Want to get in a show this week? There are plenty of concerts over the next five days around Metro Phoenix to choose from, as you can see for yourself by viewing our extensive online concert listings.
And we're fairly certain that there's something for everyone, regardless of your particular tastes.
Imagine Dragons - Monday, February 17 - US Airways Center
Imagine Dragons' debut LP, Night Visions, begins with a guitar intro that might remind you a little of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." Then it descends into a heavy, current-sounding verse anchored by the stuttery, wub-wubbing bass made famous by dubstep -- or at least movie trailers with dubstep in them. That might not remind you of Bon Jovi right away, but it should. Like Bon Jovi in the '80s, Imagine Dragons produces slick, widely appealing arena rock that hits every trend in popular music on the way to its anthemic choruses.
In 1986, it was glam, metal, and synths. In 2013 it's EDM, indie, and, well, synths, along with tossed-off, specific verses that build into enormous, vague choruses. On songs like "It's Time," which you've heard if you own a TV, they put those pieces together with an unnerving precision. Also like Bon Jovi: They're not breaking any new ground, and their big hit has maybe worn out the welcome you gave it after the first time you heard it in a film trailer. But once you accept that they're a big, broad arena rock band, you'll probably enjoy yourself. -- Dan Moore
Metal Church - Tuesday, February 18 - Club Red
San Francisco's Metal Church are one of the more overlooked bands of the '80s Bay Area thrash explosion. Albums such as 1984's self-titled debut and 1989's Blessing In Disguise are meaty thrash metal slabs worth digesting fully.
Guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof is the only original member in the current lineup, but 2012's Generation Nothing proved there's still plenty of metal light beaming down on this church. -- Jason Roche
Trunk Space Fundraiser Awareness - Wednesday, February 19 - Lost Leaf
As we reported a few weeks back, Trunk Space co-owners Steph Carrico and JRC have launched a crowdsourcing campaign via Indiegogo to raise a total of $15,000 to buy an air conditioner for the Grand Avenue music venue and bankroll its upcoming 10-year celebration.
Sadly, they're a ways off from hitting their intended goal with just over a week to go. As of this writing, the campaign has raised $6,600. And while the Trunk Space ultimately will keep whatever money that's been donated (thanks to Indiegogo's policies), it's disheartening to fall short with such an important fundraiser for the venue.
Undaunted, the co-owners are making a final push this week, including JRC stumping on Facebook with offers of singing the G.I. Joe theme song if enough cash is donated during a particular day, as well as holding a "Fundraiser Awareness" at Lost Leaf on Wednesday night. Local bands (and Trunk Space friends) Sonorus, Lonesome Leash, and There Is Danger will perform and the night's proceeds will be donated to the cause. -- Benjamin Leatherman
Clint Black - Wednesday, February 19 - Higley Center for the Arts
There is an old Nashville-style knock-knock joke that's been around for years that lets you make any what-the-hell-ever-happened-to country singer of the past the punchline. Because Clint Black is hitting town, we'll use him. It goes like this: "Knock knock. Who's there? Clint Black. Clint Black who? Hmmmph, tough town."
Nashville radio is known for chewing up its legends and spitting them out like soggy tobacco chaw after they get a little long in the tooth -- Merle Haggard and George Jones haven't had hit singles in decades, and even the New Traditionalists who saved country from the Urban Cowboy-wave of pop country in the '80s are fading from memory. Clint Black was one of the New Traditionalists who rescued country when his 1989 debut album Killin' Time hit country radio with four number-one hard-country singles.
Although Black hasn't recorded an album of new material since 2005, country music needs a few more Clint Blacks, honest-to-God country singers, and fewer preening, cowboy-hatted, tank-topped, wallet-chained jackasses populating this millennium's country charts. -- Chris Hansen Orf
Man Man - Thursday, February 20 - Crescent Ballroom
If you're going by the lyrics of Honus Honus, Man Man's impressively mustachioed bandleader, you'd find life a hideous thing full of loss, violence, and submission. There's some emotional bloodletting happening here, but the band wraps its cynicism in a swaying junkyard boogie that counterbalances the pain with a scruffy facade. Smeared with war paint onstage, it might look like the band members are poised to battle their demons, but they remain strangely inviting even at their wildest, like they've nicely asked you to stay and witness their purifying ritual. Go ahead and humor them -- it's a spectacle not to be missed. -- Ian Traas
Find any show in Metro Phoenix via our extensive online concert calendar.
9 Tips for Using A Fake ID To Get Into A Show Here's How Not to Approach a Journalist on Facebook The 10 Coolest, Scariest, Freakiest Songs About Heroin The 30 Most Disturbing Songs of All Time
Like Up on the Sun on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest local music news and conversation.
