Global AZ Media

Jelly Roll at The Birds Nest
2025-02-05 18:00 - 23:30 (America/Phoenix) | The Birds Nest, 8377 E Hartford, Scottsdale, AZ, 85255, United States
GRAMMY nominated singer/songwriter Jelly Roll’s debut Country album, Whitsitt Chapel, secured Top 3 on the Billboard 200 All Genre Chart & #2 on the Top Country Album charts, earning the biggest Country debut album in Billboard Consumption Chart history. Following his sweep at the 2023 CMT Music Awards, the Billboard Country Power List Cover star & “country’s ‘most authentic’ new artist” (The New Yorker) received Billboard’s 2023 Breakthrough Award & the People’s Choice Award for Male Country Artist of the Year. Nominated for Best New Artist & Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “Save Me (with Lainey Wilson)” at the 2024 GRAMMY Awards, along with winning 2024 ACM Music Event of the Year & 2024 iHeartRadio Awards Best New Country & New Pop artist, Jelly Roll is one of three artists to have scored three Country Airplay #1s in 2023 & the first to do it with his first three singles. He’s earned four consecutive #1s at Country radio & is “one of Nashville’s fastest rising stars” (The New York Times). 4X 2023 People’s Choice Country Awards winner & 2023 CMA Awards New Artist of the Year winner, Jelly continues to break boundaries. His #1 hit single “Save Me” set the stage & took him to new heights following his 28-week reign at No. 1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart. Currently on his Beautifully Broken Tour, named for his latest album Beautifully Broken out now, Jelly is sharing new music for his fans including the current radio hit “I Am Not Okay.”

Hinder + Saliva And More at The Van Buren
2025-02-17 19:30 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Hinder began crafting cocky, raucous post-grunge in the early 2000s, when Oklahoma City residents Joe Garvey and drummer Cody Hanson found Austin Winkler singing cover songs at a college party. The three formed the nucleus of Hinder, and the group started landing local gigs opening for such bands as Theory of a Deadman. Lineup changes brought guitarist Mark King and bassist Mike Rodden into the fold, and the quintet signed with Universal after issuing a self-released EP. Their 2005 full-length debut, Extreme Behavior, became one of the year’s most popular albums, climbing to triple-platinum status and sending “Lips of an Angel” to number three on the singles charts. Hinder returned several years later with a second batch of party anthems entitled Take It to the Limit. All American Nightmare arrived in 2010, followed by Welcome to the Freakshow, the group’s fourth studio album, in 2012. Winkler left Hinder in 2013. Jared Weeks filled in for a tour and then the band tested Nolan Neal before settling on Marshal Dutton in 2015. His first album with the band was When the Smoke Clears. Following the 2016 release of an acoustic EP called Stripped, Hinder released their sixth LP, The Reign, in August of 2017. ~ Johnny Loftus, Rovi

After acquiring front man Bobby Amaru in 2011, Saliva became infused with new blood, energy, and spirit. The same energy launched Saliva’s career in 2001 with the release, _Every Six Seconds – a certified Double Platinum-selling album, containing the hits, “Click Click Boom” and 2002 Grammy nominated, “Your Disease.” Saliva’s in-your-face, anthemic writing style continued with a certified Gold-selling album *Back in to Your System_ with hits: “Always,” “Raise Up,” and the Nikki Sixx co-written, “Rest In Pieces.”*
Saliva has been making waves on the charts recently, with their last single “High on Me” climbing its way into the Top 20 on both Mediabase and Billboard charts. Their music continues to resonate with fans and gain recognition in the industry. Saliva’s highly anticipated new album, Revelation, has officially dropped and is now available for streaming on all major platforms! If you’re a fan of hard-hitting rock music, you won’t want to miss this.
Saliva will continue to release music. The new music has a contemporary feel but sticks to the blue collar roots that their fans love.
Saliva is Brad Stewart (bass), Wayne Swinny (guitar), Sammi Jo Bishop (drums) and Bobby Amaru (vocals).

Texas hard rock band, Kingdom Collapse are taking the world by storm with their undeniable songwriting, die-hard fanbase, and will to overcome anything.
The band has SEVEN consecutive rock hits all added to regular rotatation on SiriusXM Octane. Two of which, becoming Top 15 BIG UNS. Alongside the band’s Octane success, several of their singles have charted on the Billboard and Mediabase Top 40 charts for Mainstream Rock, racking up over 40,000,000 streams combined.
Kingdom Collapse has been touring viciously, playing with bands such as Three Days Grace, Nothing More, From Ashes To New, Fame On Fire, Fire From The Gods, etc.
Alongside their non-stop touring schedule, they’ve made festival appearances at Danny Wimmer Presents 2021 Welcome To Rockville Festival, 2022 and 2023 Blue Ridge Rock Fest, and Rockfest 2023.

Dream Theater at Arizona Financial Theatre
2025-02-18 19:30 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Long Island, New York’s Dream Theater are the globally celebrated standard bearers for progressive metal in the 21st century. Their ability to deliver tight, melodic, musically sophisticated songs and thematic concept recordings encompassing elements of hook-based hard rock, riff-fueled metal, syncopated prog, and refined lyrics has made them the band others are measured by. Their second album, 1992’s Images and Words, established their sonic signature, while 1994’s Awake and 1999’s Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory cemented their place in metal’s pantheon. Dream Theater is well known for their high-energy concert performances. While they’ve released several 21st century live albums — Live at the Marquee, Live in Japan, and Live Scenes from New York — they remain one of the genre’s most bootlegged bands. For 2016’s The Astonishing, a double-length dystopian sci-fi opera, they were accompanied by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and three choirs. In 2021, the band issued A View from the Top of the World.
Originally named Majesty (from a lyric in “Bastille Day”), the band was founded by Berklee College of Music students, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and drummer Mike Portnoy; they soon expanded with the addition of keyboard player Kevin Moore and vocalist Chris Collins. Releasing an eight-tune demo, Majesty Demo, as Majesty, the group sold 1,000 copies within six months. The departure of Collins in late 1986 left Majesty without a vocalist, and after a long period of auditioning possible replacements, the group settled on Charlie Dominici in November 1987. They decided to change their name to Dream Theater, inspired by a now-demolished California movie theater. Signing with Mechanic Records, the group began working on their first full-length album. Delays caused by label mismanagement limited the group to performing at small clubs and bars. Frustrated by this experience, Dream Theater finally severed its ties with Mechanic.
This was only one drastic change in the band’s course of action. Firing Dominici, the group spent the next couple of years searching for a vocalist. The search ended in late 1991 when a demo tape from Canadian vocalist James LaBrie, formerly of Winter Rose, arrived. After flying to New York to audition, LaBrie was invited to join the band. (Charlie Dominici died on November 17, 2023, at the age of 72.) Signing with Atco Atlantic (which came to be known as East West), Dream Theater released its second album, Images & Words, in 1992. One of three videos based on songs from the album, “Pull Me Under,” became an MTV hit. Although Theater showed considerable growth with their third studio album, Awake, recorded between May and July 1994, the group continued to be hampered by personnel changes. Before the album was mixed, keyboardist Moore left the group to focus on his solo career. Hired as a temporary replacement for the band’s Waking Up the World tour, Derek Sherinian later became a permanent member. His first recording with Dream Theater was a 23-minute epic, “A Change of Seasons,” written in 1989 and released in September 1995 on the album of the same name.
Following the mini tour Fix for ’96, the members of Dream Theater separated for several months and became involved with a variety of outside projects. Petrucci was the busiest. In addition to joining Portnoy and keyboard player Jordan Rudess in the Liquid Tension Experiment — a group that included influential bassist/stick player Tony Levin — Petrucci played guitar with Trent Gardner’s Explorers Club and made a guest appearance on Shadow Gallery‘s Tyranny album. Myung and Sherinian collaborated with King’s X vocalist Ty Tabor in the band Platypus. LaBrie worked with Mull Muzzler, a group formed with Matt Guillory and Mike Mangini.
Dream Theater experienced yet another change when Rudess was tapped to replace Sherinian, who had been fired in 1999. The band released the progressive rock-heavy Scenes from a Memory that year, a conceptual piece that followed the story of the 1928 murder of a young woman and how a modern man is haunted by the crime. It was followed by Live Scenes from New York in 2001, which suffered from an unintentional bout of controversy when its original cover featuring the city of New York in flames was pulled due to the events of September 11. The group continued in the progressive metal vein in 2002 with Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, followed by the leaner Train of Thought in 2003 and Octavarium in 2005. The live album Score: XOX was released in 2006 and featured the band backed by a 29-piece orchestra. It was followed a year later by the new studio album Systematic Chaos, and in 2009 by Black Clouds & Silver Linings.
Sherinian went on to record as a soloist and to play with a prog and jazz fusion band, Planet X. Petrucci released an eponymously titled solo album in 2003, featuring accompaniment by Dave LaRue of the Dixie Dregs and Boston-based drummer Dave DiCenso. In late 2010, Mike Mangini joined the group, replacing drummer Mike Portnoy, who left the band in September of that year. With a rigorous touring schedule that firmly broke in Mangini, Dream Theater somehow found time to record. They pre-released the track “On the Backs of Angels” on YouTube via their label, Roadrunner, in June of 2011, followed by the CD release of the aptly titled full-length A Dramatic Turn of Events in the fall. After a period of rigorous international touring, the band took a break, though its members continued writing. They reconvened in early 2013 and returned with a self-titled studio album in September — this one with Mangini completely involved in the writing process — followed in November with the concert recording Live at Luna Park on CD and DVD, which was recorded during the Dramatic Turn of Events tour over two nights at the Buenos Aires soccer stadium. Recorded live at the Boston Opera House on March 24, 2014, the concert recording Breaking the Fourth Wall arrived the following year, and in late 2015 the band announced their upcoming 13th studio album, The Astonishing. A completely conceptual sci-fi offering, it was released in January 2016. After a world tour in which they performed the whole of the album, the band took an extended breather. At the end of 2018, Dream Theater released the single and video for “Untethered Angel” in advance of a North American tour. The full-length Distance Over Time was the first album by the band to clock in at less than an hour in length in over a decade. Petrucci credited the economical running time to a more collaborative writing process that took a mere 18 days and focused on harder-edged songs than on other recent recordings. Distance Over Time was released by Inside Out in early 2019. Taking the album on the road, Dream Theater played a sold-out show at London’s Apollo, which was recorded for prosperity.
Released in November 2020, Distant Memories: Live in London, not only featured live tracks from the album but a 20th anniversary celebration of their 1999 concept album, Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. In 2021, the band returned with A View from the Top of the World. Its seven extended tracks ranged from just over six to 20 minutes and comprised — for the first time in many years — an aural portrait of the band mapping out prog metal architectures and compositions without a guiding concept or theme.
In October 2023, Dream Theater announced the return of founding drummer Mike Portnoy to the lineup before heading to the studio to record their 16th album, Parasomnia. The departure of longtime drummer Mike Mangini (he always claimed to be a temporary replacement) was very amicable with praise and goodwill expressed by all sides. Portnoy, who last recorded with the band on 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings, rejoins guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung — with whom he founded Dream Theater in 1985 at the Berklee College of Music in 1985. The band’s lineup also includes vocalist James LaBrie and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. ~ Craig Harris, Rovi

Spencer Sutherland + Cloe Wilder at The Van Buren
2025-02-23 19:30 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Soulful pop- and R&B-influenced singer Spencer Sutherland brings together a vintage-inspired, ’70s rock opera theatricality and a contemporary pop sensibility. He first came to the public’s attention while competing on the U.K.’s The X Factor in 2017, after which he delivered his 2019 single “Sweater.” His 2023 full-length debut, In His Mania, underscored his robust vocal chops and rock pomp and swagger, a vibe he further championed on 2024’s The Drama.
Born in 1992 in Pickerington, Ohio (near Columbus), Sutherland grew up singing from a young age, and by high school was active in musicals and show choir. He also began performing locally, appearing at restaurants and other venues. Moving to Los Angeles, he further pursued a music career, co-writing and releasing the singles “Heartstrings” in 2013, “Bad Influence” in 2015, and “Girls” in 2016. In 2017, Sutherland gained wider recognition traveling to London, where he competed on the U.K. version of The X Factor. Auditioning with Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On,” he ultimately made it through to the live shows. The following year, he joined JAGMAC as an opening act on tour and issued the single “Talk.” He also signed with BMG, and returned in 2019 with the EP None of This Has Been About You, which featured the single “Sweater.” A second EP, Indigo, arrived the following year with the single “Wonder.”
In 2021, Sutherland branched out into acting, co-starring alongside Victoria Justice in the Netflix film Afterlife of the Party; he and Justice dueted on the song “Home” for the film’s soundtrack. That same year, he also guest starred on the Amazon television series I Know What You Did Last Summer before headlining his What a Shame Tour. He also joined Big Time Rush on tour in 2022. In February 2023, Sutherland released his debut full-length album, In His Mania. A blend of hooky pop and theatrical rock anthems, it featured a guest appearance by Meghan Trainor on the song “Chicken Little.” He also embarked on his In His Mania tour.
The single “Alive” arrived in May 2024 heralding the singer’s sophomore full-length, The Drama. Arriving that October, the album found Sutherland digging even deeper into a classic ’70s rock opera vibe. Along with “Alive” and the title track, it spawned the single “Let Me Loose” and featured a guest duet with singer Rachel Platten.

Photo Credit: Jesse DeFlorio
Cloe Wilder made her musical debut at just 14 years old releasing her first EP, Teenage Lullabies, in 2021. In a few short years, she’s amassed over 10 million total streams and media support from the likes of Ones To Watch, Just Jared, Wonderland, 1883 Magazine, and Stitched Sound, earning a reputation for her emotive songwriting and captivating melodies. Cloe has also gained significant attention for her dynamic stage presence and heartfelt connection with audiences, receiving praise for her ability to weave together vibrant energy with relatable lyrics. With a growing list of collaborations—including Angus & Julia Stone (whom she recently opened for on a tour in Australia), Nicolosi, Merōn, EZI, Jackie Young, and Mike Molina—Cloe’s sound continues to evolve, blending introspective storytelling with catchy hooks that resonate deeply with listeners. With her authentic voice and emotional depth, Cloe Wilder is making her mark in the evolving landscape of indie/folk/pop music and is a name to watch in 2025. More new music from Cloe Wilder coming soon!

Apocalyptica + Nita Strauss At The Van Buren
2025-03-01 19:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
In the lore of heavy metal only a handful of artists can claim to have changed history, and even fewer can say they’ve done so twice. Enter Apocalyptica and one of metal’s greatest, most unlikely success stories. By any account it’s the stuff of legend, and it’s about to come full circle. Formed in 1993 at the world-renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, Apocalyptica began life as a loving, lo-fi nod to Metallica from four classically-trained musicians with no greater ambition than to explore their favourite band’s music with their chosen instrument. As founding band leader Eicca Toppinnen explains, the project would take on a life of its own when they finally released Plays Metallica By Four Cellos in 1996. More than a debut, it was a monster in waiting. “We played the full first album and it was so much more fun and exciting than we expected,” says Eicca, roughly 30 years later. “We got the idea to do something like the first album, but we couldn’t do it in exactly the same way – we needed to challenge ourselves and bring a totally new perspective to the original energy and emotion of Metallica.” The result was nothing short of a sonic love-letter – an album they’d simply, elegantly title Plays Metallica, Vol. 2, and the passion poured into the recording project by Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, Paavo Lötjönen and Mikko Sirén – the band’s long-time drummer who after completion of this album leaves amicably on this unique high-note – is plain to hear and see.

Los Angeles born guitarist Nita Strauss has become a force to be reckoned with in the music world, dazzling audiences across the US, UK, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. 2018 has been a banner year for Nita. In January she was officially announced as the first ever female Ibanez signature artist with her own model, the Ibanez JIVA. She also released her signature pickups, the DiMarzio Pandemonium. April saw Nita playing WWE Superstar Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance music at Wrestlemania in New Orleans in front of an audience of 78,000 fans and millions streaming worldwide, and in the same month she launched a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign for her debut solo record Controlled Chaos. The campaign reached its goal in two hours, doubled it by the end of the day, tripled the following day and ended up over 800% funded. Nita produced the record herself and did the majority of the engineering, as well as playing all the guitars and bass on the record. After the record was competed, Nita signed with Sumerian Records to release and distribute the album worldwide. After finishing out the Alice Cooper tour cycle, Nita will immediately hit the road supporting Controlled Chaos alongside modern guitar virtuoso Angel Vivaldi. Nita’s debut solo album Controlled Chaos is out now through Sumerian Records.

Steel Panther at Marquee Theatre
2025-03-22 20:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
Satirically pretending to be a hair metal band that missed its big break in the ’80s, singer Ralph Saenz (“Michael Starr”), drummer Darren Leader (“Stix Zadinia”), bassist Travis Haley (“Lexxi Foxxx”), and guitarist Russ Parrish (“Satchel”) hit the club circuit on the Sunset Strip around the turn of the millennium under the name Metal Shop (later changed to Metal Skool and then to Steel Panther). With big, spiky wigs, leather jackets, zebra-striped spandex, chops earned from playing in a Van Halen tribute band, and lots and lots of machismo, their comic take on sex, drugs, and rock & roll to the extreme caught on quickly, leading to sold-out shows and some unexpected brushes with mainstream success. As their popularity increased, the Hollywood crowd started frequenting their sets, often making appearances on-stage. This led to some opportunities: the group fittingly played the metal band “Danger Kitty” in a Discover Card commercial; they appeared on The Drew Carey Show as themselves; and their song “FF” was used as the theme for MTV’s Fantasy Factory.
In 2008, the band signed to Universal Republic. After releasing the singles “Death for All But Metal” and “Community Property,” Steel Panther’s full-length Feel the Steel was released in October of 2009. The album broke the band onto the Billboard chart, netting them a spot at number 98 on the U.S. charts (and 48 on the rock chart). Not wanting the fun to stop, the band got back to it quickly and in 2011 followed up with Balls Out, which featured guest appearances from comedian Dane Cook and Nickelback‘s Chad Kroeger, among others. 2014’s All You Can Eat featured the single “Party Like Tomorrow Is the End of the World,” and featured cover art parodying Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. In 2016, the band issued their first concert LP, Live from Lexxi’s Mom’s Garage, which was released in conjunction with their first full-length feature film, which blended comedic vignettes and other assorted antics with the aforementioned glam-folk garage show.
At the end of 2016, Steel Panther released a cover of Cheap Trick‘s “She’s Tight” in advance of their fourth studio album Lower the Bar, which arrived in March 2017. The group headed out on tour in support of the album, playing dates across the world before embarking on their Sunset Strip Live tour, which saw the band playing a mix of original material and classic metal covers. Tapping producer Jay Ashton for their fifth album, the band dropped the unabashed Heavy Metal Rules in late 2019, preceded by the single “All I Wanna Do Is Fuck (Myself Tonight).”
Following a brief spell of absence from touring Lexxi Foxx announced his departure from the band in 2021, with the group holding open auditions for a new bassist. The group eventually settled on Joe “Spyder” Lester, who had played live with the band in Foxx’s absence. Steel Panther returned to the studio to record their sixth effort, On the Prowl. Producing it themselves, the album continued their tongue-in-cheek hair metal, with the tracks “Never Too Late (To Get Some Pussy Tonight)” and “Friends with Benefits” preceding its release in early 2023.

Papa Roach + Rise Against at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-03-25 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Papa Roach, the two-time GRAMMY-nominated, Platinum-selling pioneers of Alternative Hard Rock, is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of their groundbreaking album INFEST in 2025. Known for their candid approach to mental health, the band has long used their platform to raise awareness for the topic and the cause of suicide prevention, initially with their iconic hit “Last Resort” and through their recent collaboration with Carrie Underwood on “Leave A Light On (Talk Away The Dark)” which continues to climb the charts almost full year after its release.
The ever-evolving band has released eleven studio albums to date, with their latest, Ego Trip, on their own label, New Noize Records. The band’s music has racked up over 850 million streams globally, with Ego Trip producing four #1 singles and adding to their impressive tally of 26 Top-10 hits and 12 #1s across Rock, Alternative, and Hot AC charts. Now, Papa Roach is kicking off a new chapter with the release of “Even If It Kills Me.” Following sold-out arenas in the UK and Europe, their Rise of the Roach tour will continue across North American arenas and amphitheaters in 2025.

If ever there was a perfect time for a new album from the outspoken, socially-conscious, multi-Gold and Platinum punk rock band Rise Against, it’s right now. Nowhere Generation, due out June 4 on Loma Vista Recordings, is blazing and aggressive, fusing old-school punk attitude with post-hardcore fury. Lyrically, the eleven songs were influenced by input from the band’s vocalist/lyricist Tim McIlrath’s two young daughters, and the band’s community of fans, and point an enormous spotlight at the social and economic deck that has been stacked against younger generation’s pursuit of The American Dream. Today, there is the promise of The American Dream, and then there is the reality of The American Dream. America’s “historical norm” that “the next generation will be better off than the one that came before” has been diminished by an era of mass social, economic, and political instability, and a sell-out of the Middle Class. The brass ring that was promised by hard work and dedication no longer exists for everyone, and as was the case with the counterculture of the 1960s, disruption becomes the only answer for the Nowhere Generation. Nowhere Generation was recorded at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO under the tutelage of Jason Livermore, Andrew Berlin, Chris Beeble and long-time producer/engineer Bill Stevenson who has worked with the band on nearly all of their acclaimed releases since their sophomore effort, 2003’s Revolutions Per Minute.

Underoath, the iconic and genre-defining band, has once again shattered expectations with their forthcoming album, The Place After This One, to be released March 28, 2025 via MNRK Heavy.vRenowned for their ability to transform chaos into harmony and aggression into anthemic survival, the Florida-based group delivers a record that promises to redefine heavy music and expand their already massive audience. With two RIAA certified gold albums, three Grammy nominations, and a legacy of uncompromising authenticity, Underoath is back—and they’re louder, bolder, and more essential than ever, while continuing to push boundaries in ways that few bands dare.
The Place After This One marks a truly momentous occasion in the band’s history. It is a stunning document and a remarkable collection of songs, signaling a renaissance period in the beloved act’s storied career. The album showcases where they’re from, and more importantly, where they’re headed. It’s a masterpiece, from musicians at the top of their game. Sonically, its references are varied and complex, and is a distillation of everything they’ve accomplished thus far: a crystalline vision blending hard rock, electronic experimentation, guttural screams and anthemic, call-to-arms choruses.

Arizona Bike Week 2025 at WestWorld of Scottsdale
2025-04-02 08:00 - 2025-04-06 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Arizona Bike Week 2025 is back!
TICKETS
Arizona Bike Week at WestWorld is a celebration of motorcycles and music. With two stages, featuring live music all day and night, plus vendors, stunt shows, bike shows, contests and demos, there’s plenty of entertainment options for everyone. Our scenic terrain and amazing spring weather make for some of the best riding in the country but even non-riders will want to take advantage of the unique experience ABW offers. We offer the option of purchasing a single day pass to see your favorite band in concert or a Rally Pass, which gives you access to all the nightly concerts and festivities. Our low ticket pricing offers an opportunity to see four incredible concerts at a price you won’t find anywhere else. Our RockYard stage has proudly featured some of the biggest names in the music world, such as Foreigner, Cheap Trick, Staind, Heart, Megadeth, George Thorogood, Brantley Gilbert, Dierks Bentley, Heart, Puddle of Mudd, REO Speedwagon, Buckcherry, Billy Idol, Rob Zombie, Doobie Brothers, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Godsmack, Shinedown and Korn, just to name a few. Check out our website for this year’s lineup www.azbikeweek.com. There you’ll find links to purchase tickets, reserve on-site RV and tent camping or nearby hotel rooms at discounted rates. See you at Arizona Bike Week, the rally and musicfest that gives you more bang for your buck! Follow us on Instagram!

Jackyl at Arizona Bike Week 2025 at WestWorld of Scottsdale
2025-04-02 21:00 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
A raunchy, fun-loving, and hard-hitting rock band led by chainsaw-wielding frontman Jesse James Dupree, Georgia’s Jackyl emerged in the early 1990s with a sound rooted in Southern hard rock and no-frills heavy metal. The group’s eponymous 1992 debut album was certified platinum on the strength of the rock radio hits “Down on Me,” “When Will It Rain,” and “The Lumberjack,” the latter of which featured Dupree‘s infamous chainsaw solo. Jackyl’s mainstream success eventually waned, but through heavy touring and the releases of well-received efforts like Best in Show (2012), Rowyco (2016), and 30 Coming In Hot (2022), they have maintained a dedicated following that few other bands from the era can claim.
Jackyl was founded in Kennesaw, Georgia in 1991 by vocalist Jesse James Dupree, guitarist Jeff Worley, drummer Chris Worley, bassist Tom Bettini, and guitarist Jimmy Stiff. A shared fondness for AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd led the five-piece to start crafting their own blend of hard rock and Southern boogie around their native state. Record executives got hip to their live show, which included chain saws, among other things, and soon the band signed to Geffen. Jackyl’s 1992 self-titled debut quickly found favor with hard rock audiences through the singles “When Will It Rain,” “I Stand Alone,” and “Down on Me.” However, the most attention was drawn by “The Lumberjack,” an ode to burly chainsaw-wielders that witnessed a power tool solo by Dupree. His chainsaw abilities became their recognized gimmick, and the like-minded Ted Nugent took the band on the road. Jackyl’s sophomore long-player, Push Comes to Shove, appeared in 1994 and peaked at number 46 on the Billboard 200. Recorded in Vancouver with Juno Award-winning producer Bruce Fairbairn, the album’s title track charted both at home and in the U.K. After playing Woodstock ’94 and touring with ZZ Top and Aerosmith, the band parted ways with Geffen and moved to Mayhem, marking the occasion with a live album before leaving the label only a year later for a jump to Sony. Arriving in 1997, Cut the Crap got some traction on rock radio — the single “Locked and Loaded” featured guest vocals from AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson — but was ultimately overshadowed by popular alternative rock acts. Sony dropped Jackyl, so they signed to Shimmering Tone and released the ancillary B-sides collection, Stayin’ Alive.
Dupree issued a solo album, Foot Fetish, ahead of the release of the band’s fifth full-length effort. Arriving in 2002, Relentless featured a new lineup — Bettini and Stiff departed, and former Brother Cane guitarist Roman Glick was brought into the fold — and saw the group working once again with Brian Johnson. An eight-year hiatus preceded the release of 2010’s When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide, which was released on Dupree‘s own Mighty Loud Records and featured a cover of Janis Joplin‘s “Mercedes Benz” and a lyrically retooled cover of “Just Like a Negro,” originally by the funk rock band Mother’s Finest. The band issued Best in Show two years later, which included the mainstream rock-charting single “Favorite Sin.” The reliably rude and rowdy Rowyco appeared in 2016, and in 2022, the band celebrated its 30th anniversary with the aptly named 30 Coming In Hot. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Stone Temple Pilots at Arizona Bike Week 2025 at WestWorld of Scottsdale
2025-04-03 21:00 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Stone Temple Pilots embark upon a new sonic adventure with Perdida, the band’s first-ever acoustic album. It includes 10 deeply personal songs that weave introspective lyrics together with unexpected instruments to take listeners on an emotional and musical journey through letting go and starting over.
Bassist Robert DeLeo says Perdida (Spanish for ‘loss’) shows how music has helped them process grief, search for meaning and, ultimately, create something beautiful from the pain. “When I’ve gone through things in my life, I’ve found that sitting down and having an honest conversation with my guitar is the best therapy.”
“Recording an acoustic album like Perdida is something the band has wanted to do for many years,” says drummer Eric Kretz. “When Robert and Dean started playing their new songs for us during our tour last year, we knew right away they would be perfect for an acoustic album.”
Writing lyrics for Perdida meant exposing himself like never before, says singer Jeff Gutt, who joined the band in 2017. “It’s an emotionally honest album and I needed to approach it that way for these songs to resonate.”
To record Perdida, the quartet assembled at Kretz’s Bomb Shelter Studios in February. The key to making the album, Dean explains, was finding a way to say more with less. “Everything you hear serves a purpose, from the space in the arrangements to the different instruments. We only added things that served the songs.”

Mudvayne at Arizona Bike Week 2025 at WestWorld of Scottsdale
2025-04-04 21:00 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Heavy metal quartet Mudvayne formed in Peoria, IL, in 1996, its members adopting the unusual pseudonyms sPaG (M. McDonough) (drums), Gurrg (G. Tribbett) (guitar), and Kud (Chad Gray) (vocals). The group’s original bassist was replaced after two years by Ryknow (Ryan Martinie). During their development, the bandmembers began the practice of applying bizarre makeup. After self-releasing their first album, Kill, I Oughta, they were signed by Epic Records and recorded their major-label debut, L.D. 50, which was released in August 2000 shortly after the end of their first national tour opening for Slipknot. The album later went gold and earned Mudvayne the first-ever MTV2 Video Award at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Mudvayne continued touring and reissued their self-released debut EP, Kill, I Oughta, in November 2001 as The Beginning of All Things to End. A year later the band returned with its official follow-up, The End of All Things to Come, which was recorded at Minneapolis’ Pachyderm Studios with Tool producer David Bottrill. With a new album came new personas, this time as space aliens. The bandmembers changed their names accordingly, taking the new monikers of Chüd (Kud), Güüg (Gurrg), R-üD (Ryknow), and Spüg (sPaG). They embarked on a European tour, arriving back stateside in July to join the Summer Sanitarium shed tour, featuring such heavyweights as Metallica and Linkin Park. In 2005, the band released Lost and Found, their third album for Epic. In September 2007, Mudvayne announced they would allow fans to vote on the band’s website to determine the track selection for the compilation By the People, for the People, released the following month. The all new full-length New Game arrived in November 2008, followed six months later by an eponymous 2009 effort. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Marilyn Manson at Arizona Bike Week 2025 at WestWorld of Scottsdale
2025-04-05 21:00 - 23:30 | WestWorld of Scottsdale, 16601 North Pima Road, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260, United States
Marilyn Manson is a perpetually controversial presence and one of the key figures in aggressive, boundary-challenging rock music. Manson became a mainstream antihero in the 1990s — much to the chagrin of conservative politicians, religious leaders, and concerned parents — ruffling feathers and shocking the masses with his dark brand of glam-influenced industrial metal, outspoken social commentary, and incendiary live shows. The self-proclaimed “Antichrist Superstar,” he peddled a disquieting vision of society that focused on sex, drugs, violence, politics, and organized religion, which pushed many of his singles — including “The Dope Show,” “The Beautiful People,” and a cover of Eurythmics‘ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” — into the upper reaches of the modern rock charts during the late ’90s and early 2000s. During his band’s commercial peak, the conceptual triptych of Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and Holy Wood won him a legion of die-hard fans while also attracting media attention and cultural notoriety. Following 2003’s The Golden Age of Grotesque, Manson entered his next era with a trio of releases that marked a downturn in mainstream popularity and sales. However, at the turn of the following decade, he staged a late-era comeback with a string of critically acclaimed albums: The Pale Emperor (2015), Heaven Upside Down (2017), and We Are Chaos (2020). After a series of abuse allegations came to light and he was dropped by his label and longtime manager, Manson remained out of the public eye until 2024, when he returned with his 12th album, One Assassination Under God: Chapter 1.
Born Brian Warner, Manson was raised in Canton, Ohio. At the age of 18, he relocated to Tampa Bay, Florida, where he worked as a music journalist. In 1989, he became friends with guitarist and fellow outsider Scott Mitchell Putesky; the two soon decided to form a band, with Putesky rechristening himself Daisy Berkowitz and Warner adopting the name Marilyn Manson. With the addition of bassist Gidget Gein and keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy, the group — originally dubbed Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids — began self-releasing cassettes and playing gigs, their gothic stage shows notable for Manson’s elaborate makeup and homemade special effects. Jettisoning their drum machine in favor of Sara Lee Lucas, the band’s sound began taking on a harder edge, and by 1992 they were among the most popular and notorious acts in the South Florida underground.
In 1993, Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor came calling, offering both a contract with his Nothing Records label as well as the chance to open for NIN the following spring; Manson accepted both offers, and the group’s debut LP, Portrait of an American Family, appeared during the summer of 1994. With new bassist Twiggy Ramirez replacing Gein, the band’s notoriety soared. Most infamously, during an appearance in Salt Lake City, Manson ripped apart a copy of the Book of Mormon while on-stage. The Church of Satan’s founder, Anton LaVey, also bestowed upon him the title of “Reverend,” further stoking conservatives’ fears. Manson’s cult following continued to swell, and the band broke into the mainstream with the release of 1995’s Smells Like Children EP, propelled by their enduring hit cover of Eurythmics‘ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” Berkowitz quit a short time later and was replaced by guitarist Zim Zum, and the revised group saw their next LP, 1996’s conceptual opus Antichrist Superstar, debut at the number three spot on the pop album charts and sell nearly two million copies in the U.S. alone. Produced by Trent Reznor, the multi-platinum Antichrist Superstar became the band’s most influential and defining statement. As Manson’s popularity grew, so did the furor surrounding him. His concerts were regularly picketed by civic groups, and his music was the subject of widespread attacks from right-wing and religious fronts.
Manson continued to court controversy in 1998 with the glam-inspired Mechanical Animals, which included cover art depicting the singer as a naked androgynous alien. The album became the band’s first to top the charts and spawned the singles “The Dope Show” and “I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me).” While the resulting tour yielded a live album, Last Tour on Earth, the trek was cut short in early 1999 after the band was erroneously blamed for influencing the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre. Out of respect for the public, the group retreated from the spotlight and returned to the studio.

Machine Head + In Flames + Lacuna Coil at The Van Buren
2025-04-07 18:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Very few bands make it to their 11th album. Even fewer do so with the same fire and fury that defined their early years. But Machine Head isn’t just any band. For over three decades, the personification of determination, Founder/Vocalist/Guitarist Robb Flynn, has led Machine Head on an uncompromising path – one fueled by defiance, reinvention, and a relentless pursuit of evolution. Now, with ‘UNATØNED’ (out April 25, 2025 on Nuclear Blast), they’ve once again sharpened their sound into its most direct and impactful form to date.
Determined to challenge himself, Flynn set strict songwriting parameters for ‘UNATØNED,’ shorter, more focused songs with a decidedly American feel, unconventional key changes, and shifting structures that break expectations. That self-imposed restraint resulted in a lean, unrelenting album that captures Machine Head at their most potent.
The album drips with melancholy melodies, and yet hammers with bludgeoning riffs, soars with anthemic sing-a-longs of love-lost and sadness, to bellowing power and undeniable confidence.
‘UNATØNED’ is Machine Head proving once again that longevity in metal isn’t about comfort – it’s about taking risks, standing firm in conviction, and refusing to stagnate. Eleven albums deep, they remain as fierce, relevant, and unstoppable as ever.

In Flames represent the best of metal’s past, present, and future. In Flames are as vital and even more energized today than when they unleashed classics like Come Clarity and Clayman in decades past.
The band built a stunning reputation with devastating, crowd-moving, inspired performances around the world at every major rock and metal festival imaginable, headlining multiple treks, and touring with the likes of Slipknot, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Killswitch Engage, Within Temptation, and Lamb Of God. They regularly headline some of the biggest stages and festivals in the world.
Foregone, the furious fourteenth studio album, combines the greatest aggressive, metallic, and melodic strengths of their landmark records with the seasoned songwriting of their postmodern era.
A sense of pride, accomplishment, and continued vitality are evident every time the band takes the stage, and all over Foregone. Melodic death metal pioneers and innovative purveyors of groove, the artistry, influence, stature, and future of In Flames loom as large as the heavy metal horizon itself.

If you know Lacuna Coil then you’ll already be aware that every album entry in their storied career is more than just a sound. Each one is a richly textured soundtrack to a specific time and a place. With Sleepless Empire, that place is dark, cinematic, and unmistakably true to the unique characteristics that have given Lacuna Coil such a celebrated entry in the annals of heavy music. As founding songwriter-in-chief Marco Coti Zelati, aka Maki explains, while the writing process for Lacuna Coil’s tenth studio record began in December, the record’s real creative birth coincided with the release of 2022’s Comalies XX, a 20th-anniversary reimagining of their landmark 2002 record, Comalies. It was more than an epic and rapturously received reinvention of that 21st century classic. It would serve to align the past, the present, and the future of Lacuna Coil as they take their first steps into the fourth decade of their remarkable career. And from the colossal refrains of album opener The Siege to the wickedly catchy I Wish You Were Dead and the irrepressibly classic feel of Sleepless Empire’s title track, there’s no mistaking the confidence of Lacuna Coil’s latest, and it has its share of surprises, too. They come in the form of two very special guest appearances from none other than New Years Day banshee Ash Costello on their epic In The Mean Time and an ear-splittingly over-the-top contribution from Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe on Hosting the Shadow.

UNEARTH are nothing short of standard-bearers and keepers of the faith for American metalcore. They were the band born in the breakdown who never wavered from their love for European death metal melodicism, supercharged by American thrash and hardcore. Now, 25 years into a career that’s seen the Massachusetts mob play innumerable gigs and massive festivals on six continents, sell hundreds of thousands of records, and inspire some of the most important bands in extreme metal today, they remain a force to contend with. On album number eight, The Wretched; The Ruinous, UNEARTH not merely continues to amp-up their metal meets hardcore intensities, but they also exceed themselves with a record that incorporates elements of classic UNEARTH offerings dating back to 2004’s “breakthrough” The Oncoming Storm, while exploring beyond the recent back-to-basics promise of 2018’s Extinction(s).
For UNEARTH’s founding mainstays, Phipps and guitarist Buz McGrath, it feels like the beginning of a new chapter. “Buz took the entire pandemic to write these songs,” says Trevor. “He pushed himself to get out of his comfort zone and explore what UNEARTH is, both past and present. Buz adding these new elements and killer song structures inspired me to be more diverse vocally. The Wretched; the Ruinous is still UNEARTH, but it’s also the most dynamic record we’ve ever done.”
UNEARTH’s storm isn’t about to let up any time soon. Catch UNEARTH on tour now.

Poppy at Marquee Theatre
2025-04-22 20:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
Los Angeles-based performance artist-turned-pop star Poppy makes music that deftly balances art and commerce as she takes on multiple genres — from metal to pop and all points in between — while never losing her essential Poppy-ness in the process. She gained a substantial following on social media with her early videos, the subjects of which grew ever more absurd and bizarre. When she began making music for Diplo‘s Mad Decent label, Poppy’s commentary on social media and fame became even more meta; the self-referential electro-pop of 2017’s Poppy.Computer and the forays into nu-metal and dance-pop on the following year’s Am I a Girl? further blurred the project’s boundaries. In 2020, she boldly re-branded with the critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated I Disagree, which fully adopted the pop-metal direction she had been teasing. Following 2021’s EAT EP, she released the live-to-tape Flux, which focused her riff-heavy execution even further. More genre explorations include 2023’s industrial-leaning Zig and 2024’s Negative Spaces, which dips into synth pop and punk.
Poppy emerged on YouTube in 2014 with a video of her eating cotton candy in silence. Viewers were baffled, yet it was just the start of Poppy’s brand of smart millennial theater. Wide-eyed, platinum blonde, and decked out in precious throwback outfits, Poppy’s calculated wholesome persona, budding style icon status, and tongue-in-cheek clips — wherein she filmed herself reading the Bible for nearly an hour, repeating her name for ten minutes, or inflating a plastic rabbit — combined the satirical, the subversive, and the just plain weird. In early 2015, she began releasing music, starting with a Lana Del Rey-ified version of Mac DeMarco‘s “My Kind of Woman.” Her first official single, “Everybody Wants to Be Poppy,” arrived months later. Signing with Island Records, she released the follow-up single “Lowlife” (and a remix featuring Travis Mills), a reggae-tinged jam that would serve as the first track on her debut EP, Bubblebath. Released in February 2016, the four-song set of catchy dance-pop showcased her musical range and sensibility, attracting comparisons to Grimes, Icona Pop, Melanie Martinez, and Charli XCX. That October, she issued the experimental ambient album 3:36 (Music to Sleep To), a collaboration with polysomnographists from the Washington University School of Medicine that was designed to promote healthy sleep and dreaming. A year later, Poppy’s official debut album, Poppy.Computer (Mad Decent), arrived and peaked within the Top 40 on both the Heatseekers and Independent Albums charts. On 2018’s Am I a Girl?, Poppy worked with Diplo, Grimes, and Lady Gaga collaborator Garibay on a set of songs that incorporated mainstream pop and nu-metal sounds and explored fame, fashion, and identity. While promoting the effort, she began incorporating increasingly heavy elements into her music, inspired by Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Rob Zombie. In a similar vein as Am I a Girl? selections such as “Play Destroy” and “X,” Poppy’s 2019 single “Concrete” featured speedy metal riffs and pounding drums, adopting a sugar-sweet attack similar to Babymetal‘s. This new direction was fully realized on her third studio set I Disagree, which arrived in early 2020. Her first release on Sumerian Records, the album was also her first to chart on the Billboard 200. The brash, pop-metal style of I Disagree was a hit with critics and fans alike, resulting in an expanded deluxe edition, I Disagree (more). She continued an especially prolific period with Music to Scream To — the soundtrack to her graphic novel Poppy’s Inferno — and a holiday EP, A Very Poppy Christmas. To cap off her banner year, the I Disagree album cut “Bloodmoney” received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance, making Poppy the first female artist ever to be nominated in that category. The next year at the actual Grammy Awards ceremony, she performed a new track — the scream-packed “Eat” — which landed on EAT (NXT Soundtrack). Arriving a month after the release of her cover of Jack Off Jill‘s “Fear of Dying,” the aggressive EP also featured the track “Say Cheese.”
At the tail-end of 2021, Poppy released her fourth album Flux. At a compact nine songs, it was her most focused offering to date, blending numerous hard rock styles on a straightforward and cohesive attack produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen (NIN, Deafheaven). Led by the defiant and unrelenting single “FYB,” 2022’s Republic/Lava-issued Stagger EP paired thrashy, punk-metal riffs with melancholic alt-pop. Poppy started 2023 with the industrial metal-leaning “Church Outfit,” followed by a searing rendition of Canadian nu-metallers Kittie‘s 1999 track “Spit.” She also teamed with Stu Brooks and Danny Elfman for “They’ll Just Love You.” Capping a busy year, she joined PVRIS for a joint tour before the release of her fifth full-length, Zig (Sumerian), which featured additional singles such as the industrial-pop “Motorbike” and the vulnerable “Hard.”
Poppy started 2024 with a collaboration with alt-rock group Bad Omens, on the song “V.A.N.” (“Violence Against Nature”), toured both as a headliner and opening act, then ended the year with her fifth album Negative Spaces. On it, she expands her already wide-ranging approach to include ’80s-inspired synth pop and pop-punk while welcoming collaborations with Knocked Loose and Bring Me the Horizon‘s Jordan Fish.

98KUPD Presents UFEST 2025 at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-05-03 14:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Over the course of the past several years, each of A Day To Remember’s releases have hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock, Indie and/or Alternative Charts. They’ve also sold more than a million units, racked up over 800 million Spotify streams and 500 million YouTube views, two Gold-selling albums and singles (and one Silver album in the UK) and sold out entire continental tours (including their own curated Self Help Festival), amassing a global fanbase whose members number in the millions. All of which explains why Rolling Stone called them “An Artist You Need To Know.” In other words, their creative process has worked and worked well. But for new album Bad Vibrations, the Ocala, Florida-based quintet switched gears and headed for uncharted territory.
“We completely changed the way we wrote, recorded and mixed this album,” says vocalist Jeremy McKinnon. “It was one of the most unique recording experiences we’ve ever had. We rented a cabin in the Colorado mountains and just wrote with the five of us together in a room, which was the polar opposite of the last three albums we’ve made. We just let things happen organically and in the moment. I think it forever changed the way we make music.”
Bad Vibrations debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top Album Sales Chart. It was also the #1 album in Australia, #6 in the UK and #7 in Germany.

Seether stands for passion, authenticity, and genuine connection, with enduring anthems like “Words as Weapons,” “Broken,” “Fake It,” and more. With over seven million monthly listeners on Spotify, the band’s legacy remains strong. Their ninth album, The Surface Seems So Far, showcases their resilience and creativity, continuing a career of five gold/platinum albums and numerous Billboard Rock Airplay Top 10 hits.
A staple at major rock festivals, Seether has toured with Breaking Benjamin, Avenged Sevenfold, Nickelback, and Papa Roach. Their acclaimed 2020 album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, produced three No. 1 songs and kept their Vicennial: 2 Decades of Seether on the charts.
The Surface Seems So Far kicks off aggressively with “Judas Mind” while balancing moments of melancholy like “Regret.” It features dynamic songs such as “Illusion,” “Lost All Control,” “Same Mistakes,” and “Dead on the Vine,” blending vitriol and vulnerability. Seether’s lineup includes Shaun Morgan, Dale Stewart, John Humphrey, and newest member Corey Lowery, enhancing their powerful sound.

First impressions last a lifetime. Wolfgang Van Halen has prepared a lifetime to make his first impression with his solo band Mammoth WVH. The songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist worked tirelessly on material that would become his debut album. Playing every instrument and singing each and every note, his music presents a personal and powerful perspective, balancing memorable hooks and tight technicality. As many times as audiences have experienced his talent alongside the likes of Tremonti, Clint Lowery, and of course, Van Halen, Wolfgang prepares to step into the spotlight with his own brand – Mammoth WVH – for the very first time now.
“The name Mammoth is really special to me.” says Wolf. “Not only was it the name of Van Halen before it became Van Halen, but my father was also the lead singer. Ever since my dad told me this, I always thought that when I grew up, I’d call my own band Mammoth, because I loved the name so much. I’m so thankful that my father was able to listen to, and enjoy the music I made. Nothing made me happier than seeing how proud he was that I was continuing the family legacy.”

Brotherhood lasts forever.    No matter what happens, those bonds endure in memories and moments. We Came As Romans hold a similar link between them. After nearly 15 years together, countless sold out shows, critical acclaim, and over 250 million streams, the Michigan quintet—Joshua Moore [guitar], Dave Stephens [vocals], Lou Cotton [guitar], Andy Glass [bass], and David Puckett [drums]—weather their darkest time and emerge stronger in the name of a fallen brother and member: Kyle Pavone.
The group soldier ahead with a sixth full-length opus befitting of his memory.
After Kyle’s death in 2018, they made a careful decision to push forward, returning to the road with Bullet For My Valentine before gathering themselves in the studio with longtime collaborator Nick Sampson [Asking Alexandria, Born Of Osiris] and seeking perspective from Drew Fulk [Motionless In White, Lil Peep].
We Came As Romans introduce this next chapter with a pair of singles, “Carry The Weight” and “From The First Note.” Evocative clean guitar echoes at the beginning of “Carry The Weight” before giving way to a hammering groove and cathartic screams that culminate on a hypnotic chant—one of the band’s most irresistible.
Meanwhile, “From The First Note” hinges on thick guitars as it delivers a fast and furious elegy. Steamrolling forward on a punk gallop, the chorus rings out, “I can’t replace you.”
In the end, the brotherhood between We Came As Romans lives on.

Gifts From The Holy Ghost, Dorothy Martin’s third studio album as frontwoman for the pseudonymous, rock band Dorothy, is the album she’s always wanted, and has perhaps been destined to make. Born from a sense of divine, spiritual urgency, it’s Dorothy’s most bombastic and victoriously rock and roll work yet.
While the band’s first, irreverently named album ROCKISDEAD, was made on a combination of whiskey and heartbreak—inspiring Rolling Stone to name them one of rock’s most exciting new acts, and JAY-Z to sign them to his label Roc Nation—Gifts was built on sobriety, health and spiritualism, in a way that reverses the clichéd ‘good girl gone bad narrative’.
Balanced on a great rock and roll spectrum, encompassing everything from swampy blues to ‘90s alternative, on Gifts, Dorothy has fulfilled her purpose as an artist, entertainer and spiritual being. She’s conquered darkness with light, numbness with feeling, disharmony with unity—all while delivering one of this year’s most fun rock and roll records.

The Funeral Portrait is a loud emotional rock outfit from Atlanta, Georgia with a mix of theatrics and Devotion to their passion for loud uncompromising anthemic music.
The Funeral Portrait stands to represent the outcasts from all walks of life. To offer a sense of community, a place to belong, & a space where they can feel safe & accepted for their differences. We all grew up “the weird kid” who was saved by music and alternative culture, so we feel obligated to return this to the younger generation. This message is shouted to the masses through our over-the-top theatrics & dramatic, almost blown out, presentation.

Yelawolf at Marquee Theatre
2025-05-10 19:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
Continuing a wild ride from humble beginnings in Gadsden, Alabama to the forefront of popular culture, Yelawolf certainly has a lot to say. The Nashville-based multi-platnum chart-topping artist, entrepreneur, and Slumerican Founder has consistently asserted himself as an outlier and outlaw without comparison. He catalyzed his breakthrough via Radioactive (rated a coveted “4.5-out-of-5 stars” by The Source). The gold-certified Love Story bowed at #3 on the Billboard 200 highlighted by platinum singles “Till It’s Gone” and “Best Friend” [feat. Eminem]. He maintained his momentum with Trial By Fire and Ghetto Cowboy, spawning the platnum-certified “You and Me.” He emerged as the rare artst versatile enough to deliver The Slumdon Bridge EP with Ed Sheeran and Psycho White EP with Travis Barker. A$AP Rocky, Big Boi, blink-182, Eminem, Juicy J, Korn, and Tech N9ne have sought him out for verses. His albums have welcomed Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wynonna Judd, Kid Rock, Killer Mike, Raekwon, and Diplo. Frequent collaborator Jelly Roll pledged his allegiance with Slumerican ink! Yelawolf has built Slumerican into a worldwide merchandise empire and his Creek Water Whiskey into a nationally distributed spirits brand, performed on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, guested on MTV’s Ridiculousness, appeared in Peanut Butter Falcon, and toured with Deftones and more. However, he ups the ante in 2024 with his first-ever double album—War Story: Trunk Muzik 4Ever and War Story: Michael Wayne

Halsey at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-05-12 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Halsey has amassed more than 31 billion combined global streams to date, including more than 12.5 billion U.S. streams, and sold nearly 17 million adjusted album units worldwide.  Their most recent album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Current Album Sales and Top Alternative Albums charts in 2021. It follows 2020’s Manic, which also entered the Top Current Album Sales chart at No. 1. Manic was the first album of 2020 to be certified Platinum in the U.S. and is now 2x Platinum. 2017’s hopeless fountain kingdom was recently certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA.  Halsey continues to push creative boundaries, exerting an influence and impact beyond music. Her first book, I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry, debuted on The New York Times Best Sellers list in 2020. Named as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, they have won over 20 awards, including an AMA, MTV VMA, GLAAD Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Hal David Starlight Award and a CMT Music Award. Halsey recently introduced about-face, a multi-dimensional makeup line for made for everyone. Halsey continues to speak up for important causes such as disenfranchised youth, women’s rights, mental health and the LGBTQ community.

Del Water Gap is the solo project of songwriter S. Holden Jaffe. Jaffe currently resides in Brooklyn, New York and is inspired by “romantic encounters and dimly lit rooms.”

The Warning draw strength and power from a lifetime of sisterhood and music. The Mexico-born sister trio—Daniela “Dany” [guitar, lead vocals, piano], Paulina “Pau” [drums, vocals, piano], and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal [bass, piano, backing vocals]—have logged thousands of miles on the road, generated hundreds of millions of streams, and left countless fans in awe. All of this tireless work and dedication has shaped and sharpened their sound with knifepoint precision, arming alternative anthems with universally catchy hooks and an uncompromising hard rock kick. They initially made waves with a string of independent releases, paving the way for their acclaimed 2022 full-length offering ERROR. Between performing alongside Muse, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Royal Blood, The Pretty Reckless, and Three Days Grace, the band ignited MTV’s Extended Play Stage at the 2023 MTV VMAs. Representative of their cultural impact, Pepsi even notably chose them as the face of Pepsi Black in Mexico. Moreover, they emerged as the rare force who could comfortably appear in features by Vanity Fair, People, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour as well as on Metallica’s star-studded Blacklist compilation—placing their cover of “Enter Sandman” [with Alessia Cara] shoulder-to-shoulder with contributions from Ghost, St. Vincent, Chris Stapleton, IDLES, and Weezer. Now, The Warning embrace their destiny on their 2024 full-length album, Keep Me Fed [LAVA/Republic Records] out on June 28th.

Disturbed + Daughtry at Phoenix Arena
2025-05-15 18:30 - 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
Emerging out of Chicago with an insidious, infectious, and inimitable vision without comparison, Disturbed have quietly dominated hard rock on their own terms. It’s why they’ve claimed a place at the forefront of 21st century rock with ales of over 17 million units, nearly 14 billion streams, and sold out shows around the globe. The band have six RIAA album certifications, and singles from all eight albums have reached the top ten of the Mainstream Rock charts. The band have recently launched their new era with “I Will Not Break,” the band’s first release on their own label, Mother Culture Records. The two-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated quartet have notched five consecutive #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 for Believe, Ten Thousand Fists, Indestructible, and Asylum—the only hard rock group other than Metallica to accomplish this feat. Since their 5x-platinum debut The Sickness in 2000, they have built a bulletproof catalog highlighted by a procession of smashes, including the 2x-platinum “Stupify,” “Inside The Fire,” and “Land of Confusion,” 2x-platinum “Stricken,” 8x-platinum “Down With The Sickness,” and 7x-platinum “The Sound of Silence,” to name a few. The latter notably received a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best Rock Performance” as the band earned “Best Rock Artist” at the 2017 iHeartRadioMusic Awards. Still, Disturbed never stop, and their most recent 2022 album Divisive featured their 17th #1 at Rock Radio “Hey You,” “Unstoppable,” and more.

Daughtry, one of the most visible and best-selling rock bands of the 21st century, has sold out concerts across theglobe. Their debut album, the self-titled Daughtry, was the top-selling album of 2007 and was the fastest selling rock debut album in Soundscan history. It was also nominated for 4 GRAMMY® Awards and won 4 American MusicAwards and 7 Billboard Music Awards, including Album of the Year. Subsequent albums, Leave ThisTown (2009), Break The Spell (2011), and Baptized (2013) have all gone Platinum, with Cage To Rattle (2018) certified Gold. In 2021, Daughtry released their album Dearly Beloved, which marked a return to their rock roots and a return to the top of the rock charts with their singles “World On Fire,” “Heavy Is The Crown,” and “Changes AreComing,” each reaching the Top 10 on Billboard’s Rock Airplay chart. With the success of their 2023 smash cover,“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” featuring Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale, charting yet another Top 10 success, the band ushers in a new sonic era on their latest epic track,“Artificial.” Catch the rock outfit on the road this fall, as they strip it back in the states on their Bare Bones Acoustic Tour. For dates and more information, visit daughtryofficial.com.

Banks at Marquee Theatre
2025-06-10 20:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
BANKS, short for Jillian Banks, crafts moody alternative pop with shades of contemporary R&B. The singer and songwriter emerged in the early 2010s with a handful of downtempo, alternative R&B-flavored tracks that helped build a cross-genre audience. Her 2014 album Goddess, featuring her breakthrough platinum single “Beggin for Thread,” peaked just outside the Top Ten on the Billboard 200 and earned a gold certification, and she followed up two years later with The Altar, which maintained her placement in the chart’s upper reaches. BANKS expanded her sound palette with her third and fourth LPs, III and Serpentina, respectively released in 2019 and 2022. Contrastingly brash and heartsick singles, including a collaboration with Doechii (“I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend”), preceded her vivid fifth album, 2025’s Off with Her Head.
Jillian Rose Banks started writing as a teenager in her native Tarzana, California after a friend gave her a keyboard. For years, she wrote and played as a personal release, but she uploaded “Before I Ever Met You” — a sleek, low-key track that sounded like the work of someone who had grown up listening to Fiona Apple and Massive Attack — in early 2013. Within a matter of months, the Los Angeles native was releasing singles on Good Years (in the U.K.) and the reactivated Harvest (in the U.S.), including “Warm Water” (produced by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) and “Fall Over.” That September, she released a four-track EP, London, as she was opening for the Weeknd during a North American tour.
Her full-length debut, Goddess, which featured collaborations with producers Justin Parker and Shlohmo and additional work with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, arrived in September 2014 and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 chart. Harvest issued a large collection of remixes as a digital download in 2015. The following year saw the release of her much-anticipated sophomore full-length, The Altar, which featured the singles “Fuck with Myself,” “Gemini Feed,” and “Mind Games.” The set peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200. A fourth single, “Underdog,” followed in 2017. BANKS returned in early 2019 with the synth-heavy single “Gimme,” produced by Hudson Mohawke. That track landed on her aptly titled third studio album, III, which was released in July. Additional contributors included Francis and the Lights on “Look What You’re Doing to Me” and producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Rihanna) on the magical “Hawaiian Mazes.” A short EP, Live and Stripped, arrived in 2020.
BANKS soon began her next album cycle with 2021’s “The Devil” and “Skinnydipped,” which landed on her fourth full-length, 2022’s Serpentina. Tied to themes of shedding old skin and embracing the new, the album was recorded during her months of pandemic isolation. “I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend,” a steely collaboration with Doechii, and “Best Friends,” a downcast ballad, arrived in late 2024, as did an acoustic version of Goddess, Goddess: Unplugged. The following February, BANKS released Off with Her Head, which contained the 2024 singles and additional collaborations with Sampha and Yseult. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi

Pierce The Veil at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-06-15 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Pierce The Veil debuted atop Billboard’s Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums, and Hard Rock Albums charts twice – first with Collide with the Sky (2012) and its follow-up, Misadventures (2016). A decade after its release, the already platinum “King for a Day” shot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Streaming chart, driven by the viral #KingForADay hashtag on TikTok. Even with two gold singles; a gold album; 2022 could be their biggest year. Because this is the year of The Jaws of Life.
The band Rolling Stone once described as “hyperactive, progressive post-hardcore,” returns with album number five, full of fuzzy guitars, massive melodic hooks, and PTV’s distinct emotional heart. The Jaws of Life is Pierce The Veil at their most raw, crackling with urgency and immediacy. Never predictable, always engaging, Pierce The Veil continues to soar on the strength of highly potent energy, rich musicality, and a scrappy sense of authentic exuberant ambition that’s frankly unrivaled. Vic Fuentes, Tony Perry, and Jaime Preciado put volatile, angsty, confessional emotions into the music, which is why their songs resonant with so many. “No matter where the band performs, fans will show up,” wrote Loudwire. “When you see Pierce The Veil live, you’ll understand why.”
PTV’s evolution from album to album is nothing less than stunning. The early buzz generated by A Flair for the Dramatic (2007) made its follow-up one of the most anticipated albums of 2010. Selfish Machines shot to No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. The Chicago Tribune saluted Collide with the Sky for its “post-hardcore punk with more than a few nods to Queen.” They became a true arena act on Misadventures, selling out huge venues without losing the intimate connection with their fans.
The Jaws of Life was produced by Paul Meany (Twenty One Pilots, Mutemath, The Blue Stones), and mixed by Adam Hawkins (Machine Gun Kelly, Turnstile, Twenty One Pilots). Deadly serious subject matter abounds, but Pierce The Veil enduringly navigates it all with grace. The lyrics continue the Fuentes tradition of painstaking honesty and clever twists of phrase. Pierce The Veil performs at the biggest festivals and is counted among the biggest and brightest of a younger generation of bands. But it all starts with the songs. The Jaws of Life is filled with the kind to keep the PTV fire burning forever.

Sleeping With Sirens breathe rarified air. After fourteen years, five studio albums, and thousands of shows, the band has outlasted many of their peers while crafting an undeniably unique path through modern alternative rock. With each release, the quintet — Kellin Quinn [vocals, keyboards], Jack Fowler [lead guitar], Nick Martin [rhythm guitar], Justin Hills [bass], and Matty Best [drums] – continue to hone their mix of unflinchingly honest lyricism, unforgettable riffs, and pulse-pounding percussion while boldly exploring new creative frontiers. That future-forward perspective, coupled with a deep connection to listeners, has established Sleeping With Sirens as a beacon of hope in a world desperate to find silver linings. On Complete Collapse, the band’s sixth studio album, Sleeping With Sirens cut straight to the bone, as they process life in modern times. “We’re coming to terms with the new reality we are in,” explains Quinn. “Things have changed so rapidly, and we’re all doing our best to process it. There’s a feeling of heaviness to the record, both in sound and emotion. We’re trying to figure out what’s going on and where we’re going. We’ve seen so much stagnation, but also a lot of change that wasn’t necessarily for the better. We’re realizing now that our voice, and what we’re able to say or should say, needs to come through the music. It’s not about what you can say on Instagram or Twitter, it’s about what you’re saying through your work.”

Post Malone + Jelly Roll at State Farm Stadium
2025-06-21 18:30 - 23:30 | State Farm Stadium, 1 Cardinals Dr, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
A 9x diamond-certified GRAMMY® Award-nominated phenomenon, Dallas, TX artist Post Malone regularly rewrites history, blurs boundaries, and incites internet-breaking conversation with every move. Emerging in 2015 with a genre-less brew that inspired a movement, he delivered the diamond-selling “Congratulations” [feat. Quavo], achieved back-to-back #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200, received countless multi-Platinum certifications around the world, and smashed one record after another with his Hot 100-topping hits. As the writer or co-writer of all of his songs, Post Malone is one of our generation’s literary geniuses.
Most recently, Post released his debut country album, F-1 Trillion which landed at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Ahead of the album, Post released “Guy For That” featuring Luke Combs, “Pour Me A Drink” featuring Blake Shelton and mega-smash “I Had Some Help” with Morgan Wallen. Upon release of “I Had Some Help” it crash-landed at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, tallying “the highest weekly sales and streams since 2020” and remained at #1 for six consecutive weeks. This fall, Post wrapped his record breaking F-1 Trillion Tour.
In 2023, he released his fifth album AUSTIN. That same year, he garnered a “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” GRAMMY® Award nomination for “I Like You (A Happier Song)” [with Doja Cat], marking his tenth career nomination in six years. In 2022, Post released his fourth album, Twelve Carat Toothache, which marked his fourth consecutive Top 5 bow on the Top 200. He even scored “the highest-certified single in RIAA history” with “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse)” [feat. Swae Lee] reaching 20x platinum, or double diamond, in the United States. This makes it the first song to ever achieve this status, netting the biggest single of his generation.
In 2019, his third full-length album, Hollywood’s Bleeding, arrived at platinum status and eventually went triple platinum. It reigned at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 for four weeks. Hollywood’s Bleeding followed the immense success of the triple-Platinum beerbongs & bentleys, which also landed at #1 a year prior. In the wake of beerbongs & bentleys, Post crushed a record in place for 54 years. He charted nine songs in the Top 20 of the Hot 100, notching “the most songs in the Top 20 of the Hot 100 ever.” Moreover, he also trounced the record for most simultaneous Top 40 Hot 100 hits with 14.
Post’s catalog comprises the GRAMMY® Award-nominated “rockstar” [feat. 21 Savage” (Diamond), “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse)” [feat. Swae Lee] (2x Diamond), “I Fall Apart” (Diamond), “Psycho” [feat. Ty Dolla $ign] (Diamond), “White Iverson” (Diamond), “Better Now” (Diamond), and more. It all started with his quintuple-platinum influential 2016 debut, Stoney. With records under his belt that will likely never be surpassed and a generation of artists and audiences worldwide under his spell, Post Malone simply doesn’t stop.

Multi Award-winning, 4x GRAMMY® nominated Nashville native singer/songwriter Jelly Roll claimed the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 All Genre Chart with his critically acclaimed 2024 album, Beautifully Broken. The release concluded his most successful year yet and followed his sold-out nationwide Beautifully Broken Arena Tour.
Just a year earlier, Jelly debuted in the Top 3 on the Billboard 200 All Genre Chart and #2 on the Top Country Album charts with his debut country album, Whitsitt Chapel – earning the biggest country debut album in Billboard Consumption Chart history. With over 20 Award wins, the multi-genre phenomenon – currently nominated for three ACM Awards including Entertainer of the Year – has cemented his rise in 2025, having already won Country Artist of the Year at this year’s iHeartRadio Music Awards and notched two more GRAMMY nominations. Jelly scored his seventh #1 at country radio with the six-week chart-topper “Liar,” bringing his career total up to nine. Now, Jelly’s spurring “Heart Of Stone” – the third radio single from his Beautifully Broken record – is currently climbing the country radio charts.
Not just an artist but a humanitarian, Jelly continues to deeply resonate with fans on a global scale, from donating a recording studio at the juvenile detention center he served in as a teen, to the release of his record-breaking documentary by ABC News, Save Me, to his visits with rehab centers and those incarcerated across the US.

Shakira at Phoenix Arena
2025-06-22 19:30 - 2025-06-23 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira has sold over 80 million records worldwide and won numerous awards including three GRAMMYs and eleven Latin GRAMMYs. At the age of 18, she founded the Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation which provides education and nutrition to over 6,000 impoverished children in Colombia. In October 2011, Shakira was named a member of President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She served as coach on the 4th and 6th season of NBC’s hit reality vocal competition series “The Voice”. Her tenth studio album “Shakira” was released in 2014, featuring hits such as “Can’t Remember to Forget You,” with Rihanna and “La La La (Brazil 2014)” which she performed at the finals of Fifa’s World Cup 2014 in Brazil. In 2016, she starred as Gazelle in Disney’s record-breaking film “Zootopia,” as well as contributing to its soundtrack with “Try Everything”. She also launched “La Bicicleta” with fellow Colombian artist Carlos Vives, which remained #1 for 18 consecutive weeks in Colombia. It was followed up by “Chantaje” feat. Maluma. With over 2 billion views on YouTube, it is one of the platform’s biggest Latin hits in history. In November 2018 she wrapped her hugely successful El Dorado World Tour. 2019 saw the release of the concert film Shakira in Concert: El Dorado World Tour, which was shown in cinemas worldwide for one-night only. She performed at Super Bowl LIV in Miami and is currently working on new music.

Summer of Loud Tour 2025 at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-07-01 15:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Killswitch Engage first shook the structure of heavy music upon climbing out of snowy industrialized Western Massachusetts in 1999. A musical outlier, the band pioneered a union of thrashed-out European guitar pyrotechnics, East Coast hardcore spirit, on-stage hijinks, and enlightened lyricism that set the pace for what the turn-of-the-century deemed heavy. 2002’s Alive Or Just Breathing became avowed as a definitive album, being named among “The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade” by Decibel and celebrated by everyone from Metal Hammer to Revolver. Not only did they bust open the floodgates for dozens to follow, but they also garnered two GRAMMY® Award nominations in the category of “Best Metal Performance” in 2005 and 2014, respectively, and gold certifications for The End of Heartache [2004] and As Daylight Days [2006]. The group landed three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with Killswitch Engage [2009], Disarm The Descent [2013], and their career high best bow at #6 with Incarnate [2016]. The latter two releases would also both capture #1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. Their total streams have exceeded half-a-billion to date. Along the way, the band has shared stages with some of the biggest acts in the world and has sold out countless headline gigs in six continents across the globe.
2019 represents another turning point. The quintet—Adam Dutkiewicz [guitar, production], Joel Stroetzel [guitar], Mike D’Antonio [bass], Justin Foley [drums], and Jesse Leach [vocals]—sharpens every side of this signature sound on their eighth full-length and first for Metal Blade, Atonement. The vision the band initially shared two decades ago crystallizes like never before.
“To me, the name Killswitch Engage means ‘Shut the system down’,” exclaims Jesse. “It’s anti-authority and anti-corruption. My lyrics are very spiritual and political. It’s a part of what Killswitch has been since the beginning. We carry the message through the live show. There’s a sense of fun, enjoying life, and emotional catharsis. I don’t even know if we meant to do it consciously, but this showcases all of our styles. It happened naturally. I’m proud of it.”
“This is another honest record,” says Justin. “We’re just being who we are and writing the best material we can.”
“People take themselves way too seriously,” adds Adam. “We love metal, but we also love melody and we want to have a good time. That’s who we are; we don’t act like your typical ‘metal band.’
Atonement proves that. It earmarks the culmination of a trying and turbulent two years. The musicians started kicking around ideas as early as 2017. The band recorded the bulk of the material separately, with Adam once again behind the board. They worked at Signature Sound for drums and Adam’s own Wicked Good Studios for guitars, both based in San Diego. Meanwhile, Mike cut his bass tracks wherever he could: on the road in hotels, in dressing rooms backstage, and at home. Vocals were recorded on both coasts at Mainline Recording Studios in Westfield, Massachusetts and Wicked Good Studios. In the middle of the process, a polyp developed scar tissue in Jesse’s throat, forcing him to undergo surgery. The intense three-month recovery ended with speech therapy, vocal therapy, and scream therapy.
“At first, I was wondering if I was done career-wise,” he admits. “It worked out though. Out of everything came a real determination to learn techniques and get a second chance at becoming a better vocalist. I have so much more control of my voice and can scream properly. I don’t think the album would be what it is if I didn’t go through all of this.”
His “trial-by-fire” on stage came during a 2018 tour with Iron Maiden as he regained “confidence” performing in front of sold out arena and stadium crowds. At the same time, he experienced a debilitating bout of writer’s block. By the end of this run with the metal gods, Adam took him aside and offered words of inspiration.
“I shared my unfinished lyrics, and he said, ‘You don’t even need all of these. Keep it simple.’,” Jesse goes on. “I was stressed out. I was insecure. A lot was going on in my head between writer’s block and the surgery. It was amazing to have a friend and producer like Adam mentally slap me upside the face and encourage me.”
“Jesse did a really great job with the words and melodies,” remarks the guitarist. “At the same time, I strove to write songs that were really thrash-y and aggressive. We’ve got more butt-kickers than we usually do.”
Signing to Metal Blade also stoked this fresh fire. “We were all excited to kick off a new chapter,” says Justin. “We’ve known Brian Slagel forever. We have friends who have worked with him. We went into this with a sense of optimism about what we could potentially do on this cycle with Metal Blade on our side.”
The opener and first single “Unleashed” tempers ominous drums with foreboding guitars before descending into a chantable refrain. “It’s the genesis of the whole thing,” explains the frontman. “For me, it’s about the inner animal and darkness we all have inside. Thankfully, I’ve only had it come out a few times in my life. The chorus felt like something people could relate to.”
“The Signal Fire” steamrolls from airtight thrashing towards an expansive and entrancing refrain. Boasting a guest appearance from former Killswitch Engage singer and current Light The Torch vocalist Howard Jones, it sparks a pyre of metallic mastery, joining two eras of the band on one anthem.
“I had an image from Lord of The Rings when they climb to the top of the mountain and light a fire to signal for backup,” says Jesse. “It felt powerful to me. At the same time, Howard’s Light The Torch was making new music. I thought, ‘‘Light The Torch’and ‘Signal Fire’ make sense together.’ It needed to be a call-to-arms, and I wanted to invite him to sing on it. We hit it off for the first time, recently. Afterwards, we were texting back-and-forth. We needed a song with him to show the fans there’s solidarity. It’s a perfect ode to our bond as brothers and a nice nod to Light The Torch.”
Elsewhere, legendary Testament mainman Chuck Billy brings his unmistakable guttural growl to the possessed power of “Crownless King,” which Adam rightfully refers to as “fucking awesome.” On the other end of the spectrum, the soaring chorus of “I Am Broken Too” assures “someone struggling with mental illness or suicidal thoughts not to give up, because there are more of us than you think,” as the singer reminds. Then there’s “As Sure As the Sun Will Rise,” which builds towards a triumphant chant, turning a corner thematically over thunderous percussion and punch-y guitars.
In the end, Killswitch Engage lengthen their legacy while blazing another new path—the system won’t be the same again.
“I want to take all of that energy, negativity, and shit I suffer with and turn it into something positive to make people feel a sense of hope,” Jesse leaves. “Acknowledge the darkness and fight through it. If you keep pushing, you will persevere. There will always be a ray of hope.”
“I want fans to enjoy this,” Adam concludes. “When I listen to metal records, I get pumped up and excited. I hope our fans can get just as excited when they hear our songs and watch us play live. Do you really want to pay money to look at someone pretending to be a badass? It’s not what we do. If we’re laughing, we’re enjoying it—and we are enjoying this one.”
BOILER
Killswitch Engage first shook the structure of heavy music upon climbing out of snowy industrialized Western Massachusetts in 2000. A musical outlier, the band pioneered a union of thrashed-out European guitar pyrotechnics, East Coast hardcore spirit, on-stage hijinks, and enlightened lyricism that set the pace for what the turn-of-the-century deemed heavy. 2002’s Alive Or Just Breathing became avowed as a definitive album, being named among “The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade” by Decibel and celebrated by everyone from Metal Hammer to Revolver. Not only did they bust open the floodgates for dozens to follow, but they also garnered two GRAMMY® Award nominations in the category of “Best Metal Performance” in 2005 and 2014, respectively, and gold certifications for The End of Heartache [2004] and As Daylight Days [2006]. The group landed three consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 with Killswitch Engage [2009], Disarm The Descent [2013], and their career high best bow at #6 with Incarnate [2016]. The latter two releases would also both capture #1 on the Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. Their total streams have exceeded half-a-billion to date. Along the way, the boys have shared stages with some of the biggest acts in the world and have sold out countless headline gigs in six continents across the globe.
2019 represents another turning point. The quintet—Adam Dutkiewicz [lead guitar], Joel Stroetzel [rhythm guitar], Mike D’Antonio [bass], Justin Foley [drums], and Jesse Leach [vocals]—sharpen every side of this signature sound on their eighth full-length and first for Metal Blade, Atonement. The vision they shared two decades ago crystallizes like never before as evidenced by the first single “Unleashed,” “The Signal Fire” [feat. Howard Jones], “Crownless King” [feat. Chuck Billy], and “I Am Broken Too.”

In the kitchen of the Byron Bay home of Winston McCall stands a refrigerator, adorned on one side by a quote from Tom Waits: “I want beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”
This, the Parkway Drive vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of himself. It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind Darker Still, the seventh full-length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner of north-eastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date from one of modern metal’s most revered bands.
Darker Still, McCall says, is the vision he and his bandmates – guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick, bassist Jia O’Connor and drummer Ben Gordon – have held in their mind’s eye since a misfit group of friends first convened in their parents’ basements and backyards in 2003. The journey to reach this moment has seen Parkway evolve from metal underdogs to festival-headlining behemoth, off the back of close to 20 gruelling years, six critically and commercially acclaimed studio albums (all of which achieving Gold status in their home nation), three documentaries, one live album, and many, many thousands of shows.
“When Parkway originally started out, we all were trying to push ourselves to do more than we possibly could,” is how McCall explains it. “The better we got at it, the more comfortable we got, to the point where it became all comfortable. That is when we chose to acknowledge that just being comfortable was not necessarily doing justice to the skills and the creativity that you have grown over the years. What you hear on Darker Still is the final fulfilment of our ability to learn and grow catching up with the imagination that we have always had. These are the kinds of sounds we always had in mind. This is the way we always dreamed.”
To understand that growth is to understand Darker Still, both musically and thematically. Those who thought they had Parkway Drive figured out – the unrivalled energy, the high-octane breakdowns, McCall’s trademark bark – need reconsider everything they know about Australia’s masters of heavy. Not that anyone truly paying to their recent evolution should be surprised, though. “This is a journey we began with Ire, and which grew further still on Reverence,” McCall says, referencing the band’s preceding 2015 and 2018 works, respectively. In that context, it is easy to view Darker Still as the curtain-closer on a transformative trilogy that has seen Parkway reach new heights of creativity and success by eschewing the restrictive, safe conventions of genre and abandoning their own self-imposed rules in favour of a wide-eyed appreciation of bold new horizons. “There are compositions and songs that we’d never attempted before – or, to be more accurate, which we have attempted in the past, but not had the courage, time or understanding to pull off,” McCall reveals.
The vocalist would be the first to tell you that in order to grow, you have to let go of the past; a mantra Parkway embraced tighter than ever before when it came to blueprinting Darker Still. McCall describes how “we wanted to make a record that stood alone from the records we hear at this point in time”; one that delivers on “a more expansive sound, which allows a new weight to fall into the music.” Gordon, meanwhile, says it features “some of the heaviest moments we have ever created, but it is a different kind of heavy: an emotional catharsis that you can feel in every cell in your body.” The drummer is brutally honest in his reflection that, between “the ever-changing COVID lockdowns, government mandates, travels restrictions and tense personal relationships within the band”, Darker Still was the most challenging moment of the band’s career. Ling offers agreement, admitting that the three-year journey of writing and recording – which commenced as far back as April 2019 and would conclude in February 2022 following three months in the studio with producer and engineer pairing George and Dean Hadjichristou – “broke me by the end” as he juggled lockdown family life with the “daunting task of trying to stick everyone’s ideas together” in his downstairs home studio.
“When writing songs, we have a few questions that we ask ourselves that helps define our creative path,” he explains of the gruelling process. “‘What will this song achieve?’ ‘Why does this song deserve to be on this album?’ ‘What emotional response will this song provoke in the listener?’ If all these points check out, we know we are on the right path.”
“We are very much a collaborative band when it comes to song writing,” says Gordon. “Each song goes through several layers of scrutiny and refinements before the final version emerges. Some songs are completely unrecognisable from the first rendition to what ends up on the record.”
And so while Darker Still remains irrefutably Parkway Drive, it finds the band sonically standing shoulder to shoulder with rock and metal’s greats – Metallica, Pantera, Machine Head, Guns N’ Roses – as much as it does their metalcore contemporaries. “I wanted a classic guitar tone for this record,” explains Ling, who credits much of his inspiration to the connection his riffs have with a crowd in a live setting. “I’ve always been drawn to early ‘90s metal, so something along these lines with a modern edge was my jive. Creatively my goal was to write intricate and intriguing music that is also simple enough for everyone to understand and enjoy. We made a conscious decision to not go overboard with layering and soundscaping. This move would help reinforce our raw and classic album vision.”
“Production wise, we wanted to have a slight throwback to the ‘90s, leaning into some more real and natural sounding tones, which gives the record more character,” nods Gordon, whose work behind the kit on Darker Still – “Less about how much I could show off, and more about what will best compliment the song,” is his simple assessment – is emblematic of the record at large. “It took us a long time to learn about the importance of dynamics,” he says. “We now pick our moments much more and let the song breathe when it needs to.”
It is a revivified sound that provides the backdrop for some of McCall’s most personal and introspective songs yet. Exploring the concept of the ‘dark night of the soul’ – “The idea of reaching a point in your life where you are faced with a reckoning of your structure of beliefs, your sense of self and your place in the world, to a point where it’s irreconcilable with the way that you are as a person,” as McCall describes – Darker Still unfurls like the great rock concept albums, from Pink Floyd to, most comparably, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral.
Amongst ruminations on society’s fear of death, societal isolation and a loss of humanity, its 11 tracks play out in a classic three-act structure. Ground Zero opens its ‘setup’; a “reckoning with your own internal monologue, says McCall, which ominously speaks to “the fights, the falls, the scars and broken bones” and how “beneath it all, the cracks begin to show…” Its second act – its ‘confrontation’ – frames the album’s title track at its core: a classic rock epic about “love and time” that spans a near seven-minutes and which evokes Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. The album’s ‘resolution’, meanwhile, concludes with From The Heart Of Darkness: a brooding monster that opens with McCall’s contemplative searching (“There’s a war going on inside, nobody’s safe from / You can run, but you can’t hide / When it’s your soul you must confront”) before exploding with its mosh-call of “Fury be my victory!”
“I wanted the end of the record to mirror my experience to a degree of what this journey has been like for me,” McCall reveals. “I found that I was always afraid of showing defiance to be honest and true to myself, even if that meant sacrificing who I was to become a better version of who I could be. That has to be ripped from the darkest part of you, because the darkest part of you is what you are always afraid of in the first place. It’s the thing that you don’t want to shine the light on. It’s the element that you don’t want to show people, which you shy away from, which you’re too scared to embody.”
It is a closing statement that truly defines Darker Still. This is the Parkway Drive the band have been striving to be for two decades. Ling says it best: “I’m really proud of what we have achieved together, and feel that as musicians, we have really ascended to new realms of class and ability.” Emerging from the darkness of the past few years, this is the true face of Parkway: redefined and resolute, focused in mind and defiant in spirit.

Caleb Shomo first turned the pain of his struggle with mental health and self-image into music in 2013. Beartooth began as a living document, a diary, a journal of repressed rage and depression. Alone in his basement studio, screaming and singing, playing all the instruments, and self-producing a batch of furious but melodic songs filled with reflection and confession, the Ohio native stared into the abyss, initially with no intention of returning to the heavy music world that burned him as a teen. A decade later, the different pieces of his body of work connect in title, sound, and spirit. As the frontman hits 30, Beartooth’s fifth album, he Surface, completes this era in 2023. Even more importantly, it kicks off a new chapter filled with surprising optimism and just as honest. Depression is a sick, disgusting, aggressive disease below the surface. Shomo stands ready to bask in the light.
Like Nine Inch Nails, Beartooth remains a one-person band in the studio. On the heels of the introductory Sick EP (2013), Disgusting (2014) produced the band’s first Gold single, “In Between.” Aggressive (2016) and Disease (2018) expanded on the desperation and pain, each a step closer to a balance between the blood and tears of classic recordings and the shimmer of modernity.
Rolling Stone heralded Beartooth as one of 10 Artists You Need to Know. The rabid response to Shomo’s music demonstrated how many people related to his struggle for self-acceptance. Below (2021) topped the Rock and Alternative charts and several Best Rock/Metal Albums of the Year lists. As of 2023, the Beartooth catalog boasts more than 1 billion streams across all platforms.
Beartooth began as both bomb and balm, an outright refusal to suffer in silence, weaponizing radio-ready bombast, delivering raw emotion mixed with noise-rock chaos. Other bands play the “devastating riffs and catchy hooks” game, but this music is the difference between life and death, and now, a sort of life after death while still here. The band Forbes sees “inching towards a tipping point of becoming the latest arena headliner” is now one step closer.

Platinum-certified and twice GRAMMY-nominated Michigan rock powerhouse I PREVAIL — Brian Burkheiser (vocals), Eric Vanlerberghe (vocals), Steve Menoian (guitars/bass), Dylan Bowman (guitars), and Gabe Helguera (drums) — are back with TRUE POWER, their third full-length offering on Fearless Records.

The real story hides below the surface and beneath the veneer.
If you disregard the façade, peel back the layers, and take a closer look, you might get to the truth. The Amity Affliction cocoon raw honesty in haunting hooks, pummeling grooves, and rapturous riffs. The Australian heavy alternative quartet—Joel Birch [vocals], Ahren Stringer [vocals, bass], Dan Brown [lead guitar], and Jon Longobardi [drums]—unearth a powerful truth on their seventh full-length and debut for Pure Noise Records, Everyone Loves You Once You Leave Them.
“Social media is so fickle,” asserts Joel. “The internet horde’s response is often, ‘You’re a successful musician. There’s no way you can have depression. Fuck you!’ The other side isn’t always shown. This is a great job, and we’re blessed. Like anything though, it’s not all roses. After somebody dies, you hear the mob say, ‘Oh my God, that artist was such an inspiration.’ I’m sick of the ignorant animosity towards mental illness in music or any profession for that matter. We have a platform. We have the opportunity to say something, so that’s what we’re doing.”
“Saying something” remains a reason why they consistently connect. Since emerging in 2008 on the debut Severed Ties, the four-piece has preserved this bond. They served up two ARIA gold-certified albums, Youngbloods [2010] and Chasing Ghosts [2012], and earned a platinum certification from ARIA for the seminal Let The Ocean Take Me [2014]. This Could Be Heartbreak [2016] marked the band’s second consecutive Top 30 debut on the Billboard Top 200, while Misery [2018] elevated them to new critical heights with praise from Medium, Alternative Press, The Noise., and more. To date, the group’s total stream tally has surpassed 200 million and counting. Meanwhile, The Amity Affliction sold out countless headline shows and toured alongside many genre heavyweights. During 2019, the musicians returned to Beltsville, MD to record alongside Misery producer Matt Squire.
This time around, they incorporated more guitar and embraced heavier tendencies.
“We went back to our heavier side for the majority of the album,” says Ahren. “We were trying to master the craft and write what we want to hear. Even though we’re older, the maturity comes out a bit more with each record.”
“We just got back to a more of rock guitar sound,” agrees Joel. “We wrote naturally, and it felt great.”
The bludgeoning “All My Friends Are Dead” introduced the record, racking up 1.5 million Spotify streams within a month and receiving praise from the likes of Kerrang! On its heels, the single “Soak Me In Bleach” vaults from gnashing grung-y guitar to a sweeping and soaring clean chant.
“The imagery of ‘Soak Me In Bleach’ isn’t something we’d usually use,” Ahren goes on. “It’s super dark, but it’s got a boppy grunge vibe.”
On the other end of the spectrum, the vulnerable “Aloneliness” stretches from electronic-infused emissions into a disarmingly dynamic chorus, offsetting pop palatability with a heartbreaking confession.
“It’s straight-up about being bipolar,” reveals Joel. “It’s the constant struggle to figure out who I am now. It’s the morbid and negative part of my existence. Luckily for me, I’ve got music. I have that daily releasee on tour. I don’t know what I’d do without it. There are individuals who aren’t that fortunate and are struggling to have some form of escapism.”
Fueled by a blast beat and a deluge of screams, “Catatonia” cuts deep. “When we were recording Misery, my friend killed himself,” sighs Joel. “We were alone in Toronto. The weather was miserable. His death just hit me like a ton of bricks, and I spent several hours on the floor unable to move.”
Elsewhere, “Forever” sees Joel directly discuss his bipolar diagnosis and “the balancing act between happiness and despair” over an unpredictable sonic backdrop. “Coffin” closes tight on “leeches who want to suck the joy out of everything” with caustic ebbs and flows.
In the end, The Amity Affliction get real on Everyone Loves You Once You Leave Them.
“I want everyone to know there are others out there whose lives look amazing, but they’re still struggling,” Joel leaves off. “Mental illness is uncompromising and indiscriminate. You can’t help it. It’s not your fault. That’s it.”
“I’d love for people to go on this journey with us,” Ahren concludes. “Maybe it could make their day a little better. I live for music; it keeps me going. If we can do that for someone else, that would be amazing.”

Contrast gives art dimension. The juxtaposition of two seemingly disparate elements sparks friction, bringing life to any canvas. The Devil Wears Prada rely on contrast as they nimbly balance metallic turbulence, hardcore spirit, provocatively eloquent lyricism, and melodic exorcism. In between these opposing extremes, the band—Mike Hranica [vocals], Jeremy DePoyster [guitar, vocals], Kyle Sipress [guitar], Jonathan Gering [keys, synths, programming, production], Giuseppe Capolupo [drums], and Mason Nagy [bass]—have fashioned an ever-evolving signature style buttressed by layers of sonic hues. Such dynamic divergence defines the group’s eighth full-length offering, Color Decay [Solid State].
“It’s about contrast,” observes Mike. “We’ve really tried to create individualism within the songs and make them distinct. The title references the disintegration and discoloration we experience from daily struggles. Those feelings come with mental health, getting older, and dealing with it. We confront these fights over a lengthy period of time. This record goes up and down, which I’ve always liked for an LP. You will want to listen to it from front-to-back.”
“It’s a transparent look inward at what it’s like to be a mid-30-year-old trying to find a balance,” Jeremy adds. “You have to work, hang out with your family, pay attention to your friendships, and still take care of yourself. The music is the moment you can be your total self though. It’s a safe place to release those emotions that are hard to open up about.”
They’ve harbored this space since forming in 2005. Speaking to the band’s growing influence, fans voted 2009’s With Roots Above and Branches Below one of the “5 Greatest Metalcore Albums” in a Revolver poll as the outlet christened it “a true metalcore landmark.” The group have notched six consecutive Top 5 debuts on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums Chart, including Dead Throne [2011], 8:18 [2013], Space EP [2015], Transit Blues [2016], The Act [2019], and ZII EP [2021]. The latter served as a sequel to one of their most beloved projects 2010’s Zombie EP. Upon arrival, mxdwn applauded ZII as “phenomenal,” and Metal Injection went as far as to claim, “This mini-concept has outlived the zombie revival.” In the wake of the EP, the group exceeded a-quarter-of-a-billion cumulative streams and views.
During 2021, the musicians decamped to remote hideaways together in Wisconsin and Desert Hot Springs, California. This time around, Jon took the reins as producer, collaborating closely to assemble a rich sonic architecture for what would become Color Decay.
“We feel very comfortable in the process we’ve established by working with a producer who’s literally in our band,” smiles Jeremy. “Mike and I have been doing this for 17 years now. Jon took on the role of project leader and figured out how to extract the best parts from everyone and put them into a unified piece. He excelled on ZII and pulled an amazing story out of Mike. It turned into a super collaborative project. We articulated these dark themes and melodies and connected them musically.”
“We created a lot of momentum with ZII and felt very rewarded by the positive experience,” Mike adds. “It steamrolled into these new songs. I tried to paint with a broad brush and did my best to color the vision.”
They initially teased out the record with “Watchtower” and “Sacrifice,” generating excitement and anticipation. Setting the stage for Color Decay, a driving riff uplifted by luminous keys gives way to a subdued verse on the single “Salt.” Melodic vocals hover above an otherworldly soundscape before snapping back into a hypnotic hook, “Pour the salt into the wounds, let the rain wash over you.”
“It’s a resignation to suffering,” Mike notes. “It essentially says, ‘I’m already beaten down, so keep pouring salt into the wound. Why not?’ It’s a realistic reaction. Go ahead. Push me off the edge now.”
Then, there’s “Time.” An airy intro bleeds into a pummeling groove punctuated by vicious vocals before eventually spiraling towards what Mike describes as “the goth dance party.”
“As much as the songs look inward, there are some bigger narratives,” the frontman goes on. “I wanted to blow the ceiling off what I view as the cliches within heavy music. Sonically, ‘Time’ goes to some awesome places. In real life, time itself moves incredibly fast, but it moves incredibly slow. The song addresses that.”
“Broken” translates tense emotions into a cathartic chorus, “I know I’ve got my problems.”
“Jon struggles with anxiety, and most of the guys in the band do to a certain degree,” Jeremy states. “A lot of the lyrics detail a very personal experience with anxiety. The content is relatable, but it’s in another lane for us.”
Warbling vocals groan between menacing synths and crunching distortion on the head-bashing “Hallucinate.” Mike screams, “I’d do anything for some kind of relief.”
“I was reading The Morning Star,” Mike reveals. “It switches between these different perspectives. One of them belongs to a nurse who’s taking care of a patient struggling with a brain tumor. As the tumor expands in your brain, it can cause pain and hallucinations. The track is essentially about a person hallucinating alone in a hospital bed and seeing these horrific images. It’s a narrative song, and its industrial nature really spoke to me. I don’t think it’s like anything we’ve ever done before.”
Color Decay concludes with the heart-wrenching finale “Cancer.” Guitar marches underneath a searing refrain, “I hope that it’s cancer and not something else, because I don’t need anymore things I don’t want to talk about.”
“One of Jon’s heroes passed away and the first thing he thought was, ‘I hope he died peacefully rather than from suicide or a drug overdose’,” says Mike. “It’s an introspective look at how difficult it can be to watch your heroes pass away from all of these terrible ways and the guilt of this immediate thought about how this person died.”
By contrasting these extremes, The Devil Wears Prada achieve balance like never before.
“There’s a focus to the album we haven’t had in a very long time,” Jeremy leaves off. “Coming out of the last 2 years, we’ve reflected on what is important to us—playing in this group and performing live. This record proves we’re not going anywhere. In our minds, we’re very focused on continuing to deliver the best possible music we can.”
“We fought so hard for this, and this album represents where we’re at now,” Mike concludes. “We’ll die on the hill of being The Devil Wears Prada. I believe you can define our band by Color Decay.”

Kesha & Scissor Sisters at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-07-06 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
A brash and driven Grammy-nominated pop singer and songwriter, Kesha went straight to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009 with her breakthrough recording, a feature spot on Flo Rida‘s “Right Round.” Her own major-label debut, Animal, followed a year later and made her a bona fide star, showcasing her exuberant electro pop sound and reaching number one in the U.S. and Canada behind the international party-time hit “TiK ToK.” The album spawned three more Top Ten singles as well as the Get Sleazy Tour, her first as a headliner. A second solo number one, “We R Who We R,” was included on the 2010 EP Cannibal, and she reached the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 for the third time straight with her second full-length, 2012’s Warrior. A more rock-influenced effort, it found space for a previous collaborator, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, punk godfather Iggy Pop, and the indie pop band Fun. She had another Hot 100-topping single a year later with “Timber,” a collaboration with Pitbull. After a series of legal battles with her longtime producer, Dr. Luke that involved claims of physical and emotional abuse and business-related mistreatment, Kesha returned with her third album, Rainbow, in 2017. Its themes of self-empowerment hit number one in the U.S., Canada, and across Europe. She again hit the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 with 2020’s upbeat High Road and collaborated with producer Rick Rubin on 2023’s Gag Order. In 2024, the single “Joyride” heralded the arrival of her sixth album and the launch of her own independent Kesha Records.
Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles but moved to Nashville when she was four, where her mother — a longtime songwriter — had inked a publishing deal. (Over a decade prior to that, Pebe Sebert‘s biggest success had come with “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You,” originally recorded by Joe Sun and later by Dolly Parton.) Before finishing high school, Kesha returned to L.A. for the sake of jump-starting her own music career, despite being set up to study psychology at Columbia. She soon met Dr. Luke, the co-writer and co-producer of Kelly Clarkson‘s “Since U Been Gone” (among several other hits), who was impressed with her demo recordings. Kesha penned the Veronicas‘ “This Love” and later contributed background vocals to Britney Spears‘ “Lace and Leather,” both of which were released in 2008. The biggest turning point came one year later, when she was tapped to contribute vocals to Flo Rida‘s Dr. Luke-produced “Right Round,” a number one Hot 100 hit.
Kesha subsequently signed to RCA, and her debut album Animal — featuring collaborations with Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Benny Blanco — was released in early 2010. Animal proved to be a big hit, reaching the top of the Billboard 200 and spinning off the number one single “TiK ToK.” The nine-song EP Cannibal appeared at the end of the year. Its single, “We R Who We R,” became her second chart-topper, and “Blow” also reached the Top Ten. Cannibal was followed in 2011 by another stopgap release, I Am the Dance Commander + I Command You to Dance: The Remix Album. In 2012, she was called upon by rocker Wayne Coyne for The Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends, a collaborative album that partnered Kesha with Biz Markie on the track “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded).”
Dr. Luke was back on board for her second official album, Warrior, but the more rock-influenced effort also found space for Coyne, punk godfather Iggy Pop, and the indie pop band Fun. Preceded by the Billboard Top Ten single “Die Young,” Warrior was released in December 2012 and reached the Top Ten of the albums chart. Two other singles hit the Top 40: “C’Mon” and “Crazy Kids.” Kesha toured North America in 2013 as part of a co-headlining bill with Pitbull, and the duo also recorded a single together, “Timber,” which became Kesha’s third number one hit.
Early in 2014, she entered rehab for treatment of bulimia nervosa, a period that included writing and recording over a dozen songs for her third studio album. That June, she began a stint as a celebrity expert on the ABC singing competition Rising Star alongside Ludacris and Brad Paisley. In late 2014, Kesha sued Dr. Luke for an array of charges, including sexual assault, harassment, emotional abuse, and bad business practices; she also sought release from her contract with Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe label. Although the courts initially rejected her claims, wide public support for Kesha caused Kemosabe to release her from her contract in early 2016.
Her return to performing came in April 2016, when she took the stage at Coachella to perform “True Colors” during Zedd‘s set. The studio version was released at the end of the month. Following her own world tour in the summer of that year, Kesha returned to the studio to complete work on her long-awaited third LP, Rainbow. “Praying,” its lead single, was released in July 2017, with the album arriving a month later; it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. More singles followed, including “Learn to Grow” and “Woman,” the latter of which hit the top of the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart. In January 2018, Kesha picked up two Grammy nominations, including Best Pop Vocal album for Rainbow, and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Praying.” Later that year, she released the single “Here Comes the Change,” which was used to promote the Ruth Bader Ginsberg biopic On the Basis of Sex. “Best Day,” a cut for the Angry Birds 2 movie soundtrack, followed in 2019.
A return to the joyful pop of her early career, her fourth studio album High Road arrived in January 2020. Buoyed by the lead single “Raising Hell,” featuring Big Freedia, the album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200. It spawned several more singles, including “My Own Dance,” “Tonight,” and “Resentment,” the latter featuring Brian Wilson, Sturgill Simpson, and Wrabel. The following year, the singer headlined her Kesha Live Tour. She also joined Sam Feldt for his song “Stronger.”
In May 2023, Kesha delivered her fifth studio album, Gag Order. Largely produced by Rick Rubin, the album found her continuing to process the upheaval of her lawsuit against Dr. Luke and her inability to comment publicly on the case. Included on the album were the tracks “Eat the Acid” and “Fine Line,” which were released in tandem as the lead singles. It reached 14 on the Top Alternative Albums chart and cracked the Billboard 200. The Zhone-produced “Joyride” appeared in July 2024 as the first single released off the singer’s sixth album and the first on her own independent Kesha Records. A second single, the power ballad “Delusional,” followed that November around the same time as her cover of Lindsay Buckingham‘s 1983 hit “Holiday Road.” In early 2025, she also contributed the song “Dear Me” to the soundtrack to the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless.

A genre- and gender-defying mix of rock, pop, and dance inspired by burlesque, drag queens, and glam rock, New York’s Scissor Sisters made a splash in late 2003/early 2004 with their neon-bright reimagining of Pink Floyd‘s “Comfortably Numb,” the B-side to the band’s first single, “Electrobix.” The song made quite a name for the band, which featured singers Jake Shears and Ana Matronic, keyboardist/bassist Babydaddy, guitarists Del Marquis and Derek G, and drummer Paddy Boom: along with becoming the calling card that got the band signed to spotify:search:label%3A%22Polydor%22 in the U.K., “Comfortably Numb” was heralded Single of the Month by Dazed and Confused and Jockey Slut magazines, named an Essential New Tune by Pete Tong on Britain’s Radio 1, and also received considerable play by DJs including Felix Da Housecat and Tiga. Scissor Sisters (whose name is slang for a lesbian sex act) came from the cutting edge of New York’s nightlife and gay culture, incorporating elements of burlesque and drag shows, as well as performance art, into their theatrical live shows. This was the perfect setting for their music, which gleaned the best of Elton John, Bee Gees, The B-52’s, David Bowie, and many other artists with a campy sense of humor and impeccable style.   After proving themselves one of the city’s most dynamic live acts, Scissor Sisters won over British and European audiences on a tour early in 2004 that coincided with the release of their self-titled debut album. That March, they returned stateside for a South by Southwest gig with Junior Senior and The B-52’s before returning to the U.K. to tour with Duran Duran in support of the “Take Your Mama Out” single. The band continued to have a busy spring and summer, launching its first U.S. tour in May — coinciding with the stateside release of Scissor Sisters — and returning to Europe in June and July. These dates included two gigs supporting Scissor Sisters’ spiritual and musical godfather, Elton John, as well as appearances at festivals such as Glastonbury, T in the Park, Roskilde, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Late that year, Scissor Sisters were nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance Record for “Comfortably Numb.” The band kept busy with touring and producing remixes during 2005, and returned with new material in fall 2006, when the single “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin'” hit number one in England. The band’s subsequent album, Ta-Dah, also topped the charts in Great Britain. In 2008, Paddy Boom left the group and was replaced by Randy Schrager. After completing and then scrapping an entire set of songs, Scissor Sisters worked with producer Stuart Price for their third album, Night Work, which was released in 2010 and preceded by the power ballad “Fire with Fire.” Guests such as Pharrell Williams, Calvin Harris and Azealia Banks gave an edge to 2012’s Magic Hour. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

Katy Perry at Phoenix Arena
2025-07-12 19:00 - 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
Flirting with the aplomb of an assassin, Katy Perry created a distinctly new millennial pop persona: a Disney princess as imagined by Madonna. Perry enjoyed tweaking the sensibilities of a straitlaced audience — she sneered on her first single, “Ur So Gay” (punch line: “and you don’t even like boys”), she gasped “I Kissed a Girl” and she liked it — and her stylish provocations certainly put her on the pop culture radar, but the reason she stayed there was because of her knack for blending pop conventions with trends. This talent reached its apex on 2010’s Teenage Dream, a blockbuster sophomore set that generated hits as diverse as its dreamily romantic title track, the cotton-candy summertime pop of “California Gurls,” and the steely EDM variant “Firework.” As her career progressed, she cannily tempered her risqué moves, adding the empowerment anthem “Roar” to her repertoire while still finding space for dance club hits like “Dark Horse.” Perry broadened her audience with film cameos and a stint as a judge on American Idol, projects that kept her in the spotlight while easing her transition from pop diva to showbiz staple. Even with her diversified résumé, Perry continued to tackle a variety of pop styles, either on such solo albums as 2020’s Smile or as a duet partner, where she’d alternate between a collaboration with the Swedish DJ Alesso and country-pop singer Thomas Rhett. In 2024, she heralded her seventh album, 143, with the clubby feminist anthem “Woman’s World.”
Perry’s success was so sudden in 2008 it seemed as if she was an overnight success when the opposite was true. The daughter of Pentecostal pastors, she was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California. Raised by born-again parents, Katy was initially attracted to gospel music, sometimes sneaking pop music in to balance the inspirational tunes, but when she first started singing it was in the church. She picked up the guitar at the age of 13 and started writing songs, pursuing a music career in earnest when she was 15. Earning the attention of CCM artists Jennifer Knapp and Steve Thomas, Katy headed out to Nashville in 2001, where she cut demos and eventually secured a contract with Red Hill Records.
Red Hill released Katy Hudson, a record targeted at a Christian/inspirational demographic, in February 2001, but it didn’t garner much attention and was ultimately buried once the label was shuttered at the end of the year. In the wake of the album’s failure, Perry transitioned toward pop music, relocating to Los Angeles and working with producer Glen Ballard, chief collaborator with Alanis Morissette, one of Perry’s biggest inspirations. As she abandoned Christian music, she also abandoned her surname Hudson, choosing to use her mother’s maiden name, Perry, instead.
Ballard signed Perry to his Island/Def Jam-distributed label Java in 2004, but once the producer’s imprint severed ties with its parent company, Perry and the album were dropped. Next up, she signed to Columbia Records, where she worked on a record for two years, collaborating with the likes of Max Martin, Dr. Luke, the Matrix, Desmond Child, and Butch Walker, but just as the album was reaching the finish line in 2006, she was dropped from Columbia. Perry continued to soldier forth, working as a backup singer for hire (she can be heard on Mick Jagger‘s “Old Habits Die Hard” from the soundtrack to 2004’s Alfie), and recording a full album with the production team the Matrix, only to find that album also scrapped.
She finally had a song called “Simple” released on the soundtrack to 2005’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but her next big break arrived in 2007, when Jason Flom signed her to Capitol. Once again, Perry headed into the studio to create a would-be blockbuster — Ballard, Dr. Luke, and Butch Walker all returned, with Dave Stewart, Greg Wells, and S*A*M* & Sluggo also showing up — but this time everything fell into place for the singer. First came the deliberately controversial “Ur So Gay,” released as a video and digital single, and it gained enough attention that by spring of 2008, Madonna was calling it her current “favorite song.” By that point, Perry’s first real single was scheduled for release: “I Kissed a Girl.” Also vaguely scandalous, “I Kissed a Girl” became a smash and headed all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Her debut, One of the Boys, followed in June 2008, and it was also a success, supported by the Top Ten hit “Hot N Cold,” along with “Thinking of You” and “Waking Up in Vegas.” One of the Boys was a big enough hit that the shelved album Perry had recorded with the Matrix back in 2004 saw a release in January 2009, but it didn’t do much.
Perry supported One of the Boys with media appearances and steady tours, including an appearance on the 2008 Warped Tour and her own headlining Hello Katy jaunt in 2009. A stopgap MTV Unplugged album appeared in November 2009, by which time Perry was hard at work on her second album, Teenage Dream. Preceded by the frothy single “California Gurls,” Teenage Dream was an international smash, generating no less than five consecutive number one singles in the U.S.: “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “E.T.” (which featured Kanye West), and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” This success set a couple precedents: she was the first female artist ever to achieve such a run of number ones and the first artist since Michael Jackson to have so many singles from an individual album reach the pole position. In 2012, the album was expanded to Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, which contained a new single in “Part of Me,” which also topped the charts. During this entire cycle, Perry was a constant pop culture presence, undergoing an international tour, appearing in cameos all over television, courting mild social media controversies, creating fragrances, and filming the documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me, which appeared in theaters in July 2012.
As the Teenage Dream juggernaut wrapped up, Perry turned her attention to recording her third album. Appearing in October 2013, Prism signaled a more mature Katy Perry, something that was apparent from its motivating first single, “Roar.” Prism received a lift from its third single, “Dark Horse,” which became her ninth number one (“Unconditionally” didn’t crack the Top Ten), and it was followed by “Birthday” and “This Is How We Do,” both released as she supported the album with an international tour. The highlight of that tour was her appearance at the half-time show for 2014’s Super Bowl XLIX, where she performed with Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz.
Two years later, Perry made her comeback with another major sporting event: the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Her single “Rise” was honored as the official anthem for the games; it peaked at 11 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Perry next released “Chained to the Rhythm,” a single co-written with Sia Furler and co-produced by Max Martin, in February 2017. Another single — “Bon Appetit” featuring Migos — appeared before the June release of Witness, an album that emphasized EDM-inspired dance-pop. Perry returned with a holiday single, the family-inspired “Cozy Little Christmas,” in December 2018.
Early in 2019, she collaborated with Zedd on his single “365” and appeared on a hit remix of Daddy Yankee‘s smash “Con Calma” before issuing her solo single “Never Really Over” in May 2019. “Never Really Over” climbed to 15 on the Billboard Top 40, setting the stage for a series of digital singles that arrived before the August 2020 release of her sixth album, Smile. Featuring production by the Monsters & Strangerz, Zedd, Carolina Liar, and others, the set hit number five on the Billboard 200 and generated another Top 40 single in “Daisies.”
Perry released a flurry of singles in 2021, starting with “Electric,” a song taken from Pokemon 25: The Album. From there, she issued a cover of the Beatles‘ “All You Need Is Love” that doubled as a soundtrack to a Gap advertising campaign, plus “When I’m Gone,” a bright, danceable single cut in collaboration with DJ Alesso. In 2022, Perry appeared on “Where We Started,” a ballad by country-pop singer Thomas Rhett, and in 2023 she issued a 15th Anniversary Edition of One of the Boys, which included two bonus tracks. The dance-oriented feminist anthem “Woman’s World” arrived in July 2024 as the lead single off the singer’s seventh full-length album, 143. 143, set to be released in September of that year, included production from Stargate, Dr. Luke, and Max Martin, and boasted guest features from 21 Savage, JID, Doechii, and Kim Petras.

In 2011, Rebecca Black’s viral hit “Friday” reached more than 150 million people worldwide and became the fastest-growing song and video that year; but it was not until 2021 that Rebecca Black solidified her stamp on pop culture. Ten years since her first release, Rebecca Black delivered a six-track hyperpop-infused sonic journey titled “Rebecca Black Was Here” – and her 1.5 Million YouTube subscribers are screaming and streaming. This year, the RIAA Gold-selling singer, songwriter, and queer creator sold-out her debut headline tour across North America, celebrating her first project in 10 years, ‘Rebecca Black Was Here’ which is nominated for “Best Self Released Record of the Year” at A2IM’s Liberia Awards on June 16th in New York City, and the queer pop idol brought the “Rebecca Black Is Here” tour to the UK and Europe in May, after taking over Coachella weekend 1, teasing the live experience across a string of appearances in the Palm Springs. Her new music collaborations include “Yoga” with bbno$, “heart2” with Umru & Petal Supply, and a feature on MØ’s “New Moon”. In her leisure, Rebecca advocates for anti-bullying, mental health initiatives, and the LGBTQ+ community, across recent partnerships with the AdCouncil, GLAAD, and Best Buddies.

Volbeat + Halestorm at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-07-26 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
Volbeat, consisting of Michael Poulsen (vocals, guitar), Kaspar Boye Larsen (bass), and Jon Larsen (drums) have earned more than 143 platinum and gold certifications around the globe, and scored ten #1 songs on the Billboard Mainstream Rock airplay chart, the most ever for a band based outside North America. For their ninth album, God Of Angels Trust, Poulsen threw caution to the wind, paying little heed to traditional songwriting in the search for something more immediate and surprising. God Of Angels Trust is a punchy, crunchy album that’s undeniably Volbeat, yet marches to a fresh new metallic and melodic energy. From Poulsen’s more instinctual songwriting came more anthemic, tuneful, and instantly recognizable rhythms and hooks. The band tracked the album with longtime producer Jacob Hansen in the fall of 2024. To keep the music sounding urgent and immediate, Volbeat recorded live in the studio, playing as few takes as possible before moving from one song to the next. Just thirteen days after they started working with Hansen, Volbeat were finished. As a result, God Of Angels Trust sounds as fleshed out, eclectic, and fulfilling as albums that have taken ten times longer (or more) to create. In the end, creating such a strong album so quickly was a tremendous challenge that demanded Zen-like calm, a joy for exploration, maximal creativity, and razor-sharp concentration to pull off.

Led by charismatic vocalist/guitarist Lzzy Hale, Pennsylvania-based post-grunge/metal quartet Halestorm are one of the most successful hard rock groups of the early 21st century. With an aggressive yet hook-heavy sound that has become a fixture of American rock radio, Halestorm have toured restlessly, playing hundreds of shows per year and sharing the stage with nearly all of the popular American hard rock acts of their era. In 2013, the band took home a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance for the single “Love Bites (So Do I),” which appeared on their sophomore studio effort, The Strange Case Of…. Subsequent efforts Into the Wild Life (2015), Vicious (2018), and Back from the Dead (2022) have shown the group to be equally adept at muscular hard rockers and piano-driven power ballads, and their sound has branched out to include elements of dance music and pop-country.
Siblings Elizabeth and Arejay Hale, the core members of Halestorm, formed the group in late 1997 near York, Pennsylvania, with Arejay on drums and Elizabeth on vocals and keyboard. Wanting to expand their sound, the duo invited their father, Roger, to play bass with the band. Shortly after their first professional gig in 1998 at the Blue Mountain Coffee House in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Halestorm added various guitar players and released an EP, 1999’s (Don’t Mess with The) Time Man. More lineup changes occurred, but Halestorm finally solidified with Elizabeth (who was by then going by Lzzy) on vocals and guitar, Josh Smith on bass, Arejay on drums, and Joe Hottinger on guitar. The band caught the attention of producer David Ivory as well as Atlantic Records — both were involved in the group’s major-label debut, 2006’s One and Done, a five-song EP recorded live at a show in Philadelphia. They would finally make their full-length studio debut in 2009 with the eponymous Halestorm, all the while maintaining a rigorous touring schedule that would see them playing upwards of 250 shows a year.
The following year, Halestorm released the concert recording Live in Philly 2010, and Reanimate: The Covers EP appeared in 2011, featuring the band’s takes on songs by Heart, Guns N’ Roses, and Lady Gaga. Their sophomore album, The Strange Case Of…, followed in 2012, and the single “Love Bites (So Do I)” earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance. Reanimate 2.0 was released in 2013, this time finding the band tackling Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk, and Marilyn Manson. Halestorm’s eclectic third studio long-player, the Jay Joyce-produced Into the Wild Life, was released in April 2015, and was preceded by the single “Apocalyptic.” The live EP Into the Wild Live: Chicago arrived in 2016, followed in early 2017 by their third covers set, Reanimate 3.0, which featured songs by Whitesnake, Metallica, and Soundgarden. Vicious, the band’s fourth studio long-player, followed in July 2018 and earned the group a Best Rock Performance Grammy nomination for the single “Uncomfortable.” 2020 saw Halestorm issue Reimagined, a six-song EP that featured stripped-down versions of five fan favorites and a cover of “I Will Always Love You.”
Two years later, they unveiled their fifth long-player, Back from the Dead. Produced by Nick Raskulinecz with co-production by Scott Stevens, the 11-song set included “The Steeple” and “Back from the Dead,” the latter of which became Halestorm’s sixth single to reach number one on the Active Rock charts. A deluxe edition of the album with seven new tracks arrived later that December.

Captivating bangers like “Engine 45,” “Avalanche,” “Aftermath,” “Wash It Away,” and “Pressure Point” are anthems for outcasts. Since its formation in El Segundo, California, The Ghost Inside has inspired international audiences with passion and determination. Tremendous obstacles never dampened their energy. The Ghost Inside is stronger than ever.
The lesson isn’t only about strength through adversity. In recent years, vocalist Jonathan Vigil, guitarists Zach Johnson and Chris Davis, bassist Jim Riley, and drummer Andrew Tkaczyk learned an esoteric truth about tranquility. As the axiom says, it’s the journey, not the destination, a theme throughout the band’s dynamic sixth album, Searching for Solace.
The Ghost Inside merges the New Wave of American Metalcore’s proficiency with punk’s urgency, building a bridge between more aggressive sounds and thoughtful messaging. Melody is another constant, explored to dizzying new heights in Searching for Solace.
Fury and the Fallen Ones (2008) and Returners (2010) preceded The Ghost Inside’s breakthrough album on Epitaph, Get What You Give (2012). Goodwill, momentum, and engaging live performances continued behind the conceptually driven Dear Youth (2014).

The Rose: Once Upon A WRLD at Mullett Arena
2025-07-27 20:00 - 23:30 | Mullett Arena, 411 S. Packard Drive, Tempe, AZ, 85287, United States
The Rose is a Korean alt-pop band comprised of four talented members: vocalist and guitarist Woosung, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Dojoon, bassist Jaehyeong, and drummer Hajoon. Renowned since their inception for electrifying performances, The Rose quickly became one of Korea’s most sought-after groups, delivering a series of critically acclaimed albums that resonated with fans worldwide.
The Rose’s first full-length album HEAL was inspired by the transformative power of music and the stories shared by both their fans and themselves. HEAL soared to #4 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart, while their accompanying HEAL Together World Tour drew an overwhelming crowd of over 100,000 attendees.
Now, with their highly anticipated second full-length album DUAL, The Rose takes their music to new heights. Building upon the emotional honesty and vulnerability showcased in HEAL, this latest offering explores the profound concept of ‘balance.’ Seamlessly merging light and dark elements, The Rose masterfully weaves emotions and sounds, capturing the dualistic essence that defines their music.
Driven by unwavering dedication to their fans and the unbreakable bond of their friendship, The Rose continues to push their artistic boundaries, captivating audiences worldwide with their soul-stirring music and unforgettable performances.

Architects at The Van Buren
2025-07-29 19:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Architects, a versatile metalcore group based out of Brighton, England, employ a lethal amalgam of breakdown-heavy hardcore, symphonic screamo, death metal, and ambient post-metal. That sonic malevolence is conducted from a platform built on veganism and environmental activism, with influences ranging from Hatebreed and Shadows Fall to Bring Me the Horizon. Emerging in 2006 as a punishing, no-frills metalcore act, the band expanded their sound on 2011’s The Here and Now, adopting a more melodic — though still punishing — and less predictably structured approach to the genre, which they perfected on 2016’s critically lauded All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. Heading into the next decade, the group continued to refine their more varied sound, delivering immaculately crafted efforts like The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit (2022) and The Sky, The Earth & All Between, rooted in expressive and expansive, stadium-ready metalcore.
Architects recorded their debut album, Nightmares, in 2006 with a lineup consisting of twin brothers Tom (guitar) and Dan Searle (drums), Tim Hillier-Brook (guitar), Tim Lucas (bass), and Matt Johnson (vocals), but the latter was replaced on-stage by new frontman Sam Carter in January 2007 during the last show of the band’s subsequent tour. Later that year, they recorded their sophomore effort, Ruin (introducing new bass player Ali Dean), and signed a worldwide deal with Century Media for its re-release in 2008. Their first American tour was next on the agenda, and saw the group joining Suicide Silence, Beneath the Massacre, and the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, among other bands.
Upon their return to England, Architects recorded their third album, Hollow Crown, which arrived in 2009. They took their sound in a relatively subdued, post-hardcore direction on their fourth album, 2011’s Here and Now, but transitioned back to a heavier sound the following year on Daybreaker. The band continued to expand their limits, pushing things in both extreme and ambient directions on their sixth album, Lost Forever // Lost Together, which appeared in 2014. Two years later, they issued the critically acclaimed and uncompromising All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us, which they described as their “heaviest and darkest work” to date. It would be the final recording for founding guitarist and primary songwriter Tom Searle, who passed away in August of that year after a battle with cancer.
September 2017 saw the band issue the single “Doomsday,” which evolved from a song that was partially written by Searle before his passing. It appeared on the group’s eighth studio long-player, Holy Hell, that was released the following year. That album was the first to feature new guitarist Josh Middleton (Sylosis), who had filled in on tour. He co-produced and contributed to the writing on Architects’ ninth album, For Those That Wish to Exist, released in February 2021. The record deals with climate change and features guest vocals from members of Parkway Drive, Royal Blood, and Biffy Clyro. Unable to tour during the COVID-19 pandemic, the band filmed an elaborate livestream performance of the album at Abbey Road Studios and released it as a live album in March of the following year.
After having made their previous LP remotely during the pandemic, Architects were able to return to the studio as a unit, capturing a more spontaneous live energy on their tenth album, The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit, which appeared in October 2022 and reached number one on the U.K. Rock & Metal Albums Chart. Looking to capture the discordant zeitgeist of the decade, 2025’s The Sky, The Earth & All Between marked a return to the punitive heaviness of earlier efforts, highlighting the era’s tribalism and divisiveness with a set of songs — including collaborations with House of Protection and Amira Elfeky — that played to all of their strengths.

Determination and steadfast dedication have defined ERRA’s path, forging a unique connection with an ever-growing audience, without the advantages of traditional recognition. On their career-defining, self-titled fifth studio album ERRA, the band confront depression, anxiety and desperation throughout. They take listeners on a near-out-of-body journey to Aokigahara, the infamous Suicide Forest of Japan; into episodic storytelling that would make Black Mirror writers proud; and into the literary works of Cormac McCarthy and Hubert Selby Jr.
As their music finds the balance between the crushingly heavy and the headily melodic, its members seek to find harmony between the needs of the individual and the natural flow of this shared reality. ERRA, as a band of brothers and creative force, strive to live in alignment with the present moment. ERRA, the album, represents redemption for the band, who emerged from the creative process with renewed focus, confidence, and certainty of self.

Shinedown + Bush at Phx Arena
2025-08-02 19:00 - 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
Multi-platinum band Shinedown Brent Smith [vocals], Zach Myers [guitar], Eric Bass [bass, production], and Barry Kerch [drums] – have cemented their status as one of the most vital and forward-thinking powerhouses in modern rock. Their most ambitious and masterfully realized work to date, their seventh studio album Planet Zero firmly places the group in the pantheon of artists capable of moving the culture forward on the strength of their singular vision, uncompromising honesty, and fierce commitment to constant evolution. The record-breaking band have achieved astronomical success while embodying the kind of creative dynamism that defies expectation and transcends boundaries. They were named #1 on Billboard’s Greatest Of All Time Mainstream Rock Artists Chart, after notching the most ever #1s in the 40-year history of the Mainstream Rock Songs Chart with a string of consecutive #1 hit singles. Tickets at shinedown.com.

After three decades, well over 20 million records sold, a GRAMMY® Award nomination, 1 billion streams, and a procession of #1 hits, BUSH stand tall as rock outliers whose imprint only widens as the years pass. Turn on rock radio, and it won’t be long before you hear “Glycerine” or “Machinehead.” On the big screen, their music courses through blockbuster franchises such as John Wick. On the road, they regularly pack amphitheaters and ignite festival stages. In 1994, the group delivered their seminal debut, Sixteen Stone. It notably achieved a six-times platinum certification, remaining a pillar of modern rock. The triple-platinum follow-up, Razorblade Suitcase, bowed at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and boasted “Swallowed,” which garnered a GRAMMY® nomination in the category of “Best Hard Rock Performance.” Their catalog spans the platinum The Science of Things [1999] through Black and White Rainbows [2017]. Most recently, 2020’s The Kingdom arrived to acclaim highlighted by “Flowers On A Grave” and “Bullet Holes.” Thus far, they have notched 25 straight Top 40 hits on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts, earning seven #1 entries – most recently, 2022’s “More Than Machines”. As indefatigable as ever, they’re still here too, which brings us to their ninth full-length offering, The Art of Survival. The twelve new tracks aren’t just the sound of a band surviving though; they’re the sound of a band bucking trends, breaking ground, and besting even their most celebrated canon.

Most artists don’t top Rolling Stone’s Best Country Albums of the year list with their debut album. But most artists aren’t Morgan Wade, who earned the top spot with her scathingly honest and raw 2021 LP Reckless. While Reckless, and its Top 30 lead single “Wilder Days,” busted down the doors and introduced Wade as a once-in-a-generation songwriter, she now readies her anticipated follow-up project, Psychopath, arriving Aug. 25. An astounding 13-track LP, Psychopath most excitingly finds Wade peeling back layers of her psyche like never before. Wade has been no stranger to the road throughout the first quarter of 2023 on her headlining NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN TOUR, which sold out 35 shows for more than 40,000 tickets sold. A Virginia native, Wade has broken away from the pack to become one of country music’s most compelling new voices. Possessed with a raw and unflinching voice anchored by a perfect tinge of twang; the rare ability to pen honest portraits of some of life’s most precious and painful and unpredictable moments; and an onstage vulnerability that so seamlessly breaks down the wall between fan and artist, Wade has quickly made her mark on the country music scene — and the music world at large – with nominations for ACM New Female Artist of the Year, Americana Music Association Emerging Act of the Year, and CMT Breakthrough Female Video of the Year.

Pantera at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2025-08-26 19:00 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
One of the preeminent metal bands of the ’90s, Texan powerhouse Pantera put to rest any and all remnants of the ’80s metal scene, almost single-handedly demolishing any notion that hair metal, speed metal, power metal, et al., were anything but passé. Loathe to admit it, the Texas band had in fact been one of those ’80s metal bands, releasing fairly unsuccessful (and later disowned) glam-inspired music throughout much of the decade. The about-face came in 1986 with the addition of vocalist Phil Anselmo, who joined the classic, core lineup of bassist Rex Brown, drummer Vinnie Paul, and guitarist Dimebag Darrell. After the release of 1988’s Power Metal, the band pushed their sound to a new extreme with their major-label debut, Cowboys from Hell (1990). Pantera’s mainstream breakthrough came next with Vulgar Display of Power (1992), their second major-label album, which thrust the band to the forefront of the metal scene, alongside such veteran bands as Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, as well as fellow up-and-comers Sepultura and White Zombie. By the time Pantera unleashed Far Beyond Driven (1994), after two long years of touring, they were the most popular metal band in the land: the new album debuted atop the Billboard Top 200 as its lead single, “I’m Broken,” was getting massive airplay.
At the height of their popularity and influence, Pantera began to self-destruct. Less than two months after the release of The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) — an album ridden with allusions to drug abuse and personal destruction — Anselmo overdosed on heroin after a homecoming concert in Texas, and as tensions rose between him and his fellow bandmembers, he began engaging with a growing list of side projects that kept him away from Pantera. A live album, Official Live: 101 Proof (1997), was compiled for release when it became evident that no new studio album was forthcoming any time soon. One final studio album did result, Reinventing the Steel (2000), but that was more or less it for the briefly reunited Pantera. The bandmembers once again went their separate ways, forming such bands as Damageplan, Down, and Superjoint Ritual.
The end of an era for Pantera became official on December 8, 2004, when guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered on-stage by a deranged fan at a Damageplan show in Columbus, Ohio. This much-publicized murder shone the spotlight back on Pantera for an extended moment, and amid all of the emotional outpouring and tributes, a consensus arose: in retrospect, there was no greater metal band during the early to mid-’90s than Pantera, who inspired a legion of rabid fans and whose oft-termed “groove metal” style bucked all prevailing trends of the day — from hair metal and grunge to nu-metal and rap-metal — and remains singular decades later, as defined by the vocals of Anselmo as it is by the guitar of Dimebag.
In the years that followed, Anselmo and Rex Brown continued work as Down, while Vinnie Paul formed the supergroup Hellyeah with members of Mudvayne and Nothingface. A Pantera greatest hits compilation, 1990-2000: A Decade of Domination, landed in 2010. Before the band managed an oft-teased official reunion, Paul died on June 22, 2018. Surviving members Anselmo and Brown eventually teamed with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante, playing as Pantera in a co-headlining spot with Judas Priest at the Monterrey Metal Fest in December 2022. That kicked off years of touring, joining the lineups for Hell & Heaven Metal Fest, Knotfest, and Metallica‘s extensive M72 World Tour. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi

Formed in 1992, Amon Amarth became modern metal greats the hard way. The Swedes steadily built a formidable reputation as a ferocious live band and, as the years passed, were increasingly recognised for their recorded achievements. Breakthrough releases like 2006’s With Oden On Our Side and 2008’s Twilight Of The Thunder God, cemented their popularity throughout the metal world. Jomsviking (2015) hit the #1 spot in Germany’s official album chart and swiftly became their most successful worldwide release to date. Amon Amarth return to action in 2019, with their biggest, boldest and most bombastic musical statement to date. Amon Amarth – completed by vocalist Johan Hegg, guitarists Olavi Mikkonen and Johan Söderberg, bassist Ted Lundström and drummer Jocke Wallgren – know that expectations for their next move are at an all-time high. The excellent news is that the band’s 11th studio album, the aptly-named Berserker, is guaranteed to have all discerning metal fans punching the air with joy. Today, Amon Amarth stand tall and unassailable: over 25 years into a career that has seen them evolve from humble origins in the dark, dank rehearsal rooms of their native Tumba to their current status as explosive festival headliners and one of the metal world’s most widely adored bands. All of this and more has been captured in the band’s recent live DVD and documentary, The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm.
