The Seven Best Concerts in Phoenix This Weekend

Looking for a great concert to check out this weekend? Look no further.

We’ve got the lowdown on seven “can’t-miss” shows that are worthy of your time and money happening over the next few nights at venues across the Valley. For even more live music options, hit up our extensively updated online concert calendar.

Emily King – Friday, July 29 – Crescent Ballroom

Grammy-nominated Emily King, though not a household name just yet, is quietly taking over the world of contemporary R&B. This is especially evident with her sophomore album, The Switch, released last year on her own label, Making Music Records. She's shared stages with John Legend, Erykah Badu, and Alicia Keys, to name a few. Her playful tempos and wailing guitars match wits behind heartfelt lyrics and soulful vocals. You'll want to keep an eye out for this up-and-coming artist. DIAMOND VICTORIA


The Hooten Hallers – Friday, July 29 – Rips Ales & Cocktails

In explaining the Hooten Hallers, it's best to begin with what this three-piece is not. The band, despite frequent media references to the contrary, is not a hillbilly band. It is from Missouri, not Appalachia. "You know, I don't know," says drummer Andy Rehm. "We are from a section of rural America, but I don't think any of us really identifies with the term hillbilly all that much. It's not a shameful term, but we were not raised in a traditional rural setting. More specifically, in an Appalachian setting, which is where the term, I think, comes from. The hillbilly word is strangely used."

If anything, the Hooten Hallers' sound begins with Delta blues and builds upon that foundation, adding elements of everything from folk, country, and rock to soul, jazz, and marches to create a distinctly flamboyant sound. The music can be dark and lonely, wild and raucous, or just as easily breezy and carefree. "Really, the roots of the music we play come from that rural culture, that African American culture in the South," Rehm says. GLENN BURNSILVER

The Claypool Lennon Delirium – Saturday, July 30 – Marquee Theatre

Les Claypool has always done things, well, his way. Whether with Primus, his main band, or any number of side projects, including the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Oysterhead (featuring Phish’s Trey Anastasio, though perhaps Claypool’s most accessible project), or Sausage, Claypool has always looked outside rock conventions for something a little different. His latest musical adventure finds him joining forces with Sean Lennon in The Claypool Lennon Delirium, a project that explores and extrapolates on the musical incantations of 1970s-style heavy progressive rock. Yet, the music cannot be so simply defined. The pair’s debut album, The Monolith of Phobos, is alternately psychedelic, spacey, gritty, progish, metalish (“Cricket and the Genie Movement 2” sports some wicked Black Sabbath-like riffs), Beatles-esque (there’s no hiding Sean’s harmonic connections), and kind of weird in creepy, scary, fun ways. GLENN BURNSILVER


Headless Horseman – Saturday, July 30 – Monarch Theatre

The techno fiend known as Headless Horseman is nothing if not ominous. Cloaking himself in a black hoodie and a veil-like mane of fibers that cover his face and conceal his identity, the Berlin-born DJ and producer has a rather mysterious and enigmatic aura about him. It’s reinforced by his official bio, such that it is, which simply states, "The rest of this body shall eventually turn to dust," as well as the cryptic-yet-elegiac musings found on his Facebook page. And his music is just as foreboding and sibylline in nature. An often cacophonic symphony hewn from dissonant noise, grinding percussion, and abstract beats, Headless Horseman works overflow with atmospheric moodiness that evoke a sense of wonder and dread. As he stated in an interview with European dance music website Resident Advisor, he compares his creation process to that of painting. "I consider making music something akin to throwing paint on a large canvas," he says. "There are so many colours and brushes to choose from. Some strokes are fluid and some are full of [artifacts], droplets of paint, and smudges." BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN


Los Master Plus – Saturday, July 30 – Valley Bar

Los Master Plus members Larry Mon and El Comanche are self described "jefes del vacilon," or kings of the party. And a party they certainly create. Their signature style is to cover a popular dance, rap, or pop song and turn it into an electro-cumbia as they translate the lyrics into Spanish; MTV has dubbed their style "Cumbiatronica," and it works brilliantly. The duo – who hail from Guadalajara, Mexico, and have catapulted to fame through their YouTube videos – have transformed a variety of American hits into their signature style, including "Una Vez Mas," inspired by Daft Punk's "One More Time"; "El Gran Vacilon," which covers "Tha Next Episode" by Dr. Dre; their Kings of Leon tribute, "Sexo En Fuego," and "Mami," the Spanish version of No Doubt's "Don't Speak." Suena, que suena, que suenaaaaa! MARCO TORRES

Sublime with Rome – Sunday, July 31 – Comerica Theatre

Faced with the loss of key personnel, at what point does a band call itself something different? Sublime with Rome has been grappling with that question ever since drummer Bud Gaugh departed a few months after the already-reconfigured group released its "debut" album, Yours Truly, in 2011. Josh Freese (Guns N’ Roses, the Vandals, Devo) stepped in for Gaugh, leaving Eric Wilson as the lone holdover from the original Sublime, the Long Beach, California, band whose laid-back mix of reggae, ska, West Coast rap, and punk had a profound impact on '90s alternative rock.

This all came about because even singer Bradley Nowell’s untimely death in 1996 couldn’t slake the persistent demand for Sublime’s music, eventually inspiring Gough and Wilson to reboot the band in 2009 with singer/guitarist/Sublime superfan Rome Ramirez. Now, after years of successful post-Yours Truly touring, last year’s album Sirens suggests that Sublime With Rome aren’t nearly finished writing what is already one of the more unusual — and even inspiring — chapters of recent rock history. CHRIS GRAY


Madeon – Sunday, July 31 – Talking Stick Resort

“Wunderkind,” “prodigy,” and “phenom” are the obligatory words thrown about when speaking of French electronic music superstar Madeon. All those descriptors are apt, but the fact is, the precocious 22-year-old has been making music for half his life. Madeon made his mark far in advance of the release of his debut full-length, last year’s Adventure. With that album, the tuned-in producer cleverly incorporates high-profile collaborators such as Foster the People’s Mark Foster, Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, and Bastille’s Dan Smith into electronic-pop concoctions that thankfully skirt obnoxious EDM pitfalls yet still appeal to the crowd. Sugary on “Pay No Mind,” epic on “Pixel Empire,” driving on “Imperium,” and playful on “Beings,” Adventure skillfully traverses a range of emotions. LILY MOAYERI