The 10 Best Concerts in Phoenix This Weekend

It’s been one helluva month for concerts in the Valley, and it's going to end with one last weekend that’s loaded up with big names. Artists and acts like P!nk, The Band Perry, 12th Planet, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Kilo Kish, and En Vogue are all scheduled to perform at local concert venues over the next three days and nights.

Other highlights include a free gig featuring punk group Joyce Manor, the return of indie dream pop band Luna, and a tour kickoff show by Holy Fawn and Slow Crush.

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

See you next month.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
Friday, March 29
The Van Buren

Bronx rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is underrated and hungry. With a pillowy delivery, the 23-year-old artist swerves in and out of piano-heavy beats that fall neatly into the melodic trap styles bubbling up from the South, especially sing-song rappers like Kodak Black and Playboi Carti. Recently, A Boogie dipped into African and Latin rhythms, interweaving dancehall, reggaeton, and Afrobeat into his party-rap formula. The results might be more fascinating than successful, but witnessing an artist with ravenous ambition searching the outer limits of his sound is exhilarating at the very least. Seeing it unfold live should be no less of a thrill. Jonathan Patrick

Holy Fawn and Slow Crush
Friday, March 29,
Yucca Tap Room in Tempe

With their 2018 release, Death Spells, Holy Fawn bring ambient doom and shoegaze together to create a world where creatures from the woods lurk at every corner. The Arizona natives have come a long way from their folk roots into one of the more menacing and interesting doom creators in the state. Now they’re kicking off a West Coast tour with Belgian shoegazers Slow Crush at Yucca Tap Room with a free performance. As the shoegaze scene is being revitalized in Phoenix, Holy Fawn are certainly at the front of the resurrection. Julian Hernandez

The Band Perry
Saturday, March 30
Coca-Cola Sun Deck at Sun Devil Stadium

Sibling bands have long had a special place in music fans' hearts. There's always been an intrigue to how a family that plays together can stay together. Part of the fun of watching a family band jam out onstage is the uncertainty that at any moment they might start strangling each other with a microphone cord. Because as bands like Oasis and the Bee Gees have shown us over and over again, when you share blood with your bandmates, things can get ugly.

But those who hope to find drama among the two brothers and sister that make up country music phenomenon The Band Perry will have to look elsewhere. If the trio were going to crash and burn, they probably would have done it by now. Kimberly Perry and her brothers, Neil and Reid, have been at this since before they could legally drive a car.

After 10 years of incessant touring, they were launched into the country music atmosphere with the 2010 smash hit "If I Die Young." The song has since amassed more than 100 million views on YouTube. Their second album was 2013's Pioneer, produced by Rick Rubin. It reached the top of the country album charts, peaking at number two overall and proving that The Band Perry wasn't just a one-hit wonder. David Rolland

James World
Saturday, March 30
The Lunchbox

Formerly known as James Band, the Phoenix-based James World changed their name ahead of the release of their new single, “Dominos,” from their upcoming album, Funny Dreams. The single offers a flurry of emotions from vocalist Michael Madrid with contemplative moments bursting into catharsis, centered around the idea that Madrid wants others to “feel and experience love.” The group’s raw, often vulnerable performances are a refreshing experience, highlighted by Madrid’s vocal maneuvers. The Phoenix indie rock group Gasol join James World at The Lunchbox. Julian Hernandez

12th Planet
Saturday, March 30
The Pressroom

Every DJ that’s ever rocked dubstep in their mixes and setlists anytime in the last decade owes a debt of gratitude to John Dadzie, better known to the electronic dance music world as 12th Planet. Long before artists like Rusko, Flux Pavilion, or Datsik first blasted wub-wub in the clubs, Dadzie was playing dubstep at gigs across the U.S. An early adopter of the genre who’s been referred to as the “Johnny Appleseed of dubstep," he began playing low-end sounds back when they were a quirky and largely unknown import from the U.K. scene. Over the past 13 years, he’s been a major influence on numerous dance music artists and DJs. (Heck, Dadzie even served as a mentor to Skrillex before he became the crown prince of EDM.) You can thank Dadzie personally when he pays a visit to The Pressroom this weekend as a part of his Swamplex Tour. Fellow dubstep fiends Gentlemen's Club and Shlump will open. The gig starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $20 for general admission and $35 for VIP. Benjamin Leatherman
P!nk
Saturday, March 30
Gila River Arena in Glendale

We got our first major look at P!nk in 2000 when the husky-voiced pop star released her debut solo album, Can't Take Me Home. But the singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress Alecia Moore wasn't content with the cookie-cutter style made popular at the time by the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. After asserting more creative control with her follow-up album, Missundaztood, Pink became synonymous with edgier female performers who inspired her growing up — Madonna, Janis Joplin, 4 Non Blondes, and others. Pink's career has spanned seven successful albums, including 2017's Beautiful Trauma. Her latest effort, Hurts 2B Human, is due out next month, hence her current worldwide tour, which comes to the Valley on Saturday. Diamond Rodriguez

Kilo Kish and Wet
Saturday, March 30
Marquee Theatre in Tempe

Bringing shit down a notch, Kilo Kish is the reinvention of that '90s soul revival sound. Jazzy beats melt into the beautiful cadence of her synth-pop and R&B-infused poetry. Kish brings just enough laid-back attitude to the mic to give her words weight while still feeling light enough to escape the atmosphere. Intelligent and feminine, Kish shows that women can be noteworthy rhyme-slingers without having to prove they're "just as hard as the boys." She's respectable, unique, and thought-provoking, and has released four EPs thus far (including 2018’s mothe), as well as the 2016 studio album, Reflections in Real Time. She’s currently touring with indie pop/indietronica act Wet and is scheduled to visit the Marquee Theatre in Tempe this weekend. Kat Bein

Amp ASU's Field Day feat. Joyce Manor
Saturday, March 30
ASU Palo Verde Beach in Tempe

It’s easy to call Joyce Manor a pop punk band. But it’s not easy to tell how the California group write songs that are both 100 percent punk and 100 percent pop, or how the band seem to have as much in common with Arthur Russell as with Blink-182.

It's hard to articulate why Joyce Manor are so far above other bands in their concise, potent songwriting. We'd try by explaining how they write songs with the energy and urgency that you wish your high-school punk bands had – while still articulating complex moments. The songs are simple yet gut-wrenching. Frankly, you’re better off just listening along and feeling it. After all, Joyce Manor play music that just feels good to listen to, and to listen to loud.

The attendees of Amp ASU's Field Day at Palo Verde Beach will be doing just that when Joyce Manor headline the outdoor music fest on Saturday at Arizona State’s Tempe campus. Admission is free and the event runs from 4 p.m. to midnight. (Full details can be found here.) Harlan Kelly

En Vogue
Sunday, March 31
Chandler Center for the Arts

R&B outfit En Vogue emerged in the 1990s, back when bands like TLC and Destiny’s Child were ruling the mainstream charts. The Oakland-based act differed from its peers. The 1992 “Free Your Mind” single, for example, from the excellent Funky Divas album, was attractive to people who didn’t necessarily listen to a lot of R&B prior to that, because of the killer guitar licks, and the intelligent, anti-prejudice lyrics. These razor-sharp women brought their message to the mainstream and other subcultures, and it’s a message that we need to keep hearing today. The group have a new album, Electric Cafe, which came out last summer and earned good reviews from critics, proving that En Vogue is still, um, en vogue. Brett Callwood

Luna
Sunday, March 31
Musical Instrument Museum

Famed indie band Luna originally broke up in 2005. Thankfully, it didn’t take. Formed in 1991 by frontman and guitarist Dean Wareham after the breakup of Galaxie 500, Luna released eight albums of dream pop/indie pop over 14 years before calling it quits in the mid-aughts. A decade later, the band reunited for a tour of Spain, and, in 2017, released A Sentimental Education, an album of covers, and A Place of Greater Safety, an EP of original instrumentals, some of which were written for the film Tell Me Do You Miss Me, which documented the band’s tumultuous 2004-05 farewell tour. Since reuniting, Wareham and the band’s current lineup (which includes Sean Eden on guitar, Lee Wall on drums, and Britta Phillips on bass) are having much more fun performing. Expect to hear numerous songs, past and present, from their lengthy discography when they play the MIM this weekend. Jon Solomon