Concerts Photo Gallery 

A Loaded Night With Frank Turner

I have said it before, but sometimes there are strokes of luck when a few artists come together for a tour. You may call it a super tour by the number of killer acts in one place for one ticket that isn’t a festival. I bring that up because that is just what Frank Turner put together for his epic fifty states in fifty days tour. That is not touching on the big endeavor Frank took on to hit all fifty states in his first post 2020 U.S. tour. The…

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Concerts Photo Gallery 

The Circle Jerks Celebrate 40 Years of Group Sex

Punk Rock has been around a long time in the realm of music. Grown out of garage rock and birthing bands you idolize and just wish you could get to see. Unfortunately, many on that mantel will stay there as the chances of them back together are slim to none or the world has lost members to their passing. However, we get lucky and are fortunate enough to see members come back together to celebrate an anniversary or just because they missed it. This brings us to the Circle Jerks…

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Concerts Photo Gallery 

Hot Mulligan Brings a Fire Tour to the Van Buren

Going into a show blind can lead to just a bigger high when you discover another awesome band. It is the reason you should always go to a show from the beginning, as those openers have become a few of my favorite bands. However, in the case of Hot Mulligan, they were a band I actually had never listened to prior to this show going in. Additionally, Super American on this tour too. I was there for Sincere Engineer and Prince Daddy and the Hyena. Combined though, all four just…

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Concerts Photo Gallery 

Celebrating Ten Years of Playboy Manbaby

The first time I saw Playboy Manbaby it was stumbling into them on stage at the Long Wongs location near Apache and McClintock. I was at Tempe Tavern and the friends I was hanging out with decided let’s jump over to see what was a walk down the street. What first drew me to them was immediately the brass section. That accompanied by the misidentifying them as another ska band in an otherwise starved local Ska band scene in 2012 in Phoenix. However, the tunes they played were punk with…

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Concerts 

A Familiar Pair

How often do you see a two band show? I feel like it is rare that any show I attend isn’t a minimum of three. However, that is exactly what happened on Streetlight Manifesto’s latest trip to Phoenix with Kitty Kat Fan Club. Although with bands this good, two is a good number. Our openers were Kitty Kat Fan Club, a familiar group to anyone who went to the last times that Streetlight Manifesto or Koo Koo Kanga Roo came to town. I was in attendance at both, though felt…

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Artist Spotlight Concerts 

Artist Spotlight: Masked Intruder

Masked Intruder is a band that first appeared on my radar as part of the Fat Wreck tour in 2013. On stage each member adorns a color coordinated ski mask and instrument. All the while, they sing songs about love and crime in a Ramones inspired pop punk. Personality radiates from the stage as they are constantly telling jokes and stories about their criminal escapades. This personality extends to Officer Bradford. He starts off serious looking like their parole officer, but then works to beat on the occasional intruder and…

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Concerts 

The Ska Must Go On

Ska has a long lineage of excellent music predating and inspiring sounds that would influence the genres of Reggae and Rocksteady. Most describe it as coming in three waves, the original out of Jamaica in the late 1950’s, the 2 Tone sound out of the U.K. in the 1970’s, and the third wave ska out of the punk scene in the late 1980’s. One of the most iconic bands to put the third wave ska on the map is the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. They were one of the first to…

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