachi was born in the 1990s.

Struggling with opposing musical genres, the band gave birth to an innovative new sound: the fusion of traditional Mexican mariachi folk music, and the loud, wild, sleazy, and decadent vibes of heavy metal. Metalachi had been blowing minds and bursting eardrums, all with a high level of musicianship, showmanship, creativity, and tongue-in-cheek humor.

With heavy roots in Mexican culture, the band spends most of its time on the road, breaking down musical and cultural barriers one performance at a time, including during a high-profile appearance on America’s Got Talent a few years ago where the band brought down the house with its rendition of Twisted Sister's classic, “We're Not Gonna Take It.” Alex Distefano

Save LBX Benefit
Tuesday, November 27, and Wednesday, November 28
The Lunchbox

Local DIY music venue LBX (a.k.a. The Lunchbox) has sent out an SOS and could use your assistance. According to a crowdfunding campaign recently launched earlier this month by Lunchbox owner Danny Levie, the spot is in dire need of money in order to survive because of costs related to moving to new digs last year. “A year ago, we decided to take it to the next level and found a new home with a bar and a bigger and better environment for growing and flourishing,” Levie wrote. “With this move came bigger expenses though, and with lower attendance and no financial backing, times are tough.”

Hence the aforementioned crowdfunding campaign (which has currently raised approximately $2,300) and this week’s two-night Save LBX Benefit. Various local artists and acts will perform at the venue on back to back evenings as a way of helping out. The lineup includes Terminal 11, Glob, Gabriella Isaac, Asymptote, Tsone, PSYCH MFK, Deadsnake, Lav Andula, and DJ Coldblood on Tuesday, November 27; and Perplex, UFO Dictators, Reclaim, Altercation, Heavy Breather, and Molotov Cockroach on Wednesday, November 28. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and admission is $10 each night. Benjamin Leatherman
Fleetwood Mac
Wednesday, November 28
Talking Stick Resort Arena

Interested in seeing the legendary band that rocked your parents’ world way back when and influenced many of your modern-day favorites? They’re coming to downtown Phoenix in late November, albeit without longtime member Lindsey Buckingham. In case you weren’t following the drama, Buckingham was canned from Fleetwood Mac, whose interpersonal dramatics have fueled — and at times rivaled — their music, earlier this year. (His departure reportedly stemmed from a disagreement over this upcoming tour.) Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House will replace Buckingham and join Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie on the upcoming dates. If you can live without seeing Fleetwood Mac without one of its co-founders, their Valley show takes place on November 28 at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Becky Bartkowski

Justin Timberlake
Thursday, November 29
Talking Stick Resort Arena

Is Justin Timberlake responsible for the two worst Super Bowl halftime shows of all time? Everyone remembers the “Nipplegate” incident in 2004, when Timberlake accidentally tore off part of co-performer Janet Jackson’s costume, exposing her bare breast to the entire world and ensuring years of regressive broadcast regulations (and a devastating blow to Jackson’s career that he’s never really taken responsibility for) in the process. But will we remember this year’s halftime show, where he not-so-smoothly slid a few bars of Prince’s “I Will Die 4 U” into one of his songs in a halfhearted tribute done solely because the game was in Minneapolis this year? Will we remember the boring show setup, or how badly it clashed with his awful, western-inspired getup? Or will we remember when he gallivanted into the crowd to take a goddamn selfie with some kid? Ugh.

While Timberlake’s recent career moves have been questionable, especially the terrible, five-years-late lumbersexual theming on his new album Man of the Woods, his early work, both with NSYNC and as a solo artist, is some of the best pop music of the last 25 years. “It’s Gonna Be Me,” “Cry Me A River,” “Sexyback” – musically, the man’s record is undeniable. So what if he had a couple of bad shows? Douglas Markowitz

Jorja Smith
Thursday, November 29
The Van Buren

Not everyone is courageous enough to try and upstage Drake on his own album, but English singer Jorja Smith certainly succeeded. Apparently, she so charmed Aubrey Graham with her soothing voice that he not only featured her on his island-vibe track “Get It Together,” but gave her an entire interlude on his More Life project, where her sequence became a highlight of the entire release.

Since then, Smith has made moves, securing a position as one of the English-speaking world’s most talented young pop voices thanks to tracks like “Teenage Fantasy” and the U.K. garage number “On My Mind” with producer Preditah. She’s also had tour opener spots with Drake and Bruno Mars, and her debut album Lost and Found released earlier this year and made it to No. 3 on the U.K. albums chart. Will she find the same success in America as she did at home? Time will tell. Douglas Markowitz

The Bombpops
Thursday, November 29
Yucca Tap Room in Tempe

There are band names that mean basically nothing, and then there are those that describe the music perfectly. Essentially, for every Smashing Pumpkins, there’s a Bombpops. The moniker is absolutely appropriate: The music of the pop-punk crew is abrasive and gloriously obnoxious, and also sugary sweet, blessed with the most infectious melodies. It’s like fiberglass in your cotton candy. Push-pins in your strawberry ice cream. Drano in your chocolate milk. You get the point. It’s been a journey. Co-guitarists and vocalists Jen Razavi and Poli van Dam formed the band a decade ago, but finding a rhythm section took time. Three drummers and six bassists have passed through the ranks, though the current pairing of Josh Lewis and Neil Wayne seems to have finally filled the role. The Bombpops released three EPs between 2010 and 2015, but their debut full-length album, Fear of Missing Out, only came out in 2017, on Fat Wreck Chords. Brett Callwood

Unlimited Gravity
Thursday, November 29
Last Exit Live

Ronnie Weberg, who makes music under the name Unlimited Gravity, got his start producing hip-hop beats in high school. A shared interest in bass-driven music brought him together with Project Aspect's Jay Jaramillo and helped inspire what would eventually turn into the Mile High Sound Movement. After graduating, Weberg headed for the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota, where he spent four years studying Western classical-music composition and conducting. Entering the program as a self-proclaimed "nerd on a computer who understood sound design," he learned how to transfer his musical visions — the sounds and structures of songs — onto paper. "It put me right where I wanted to be, artistically," he says.

Weberg's original tracks are intricate compositions that nod to his classical training. It's most noticeable in the conspicuous lack of the monotonous bass and repetition so prevalent in much of EDM these days. Working in Ableton Live allows him to delicately layer his samples and sounds, working each note down to the core of its meaning in the song and bringing them all together with the intention of striking a positive chord. Britt Chester

Okilly Dokilly
Thursday, November 29
The Rebel Lounge

Okilly Dokilly is a metal – actually, “Nedal” – band that takes its cues, lyrics, and look from Ned Flanders, the God-fearing, inoffensive next-door neighbor of the Simpson family on their eponymous television show, which has aired more than 600 episodes since its debut on Fox in 1989.

Head Ned and his crew of Flanders-inspired bandmates, who all hail from the Valley, don’t have such a problem. After all, every Okilly Dokilly song is a living, breathing exercise in a bunch of mild-mannered guys maintaining that disposition by literally screaming their asses off while banging drums and slamming guitars in the background. They all happen to do so while dressed up as Ned Flanders.

Every Okilly Dokilly song is inspired by something Flanders-related. There’s “White Wine Spritzer,” a drink that Ned orders when he’s feeling daring. There’s “All That is Left,” an ode to Flanders, his Leftorium store, and of course, left-handed people everywhere. And there’s “Flanderdoodles,” Ned’s pet name for his, um, package. But here’s the thing – for all its comedy, and Okilly Dokilly songs certainly fall on the comedic spectrum, they’re pretty damn decent as metal songs go. Clint Hale