Concerts 

Music on a Monday

Tonight was a night to go see a friend play. With that meant it was additionally one of those nights going in mostly blind to the rest of the lineup. Of course, going in blind to the two other bands turned out to reward. Both the Roosevelts and Dirty Sunset were excellent, plus another great time catching the Banter tonight. Dirty Sunset opened up with a fantastic, full of energy folk sound from right here in Phoenix. They are full of guys who like to move around as they play.…

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Concerts 

It Isn’t All Painting and Fences

Last night was one of those where I could have been in six places at once. I put catching the EP release show for Painting Fences atop my list. With it came some of the best stage lighting I’ve seen at Pho Cao and two bands new to me. It included a couple extra guests during the Painting Fences set too. It was a blast to be at. If seeing Zero Degrees North for my third Saturday in a row does not show how high in regard I hold them,…

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Concerts 

Raking It In

With a cover band, it tends to be hard to tell the true personality of the musicians. However, when you go to a Me First and the Gimme Gimmes show, the personalities shine the most. Tonight was a bigger example of this when you bring in awesome personality of the openers touring with them. The sold out crowd was in for a treat from all three bands on Wednesday. If there was a contest for best band name to tour with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, it would be…

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Concerts 

Shut Up, Get Rad

Teenage Bottlerocket I discovered later than many. Regardless, when I did, I fell in love with the music. I picked up the latest at the time, “Freak Out!” and then consumed all of the music I could find going into their back catalog. They played music that gave me an old school Ramones feeling, but with modern punk blended in. The lyrics touched upon topics of love, skaters, geeky stuff, and shitty customer service jobs that I related to in a heartbeat. Enjoying everything I was listening to, of course,…

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Concerts 

A Captive Audience

Earlier in the week I posted the fortune “Express yourself, do something creative.” The debate of if fortune cookies should be telling us our alleged future or just give us inspiring messages can rage on. The message in question, however, is the underlying reason I love music. You have people telling you their thoughts, their desires, and sometimes their humor through their talents of creating the sound of music. It is used to give you their views on a current event in their life or just vent. It comes together…

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Concerts 

An Anniversary for Local Music

Last night was like a show I used to see at Sail Inn. Made up of amazing musicians, some of the best female vocals, and watched Sara Robinson sing at Sail Inn before too. Tonight these super talented musicians and bands came out in celebration of Dani’s ten years with KWSS. It was a celebration and thank you for getting some great local music in front of people in the valley. The night opened up with the talented RUCA. This is going to be sentiments echoed a lot through this,…

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Concerts 

Devote Your Life, No Boundaries

I’ve been listening and watching Authority Zero for nearly two decades now. My first album was Patches in Time, but my sixteen year old self was catching them on the Ska Punk Show before that. I can recite almost all the lyrics to any album released before I became a slave to the GameStop corporate machine in 2006. After that, I got pulled out of the scene for a few years only to hit an occasional bigger show. Attention and time unfortunately eaten by the salaried job. Even so, I…

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Concerts 

A Little More Than Four Simple Words

Money, it is usually the enabler to see some of the touring musicians when they come to town. Money would somehow be what kept me from discovering Frank Turner until the release of Tape Deck Heart and not seeing him live for the first time until 2014. I had just discovered the awesome band, Larry and his Flask, at Warped Tour a little prior to the show at Crescent Ballroom so I should have been there in 2012. Though going back to school for a second degree, living off of…

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Concerts 

The Darts! Snakes! A Birthday!

This was one of those nights with a few music options, but I was looking forward to seeing The Darts in full form. I discovered them through Rikki Styx’s, of the Two Tens and Darts, post on her Instagram. I’d seen the Love Me Nots and Two Tens a couple times just last year, so it seemed a great pairing of music talents. Let’s not forget I had the Two Tens’ last full LP on my favorites of 2016 national list and the Darts’ first EP on the local list.…

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Concerts 

Rocking For Angela

Whenever friends and music come together for a cause, you can always expect excellence. My friend Angela, had an accident earlier in the year that created a domino effect of multiple nodules by her thyroids. It was deemed not to be cancer, but she has been in pain from it and surgery was a must to stop any more from forming. So long story short, a bunch of awesome local bands got together to help out and successfully raise money for her. Off the bat, I saw a local band…

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