Escape The Fate at Marquee Theatre
2023-09-26 17:30 - 23:30 (America/Phoenix) | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
In their almost 20 years as a band there have been many changes to the lineup of ESCAPE THE FATE– with vocalist Craig Mabbitt holding down vocals for 15 of them. In preparation for their upcoming album –OUT OF THE SHADOWS– they have reached peak stability and happiness. They may come at the music from different directions, but both Ortiz and Mabbitt agree on the importance of the band’s live presentation. “Whether it is 500 or 50,000 people in the room, we BRING IT,” says Mabbitt. Ortiz agrees and adds “the honor of the ability to do this for a living for our amazing fans is not lost on us. We are really grateful.” Gratitude and humility are the buzzwords for the new ESCAPE THE FATE.
Another thing that is new is the official addition of longtime bassist, Erik Jensen, to the lineup. TJ Bell has been ‘the glue’ that held the chaotic lot together in his nearly 10 years with the band. Matti Hoffman is the coffee-chugging, guitar-solo-writing, high-energy new guitarist taking on his duties while Kevin ‘Thrasher’ Gruft explores the world of production.
Laying themselves bare for the fans, it is a re-invigorated ESCAPE THE FATE on OUT OF THE SHADOWS. New label (Big Noise – run by longtime collaborator producer John Feldmann), new bandmates and a new lease on life for each of them, the only thing that has not changed is ESCAPE THE FATE’s love for their fans and determination to give them the very best of which they are capable.

Post-hardcore band Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.) is back with a new full-length album, ‘DESTROY REBUILD,’ their first release since 2011’s acclaimed self-titled debut album. The new record offers listeners the uniquely nostalgic D.R.U.G.S. sound they have been craving while also exploring new territories making ‘DESTROY REBUILD’ the perfect progression and exciting new chapter. The aggressive melodies are paired with low-tuned guitars and introspective lyrics to create the nostalgic alternative rock sound that we all grew up with and have come to crave.
To capture this sound, Owens connected with A-List producer Howard Benson whose past work with My Chemical Romance and The All American Rejects heavily influenced the modern alternative rock world. Benson’s raw talent for recording helped shape the structures and harmonies of the album. Owens found this collaborative process cathartic and embraced his newfound flow of creativity.
Owens’ knack for creating sincere lyrics shines through while touching on topics like destiny, perspective, and redemption on ‘DESTROY REBUILD.’ It is a physical manifestation of the course he has taken in his musical career and encapsulates each step along the way. It is a bright reflection of one’s life and actions, and it encourages the listener to do the same in their own life.

Point North is a rock band from Los Angeles, California.   Twitter: @pointnorthband Insta: @pointnorthband Facebook: pointnorthband Website: www.pointnorthband.com   Contact: pointnorthband@gmail.com

“Listen to the lyrics, they’re going to make you feel something… ” – Mixi
That something is the essence of Stitched Up Heart – a band built around the strength that comes from realizing we are the only ones that control our lives, and focused on the hope that reminds us there is always light at the end of the darkest tunnel. It’s something heavy and powerful, and it is something undeniable – Mixi’s voice taking flight amidst anthems of self-awareness that bridge the unrelenting confidence of In This Moment’s Maria Brink and the soulful transcendence of Adele.
“When I formed this band I was depressed and going through heartbreak. The name is supposed to give people strength and courage,” professes the frontwoman in a warm and certain tone. “We all go through things that make us think we can’t go further but, especially when times are bad, I want people to see that time will pass and it will get better. The hopeful lyrics on this record are on purpose – I’ve been living in the dark for too long, it’s time to come into the light. You need to pick yourself up because nobody is going to do that for you. There are some sick people out there, but there is beauty in everyone – and you need to love yourself before you can stitch that heart back up.”

Motionless in White at Mesa Amphitheatre
2023-09-27 17:00 - 23:30 | Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St, Mesa, 85201, United States
In 2006, Motionless In White materialized out of Scranton, PA with an inimitable conjuration of sharp metallic rock, industrial, magnetic melodies, and larger-than-life visual imagery. The quintet—Chris Motionless [Vocals], Ricky Olson [Guitar], Ryan Sitkowski [guitar], Vinny Mauro [drums], and Justin Morrow [bass]—quietly clawed their way to the forefront of hard rock, gathering nearly half-a-billion cumulative streams and views to date. Following the success of Creatures [2010] and Infamous [2012], Reincarnate [2014] sunk its teeth into the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200, bowing at #9 and capturing #1 on the Top Rock Albums Chart. Both Graveyard Shift [2017] and Disguise [2019] cracked the Top 5 of the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart and Top Rock Albums Chart. Along the way, they sold out headline tours and supported everyone from Slipknot and Korn to Breaking Benjamin. Not to mention, Motionless In White have collaborated with Jonathan Davis of Korn, Maria Brink of In This Moment, Dani Filth of Cradle Of Filth, Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Caleb Shomo of Beartooth, and more. The five-piece kept busy throughout 2020 with the Deadstream event performance of Creatures for its decade-anniversary, a cover of The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me,” and the standalone single “Creatures X: To The Grave.” Now in 2022, Motionless In White are set to return with their new album Scoring The End of the World which sees them perfecting the poetically pummeling sound they patented.

For A Tear in the Fabric of Life, Knocked Loose wanted to do something different. Or they may have been forced to. With quarantine upending their extensive touring schedule — “we’ve kind of been consistently on the road since 2014,” says vocalist Bryan Garris — the group found themselves in early 2020 sequestered near Louisville, in Oldham County, Ky., where they’re from. By June, they were hunkered down in a cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., focused on writing a concept album. By the end of September they had finished recording.
What they came up with is a six song-EP that expands on the narratives hinted at on A Different Shade of Blue, their 2019 full length, and grows beyond them sonically. It’s the band’s most dynamic and contained offering to date, and a balancing act: a mid-length EP with grand ambitions and scope, one full of new sonic elements and a cohesive aesthetic that hangs onto Knocked Loose’s trademark anthemic delivery.

An uninhibited eight-stringed dual barrage of frenetic riffs and dynamic chord progression is exactly what the crushing new AFTER THE BURIAL delivers with pinpoint precision. This highly anticipated new offering is quickly going to raise the bar for all others within the metal genre as this group effectively unleashes a frenzy of jaw-dropping dual guitar dynamics that is backed by a captivating energy and groove resulting in an overall unrelenting output of punishment. ATB is hell-bent on forging their own unique path within the extreme metal genre and they are well on their way to that very goal.
This is an extreme metal hybrid that is a voracious assault on all the senses forcing your brain to fire on all cylinders in order to process the amount of material that is currently being pounded into your ears. This is thinking man’s metal and it’s not for the weak minded.
The tech-wizardry is amped way up, the breakdowns are massive and face-melting and the vocal delivery is the most devastating yet. Already lauded for their technically impressive yet well structured style of songwriting, AFTER THE BURIAL certainly takes things up a notch or two with this newest outing.

Alpha Wolf have spent the past few years growing, learning, understanding. Taking lessons from past mistakes, and accepting that which cannot be changed. 2017’s Mono saw Alpha Wolf instantly which from that small band from Burnie in Tasmania, to a band that was on the lips of heavy music fans the world over. Then their follow up single Black Mamba caught the attention of SharpTone Records, who joined forced with Australian label Greyscale Records to deliver Alpha Wolf to the world with their new EP Fault. Since then, the band has had their first taste of international stages as part of the Impericon Festival tour through Europe alongside new label mates Emmure. Every night the band won over new fans, fans already hungry for the band’s return.

Corey Taylor + Wargasm & Luna Aura at Marquee Theatre
2023-09-28 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
Corey Taylor redefines what it means to be a Renaissance Man. In the span of a year, he’ll go from fronting Grammy Award-winning hard rock leaders Slipknot and Stone Sour to penning a New York Times-bestseller to acting in a film. No matter what he does, he always manages to connect as well. You’ll hear him not only because he’s typically the loudest one in the room (which doesn’t hurt his cause either), but because he’s also got something to say.
Now approaching two decades, Slipknot’s rise is legendary. In addition to notching a 2005 Grammy Award in the category of “Best Metal Performance” for “Before I Forget,” the group has achieved four multi-platinum albums with .5: The Gray Chapter fast approaching gold status. They’ve headlined sold out tours globally as well as numerous festivals Rockstar Mayhem Festival (twice), Rock on the Range, Download (U.K.), Rock In Rio (Brazil), Soundwave (Australia), and Slipknot’s very own Knotfest, in the U.S., Japan and Mexico. Simultaneously, Stone Sour built a legacy of their own. The band’s canon includes two gold-selling albums, a platinum single in “Through Glass,” as well as the sprawling two-disc epic House of Gold & Bones Parts 1&2, which even encompasses an acclaimed graphic novel series of the same name for Dark Horse Comics. Everybody from Dave Grohl to Travis Barker and Tech N9ne have sought Taylor for collaborations.

Wargasm (stylised as 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐒𝐌) are a British electronic rock duo from London. Formed in 2018 by musician Sam Matlock and model Milkie Way, they have released 11 solo singles including “Spit.” which has gained 5 million streams on Spotify, and over 400 thousand views on YouTube. Alternative Press listed them as a defining part of the 2020s wave of nu metal, and NME listed them as one of 2021’s essential emerging artists. The pair also took home “Best UK Breakthrough” at The Heavy Music Awards in 2021 and have received widespread acclaim from Kerrang! and Revolver. Their debut full-length release, Explicit: The Mixxxtape, was released on September 9, 2022.

Genre-bending alternative powerhouse LUNA AURA is hell bent on paving her own path. The independent singer-songwriter, producer, and triple threat delivers songs that are brimming with messages of rebellion, feminism, and individuality.
LUNA, who began penning songs and performing at age 14, has already shared stages with The Killers, K.Flay, Muse, Weezer, Garbage, P!nk, Odesza, and more of music’s biggest names. She has spent time on the festival market, playing KAABOO, Lost Lake, So What Music Fest, EMERGE and many others. Her work and artistry has been featured in PAPER, GQ, Teen Vogue, NYLON, MTV, VH1, Ones To Watch and more.
The LA-via-Phoenix native draws on childhood influences like Garbage, NIN, Hole and Gwen Stefani. Her latest work is fresh, provocative, and bold. Perfectly matched with her vibrant, in-your-face, live performances.
AURA is set to release her third EP “THE FICTION” in September 2023. To hear more, tune in to Rock This, New Noise, Walk Like a Badass, All New Rock, Totally Alt, Rock Rising, Fierce Femmes, Pulp, and more…

Parkway Drive at Mesa Amphitheatre
2023-10-01 16:30 - 23:30 | Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St, Mesa, 85201, United States
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.

An Aussie metalcore group with highly confessional lyrics and a melody-driven emo-tinged sound, the Amity Affliction emerged in 2008 with Severed Ties. They hit their stride in 2012 with the release of their third full-length effort, Chasing Ghosts, which like subsequent outings This Could Be Heartbreak (2016), Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them (2020), and Not Without My Ghosts (2023), soared to the top of the Australian charts, and found international success as well.
Brisbane post-hardcore act the Amity Affliction were formed in 2002 by Ahren Stringer and Troy Brady, a pair of longtime pals — still high schoolers at the time — who had been affected by the death of their friend in a road accident. The band — a quartet rounded out by bassist Garth Buchanan and drummer Lachlan Faulkner — released a demo in 2003 and an EP in 2004 but didn’t start making waves in earnest until sometime later. In 2005, after unclean vocalist Joel Birch joined the fold, Amity Affliction went on a touring spell, working up a nationwide reputation as a powerful live band. In 2007, they added keyboard player Trad Nathan, switched drummers with Ryan Burt replacing Faulkner, and parted ways with Buchanan, with Stringer taking on bass duties. The newly formed group then hit the studio to record the EP High Hopes, followed in 2008 by the debut album Severed Ties, which peaked at number 26 on the ARIA charts.
Amity Affliction toured Australia again in 2008 and 2009, both as a support and headlining act, and in 2010 they released their second album, Youngbloods, which confirmed that their efforts paid off, reaching number six on the ARIA charts. They would top that achievement just two years later when their third album, Chasing Ghosts, debuted at number one on the ARIA charts. A fourth album, Let the Ocean Take Me, arrived on Roadrunner in 2014 and was the band’s second consecutive ARIA chart-topper. That year, Brady left the band, leaving Stringer as the only founding member.
After months of touring Ocean, the quartet returned to the studio to record their fifth LP. This Could Be Heartbreak arrived in August 2016, topping the ARIA charts once again. The band toured Australia, the U.S., and Europe in support of the record, before Ryan Burt left in February 2018 owing to mental health concerns. Later that year, the Amity Affliction released their sixth album, Misery. Their first concept effort, it featured an overarching narrative chronicling the tale of three friends on a dark quest for vengeance. Two years later the band returned with weighty and depressive Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them, their first studio LP with new drummer Joe Longobardi. 2023’s pummeling Not Without My Ghosts followed an over-arching theme of mortality and featured guest spots from late New Zealand rapper Louie Knuxx, Comeback Kid‘s Andrew Neufeld, the Plot in You‘s Landon Tewers, and Phem.

Northlane’s new offering, Obsidian, is their most expansive and dynamic album yet. Self-recorded and self-produced with the help of their longtime collaborator Chris Blancato, the sound Northlane have been working towards over the span of their career has been fully realised on Obsidian. Sonically spanning the gamut of their entire discography, Northlane’s trademark heavy comfortably coexists with techno, drum and bass, intriguing synths, perplexing time signatures and widescreen choruses. It’s this fearless evolution that keeps Northlane light years ahead of everyone else in heavy music.

Growth, and the desire for eternal forward motion have been the concepts that have defined Make Them Suffer since the very beginning; and have been the foundations that led them from the world’s most remote capital city Perth in Australia, to becoming a household name on stages around the world. As they have traversed previous eras, the five piece have grown through the genres of deathcore, melodic death metal, & heavy metalcore; and as they continue on this path, look to be defined by nothing more than the label ‘creative’. Through ‘Ether’, ’27’, and ‘Hollowed Heart’, the band has worked to shed themselves of the shackles of expectation, and as they look towards the open road that lies ahead of them, the light that guides the way has a name, ‘How To Survive A Funeral’.
To assist in the redefinition of every line the band is known for, Make Them Suffer enlisted the assistance of Drew Fulk A.K.A. WZRDBLD, who has worked with everyone from Motionless In White & Bullet For My Valentine, to Yelawolf & Lil’ Wayne. The band travelled to LA to shack up at Fulk’s studio, the first time in their career working this closely with a producer, and the result is truly something unique in the current climate of heavy music. The band’s fourth full length sees inspirations from their past and present sounds twisted together into a package that will define Make Them Suffer’s place amongst their contemporaries as a truly creative act.

Foo Fighters + The Breeders at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
2023-10-03 19:30 - 23:30 | Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, 2121 N 83rd Ave, Phoenix, AZ, 85035, United States
With alt-rock anthems heavy on melody and personality, Foo Fighters have grown from Dave Grohl‘s humble solo project into one of the biggest — and most enduring — acts in modern rock. Once his self-recorded debut became a hit in 1995, the former Nirvana drummer turned Foo Fighters into a full-fledged band whose lineup coalesced after the 1997 release of The Colour and the Shape. With 1999’s There Is Nothing Left to Lose, the group’s sound gelled into a recognizable signature built upon the hooky loud-quiet-loud dynamics of Pixies and Nirvana, a modern rock sound anchored by Grohl‘s love of classic guitar rock. Alone among their peers, Foo Fighters displayed a rigorous work ethic, recording and touring relentlessly into the 2020s, racking up hit albums, multiple Grammy wins and, eventually, a 2021 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. All this activity allowed the Foos to experiment, whether it was on 2005’s double-album In Your Honor, the travelogue of 2014’s Sonic Highways, or the danceable, feel-good anthems on 2021’s Medicine at Midnight. The dedication to work also carried Foo Fighters through tragedy when their drummer Taylor Hawkins unexpectedly died in 2022. Grohl rallied the group to deliver But Here We Are, a cathartic tribute to their colleague, the following year.
All of this industriousness stems from Dave Grohl, who had been playing guitar and writing songs long before he began drumming. Throughout his early teens he performed in a variety of hardcore punk bands and in the late ’80s he joined the Washington, D.C.-area hardcore band Scream as their drummer. During Scream‘s final days, Grohl began recording his own material in the basement studio of his friend Barrett Jones. Some of Grohl‘s songs appeared on Scream‘s final album, Fumble. After the band’s 1990 summer tour, Grohl joined Nirvana and moved cross-country to Seattle.
After Nirvana recorded Nevermind, Grohl went back to the D.C. area and recorded a handful of tracks that would appear on Pocketwatch, a cassette released by Simple Machines. For most of 1992, he was busy with Nirvana, but when the band was off the road, he recorded solo material with Jones, who had also moved to Seattle. The pair kept recording throughout early 1993, when Grohl returned to Nirvana to record In Utero. He had toyed with the idea of releasing another independent cassette in the summer of 1993, but the plans never reached fruition. Following Kurt Cobain‘s suicide in 1994, the drummer kept quiet for several months. In the fall of 1994, Grohl and Jones decamped to a professional studio, where in the space of a week, they recorded the songs that comprised Foo Fighters’ debut album. Boiling down his backlog of songs to about 15 tracks, Grohl played all the instruments on the album. He made 100 copies of the tape, passing it out to friends and associates. In no time, Grohl‘s solo project became the object of a fierce record company bidding war.
Instead of embarking on a full-fledged solo career, Grohl decided to form a band. Through his wife he met Nate Mendel, the bassist for Sunny Day Real Estate. Shortly before the pair met, Jeremy Enigk, the leader of Sunny Day Real Estate, had converted to Christianity and quit the band, effectively ending the group’s career. Not only did Mendel join Grohl‘s band, but so did Sunny Day‘s drummer, William Goldsmith. Former Germs and Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear rounded out the lineup. The band, named Foo Fighters after a World War II secret force that allegedly researched UFOs, signed a contract with Capitol Records. The band’s self-titled debut, consisting solely of Dave Grohl‘s solo recordings, was released in July of 1995. It became an instant success in America, as “This Is a Call” garnered heavy alternative and album rock airplay. By early 1996, the album was certified platinum in the U.S.
Throughout 1996, Foo Fighters supported the album with an extensive tour, enjoying a crossover hit with “Big Me.” Late in the year, the group began recording its second album with producer Gil Norton. During the sessions, William Goldsmith left the band due to creative tensions, leaving Grohl to drum on the majority of the album. Before the record’s release, Goldsmith was replaced by Taylor Hawkins, who had previously drummed with Alanis Morissette. The Colour and the Shape, Foo Fighters’ second album and the first they recorded as a band, was issued in May of 1997. Smear left the group in the wake of the album’s completion and was replaced by guitarist Franz Stahl, whose stay proved short-lived; 1999’s There Is Nothing Left to Lose was recorded as a three-piece, with ex-No Use for a Name guitarist Chris Shiflett signing on soon after.
One by One, the group’s most polished production, appeared in late 2002, followed by 2005’s In Your Honor, which narrowly missed the top of Billboard’s album chart. After releasing a live album titled Skin and Bones in 2006, the band returned to Norton’s studio and started constructing a dozen fractured, eclectic rock songs to be released in 2007 under the name Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace. Two years later, the group released its first compilation, Greatest Hits, as Grohl launched his new supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, which also featured Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Led Zeppelin‘s John Paul Jones. Foo Fighters reconvened for 2011’s Wasting Light, a Butch Vig production that doubled as the official return of Pat Smear, who hadn’t played on any of the band’s albums since 1997. Wasting Light wound up as a smash success for the Foos, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts, going gold in the U.S. and garnering the band another four Grammy Awards. In the wake of Wasting Light, several other Foo projects emerged — a limited-edition compilation of covers called Medium Rare released for Record Store Day 2011; a documentary of the band called Back and Forth — and the group toured the album into 2012.
In 2012, Foo Fighters announced they were taking a hiatus and Dave Grohl immediately returned to the confines of Queens of the Stone Age, drumming on their 2013 album, …Like Clockwork. He also threw himself into directing a documentary about the legendary Los Angeles recording studio Sound City. The film appeared early in 2013 to positive reviews, and it was accompanied by a soundtrack called Sound City: Reel to Real, which featured Grohl-directed jams including a variety of Sound City veterans, plus Paul McCartney. Not long after its release, Foo Fighters announced that their hiatus had ended and they were working on a new album. Sonic Highways, released late in 2014, was their most ambitious project yet; each track was recorded in a different city, some with special featured guests, a process documented on an eight-episode documentary series for HBO. Sonic Highways saw international release in early November 2014. During the Sonic Highways world tour, the Foos had the honor of being the final band to perform on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 24, 2015. Soon after, as touring resumed, Grohl fell from the stage during a stop in Sweden, breaking his leg. He performed from a throne for the remainder of the tour, which was rechristened the “Broken Leg Tour.”
In late 2015, both as a gesture of appreciation to fans and a tribute to the victims of the Paris terror attacks, Foo Fighters released the Saint Cecilia EP, a five-song blast that featured Gary Clark, Jr. and Ben Kweller. It returned the band to the Billboard charts, peaking in the Top 20 on the Hard Rock, Alternative, Tastemaker, and Vinyl charts. Soon after, the band announced an indefinite hiatus and would not release new music until two years later, when they returned with the single “Run.” This was the first taste of their ninth album, Concrete and Gold, which appeared in September 2017. Produced by Greg Kurstin, the album found Grohl incorporating some prog rock influences into the group’s sound. It also featured a handful of unexpected guest performers, including Paul McCartney, who played drums on a track, saxophonist Dave Koz, Boyz II Men‘s Shawn Stockman, and the Kills‘ Alison Mosshart; the latter two both added backing vocals. Along with topping the rock charts, the album was also the group’s second to debut at number one on the Billboard 200.
Foo Fighters toured extensively throughout 2017 and 2018, including making an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. By 2019, they were back at work in the studio, recording in an historic house in Encino, California, and again working with producer Kurstin. Initially scheduled for release in 2020, Medicine at Midnight was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a lead single, “Shame Shame,” did appear in November 2020, topping the mainstream rock chart. Two more songs followed, “No Son of Mine” and “Waiting on a War,” paving the way for the album, which ultimately arrived in February 2021. In March 2022, the Foo Fighters traveled to South America to play a handful of concerts, headlining the Lollapalooza festival in Argentina on March 20. On the morning of March 25, 2022, drummer Taylor Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room in Bogotá, Colombia, where the group was scheduled to perform that evening; he was 50 years old.
At the end of 2022, Foo Fighters announced they planned to continue as a band following the death of Hawkins. Grohl and his bandmates processed the loss of their colleague on But Here We Are, an album that occasionally echoed the spirit of the first Foo Fighters album while also featuring the assured, precise execution of Greg Kurstin, who returned for his third record with the Foos. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

The Breeders started as a way for Pixies bassist Kim Deal and Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donelly to let out some suppressed creative energy, but thanks to the success of their second album Last Splash and its smash hit single “Cannonball,” the band became one of the biggest — and quirkiest — acts of the early-’90s alternative rock revolution. Though the large gaps of time between their later albums made their career trajectory less than predictable, the Breeders’ appeal, not to mention influence on later bands, lasted for decades.
Taking their name from the group Deal led with her twin sister, Kelley, in their teens, the Breeders combined the spareness of Throwing Muses with the shifting dynamics and warped pop sensibilities of the Pixies. Deal and Donelly both played guitar, leaving bass to Josephine Wiggs of Perfect Disaster and drums to Slint‘s Britt Walford. Pod, their critically acclaimed debut album, was released in 1990. Two years later, the group delivered the muscular, melodic EP Safari. Soon after its recording, Donelly left the Breeders to form her own group, Belly. Kim Deal brought in her sister Kelley as her replacement. Safari was also the last release to feature Walford, who was billed as “Shannon Doughton” and “Mike Hunt” on the respective recordings. He was later replaced by Dayton drummer Jim MacPherson. The group also played its first high-profile gigs in 1992, opening for Nirvana on their European tour.
As the band worked on its second album in the beginning of 1993, the Pixies split, leaving Kim Deal able to pursue the Breeders full-time. Released in August 1993, Last Splash was a hazier, more disjointed continuation of the hard pop of Safari. With the sonic collage of “Cannonball,” the Breeders had a crossover hit that catapulted the group into stardom: within a year, the album went platinum and the band had a prime spot on 1994’s Lollapalooza tour. That year, the group also released the limited-edition 7″ Head to Toe and Divine Hammer singles, both of which confirmed the Breeders as an artistically willful group that was nevertheless in tune with the commercial pop tastes of the early ’90s.
Just as quickly as success hit the band, the Breeders went on a sudden hiatus, partly due to exhaustion from the rapid nature of their fame and from their extensive touring. Late in 1994, Kelley was arrested for drug possession and was sent to a rehab clinic in Minnesota; the rest of the bandmembers went their separate ways while she recuperated. Wiggs played with musicians around New York, ultimately forming the Josephine Wiggs Experience with them; Kim returned to Dayton with MacPherson, learned how to play the drums, and continued writing songs. By early 1995, Kim had an album’s worth of new material ready to record. Though she considered recording them on her own, Deal decided to assemble a backing band of MacPherson and other Dayton-area musicians, including Nathan Farley and Luis Lerma of the Tasties. Not surprisingly, the Amps — originally called Tammy & the Amps — sounded like a rougher, lo-fi version of the Breeders; their gigs and their 1995 album Pacer emphasized the loose, charming spontaneity of Deal’s style.
Though the Breeders’ break was supposed to be temporary, it lasted several years. Along with her time in the Josephine Wiggs Experience, Wiggs later formed Dusty Trails with Luscious Jackson‘s Vivian Trimble. After Kelley completed her rehab, she formed her own solo project, the Kelley Deal 6000. She toured and released an album with this group, 1996’s Go to the Sugar Altar.
That year, Kim reclaimed the Breeders name and played some California dates with the band, which featured members of the Amps and Pod violinist Carrie Bradley. In 1997, the Breeders played the Tim Taylor Memorial Benefit Concert — in honor of Brainiac‘s singer/keyboardist, who was killed in a car accident earlier that year — with that group’s drummer Tyler Trent replacing MacPherson, who later joined Guided by Voices. Later that year, Kim went into the studio in one of many frustrated attempts to make the third Breeders album. However, the group’s low profile didn’t mean that it didn’t have any hits; a sample from “Cannonball” used in the Prodigy‘s worldwide smash “Firestarter” earned Kim songwriting credits and royalties. By early 1998, Kelley had rejoined the band and the duo continued to write and record songs, though the only song to surface from their sessions was a cover of the Three Degrees‘ “Collage,” which appeared on the soundtrack to 1999’s big-screen adaptation of The Mod Squad.
In 2000, Kim and Kelley spent time in the studio with Steve Albini; late that year, the Breeders played their first gig in over three years (and Kim’s first show with Kelley in over six) at a free, secret show in Los Angeles. Once again, the Breeders’ lineup had changed, with bassist Mando Lopez, guitarist Richard Presley (both formerly of Fear), and drummer Jose Medeles backing the Deal sisters. The group reconvened in the studio with Albini in 2001, completing an album’s worth of songs. The Breeders began a flurry of activity in 2002, including the release of the Off You and Huffer singles and their long-awaited third album, Title TK, that May. After a quiet 2003, Deal was once again in the news in 2004 when the Pixies reunited for tours of North America and Europe.
In late 2007, rumors that another Breeders album was on the way were confirmed, and Mountain Battles arrived in April 2008. The Fate to Fatal EP, which featured a cover of Bob Marley‘s “Chances Are” and guest vocals from Mark Lanegan, appeared in 2009, the same year the Breeders curated the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Minehead, England. The following September, they played the ATP festival in Monticello, New York. In 2013, the band celebrated the 20th anniversary of Last Splash with a deluxe reissue of the album and a tour that reunited Kim and Kelley Deal with Wiggs and MacPherson.
Following the tour’s success, the band began work on its fifth album. The Breeders recorded with longtime producer Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, as well as with Mike Montgomery at Kentucky’s Candyland Recording Studio and with Tom Rastikis at Ohio’s Fernwood Studios. In October 2017, the band delivered its first new music in eight years with “Wait in the Car,” the lead single from All Nerve. Featuring backing vocals by Courtney Barnett, the album was released in March 2018, nearly 25 years after Last Splash. All Nerve peaked at 79 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart in the U.S., cracked the Top Ten in the U.K., and charted throughout Europe.
The members of the Breeders began the 2020s by spending time with their individual projects. Kim wrote a solo album; Kelly worked with R. Ring and Protomartyr; MacPherson played with the surf band the Mulchmen; and Wiggs collaborated with drummer Jon Mattock. In 2021, they reconvened to contribute a version of His Name is Alive‘s “The Dirt Eaters” to the 4AD compilation Bills and Aches and Blues. Two years later, the Breeders hit the road to commemorate Last Splash’s 30th anniversary with dates at Coachella and Riot Fest as well as with the Foo Fighters, Belly, and Horsegirl. September 2023 saw the release of a Last Splash reissue that was remastered from the original analog tapes and included two previously unreleased songs from the album’s sessions: “Go Man Go,” which was co-written by Pixies‘ Black Francis, and “Divine Mascis,” a version of “Divine Hammer” with Dinosaur Jr.‘s J Mascis on lead vocals. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Heather Phares, Rovi

Chevelle + Three Days Grace at Arizona Financial Theatre
2023-10-04 19:00 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
The members of Three Days Grace began bashing out punk chords when they were in their teens, carving a workmanlike yet energetic sound that fueled their live performances. Combining elements of angst-fueled alternative rock, metal, and grunge, the Canadian group quickly established themselves as lynchpins of the post-grunge movement. Emerging in 2003, the band soared to the top of the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart with platinum-selling efforts like One-X (2006) and Life Starts Now (2009), and have remained at the fore of the hard rock scene in the 2010s and beyond with internationally charting outings such as Human (2015), Outsider (2018), and Explosions (2022).
Three Days Grace were formed in Norwood, Ontario, Canada, in 1997 by Adam Gontier (vocals, guitar), Brad Walst (bass), and Neil Sanderson (drums). The group was originally called Groundswell, a five-piece that lasted from 1992 until transforming into a trio five years later. Gontier and Walst were raised in Norwood, and many of their songs were inspired by living in a place with a population of around 1,500. The bandmembers were still in high school when they had their first gig, and they performed anywhere that would accept them — including opening at a movie.
Three Days Grace eventually relocated to Toronto and were introduced to producer Gavin Brown by their old manager. The band gave Brown a private set, and he selected what he felt were the most promising tracks. The group then produced a demo for EMI Music Publishing Canada. With Brown at the helm, Three Days Grace recorded “(I Hate) Everything About You.” The tune got them a publishing deal with EMI and soon they were signed to Jive after being courted by the company’s president. Brown and Three Days Grace were sent to a studio in Boston, Massachusetts, to start the group’s debut album. The band completed its self-titled full-length in Woodstock, New York, at an isolated location free from big-city distractions. Heavily influenced by Kyuss and Sunny Day Real Estate, the dark, angst-ridden tales of small-town love and hate on Three Days Grace brought the group a Next Big Thing tag.
Three Days Grace was released on July 22, 2003, by which time “(I Hate) Everything About You” was already a hit on alternative radio stations in Canada. The band toured extensively behind the record for the next two years as both a supporting act and headliners, but after a while, life on the road left the band, especially Gontier, feeling isolated and alone. Consequently, this theme of disconnection — coupled with the realization that one was, in fact, not alone — would serve as the basis for their follow-up album. Getting back to their roots by writing the record in the Ontario countryside, One-X was released in June 2006. The album, which hit number five on the Billboard Top 200, marked the recorded debut of the band’s second guitarist, Barry Stock. Three Days Grace supported One-X throughout the summer on dates alongside Staind, Hoobastank, and Nickelback, while “Animal I Have Become” became a number one modern rock hit.
In 2009, the group released its third full-length album, Life Starts Now, which reached number three on Billboard’s album chart. After heading out on tour with bands like Nickelback and Avenged Sevenfold, the group returned to the studio to record its fourth album, the more atmospheric, electronic-tinged Transit of Venus. Again, they charted in the Top Five of the Billboard 200. In early 2013, Gontier left the band, citing a health issue, and was replaced by Brad Walst’s brother, singer Matt Walst of My Darkest Days. After touring and recording with their new singer, two singles, “Painkiller” and “I Am Machine,” were released in 2014 and both reached number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart. The band’s fifth album, the darker, loss-inspired Human, followed in the spring of 2015. In July 2017, Three Days Grace issued the single “The Mountain” ahead of the release of their sixth studio long-player, the well-received Outsider, which arrived in early 2018 and earned nominations for Album of the Year and Rock Album of the Year at the 2019 Juno Awards. Recorded partially in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, Three Days Grace’s seventh album was heavy with themes of centering one’s self in a world of chaos. Released in 2022, Explosions was co-produced with Howard Benson. ~ Michael Sutton, Rovi

CHEVELLE is the understated musical powerhouse who have continually delivered rock anthems for the past 24 years. 7 number one hits, 17 songs reaching the top 10 charts, over 4 million records sold in the USA and many more worldwide. Platinum and gold albums across their 8 studio records and successful live CD and two live DVD releases completes their extensive body of work to date. It’s all credit to their continuing dedication to be true to their craft, the genre and their fans. Chevelle’s last two album releases, La Gargola and The North Corridor both debuted #1 on the Billboard rock charts and #3 and #8 respectively, on the Billboard top 200 charts. With no signs of this Chicago alternative rock trio slowing down any time soon, their numerous chart-topping releases have certainly earned this band a place in American rock music history. After more than two decades together, numerous releases, and countless worldwide tours, the band consisting of brothers, Pete Loeffler [guitars, vocals] and Sam Loeffler [drums], have confidently sailed through decades of uncharted waters and have emerged with a collection that’s equally intricate and intimate.

Goldrush 2023 at Phoenix Raceway Oct 7th-8th
2023-10-07 12:00 - 2023-10-08 23:30 | Phoenix Raceway, 7602 Jimmie Johnson Dr, Avondale, 85323, United States
Relentless Beats brings you Goldrush 2023, and this year it’s out at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, AZ.

Your Goldrush: Sonoran Skies Lineup
2-Day & Single Day Tickets On Sale Now!

Saturday, October 7
Alison Wonderland • Louis The Child (Playground Set) • Tiesto • ATLiens • Brondo • Champagne Drip • Cloonee • Dabin • Dion Timmer • Dombresky • Kayzo Unleashed • Lizzy Jane • Marie Vaunt • Nostalgix • Ship Wrek • Slushii • Sonny Fodera • Weiss • Will Clarke • Anatta • Svnday Drvr
Sunday, October 8
Zeds Dead • ZHU • Ameme • Ben Bohmer (LIVE) • BLOND:ISH • Bou • Detlef • FrostTop • Hamdi • Jessica Audiffred • Kai Wachi • KHIVA • Lady Faith • Madeon (DJ Set) • PAWSA • Riot Ten • S!CK!CK • TOBEHONEST • Austin Feldman • Michael Hooker • Sed’s Vortex b2b PrettyHard

TICKETS

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much

Without the brands listed below, we simply couldn’t have the memorable experiences you have grown to love. We would like to extend our gratitude to each of these brands and companies for helping to provide texture to Goldrush and providing a lasting impression to fans!
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Coheed and Cambria + Deafheaven at The Hollywood Palladium
2023-10-07 19:00 - 23:30 | The Hollywood Palladium, 6215 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 90028, United States
It’s been over two years since Coheed and Cambria’s 2015 album, The Color Before the Sun, was released as the band’s first “non-concept” album over the span of their 15-year career. The album left the sci-fi universe of “The Amory Wars” and instead focused on frontman Claudio Sanchez’s personal life, including the birth of his first child. With 2018 upon us, and a major summer tour now announced, the volume of fans’ chatter for a new album and whether or not it will return to the band’s fictional concept arc will surely reach new heights.
Coheed and Cambria is a rare band whose music is able to transcend “scenes” and effortlessly cross genres of rock – from indie to progressive, to metal and pop-punk to classic rock. The band is frequently compared to progressive, operatic rock bands of the ‘70s, ala Queen, Supertramp or Rush due to their thrilling concept albums that take you on a grand journey of sounds and often clock-in around 10 mins, but still somehow include sugary pop-laden hooks.
The group’s following has grown steadily every album, partly due to their ferocious live show that brings fans to their knees with an equally expansive light show. This summer, the band will be performing songs from their expansive catalog, and we can only imagine they’ll pull a few new tricks from up their sleeves.

Originally formed as a duo in 2010, Deafheaven, now a quintet, are a restless and experimental metal band from San Francisco. Often referred to as black metal, the group finds the term limiting, and sees the metal subgenre as a prime inspiration. Their ever-evolving sound includes elements of black metal, shoegaze, post-rock, and even accessible — but musically challenging — arena rock, as evidenced by albums such as 2013’s Sunbather and the punchier, more dynamic New Bermuda two years later. 2018’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love wed somewhat gentler and more experimental and cinematic songwriting to their established black metal roots. Their fifth studio album, 2021’s Infinite Granite, was their least metal-influenced record yet, leaning closer to dream pop, ambient, and alternative rock.
Initially made up of George Clarke (vocals) and Kerry McCoy (guitars), the band has a sound that blends black metal with elements of shoegaze, adding a layer of warmth to the genre’s typically icy sound while expanding the emotional range outside of the typical themes of death, despair, and hopelessness. As a duo, Clarke and McCoy wrote and recorded a demo on their own that would get the attention of Converge frontman Jacob Bannon’s label, Deathwish Inc., which released the untitled EP in 2010. The pair expanded the lineup to include guitarist Nick Bassett, bassist Derek Prine, and drummer Trevor Deschryver, who appeared on Deafheaven’s 2011 full-length debut, Roads to Judah, before parting ways with the band the following year. Looking to get back to their roots a bit, McCoy and Clarke worked on the writing for their follow-up album as a duo again, though they would recruit drummer Daniel Tracy to join them in the studio for the recording process. The result was their sophomore effort, Sunbather, which was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 2013. Recruiting new bassist Stephen Clark and guitarist Shiv Mehra, Deafheaven toured across the globe extensively as a quintet, including gigs with Between the Buried and Me, Pallbearer, No Joy, and many others. In 2015, Deafheaven signed to Anti- for the release of their highly anticipated third album, New Bermuda. Produced by frequent collaborator Jack Shirley, it arrived in early October. The set reached number 16 on the Top Rock Albums charts, and was supported by lengthy international tours. Its critical and commercial success brought it to the ears of listeners not normally enamored of heavy metal.
In late 2017, Deafheaven de-camped to 25th St. Recording in Oakland with Shirley again listed as producer. By their own admission, they expanded their heavy, kinetic sound by adding psychedelia-inspired vocals, jazzy percussion, and intricate organic piano melodies to juxtapose against their trademark black metal-inspired and post-hardcore trademark sonics. Ordinary Corrupt Human Love took its title from Graham Greene‘s novel The End of the Affair, reflecting a theme of yearning romanticism. The set’s first single and video, “Honeycomb,” was issued in April of 2018, and clocked in at nearly 12 minutes. While the video images showed glimpses of Deafheaven in the studio and wandering around San Francisco, the song’s lyrics actually referenced the work of Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar. The full-length was released in May. The singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe guested on the track “Near.”
In 2020, the band planned a ten-year anniversary tour that had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To celebrate the occasion anyway, Deafheaven released 10 Years Gone (Sargent House) in December, a live-in-studio recording of their planned touring set. In addition to revitalizing long-established crowd favorites such as “Vertigo” and “Kettle,” they also included a recording of “Daedalus,” the first song the band ever wrote together. Infinite Granite, the band’s fifth studio album, arrived in 2021. A departure from their previous albums, Infinite Granite featured barely any screaming or metal riffs, instead featuring swirling guitars and clean vocals reflecting influences including Radiohead, Ride, Tears for Fears, and Chet Baker. ~ Gregory Heaney & Thom Jurek, Rovi

Sleep Token & AA Williams at Fox Theater in Pomona, CA
2023-10-09 20:00 - 23:30, 2023-10-10 20:00 - 23:30 | Fox Theater Pomona, CA, 301 Garey Ave., Pomona, CA, 91766
SUNDOWNING: “Sundowning, or sundown syndrome, is a neurological phenomenon associated with increased confusion and restlessness in patients with delirium or some form of dementia. The term ‘sundowning’ was coined due to the timing of the patient’s confusion. For patients with sundowning syndrome, a multitude of behavioral problems begin to occur in the evening or while the sun is setting…”
From June to November, through 12 tracks and passing seasons, Sleep Tokenreveals an evenly-spaced, precisely-timed sequence of recordings that stand as both individual touchstones and carefully aligned musical pieces, all informed by a common emotional thread plus a flow of graphics and videos specific to each song; the end result is a digital and physical release of the album on November 22, with format choices embracing a bespoke box-set containing a variety of exclusive elements, including early recordings.
Starting with “THE NIGHT DOES NOT BELONG TO GOD,” the opening track on the album, the singles will be issued, in sequence, every two weeks at sundown (GMT). “The Night…” arrives on summer solstice when the sun is highest in the sky in London, descending throughout the subsequent singles releases.

Making her stage debut in April 2019 and selling out her first headline show at London’s prestigious Southbank Centre less than a year later, A.A. Williams hit the ground running. Similarly, the acclaim for her performances and her music has been unanimous from the start. After one self-titled EP and a collaboration with Japanese post-rockers MONO, the London-based singer-songwriter signed to Bella Union and released her stunning debut album, Forever Blue, in July 2020.
That Southbank show would prove to be the last time she would take to the stage for a long while as the world struggled to cope with unforeseen and extreme challenges. Never a musician to sit still, the classically trained multi-instrumentalist focused her creativity on arranging – firstly, by stripping songs back to the most delicate bones on her Songs From Isolation covers record, and now with a complete reimagining of her own material as the four songs from her debut EP become arco.
Not many musicians have the ability – or indeed bravery – to rework a collection of their own full band ‘rock’ songs into a string-and-voice arrangement. A.A. Williams, however, is not like many musicians and the minimalism of Arvo Pärt and Gorecki has long since sat beside Vaughan Williams’ folk-inspired classical work as important influences on her music.

Drowning Pool + Saliva & More at Marquee Theatre
2023-10-12 18:00 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
Drowning Pool is an alternative/nu-metal band that combines muscular drums, angry riffs, and dark themes. The group found mainstream success in 2001 with the release of their platinum-selling debut album, Sinner, which included the hit single “Bodies.” After the death of vocalist Dave Williams in 2002, Drowning Pool relied on a rotating cast of lead singers (Jason Jones, Ryan McCombs, and Jasen Moreno) to deliver hard-hitting efforts like Full Circle (2007), Resilience (2013), and Strike a Nerve (2022).
Founded in 1996, Drowning Pool represented the vision of drummer Mike Luce and guitarist C.J. Pierce, who formed the band after relocating from New Orleans to Dallas and hooking up with bassist Stevie Benton. Although they initially performed as an instrumental trio, their sound coalesced with the arrival of Dave “Stage” Williams as vocalist. Drowning Pool experienced success from the outset. When a copy of their first demo reached members of Sevendust, they were invited to tour with the industrial metal group. Tours with Kittie and (hed) p.e. followed. Their second demo, recorded after two years on the road, reached the Top Ten on Dallas radio station KEGL and led to a contract with the Wind-Up Records label. Produced by Jay Baumgardner (Papa Roach, Godsmack, Coal Chamber), their first album, Sinner, became an instant hit. It was certified platinum within six weeks of its release, while their first single, “Bodies,” was one of the most frequently aired videos on MTV for a new band. They reached out to an even greater audience with dynamic performances at Wrestlemania XVIII and Ozzfest during the summers of 2001 and 2002. Unfortunately, their streak of success was not to last. Shortly after rousing the crowd at Ozzfest in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 3, 2002, Williams was found dead of natural causes on the tour bus. In the wake of that tragedy, the band forged ahead. A concert film, Sinema, featuring more than two-and-a-half hours of footage, was released in late 2002. In January 2004, the band announced the addition of singer Jason “Gong” Jones, and their sophomore effort, Desensitized, followed several months later. In 2006, former Soil singer Ryan McCombs assumed the vocal duties, and a year later they released Full Circle, which was followed by live album, Loudest Common Denominator, in 2009. A self-titled album dropped in 2010, making McCombs the first DP singer to record more than one album with the group. However, it was not to last: he departed the following year, and was replaced by Suicide Hook vocalist Jasen Moreno, who made his official debut on 2013’s Resilience. Three years later, Moreno would match McCombs’ record with the announcement of the second Moreno-led and sixth overall Drowning Pool album, Hellelujah. Produced by Jason Suecof (Deicide, Motionless in White), the release featured the uncompromising single “By the Blood.” Originally slated for release in 2020, the band’s seventh long-player, Strike a Nerve, was pushed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Billed as their heaviest effort to date, the 11-song set saw the band digging hard into their blue-collar Southern metal roots. ~ Craig Harris & Neil Z. Yeung, 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 will continue to release tracks and ultimately a full album in Spring of 2023. 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).

Edgy Las Vegas-based Adelitas Way broke into the mainstream in 2009 with the song “Invincible,” which appeared on numerous television spots for CSI Miami and served as the theme song for the weekly WWE Superstars show, Raw vs Smackdown Video game, appeared on FAW ,served as The legacy Theme song, and performed at numerous Large WWE events. A Blue collar grass roots work ethic has the band touring the world for over a decade, building one of the strongest fan bases in Music today. Independently AW has over 180 Million Streams on their strong Catalog of songs. Formed in the mid 2000s by vocalist/songwriter Rick DeJesus, the band (includes drummer Trevor Stafford, Bassist Andrew Cushing, Guitarist Tavis Stanley) released its debut in July 2009. AW sophomore effort, the acclaimed Home School Valedictorian was a massive success. In July 2013 the group entered the studio to record Stuck, which featured the hit single “Dog on a Leash,” which peaked at number Five on the U.S. Mainstream Rock Chart. 2016, the band issued their fourth studio album, Getaway Independently, and featured the Top 10 Rock radio hit “Bad Reputation”. 2017’s Notorious album included hit singles “Ready for War (Pray for Peace),” which served as the theme song to TLC: a WWE PPV event. The hit single “Notorious” was released In the fall Of 2017 and is one of the bands Most successful songs to date with over 40 Million streams. Adelitas way is a fan Favorite for their songwriting, Live shows, and Fan Experiences

Every once in a while, a singer comes along that single-handedly resets the bar for what a rock vocalist should be. Someone with such raw emotion and power that it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Maryland-based rock band ANY GIVEN SIN’s Vic Richie is that singer. ANY GIVEN SIN spent much of 2019 generating buzz with the release of their single “Dynamite,” which quickly became the number one most spun song on SiriusXM’s Octane. The band soon solidified its position on Octane, landing the coveted Accelerator Artist title, and blazing past some of the biggest names in rock on the weekly BIG UNS Countdown. As the number two most requested song on the channel, it ended up at number twenty-nine on Octane’s Top 100 year-end countdown. The success of their first single was quickly followed up with the release of their second single, “Another Life,” which, in turn, became the number one most spun song as well. Any Given Sin recently released their third single, “Insidious.” The band has been working with some heavy-hitters in the rock world including Trevor Kustiak (Evans Blue), John Moyer (Disturbed), and most recently, Chris Dawson (SAUL, Seasons After), who produced both singles, “Another Life” and “Insidious.” Complete with epic, crunchy guitar riffs and put-a-hole-in-your-soul, massive drums, this is a true-blue American rock band with both authenticity and power.

VNV Nation + Traitrs at The Van Buren
2023-10-18 20:00 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
VNV Nation is a European based alternative electronic project led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter and producer.
Never content with fitting in a category, VNV Nation’s sound blends poetic and thought provoking lyrics with a sound that ranges from melodic dance beats and indie-electronic anthems, to haunting ballads and post-classical soundtrack pieces. The live shows are legendary for their energy and positive emotion, drawing a devoted fanbase from across the musical spectrum to sold out tours and headline appearances at festivals in Europe and America.
Over the course of the project’s career, VNV Nation has continued to reach new heights, with its last 3 albums charting top 10 in Germany, as well as its last album achieving top 5 Billboard Chart positions in the US.
Ronan Harris was born in Dublin, Ireland, and lives in Hamburg, Germany

With their emotive melodies, propulsive rhythms, angular guitars and dark cinematic electronics, TRAITRS have quickly become one of modern post-punk’s fastest rising independent bands. Consisting of Sean-Patrick Nolan and Shawn Tucker, TRAITRS formed during the summer of 2015 in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The duo recorded demos with producer/engineer Josh Korody (Nailbiter, F*cked Up, Japandroids, Dilly Dally), garnered the attention of Pleasence Records label head James Lindsay and released their debut cassette Rites And Ritual in April 2016. After gaining buzz in the European and North American dark music scenes, TRAITRS released their critically acclaimed LP Butcher’s Coin (Pleasence Records, Manic Depression Records, Alchera Visions) in May 2018. Backed by the strength of lead single ‘Thin Flesh’, the duo embarked on a series of lengthy tours overseas, performed in over a dozen countries including showcases at Wave Gothik Treffen, Castle Party, Extramuralhas, Nocturnal Culture Night, Wavefest, Canadian Music Week and Pop! Montreal. Their relentless touring schedule and work ethic caught the attention of Schubert Music Publishing’s Thomas Thyssen and Eric Burton, and in October 2020 they announced TRAITRS as the first signing to their brand-new record label Freakwave Records. This year, TRAITRS will release ‘The Sick, Tired And Ill’ EP on July 30 and the full-length LP ‘Horses In The Abattoir’ on November 19.

The HU + Blind Channel & Nerv at The Van Buren
2023-10-26 20:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
In 2019, an NPR story put a spotlight on “a band from Mongolia that blends the screaming guitars of heavy metal and traditional Mongolian guttural singing,” accurately highlighting the cultural importance & unique musical identity of The HU. Founded in 2016 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, The HU blend traditional Mongolian instrumentation & throat singing with Western rock in what they call “Hunnu Rock.” Their debut album, 2019 ‘s The Gereg, debuted at #1 on the World Album and Top New Artist Charts while receiving critical acclaim from the likes of Billboard, GQ, The Guardian, The Independent, Revolver, & Sir Elton John. It saw the band receive Mongolia’s highest state award, The Order of Genghis Khan, by the President of Mongolia. A deluxe version included collaborations with Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) and Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) & caught the attention of Metallica who enlisted them to cover “Through The Never” for their 2021 Metallica Blacklist album. THE HU were also featured performing an original song for EA Games’ Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Their second album, Rumble Of Thunder, was released in 2022 following sold-out tours across the world in North America, Europe, Asia, & Australia including festival appearances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Download Festival and more. In November 2022, The HU became the first-ever rock/metal band to receive the prestigious UNESCO “Artist of Peace” Designation. A deluxe version of RUMBLE OF THUNDER is due in 2023 via Better Noise Music.

Darkness which envelopes Finland is what fuels Blind Channel. The veritable coal to their roaring furnace of ambition, embracing it is the DNA that runs throughout their music. Balancing their tenacity with sincerity, “It’s this feeling of never being enough is what drives us forward right now,” vocalist Niko Vilhelm says.
When forming back in 2013 in the city of Oulu, way up in the North of Finland, vocalists Niko and Joel Hokka, drummer Tommi Lalli, guitarist Joonas Porko and bass player Olli Matela, plus the later addition of DJ/Percussionist Aleksi Kaunisvesi – knew that it was all about going big or going home. When they were told to sing in their native tongue, they refused. It was simply never an option. The doors that closed only made them want to grab an axe to break through, The Shining style, to properly make themselves known. This is exactly what they did when they found their way onto the largest stage in Europe: Eurovision, after competing in the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), Finland’s annual contest to discover their entry. Winning the spot, by the largest landslide the competition has seen, Blind Channel captured and enamoured the continent with the fiery nu-metal charge of ‘Dark Side’.
Be warned however, Eurovision isn’t the crux of Blind Channel’s story. This stepping stone that saw them take to that hallowed stage, was just that, a gambit towards the bigger picture.
MANAGEMENT Backbone Management antti (at) backbonemanagement (dot) fi

We are Nerv, a 4-piece genre-bending rock band residing in California. The band’s members are originally from all over the US with vocalist Dillon Jones (Sacramento, CA), guitarists Jordan Grokett and Scott Buchanan (Dallas, TX) and drummer Tyler Clark (Atlanta, GA). Nerv burst onto the scene in November 2017 with their heavy hitting debut single ‘Enough’. Then in Spring 2018 the band released their highly successful debut EP ‘Bad Habits’, working with producer Erik Ron (I Prevail, Godsmack, Hollywood Undead). In October of 2022, Nerv released their long-awaited debut full length album, ‘We’re All Patients Here’.

STATIC-X + SEVENDUST at Marquee Theatre
2023-10-30 17:30 - 23:30 | Marquee Theatre, 730 N Mill Ave, Tempe, 85281, United States
American metal crew Static-X emerged at the tail end of the ’90s, pushing an aggressive thrash metal blend with industrial overtones and a techno pulse. Their breakthrough debut, 1998’s cult classic Wisconsin Death Trip, rocketed them to stardom in the heavy music world, their image boosted by frontman Wayne Static‘s distinctive hair and vocal delivery. While maintaining momentum into the 2000s with additional efforts like Machine and Shadow Zone, Static‘s passing in 2014 effectively halted the group in their tracks. However, at the close of the decade, the original lineup made a comeback with the help of previously recorded Static vocals, issuing Project Regeneration in 2020.
Static-X’s roots trace to the Midwest, where vocalist/guitarist Wayne Static grew up in Michigan and drummer Ken Jay in Illinois. They ended up in Chicago separately and met at the record store where Jay worked, introduced to one another by future Smashing Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan (who was in the band Deep Blue Dream with Static). Static and Jay decided to head west to California and start up a new band. Shortly after their arrival, Osaka native Koichi Fukada responded to the duo’s ad and became their new guitarist, as well as programmer. Bassist Tony Campos, the only true Californian, was the final piece of the puzzle. Signed to Warner Brothers in February 1998, Static-X debuted with Wisconsin Death Trip a year later. The album was a hit and eventually certified platinum, bolstered by the strength of the singles “Push It” and “Bled for Days.” Despite the success, founding guitarist Fukada briefly left the group in 2000, replaced by Tripp Eisen (ex-Dope) for 2001’s gold-certified Machine, their highest-charting effort to date. Further lineup changes followed, as drummer Jay left after the 2003 album Shadow Zone. Soon after, misdemeanor charges forced Eisen to leave the band in 2004 (he was later convicted and spent a year in prison). Still, Static-X was undeterred. Static tapped Fukada to rejoin on guitar and programming in 2005, while touring drummer Nick Oshiro took over full-time.
In June 2005, a rejuvenated Static-X returned to recording with Start a War, home to the single “I’m the One.” Fifth album Cannibal arrived in 2007, charting inside Billboard’s Top 40. The band toured and released a CD/DVD document, Cannibal Killers Live, then settled into the recording of their sixth studio album, Cult of Static. Released in March 2009, it debuted inside the Top 20, their second highest showing to date. The group went on hiatus not long after finishing a lengthy tour, with Wayne Static announcing a renewed focus on his Pighammer side project, with contributions from his wife, Tera Wray. In 2011, Pighammer appeared as a solo album under his own name. A year later, he re-formed Static-X — minus any of the original members. The lineup, which consisted of his solo backing band, mounted a tour but broke up by 2013, and a year later, Wayne Static was dead of a drug overdose at the age of 48. Just over a year after that, his widow Tera Wray took her own life.
This tragedy seemed to spell the end of Static-X, but a few years later, the remaining bandmembers patched up their differences and decided to see if they could salvage anything from past recordings. Starting from a slew of unreleased demos, the group went into the studio, once again with Ulrich Wild, where they stripped Wayne‘s vocals from the demos and composed entirely new tunes around them. The resultant album, Project Regeneration, was released in two volumes, with Vol. 1 arriving in the summer of 2020. To support the release, the band embarked on tour with a new, masked frontman named Xer0, rumored to be Edsel Dope of Dope. Lead single “Hollow” crashed the U.S. Dance/Electronic chart, peaking in the Top 15. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Josh Loehr, Rovi

Sevendust never follow a linear path. Instead, they continue to bulldoze a lane of their own with a proven one-two punch of rumbling grooves, unpredictable riffing, and stirringly soulful vocals unlike anything else in hard rock. As a result, their music connects straight to the heart as evidenced by their full-contact live shows and diehard “family” of fans. It’s why they’ve been around since 1994, tallied global sales of seven million, logged three gold-selling albums, delivered three Top 15 debuts on the Billboard 200, and garnered a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best Metal Performance.” They’re the rare force of nature who not only graced the bills of Woodstock and OZZfest, but also Shiprocked! and Sonic Temple and some of the largest stages around the globe. Along the way, they’ve notably collaborated with everyone from members of Deftones, Daughtry, and Staind to Alter Bridge, Periphery, and Xzibit. 2020 saw them deliver one of the most-acclaimed albums of their career with Blood & Stone, which Metal Hammer christened “Sevendust’s best work in years” and Outburn dubbed “everything a Sevendust fan could want.”
However, the Atlanta quintet—Lajon Witherspoon [lead vocals], Clint Lowery [lead guitar, backing vocals], John Connolly [rhythm guitar, backing vocals], Vince Hornsby [bass], and Morgan Rose [drums]—defy expectations yet again on their fourteenth full-length and debut for Napalm Records, Truth Killer.

An uncompromising New York City-based outfit that draws from both heavy metal and industrial music, Dope’s confrontational emissions evoke Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and White Zombie. Emerging in 1999 with the hard-hitting Felons and Revolutionaries, the group continued to beat the post-industrial drum on 2005’s American Apathy and 2018’s Blood Money, Part 1, while managing to weave in elements of speed, alternative, rap, and nu-metal.
The quintet was formed in the Chicago area by brothers Edsel Dope (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Simon Dope (keyboards). Simon studied chemistry at the University of Florida, then received a scholarship to Polytechnic in Brooklyn. There he was joined by his brother, with the two claiming to have financed their demos by selling drugs. The initial incarnation of the band included lead guitarist Tripp Eisen, bass player Acey Slade, and drummer Preston Nash. They began a selective series of gigs in late 1997. In October 1998, they were signed to Flip Records, which made a production deal with Epic.
Dope’s debut album and best-selling release to date, Felons and Revolutionaries, was released in September 1999. The Dope brothers gutted their lineup after the ensuing tour, switching Slade to guitar and bringing in original bassist Sloane Jentry, guitarist Virus, and drummer Sketchy Shay. In the fall of 2001, they released their second album, Life. Two years later, the band inked a deal with Artemis and issued the nu-metal-leaning Group Therapy. The punitive American Apathy arrived in summer 2005, featuring covers of Depeche Mode‘s “People Are People” and N.W.A‘s “Fuck tha Police.” It topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart upon release. No Regrets was issued four years later, and featured a guest appearance by Zakk Wylde. After an extended hiatus, Dope’s classic lineup returned with a new album and coinciding tour. The band — Edsel Dope, Acey Slade, Virus, and Racci Shay — released Blood Money, Pt. 1 in late 2016, with a sequel, the aptly-named Blood Money, Pt. 2, arriving in 2019.

No matter where you go, loyalty means the same thing. It represents a promise to uphold a code of honor. You remain true to yourself, your friends, and your family. Lines Of Loyalty maintain this level of commitment to both their craft and their mission. The Kenosha, WI trio—Nubz Morrison [vocals, guitar], Redo Ianni [bass, vocals, keys],—deliver melodically magnetic rock anthems with unapologetic dedication and diligence. After years of success under the name Mixed Company, they assert themselves as a hypnotic heavy rock force on a series of singles in 2021.
In fact, they’re so committed the word “Loyalty” adorns Nubz’ face…
To bring this vision to life, they hit the studio with producer Chris Dawson [Saul] to record in 2021. Now, they officially introduce Lines Of Loyalty via the single “I’m Not The One.” Anchored by a thick beat and punchy bass line, the track twists and turns through unpredictable riffs towards an instantly chantable chorus.
Due to this honesty, the guys will ultimately inspire just as much loyalty from listeners as they unleash more music.

Wednesday 13 + Gemini Syndrome & More at The Nile
2023-10-31 18:00 - 23:30 | The Nile Theater, 105 West Main Street, Mesa, 85201, United States
The Duke of Spook has returned once more from beyond the grave to reveal the “NECROPHAZE!” This latest full length offering from the ghouls of WEDNESDAY 13 will be available on September 27 2019 via Nuclear Blast Records. Heavily influenced by the real night terror occurrences of Wednesday himself, historical serial killers & a slew of 80’s horror films, the ideas behind NECROPHAZE are bizarrely familiar, frightening, & a hell of a lot of fun. While still consistently horrifying, this new album certainly carries with it a more humorous sentiment than its gloomy predecessor (and 1st album with Nuclear Blast Records), “Condolences” (2017). Songs like “Bring Your Own Blood (BYOB),” clearly a play off the phrase “bring your own booze,” manage to intertwine opposing ideas of the blood sucking undead w/ a teenage house party. “In every 80’s horror movie there’s always a party,” Wednesday chuckles, “so we wanted to get that vibe. The title made me laugh so we wrote a song that’s sort of a more violent ‘Monster Mash.’” The 1st single “Decompose,” which was initially written by drummer Kyle Castronovo, and was also the first song/demo brought to the table, is like a catchy anthem for the idea of “I know you’re dead, but I really wish you could be deader.”
Recording & mastering by Michael Spreitzer; producer, engineer, as well as the long time guitarist of DevilDriver. Dropping just in time to enjoy on Halloween, creepsters of the night, prepare yourselves, to ENTER THE NECROPHAZE.

GEMINI SYNDROME welcomes you to the third and final degree of your initiation into the Synner Society. 3rd Degree – The Raising, is GEMINI SYNDROME’s third full length album. Following the band’s 2013 debut Lux, and 2016 sophomore LP Memento Mori, this new album offers the closing chapter in a trilogy of song and narrative. This order of three steps, and three albums, is not by chance, but is a nod to many of the initiatory traditions that exist and act as a vessel for transmitting and preserving the Sacred Knowledge throughout the ages. The intention is to provoke the listener to think about the mystery of life, the nature of reality, the roles we play, and the masks we wear in this world. Wherein Lux, meaning “Light,” was concerned with birth; and Memento Mori, meaning “Remember That We Must Die,” dealt with the finite nature of life; the focus and message of 3rd Degree – The Raising, is of traversing Death, being Reborn and reintegrating with our True Self, and thus being raised into the next degree of experience.   “Every quest within deserves a good soundtrack…” — GS°

Moldovan progressive modern metal unit INFECTED RAIN have been turning heads in the metal world this fall with the next chapter of their metamorphosis – their otherworldly fifth album, Ecdysis, out January 7, 2022 via Napalm Records.
INFECTED RAIN have become one of the most exciting new acts in the heavy music world, with charismatic, multi-talented frontwoman Lena Scissorhands emerging as one of the fastest-rising leading ladies of the genre. Now, the band arises from the dark depths once again – freshly off their very first tour of the USA with Butcher Babies and Stitched Up Heart. Produced once again by Valentin Voluta, Ecdysis successfully demonstrates ultramodern brutality without sacrificing emotion and melody – showcasing a new layer of INFECTED RAIN that longtime followers and new fans alike will embrace. Frontwoman Lena Scissorhands adds about Ecdysis: “While the whole world was in a deep depression, Ecdysis was slowly but surely maturing. The time in isolation away from all our plans and goals, away from loved ones and the stage, brought out something so new and different in us. A new chapter starts with this album, a chapter of raw emotions and complete commitment.”

Hailing from NYC, Black Satellite, comprised of Larissa Vale and Kyle Hawken, is creating waves in the rock scene with a sound that’s dark, edgy, and distinctly their own. Fusing industrial and metal influences, their music transcends conventional boundaries solidifying their place in the genre. The band continues to break new ground through ceaseless hard work and non-stop touring, showcasing their dedication both on and off stage.
Shortly after launching their first single VALKYRIE from their debut album ENDLESS, Black Satellite garnished attention from press outlets such as Billboard, Huffington Post, Revolver, Loudwire, Knotfest, and Alternative Press.
The band recently concluded writing and recording their sophomore record, AFTERMATH, mixed by veteran producer Ben Grosse (Marilyn Manson, Breaking Benjamin) with tracks produced by Kane Churko (Papa Roach, In This Moment). Their single VOID is the first taste of the brand new album.
In 2021, they released a cover of Rammstein’s “Sonne” to critical acclaim with Revolver Magazine describing the track as “a masterclass in metal covers.” Followed by the release of their latest single BROKEN.
Black Satellite has since completed tours supporting John 5, Fozzy, Nita Strauss, Cold, Sumo Cyco, and Drowning Pool. The band also toured with with Cradle of Filth and Devil Driver in March, 2023. Continuing with the second leg of the tour in October 2023, directly followed by a massive Fall tour with Wednesday 13.

Phillip Phillips & Jonah Kagen at El Rey Theatre
2023-11-02 21:00 - 23:30 | El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, 90036, United States
Former American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips is best known for his melodic radio hit, “Home” which launched him to fame in 2011 and marked the most successful coronation hit of any American Idol winner to date. Shortly after “Home” climbed the charts, Phillips released his first full length album The World From The Side Of The Moon, followed by Behind The Light and brought together by his 3rd release, Collateral. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Phillip, like many others, had to take a hard look at his life and career. After welcoming his son Patch in 2019, he found a new inspiration for writing music. 4 years after his last release, Phillips has brought us “Love Like That,” a song dedicated to the unconditional love he has for his wife and child. As he reintroduces himself to the world with his latest single, Phillips hopes to reconnect with his fanbase and get back on tour.

23-year-old singer and songwriter, Jonah Kagen, grew up in Savannah, Georgia. He took up guitar at the age of six, diving deep into the instrument’s technical aspects after his musician grandfather showed him performance videos. He further found inspiration in the music of guitarist Andy McKee, whose finger-style technique lit a creative fire within. “He opened my eyes to what an acoustic guitar could be,” he recalls, as he dove deeper into creating music on his own. “If you can bring somebody something with your music that they can’t get anywhere else, there’s nothing better than that.”
Jonah’s debut EP, ‘georgia got colder,’ was released in December 2022 on Arista Records. He’s already cut impressive figures with over 140M+ global streams, a US tour supporting Maisie Peters, ~2 million Spotify monthly listeners, and was included on Shazam’s 2023 predictions list. An exciting new voice bringing undeniable energy and sincerity through his multifaceted sound, he is undoubtedly on the rise.

Switchfoot at The Wiltern
2023-11-12 19:30 - 23:30 | The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, 90010, United States
Switchfoot has been unearthing all manner of musical gems since their 1997 debut The Legend of Chin, steadily expanding their global fan base and critical reputation through such releases as New Way to Be Human (1999), Learning to Breathe (2000), the multi-platinum breakthrough The Beautiful Letdown (2003), Nothing Is Sound (2005), Oh! Gravity (2006), the Grammy award-winning Hello Hurricane (2009), Vice Verses (2011), Fading West (2014) and Where The Light Shines Through (2016). Fading West doubled as the soundtrack to the band’s documentary of the same name. Along the way, SWITCHFOOT established itself as a world-class live act with a series of sold-out world tours, while racking up a string of radio hits, including “Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move,” “Stars” and “Mess of Me.” Beyond their career achievements, SWITCHFOOT has been active in a variety of philanthropic efforts, raising over two million dollars to aid kids in their community through the band’s own Bro-Am foundation and their annual Bro-Am Beach Fest, a benefit surf contest and concert that’s held every summer in Encinitas, CA. They’ve also maintained a deep commitment to a variety of humanitarian causes, lending their support to such worthy organizations as DATA, the ONE Campaign, Habitat for Humanity, Invisible Children, Food for the Hungry, CURE and To Write Love on Her Arms. SWITCHFOOT’s new album Native Tongue was released January 18, 2019 on Fantasy Records.

Highly Suspect + Good Boy Daisy at The Van Buren - SOLD OUT
2023-12-02 19:00 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
A muscular, hard-hitting, and wide-ranging group in the vein of Pop Evil, Queens of the Stone Age, and Royal Blood, Brooklyn’s Highly Suspect rode a series of indie EPs and years of touring to a pair of Grammy nominations for their 2015 debut. A year later, their follow-up delivered another hit in the Grammy-nominated single “My Name Is Human,” setting high expectations for their third outing, 2019’s hip-hop-leaning MCID. The band continued to blur genres on 2022’s The Midnight Demon Club.
he band formed in Cape Cod in 2009 around the talents of Johnny Stevens (guitar, vocals, synths) and twin siblings Ryan (drums, vocals) and Rich Meyer (bass, vocals). After working regionally as a cover band, they relocated to Brooklyn and began recording original material, resulting in a pair of EPs, First Offense (2009) and The Gang Lion (2010). They continued to establish themselves with one more EP, The Worst Humans, in 2012, before heading into the studio with producer Joel Hamilton (Black Keys, Elvis Costello) to record their debut long-player. The resulting Mister Asylum, which featured the fiery single “Lydia,” was released on 300 Entertainment in 2015. Their debut received critical praise and two unexpected Grammy nominations, leading to an extensive supporting tour.
Off the road by early 2016, they immediately returned to the studio to record a second full-length, The Boy Who Died Wolf, which saw release in November of that year. The album’s lead single, “My Name Is Human,” topped Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and earned Highly Suspect another Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. As early as November 2018, they began teasing information about their next album which they later revealed would be called MCID. A pair of singles, “Upperdrugs” and “16,” were released in August of that year, with the eclectic, hip-hop-infused MCID, which featured guest spots from Young Thug, Gojira, Tee Grizzley, and Nothing But Thieves‘ Conor Mason, arriving in November 2019. Three years later, Highly Suspect released The Midnight Demon Club, a kinetic and life-affirming set that paired hip-hop beats and cinematic soundscapes with blazing metal.

For some people, working with a sibling would be nearly impossible. But for identical twin sisters Hallie and Dylinn Mayes, starting a band together was the only thing that made sense. “We’ve never known anything different,” says Hallie. “We’ve spent our whole life together, each and every moment.” “We’re the typical twins,” adds Dylinn. “We’re best friends and we’re never apart.” So when the two discovered music was their calling, they formed GOOD BOY DAISY, becoming an alt-pop duo with plenty of rock influence. “It’s amazing to see how our chemistry is,” says Hallie, referring to both their onstage personas as well as their day-to-day experiences recording. “It’s unfairly easy.”
Raised on a steady diet of ‘90s grunge, the sisters inherited a lot of their early music taste from their father, as well as many rounds of the video game Rock Band—featuring Dylinn on guitar with Hallie playing drums. But as they began to thumb through vinyl at their local record stores, their favorite artists grew beyond Alice In Chains and Soundgarden to include more modern indie favorites such as alt-J and Matchbox Twenty. And somehow as they grew older, theirmusic interests became even more intertwined. “We’ll never complain about who has the aux cord,” says Hallie with a laugh.
While they continued to jam out as videogame rockstars, it wasn’t until they saw a group of friends perform at a local show that they realized real-life stardom was within their grasp. “It was the first time we saw someone our age playing in a band,” says Dylinn. “We’re like—wait a minute, you can play in a band? You can get up with your friends and play music you like? That’s a thing?” “Not only that,” adds Hallie, “I had no idea that people wrote their own music. When I saw kids our own age doing it, it was a game changer.”
Both of them recall coming home from that show and immediately scrambling to get their own real-life instruments. In addition to drumming, Hallie began to take on singing duties while Dylinn stayed with guitar. Before they continued with their own writing, their first sets were still full of grunge and rock covers, featuring cuts from AFI, Hole and Rage Against The Machine. “That’s all we knew, so that’s what came out of us,” says Hallie. “The more we developed our own musical taste throughout high school, we totally changed our sound,” says Dylinn.
They began to tour every weekend while also searching for a steady writing and producing partner. “No one pushed us like we wanted to be pushed,” says Dylinn. “It was always some kind of conflict or fighting in terms of musical taste, or where we wanted the song to go,” adds Hallie.

The duo are going for it every way they can; along with future song releases on the horizon, they’re more than ready to tour and play for crowds again. “We really shine when we play live,” says Hallie. “We’re excited to show everyone how fun our concerts can be.”
Beyond that, the two just want Good Boy Daisy to be known to the world. “As a band, we hope to become the coolest household name,” says Dylinn. “We’re real people,” says Hallie, “and I can’t wait for everyone to know who we are.”

Queens of the Stone Age + Spiritualized at Arizona Financial Theatre
2023-12-05 19:00 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
Queens of the Stone Age emerged from the stoner rock underground of the 1990s to become one of the leading heavy rock bands of the 21st century, a transition sparked by the release of their major-label debut, Rated R, in 2000. A murky immersion in chemical excess, the album showcased QOTSA’s skill in wedding thick, grimy guitars with shape-shifting psychedelia, a blend suited for the desert leader Josh Homme called home. Over the years, Homme remained the constant in QOTSA’s mercurial lineup, anchoring the group as members and guests cycled through the studio and stage. Dave Grohl‘s presence on the drumkit on 2022’s Songs for the Deaf helped break the band to a wider audience in America, placing them at the vanguard of hard rock music. QOTSA’s membership stabilized around the release of …Like Clockwork, the 2013 record that returned them to indie status while giving them their first number one album on the Billboard charts. Homme maintained the same quintet through the Mark Ronson-produced Villains and In Times New Roman…, a 2023 album that found them discovering new shades and textures within their palette.
Queens of the Stone Age has its roots in Kyuss, the stoner rock band Josh Homme led during the early ’90s. After Kyuss split in 1995, Homme served as a supporting guitarist on a Screaming Trees tour, then decided to launch a new band called Gamma Ray. An eponymous EP appeared in 1996 before a German metal band named Gamma Ray threatened legal action over the appellation. Taking a cue from a nickname bestowed on the group by producer Chris Goss, Homme decided to rename his fledgling unit Queens of the Stone Age, unveiling this moniker on the Roadrunner various-artists compilation Burn One Up! Music for Stoners in 1997. Later that year, the split EP Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age — comprised of old tunes from the latter and new material from the former — confirmed the transition between Homme‘s two groups.
Homme co-produced Queens of the Stone Age’s eponymous 1998 debut with Joe Barresi, which was released on Loosegroove, the indie imprint from Pearl Jam‘s Stone Gossard and Regan Hagar. With Alfredo Hernandez on drums, Homme played all the guitars and most of the bass and keyboards on the record, but he soon expanded QOTSA into a touring outfit featuring former Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri along with guitarist Dave Catching; the latter played on the first volume of Homme‘s shape-shifting collaborative project the Desert Sessions, which appeared in 1997. This group was by no means secure. By the time QOTSA entered the studio to record their major-label debut Rated R, Hernandez was no longer with the band; Nick Lucero and Gene Trautmann split drumming duties on the record.
Co-produced by Homme and Goss and released on Interscope, Rated R built QOTSA’s audience exponentially. “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret” gave the band a Top 40 hit in the U.K. Live spots at Ozzfest and with Foo Fighters and Hole helped broaden their following, while events like Oliveri getting arrested after performing nude at the 2001 Rock in Rio Festival helped generate headlines. All this buzz culminated in Foo Fighters leader — and former Nirvana drummer — Dave Grohl becoming a temporary member of QOTSA for 2002’s Songs for the Deaf and its 2022 supporting tour, which featured Homme, Oliveri, Grohl, ex-Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, and A Perfect Circle guitarist/keyboardist Troy Van Leeuwen. With its singles “No One Knows” and “Go with the Flow,” Songs for the Deaf elevated Queens of the Stone Age into the upper ranks of modern rock acts, acting as a heavy, trippy counterpart to the prevailing neo-garage rock of the early 2000s.
Grohl decamped at the conclusion of the Songs for the Deaf tour, returning to his regular gig in Foo Fighters; he was replaced by Joey Castillo, who previously drummed with Danzig. In the wake of QOTSA’s success, Homme embraced a variety of outside gigs, including playing on a pair of Mark Lanegan albums and collaborating with Jesse Hughes on Peace, Love, Death Metal, the first album by their band Eagles of Death Metal. When it came time to reconvene QOTSA for a sequel to Songs for the Deaf, the band no longer featured Nick Oliveri; Homme fired him due to issues in the bassist’s personal life. With Alain Johannes taking over for Oliveri, the group finished recording Lullabies to Paralyze, making space for guest appearances by ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons and Shirley Manson. Preceded by the single “Little Sister,” Lullabies to Paralyze appeared in March 2005, followed by a supporting tour that occasionally featured Lanegan in his last live outings with the band.
Chris Goss returned to co-produce 2007’s Era Vulgaris alongside Homme. Featuring fewer guests than usual — Julian Casablancas of the Strokes appeared on the single “Sick, Sick Sick,” Lanegan provided vocals on one track — Era Vulgaris appeared in June 2007, wrapping up the band’s contract with Interscope. After a supporting tour featuring bassist Michael Shuman and keyboardist Dean Fertita — the pair would become steady members of QOTSA from this point forward — the band went into a period of inactivity as Homme pursued other projects over the next few years. Chief among these was Them Crooked Vultures, a power trio also featuring Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, who released an eponymous album in 2009. The next year saw a deluxe reissue of Rated R and in 2011, the band reissued their hard-to-find debut and did a small supporting tour behind this deluxe edition.
Queens of the Stone Age began recording a new album in 2012, transitioning from drummer Joey Castillo to his replacement Jon Theodore during the sessions. The record found QOTSA bringing Grohl back into the fold while also finding spots for Mark Lanegan, Trent Reznor, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, and Elton John, as well as Nick Oliveri for his first spot on a QOTSA album in a decade. With the finished album in hand, Queens of the Stone Age signed with Matador in 2013 and the ensuing …Like Clockwork album was released in June of that year. Supported by the singles “My God Is the Sun” and “I Sat by the Ocean,” …Like Clockwork topped the Billboard 200, as well as the Alternative, Digital, Hard Rock, Independent, and Top Rock charts. Following the success of …Like Clockwork, Homme and various Queens’ members participated in the Sound City documentary project and Iggy Pop‘s 2016 Post Pop Depression album and tour. For Villains, the band’s seventh album, QOTSA worked with Mark Ronson and invited Nikka Costa and Matt Sweeney into the studio as guests. Featuring the singles “The Way You Used to Do” and “The Evil Has Landed,” Villains debuted at three on the Billboard charts upon its August 2017 release.
After the Villains tour, Queens of the Stone Age took an extended hiatus, reemerging in June 2023 with In Times New Roman…, their third album for Matador. It was the first QOTSA album to be produced by the band and to not feature any guests. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

When highly influential English psychedelic rockers Spacemen 3 splintered, singer/guitarist Jason Pierce (also known as J. Spaceman) formed his group Spiritualized, extracting his more melodic and plaintive songwriting from droning minimalism of his former band. Spiritualized evolved from the narcotic, Velvet Underground-inspired sounds of their earliest material to incorporate both gospel and blues influences and wistful orchestral pop touches that took cues from Brian Wilson and Phil Spector‘s teenage symphonies to God. The band reached a new level with the lush atmospheres and sad-hearted beauty of their 1997 classic Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space and found international chart success with 2001 album Let It Come Down. With a creative process that involves exacting composition, recording, and mixing, Spiritualized albums trickled out slowly throughout the 2010s and 2020s, with extended gaps between albums like 2012’s Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, 2018’s And Nothing Hurt, and 2022’s Everything Was Beautiful.
Although Spiritualized fully emerged after the acrimonious breakup of Spacemen 3, the band’s roots extended back to that group’s final LP, 1990’s Recurring. A Spacemen 3 album in name only, Recurring was split evenly between independently recorded work from Pierce and estranged partner Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember; as a result, while Kember’s side presaged his eventual work with Spectrum, Pierce’s half, recorded with most of the musicians who would later be featured in Spiritualized (including guitarist Mark Refoy, bassist Willie B. Carruthers, and drummer Jon Mattock), pre-dated the orchestral drones that became the band’s hallmark. The first true Spiritualized single, a dramatic reading of the Troggs‘ “Anyway That You Want Me,” was the final nail in the coffin — reportedly, Kember was so incensed by the Spacemen 3 logo appearing on the disc’s jacket that he disbanded the group for good.
In 1991, Spiritualized returned with a string of EPs — Feel So Sad, Run/I Want You, and Smile/Sway — before their long-awaited debut, Lazer Guided Melodies, finally appeared the following year. The masterful, blissed-out result of Pierce’s obsessive studio fine-tuning and endless remixing, the album was promoted by Spiritualized’s slot on the high-profile Rollercoaster tour, where they appeared with the Jesus and Mary Chain and Curve. A limited-edition live document, Fucked Up Inside, followed in 1993, trailed by another EP, Electric Mainline, later in the year.
In 1995, Spiritualized — now a trio consisting of Pierce, keyboardist/guitarist Kate Radley, and bassist Sean Cook — issued Pure Phase, a heady, dense production that boasted separate mixes from each stereo channel. With 1997’s platinum-certified Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Pierce deliberately jettisoned many of the band’s usual points of departure, including drones, tremolos, and phase tones; recorded with new drummer Damon Reece, it featured a cameo appearance from legendary New Orleans pianist Dr. John on one track, while Memphis studio legend Jim Dickinson appeared on another. Other guests included the Balanescu Quartet (also featured on Pure Phase), the London Community Gospel Choir, and Spring Heel Jack. The two-disc Royal Albert Hall October 10, 1997 live album followed in late 1998.
The following year, Pierce gutted Spiritualized’s lineup, firing Cook, Reece, and Mike Mooney, who formed Lupine Howl after their dismissal; Radley left after she married Verve frontman and solo artist Richard Ashcroft. Only saxophonist Ray Dickaty and occasional keyboardist Thighpaulsandra (aka Tim Lewis) remained in the band. Pierce began writing and recording material for the next Spiritualized album at George Martin‘s Air Studios and recruited percussionist Tom Edwards, bassist Martin Shallards, Echoboy drummer Kev Bales, and guitarist Dogan (from Julian Cope‘s band), for the sessions. That critically acclaimed fourth album, Let It Come Down — which featured an even lusher, more involved sound than Ladies and Gentlemen — arrived in mid-2001. The effort was their highest-charting release to date, peaking at number three in the U.K. and marking the band’s first appearances on the French and U.S. charts.
The follow-up, 2003’s Amazing Grace (Dedicated/Arista), was more of a back-to-basics record. Although it entered the U.K. charts at number 25, it failed to make a dent in international markets. Their sixth album, Songs in A and E (Universal/Sanctuary), arrived in spring 2008 and saw Spiritualized bounce back toward the top of the charts. In 2010, the band embarked on a tour performing Ladies and Gentlemen in its entirety, writing new songs influenced by that album — as well as by the Beach Boys and Peter Brötzmann — while they were on the road. Pierce and company laid down the songs at studios in Los Angeles, Wales, and Reykjavik over the course of two years; the result, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light (Double Six/Fat Possum), was released in April 2012.
After a six-year hiatus, the longest yet for his band, Pierce wanted to make what he thought would be the last Spiritualized album. Not having the budget to record in a large studio, he opted instead to construct the effort on a laptop computer, “playing” everything himself (the lush strings are sampled) save for horns, upright bass, and timpani; it was a process he initially found exasperating. The end result, And Nothing Hurt, was released in September of 2018, followed by a full-band tour as well as the admission that the offering would not be the final one from the group. The album charted respectably throughout Europe and reached the Top 20 of the Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums chart in the U.S. Everything Was Beautiful followed four years later and was as meditative and expansive as ever, with the lead single, “Always Together with You,” nodding yet again to both Spector and the Velvet Underground. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Heilung at Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall
2023-12-11 20:00 - 23:30 | Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, 665 W Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, United States
Since its inception in 2015, the enigmatic ritual collective HEILUNG has been paving melodic paths to the past with their unique and mystifying sound. Evading all conventional genre tags and the confines of any specific labels, the group aptly self-describes their sound as “amplified history,” emphasizing their ability to connect modern society with the rudiments of humanity’s beginnings through music. HEILUNG once again journeys back in time with its new chapter, ‘Drif;’ however, unlike previous offerings that centered around prehistoric northern Europe, album number three will explore other great rudimentary civilizations outside of Europe.
“All the songs on ‘Drif’ have their own stories,” adds HEILUNG throat singer and one of the band’s three composers, Kai Uwe Faust. Each has its place and sense of belonging, with inspiration not only from Northern Europe, but from the ancient great civilizations,” explains the band. “We took the ancient surrounding advanced civilizations in account, because our ancestral Nordic civilizations did not just pop up, exist and disappear in isolation. Already in the Bronze Age, we found silk on German land that was imported already from the far, far East 3000 years ago. From the Viking age, we found beads that were brought there from present-day Syria high up in the Northern mountains.
“Centrally important concepts, still in extensive use today, like the number Zero and all the mathematical universes deriving from it, the use of iron and the general concept of settling all originate from traditional high civilizations outside the north and still fundamentally changing our ancestor’s world.
“With singing these primordial songs we want to give tribute to these cultures, reconnect to the beginnings and remember that we all, from East to West, from past to present, are connected through the exchange of ideas and inspiring each other.”
Meaning “gathering,” ‘Drif’ serves as more than merely a gateway that bridges history with modern day society, but is also a statement of the strength in unity and togetherness, which will come as no surprise to those who have experienced HEILUNG’s live ritual, in which every ceremony starts with a reminder that “we are all brothers.” “‘Drif’ means ‘gathering,’’ explains HEILUNG. “A throng of people, a horde, a crowd, a pack. In symbiosis with the album title, ‘Drif’ consists of a flock, a collection, a gathering, a collage of songs, that much like little flames were seeking towards each other, to join, to bond, to create, and be greater together.”
While HEILUNG features authentic and archaic instrumentation that ranges from rattles and ritual bells to human bones and throat singing, their captivating brand of music is far from primitive. Producer and founding member Christopher Juul implements subtle electronic elements that elevates the musical atmosphere and provides a more in-depth and layered soundscape.
“This album has very clearly dictated its own path. Our attempts to tame it were repeatedly fruitless, and once we came to this realization, the creative flow surged forward with immense force. So much so that sometimes it felt like the songs wrote themselves,” the band adds.
HEILUNG’s success has been unprecedented, achieving milestones in its few short years of existence that many do not see in a lifetime. The collective already had rapidly been growing a buzz upon the self-release of their first full-length, ‘Ofnir,’ in 2015, but their dizzying upward trajectory really took off from the moment they set foot on the stage at Castlefest in 2017 for the now-legendary debut of their live ritual. Luckily for those who were not fortunate enough to bare witness to this magical event, the full ceremony was captured on film, having since been viewed by tens of millions of fans across the globe.
As HEILUNG trekked across Europe and brought their mystifying experience to new audiences, talk of this new band and their stunning ceremony made way to Season of Mist label owner Michael Berberian, who quickly offered the band a record contract after seeing their undeniable musical impact for himself.
By 2019, HEILUNG launched their second full-length record, ‘Futha,’ which contrasted the masculine and battle-heavy themes of their debut with a feminine counterpart that celebrated fertility and female energy. Upon the first week of the record’s release, it graced the Billboard charts with coveted numbers, debuting at #3 on the Heatseekers Charts and #4 on the Billboard World Music Chart, placing on a total of seven Billboard charts while meeting critical-acclaim from the press on a global scale.
Having already made its way around Europe, HEILUNG announced its first ever North American tour for the start of 2020, which sold out entirely within 72 hours of ticket on-sale. The band later returned to the United States and performed their live ritual for a sold out audience of 10,000 people at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, CO (USA), further solidifying their early legacy status.
By this time, the band’s music started to appear in places outside the confines of music venues, videos, and vinyl. From hit television series like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Vikings’ to video game giants like ‘Conqueror’s Blade VII: “Wolves of Ragnarök’ and ‘Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’ to the blockbuster Robert Eggers film ‘The Northman,’ HEILUNG’s music has risen far above the underground and has transcended into a greater world. Even a global pandemic couldn’t slow down HEILUNG’s success; it only strengthened them and gave them the gift of time to complete work on album number three, ‘Drif.’
According to Greek philosopher Pythagoras, three is a divine number, signifying harmony, wisdom, and understanding. He also believed it to be the number of time – past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end. Purposefully or not, ‘Drif’ embodies this philosophy, putting forth a divine work of art that ties together the beginning of civilization with the modern world today. Make no mistake, HEILUNG still does not represent any modern political or religious ideology, but rather delivers a humbling reminder of where we came from. “Remember, we are all brothers. All people, beasts, tree and stone and wind, we all descend from the one great being that was always there, before people lived and named it, before the first seed sprouted.”

Heilung at Orpheum Theatre – Phoenix. Photos By: Adam Messler

MxPx at The Hollywood Palladium
2024-01-06 18:00 - 23:30 | The Hollywood Palladium, 6215 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 90028, United States
MxPx is a punk rock band from Bremerton, Washington that started in 1992, playing shows in backyards, local VFW halls, and bars they weren’t old enough to drink in. They went on to sell millions of records, tour the world, and become one of the forerunners to the pop punk movement.
Groups like New Found Glory and Good Charlotte credit MxPx for helping them get their start, and for many longtime fans, listening to the band was their first time hearing punk music. They survived the crash of the record industry by reinventing themselves and focusing on what matters most: the fans. After all these years, they’re still here, still touring the world, and making the best music they’ve ever made, hoping to see you at the next punk rawk show.

The story of ska-rockin’ maestros Less Than Jake isn’t told in their sizable discography. It can’t be calculated by the amount of road miles they’ve logged. (But if we’re forced to calculate, we think they might be a block or two short of the Van Allen belts.) Nah! Less Than Jake’s cumulative worth is all about what they bring to your party. From sweaty club shows to uproarious festival dates to opening up for America’s most beloved rock acts, these five lifers’ deeds are best measured in the smiles they’ve slapped on the faces of true believers and new listeners, alike. Silver Linings is the name of the new Less Than Jake album, their first fulllength for the Pure Noise label and the follow-up to 2013’s See The Light. It also doubles as a bunch of sonic diary pages and a mission statement that cements their conviction after two decades in this rock ‘n’ roll circus. Indeed, LTJ—frontman/guitarist Chris DeMakes, bassist/vocalist Roger Lima, trombonist Buddy Schaub, saxophonist Peter “JR” Wasilewski and new drummer Matt Yonker—have escaped most (but not all) forms of ennui, depression and violence against screen-based objects to create an endorsement of humanity. Silver Linings also does a good amount of myth-exploding in its pursuit of joy. The songwriting core of DeMakes, Lima and Wasilewski wrote all the lyrics. While Silver Linings doesn’t skimp on the joy, fun or grooves, careful listeners will sense a bit more reality seeping into LTJ’s escapism.

Canton, Ohio’s Relient K formed in 1998 and joined the parade of Christian punk-pop artists (MxPx, Ghoti Hook, Slick Shoes) with their self-titled 2000 debut, mixing catchy melodies and snotty attitude with spiritual concerns. The record was produced by dc Talk guitarist Mark Townsend, and the band was comprised of vocalist/guitarist/pianist Matt Thiessen, guitarist Matthew Hoopes, bassist Brian Pittman, and drummer Stephen Cushman. David Douglas joined up in place of Cushman by the year’s end, and Relient K followed up in August 2001 with The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek. The album sold 300,000 copies and Relient K’s momentum continued to build as they played nearly 200 shows in North America before the year closed out. A third full-length, Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right… But Three Do, debuted at number 38 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart upon its release in spring 2003. The band didn’t waste any time recording a fourth album; MMHMM, produced by lead singer Thiessen and dc Talk‘s Townsend and mixed by Tom Lord-Alge, was released in November 2004 by Gotee/Capitol. MMHMM scanned over 51,000 copies sold during its first week, hitting number 15 on the Top 200 and number one for Christian albums. It eventually went gold, Relient K’s third consecutive album to do so, and the band’s mainstream crossover was in full swing with singles “Be My Escape” and “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” doing very well on modern rock radio and MTV.
Pittman left the group after MMHMM‘s release (later going on to play with Inhale/Exhale), and John Warne (ex-Ace Troubleshooter) filled in on bass for touring purposes, becoming a permanent member in 2005. Relient K further added Jonathan Schneck as a third guitarist (who also played banjo and bells) that year, bumping them up to quintet status. With Relient K touring constantly in support of MMHMM, Apathetic EP followed in November 2005 as another treat to hold over fans as the guys readied their next album. Five Score & Seven Years Ago (as in their fifth album in seven years), largely produced by Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Less Than Jake), was released in early March 2007. True to form, Relient K set out on a full round of nationwide dates, including spring shows with Mae and Sherwood, before releasing the Christmas-themed album Let It Snow Baby… Let It Reindeer (containing several tracks from the band’s previous holiday release, Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand) later that fall. In October, Douglas announced that he would be leaving Relient K to dedicate himself full-time to his side project Gypsy Parade. He was replaced in early 2008 by Ethan Luck, who would accompany the group during its appearances on that year’s Warped Tour. In July, the group released the B-side album The Bird and the Bee Sides, which was packaged with The Nashville Tennis EP. The band released its sixth studio album, Forget and Not Slow Down, in 2009.
Two seven-song covers EPs, titled K Is for Karaoke, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, appeared in 2011. Later combined into one single LP release, K Is for Karaoke included their takes on hits from the likes of Cyndi Lauper, the Wallflowers, Cake, Toto, and Stone Temple Pilots. Their next set of original music wouldn’t arrive until 2013. During recording, Luck parted ways with the band, his vacated slot filled a couple months later by the very drummer he replaced, David Douglas. The band’s seventh LP, Collapsible Lung, was released that summer, peaking at number 16 on the Billboard 200. Their eighth effort would also fair well. Produced by Mark Lee Townsend, Air for Free featured the single “Look on Up” and debuted at number 44 on the Billboard 200, topping the Christian chart.

EAGLES at FootPrint Center in Phoenix, AZ
2024-01-19 19:30 - 2024-01-20 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
The Eagles were unquestionably the biggest mainstream American rock band to emerge in the 1970s. Not only did they sell more records and concert tickets than their peers — Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California are two of the biggest-selling albums of all time — but they captured the shifting zeitgeist of the ’70s, riding the country-rock hippie hangover at the end of the ’60s until it reached the slick, expensive, and expansive pop/rock of Southern California in the late ’70s. Co-leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey didn’t seem like brothers, but rather partners who made a pact to lead a coolly professional outfit designed to maximize their impact. This was not a group of teenage friends who played local dances together. Every one of the original members — Henley, Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner — had headed toward LA with different bands and once those groups fell apart, they stuck around town, playing whatever gig that happened to show up. For all four, one of those gigs was supporting Linda Ronstadt in 1971. The chemistry was evident on-stage and in the studio, so the quartet decided to form a band, releasing their debut in 1972. Hits came swiftly but stardom didn’t settle in until the latter half of the decade, after 1975’s One of These Nights became a smash. Soon afterward, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) turned their early years into canon and then came 1976’s Hotel California, a record that defined all manners of ’70s excess. By that point, the band’s lineup had shifted — Leadon and Meisner were out, as was Leadon‘s replacement Don Felder; guitarist Joe Walsh and bassist Timothy B Schmit were in — and the group turned out to be ill-equipped to handle their mega-stardom. One more record, 1979’s The Long Run, appeared before the band split, with Henley and Frey achieving considerable solo success during the ’80s. Rumors of reunions never abated, not even when Henley quipped that hell would freeze over before the Eagles would play again and, eventually, an album materialized in 1993, when the Hotel California-era band adopted the MTV Unplugged format for their own needs on an album naturally called Hell Freezes Over. From that point on, Eagles tours were regular events — sometimes they were ambitious endeavors, sometimes they were a gig or two, the one thing in common being their success — and although the group continued to thrive on the existence of its back catalog, they recorded a brand-new double-album called Long Road Out of Eden, a record that once again put the Eagles on the top of the charts in 2007.
The band was formed by four Los Angeles-based musicians who had migrated to the West Coast from other parts of the country. Singer/bassist Randy Meisner moved to L.A. in 1964 as part of a band originally called the Soul Survivors (not to be confused with the East Coast-based Soul Survivors, who scored a Top Five hit with “Expressway to Your Heart” in 1967) and later renamed the Poor. He became a founding member of Poco in 1968, but left the band prior to the release of its debut album in order to join the Stone Canyon Band, the backup group for Rick Nelson. Meanwhile, singer/guitarist/banjoist/mandolinist Bernie Leadon arrived in L.A. in 1967 as a member of Hearts and Flowers, later joining Dillard & Clark and then the Flying Burrito Brothers. Singer/drummer Don Henley moved to L.A. in June 1970 with his band Shiloh, who made one self-titled album for Amos Records before breaking up. Finally, Glenn Frey performed in his hometown and served as a backup musician for Bob Seger before moving to L.A. in the summer of 1968. He formed the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther, and the two musicians signed to Amos Records, which released their self-titled album in 1969.
In the spring of 1971, Frey and Henley were hired to play in Linda Ronstadt‘s backup band. Meisner and Leadon also played backup for Ronstadt during her summer tour, though the four only did one gig together: a July show at Disneyland. They did, however, all appear on Ronstadt‘s next album, Linda Ronstadt. In September 1971, Frey, Henley, Leadon, and Meisner signed with manager David Geffen, agreeing to record for his soon-to-be-launched label, Asylum Records; soon after, they adopted the name the Eagles. In February 1972, they flew to England and spent two weeks recording their debut album, Eagles, with producer Glyn Johns. It was released in June, reaching the Top 20 and going gold in a little over a year-and-a-half on the strength of two Top Ten hits — “Take It Easy” and “Witchy Woman” — and one Top 20 hit, “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”
The Eagles toured as an opening act throughout 1972 and into early 1973, when they returned to England to record their second LP, Desperado, a concept album about outlaws. Produced by Glyn Johns and released in April 1973, it reached the Top 40 and went gold in a little less than a year and a half, spawning the Top 40 single “Tequila Sunrise” in the process. The title track, though never released as a single, became one of the band’s better-known songs and was included on the Eagles’ first hits collection.
After touring to support Desperado’s release, the Eagles again convened a recording session with Glyn Johns for their third album. Their desire to make harder rock music clashed with Johns’ sense of them as a country-rock band, however, and they split from the producer after recording two tracks, “You Never Cry Like a Lover” and “The Best of My Love.” After an early 1974 tour opened by singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, the band decided to hire Walsh‘s producer, Bill Szymczyk, who handled the rest of the sessions for On the Border. Szymczyk brought in a session guitarist, Don Felder (born in Gainesville, Florida, on September 21, 1947), an old friend of Bernie Leadon‘s who so impressed the rest of the band that he was recruited to join the group.
On the Border was released in March 1974. It went gold and reached the Top Ten in June, the Eagles’ fastest-selling album yet. The first single, “Already Gone,” reached the Top 20 the same month. But the most successful song on the LP — the one that broke them through to a much larger audience — was “The Best of My Love,” which was released as a single in November. It hit number one on the easy listening charts in February 1975 and topped the pop charts a month later.
The Eagles’ fourth album, One of These Nights, was an out-of-the-box smash. Released in June 1975, it went gold the same month and hit number one in July. Moreover, it featured three singles that hit the Top Five: the chart-topping title song, “Lyin’ Eyes,” and “Take It to the Limit.” “Lyin’ Eyes” won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, and the Eagles also earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year (One of These Nights) and Record of the Year (“Lyin’ Eyes”). The group went on a headlining world tour, beginning with the U.S. and expanding into Europe. But on December 20, 1975, it was announced that Bernie Leadon had quit the band, and Joe Walsh (born in Wichita, Kansas, on November 20, 1947) was brought in as his replacement. He immediately joined the tour, which continued to the Far East in early 1976.
The Eagles’ extensive touring kept them out of the studio, and with no immediate plans for a new album; they agreed to release a compilation, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), in February 1976. The album’s success proved to be surprisingly meteoric. It topped the charts and became a phenomenal success, eventually selling upwards of 25,000,000 copies and dueling with Michael Jackson‘s Thriller for the title of the best-selling album of all time in the U.S.
It took the Eagles 18 months to follow One of These Nights with their fifth album, Hotel California. Released in December 1976, the record was certified platinum in one week, hit number one in January 1977, and eventually sold over 10,000,000 copies. The singles “New Kid in Town” and “Hotel California” hit number one, and “Life in the Fast Lane” made the Top 20. Meanwhile, “Hotel California” won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year and was nominated for Song of the Year; the album itself was nominated for Album of the Year and for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus. The Eagles embarked on a world tour in March 1977 that began with a month in the U.S., followed by a month in Europe and the Far East, then returned to the U.S. in May for stadium dates. At the end of the tour in September, Randy Meisner left the band; he was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit (born in Sacramento, California, November 20, 1947), formerly of Poco, in which he had also replaced Meisner. (Randy Meisner died on July 26, 2023 at the age of 77.)
The Eagles began working on a new album in March 1978 and took nearly a year and a half to complete it. The Long Run was released in September 1979. It hit number one and was certified platinum after four months, eventually earning multi-platinum certifications. “Heartache Tonight,” its leadoff single, hit number one, and “I Can’t Tell You Why” and “The Long Run” became Top Ten hits. “Heartache Tonight” won the 1979 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The Eagles toured the U.S. in 1980, and at a week-long series of shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, they recorded Eagles Live. (Also included were some tracks recorded in 1976.) Released in November 1980, the double LP (since reissued as a single CD) reached the Top Five and went multi-platinum, with the single “Seven Bridges Road” reaching the Top 40.
The Eagles were inactive after the end of their 1980 tour, but their breakup was not officially announced until May 1982. All five released solo recordings. (Walsh, of course, maintained a solo career before, during, and after the Eagles.) During the rest of the ’80s, the bandmembers received several lucrative offers to reunite, but they declined. In 1990, Frey and Henley began writing together again, and they performed along with Schmit and Walsh at benefit concerts that spring. A full-scale reunion was rumored, but did not take place. Four years later, however, the Eagles did reunite. In the spring of 1994, they taped an MTV concert special and then launched a tour that ended up running through August 1996. The MTV show aired in October, followed in November by an audio version of it, the album Hell Freezes Over, which topped the charts and became a multi-million seller, spawning the Top 40 pop hit “Get Over It” and the number one adult contemporary hit “Love Will Keep Us Alive.”
The Eagles next appeared together in January 1998 for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, when the five present members performed alongside past members Leadon and Meisner. On December 31, 1999, they played a millennium concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that was recorded and included on the box set retrospective Selected Works: 1972-1999 in November 2000. All was not well within the band, however, and Felder was expelled from the lineup in February 2001. A protracted legal battle ensued as the Eagles soldiered on as a quartet, releasing The Very Best of the Eagles in 2003 and achieving minor success with the single “Hole in the World.” Felder‘s case was settled out of court in 2007; that same year, the Eagles returned with the band’s seventh studio album, Long Road Out of Eden, a double-disc album that quickly went multi-platinum. In 2013, the band made the documentary History of the Eagles, and toured behind it until mid-2015. Six months later, Glenn Frey became ill and passed away on January 18, 2016. He was 67. Just over a year after Frey‘s death, the Eagles were revived with Glenn‘s son Deacon taking his place; Vince Gill also joined on guitars and vocals. The group played the Classic West and Classic East festivals in July of 2017, then set out on the road in 2018. At the end of the year, the group’s entire discography was boxed up as the Legacy set. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions. Becker and Fagen never truly enjoyed rock — with their ironic humor and cryptic lyrics, their eclectic body of work shows some debt to Bob Dylan — preferring jazz, traditional pop, blues, and R&B. Steely Dan created a sophisticated, distinctive sound with accessible melodic hooks, complex harmonies and time signatures, and a devotion to the recording studio. With producer Gary Katz, Becker and Fagen gradually changed Steely Dan from a performing band to a studio project, hiring professional musicians to record their compositions. Though the band didn’t perform live between 1974 and 1993, Steely Dan’s popularity continued to grow throughout the ’70s as their albums became critical favorites and their singles became staples of AOR and pop radio stations. Even after the group disbanded in the early ’80s, their records retained a cult following, as proven by the massive success of their unlikely return to the stage in the early ’90s.
Walter Becker (bass) and Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards) were the core members of Steely Dan throughout its various incarnations. The two met at Bard College in New York in 1967 and began playing in bands together shortly afterward. The duo played in a number of groups — including the Bad Rock Group, which featured future comedic actor Chevy Chase on drums — which ranged from jazz to progressive rock. Eventually, Becker and Fagen began composing songs together, hoping to become professional songwriters in the tradition of the Brill Building. In 1970, the pair joined Jay & the Americans‘ backing band, performing under pseudonyms; Becker chose Gustav Mahler, while Fagen used Tristan Fabriani. They stayed with Jay & the Americans until halfway through 1971, when they recorded the soundtrack for the low-budget film You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It, which was produced by the Americans‘ Kenny Vance. Following the recording of the soundtrack, Becker and Fagen attempted to start a band with Denny Dias, but the venture was unsuccessful. Barbra Streisand recorded the Fagen/Becker composition “I Mean to Shine” on her album Barbra Joan Streisand, released in August 1971, and the duo met producer Gary Katz, who hired them as staff songwriters for ABC/Dunhill in Los Angeles, where he had just become a staff producer. Katz suggested that Becker and Fagen form a band as a way to record their songs, and Steely Dan — who took their name from a dildo in William Burroughs‘ Naked Lunch — were formed shortly afterward.
Recruiting guitarists Denny Dias and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, drummer Jim Hodder, and keyboardist/vocalist David Palmer, Becker and Fagen officially formed Steely Dan in 1972, releasing their debut, Can’t Buy a Thrill, shortly afterward. Palmer and Fagen shared lead vocals on the album, but the record’s two hit singles — the Top Ten “Do It Again” and “Reeling in the Years” — were sung by Fagen. Can’t Buy a Thrill was a critical and commercial success, but its supporting tour was a disaster, hampered by an under-rehearsed band and unappreciative audiences. Palmer left the band following the tour. Countdown to Ecstasy, released in 1973, was a critical hit, but it failed to generate a hit single, even though the band supported it with a tour.
Steely Dan replaced Hodder with Jeff Porcaro and added keyboardist/backup vocalist Michael McDonald prior to recording their third album, Pretzel Logic. Released in the spring of 1974, Pretzel Logic returned Steely Dan to the Top Ten on the strength of the single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” After completing the supporting tour for Pretzel Logic, Becker and Fagen decided to retire from live performances and make Steely Dan a studio-based band. For their next album, 1975’s Katy Lied, the duo hired a variety of studio musicians — including Dias, Porcaro, guitarist Elliot Randall, saxophonists Phil Woods, bassist Wilton Felder, percussionist Victor Feldman, keyboardist Michael Omartian, and guitarist Larry Carlton — as supporting musicians. Katy Lied was another hit, as was 1976’s The Royal Scam, which continued in the vein of its predecessor. On 1977’s Aja, Steely Dan’s sound became more polished and jazzy, as they hired jazz fusion artists like Wayne Shorter, Lee Ritenour, and the Crusaders as support. Aja became their biggest hit, reaching the Top Five within three weeks of release and becoming one of the first albums to be certified platinum. Aja also gained the respect of many jazz musicians, as evidenced by Woody Herman recording an album of Becker/Fagen songs in 1978.
Following the release of Aja, ABC was bought out by MCA Records, resulting in a contractual dispute with the label that delayed until 1980 the release of their follow-up album. During the interim, the group had a hit with the theme song for the film FM in 1978. Steely Dan finally released Gaucho, the follow-up to Aja, in late 1980, and it became another Top Ten hit for the group. During the summer of 1981, Becker and Fagen announced that they were parting ways. The following year, Fagen released his solo debut, The Nightfly, which became a critical and commercial hit.
Fagen didn’t record another album until 1993, when he reunited with Becker, who produced Kamakiriad. The album was promoted by the first Steely Dan tour in nearly 20 years, and while the record failed to sell, the concerts were very popular. In 1994, Becker released his solo debut, 11 Tracks of Whack, which was produced by Fagen. The following year, Steely Dan mounted another reunion tour, and in early 2000 the duo issued Two Against Nature, their first new studio album in two decades. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Steely Dan followed it in 2003 with Everything Must Go. Fagen‘s solo album Morph the Cat was released in 2006, and Becker released Circus Money in 2008 as Steely Dan embarked on another tour. In September 2017, it was announced that Becker had died in Maui, Hawaii. He was 67-years-old.
Fagen carried on with Steely Dan after Becker‘s passing, often calling the group “the Steely Dan Band.” This new lineup was showcased on a pair of live albums released in September 2021: Northeast Corridor: Steely Dan Live and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live, both recorded between 2018 and 2019. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

John 5 at EL Ray in Los Angeles, CA
2024-01-27 19:00 - 23:30 | El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, 90036, United States
When Guitar World convened their State of Guitar in 2021 all-star summit, JOHN 5 appeared on the magazine’s cover, right alongside Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Tool’s Adam Jones. Without a doubt, his reputation as a guitar-slinging troubadour and top-notch shredder is well-earned, recognized by friends, peers, and collaborators like Slash, Paul Gilbert, and Steve Vai over the years. But the man whose passport reads “John William Lowery” is more than a postmodern guitar hero. An eclectic showman and horror-obsessed pop culture maverick, his tastes and talent are as vast and diverse as his renowned collection of guitars and as robust as his expansive discography. As evidenced by the latest slab of sinister sounds credited to his JOHN 5 AND THE CREATURES outfit, the Michigan-born musician, who moved to Hollywood as a teen to pursue his rock n’ roll dreams, follows his artistic muse wherever it leads. SINNER is pure JOHN 5, summoned with the same mix of vibrant energy and passionate emotion beloved by fans of his work as guitarist for Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, and David Lee Roth. His 5th record with Zombie, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy, became the hard rock icon’s first No. 1 album. The debut single from L.A. RATS, pairing John and Zombie with Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe) and Tommy Clueftos (Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie), cracked Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Top 40. The key to it all was John’s uniquely identifiable style, which he nails on SINNER.

Armed with one guitar–his battered-and-bruised, heavily-customized Gibson Les Paul, aka “Old Glory” – a gritty, soul-stirring voice, and an unshakable spirit, Jared James Nichols reaffirms the power and glory of good ol’ hot-wired, blues-drenched rock ‘n’ roll. Since the beginning, Nichols has carved out his own singular path in the music world and his new songs reveal newfangled sides and a different level of depth to the JJN experience. On Skin ‘n Bone, Nichols takes an introspective look at what divides us as people, but also, what should unite us.
Known for his high-energy, pick-less guitar-playing from his electrifying riff-‘n’-roll from records like his 2015 debut Old Glory & the Wild Revival, and the 2018 follow up Black Magic, Jared has performed over 400 live dates traveling around the world with his band and performed onstage with giants like Slash, Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, Zakk Wylde, and the late, great Leslie West, among others.
In 2021, Jared was officially welcomed into the Gibson family as a brand ambassador alongside the likes of Slash and Dave Mustaine (from Megadeth), and will release his EP – Shadow Dancer – on September 17th.

Orianthi + The Black Moods at Celebrity Theatre
2024-02-04 19:30 - 23:30 | Celebrity Theatre, 440 N 32nd St,, Phoenix, AZ, 85008, United States
Australian-born guitarist and singer Orianthi Panagaris, aka Orianthi, is a virtuoso performer whose sound is steeped in hard rock traditions. She first began wowing audiences in her teens, opening for Steve Vai and jamming with Carlos Santana. After issuing her debut long-player Violet Journey in 2005, Orianthi relocated to Los Angeles where she performed on national television with Carrie Underwood and was part of Michael Jackson‘s planned This Is It tour. She broke through to a wider audience with 2009’s Believe, netting the international hit single “According to You.” Along with her own albums, like 2013’s Heaven in This Hell, she has continued to earn respect from veteran rock icons, including forming the group RSO with Richie Sambora, with whom she released Radio Free America in 2018. Through it all, Orianthi’s searing fretboard skills and passion for anthemic rock remain her focus, as evidenced by 2020’s O and 2022’s Rock Candy.
Born in 1985 in Adelaide, Australia, Orianthi Panagaris was only six when she fell in love with the electric guitar, thanks to her dad’s record collection. Legendary names like Clapton, Hendrix, and Santana influenced decision to take lessons. She spent five years learning the acoustic guitar before switching to the electric at the age 11. Playing in bands since she was 14, she performed in her first stage show for Steve Vai at the age 15. Subsequently, she left school, turned her focus to songwriting, and began her professional career. Three years later, at 18, while working as a studio and utility player, Orianthi met and jammed with Carlos Santana in Adelaide. He invited her on-stage to play during his soundcheck and was so impressed he asked her to perform with him that night. The single-song guest spot evolved into a 30-minute jam. With Santana‘s enthusiastic endorsement, she went on to share stages with Prince, ZZ Top, and others. In 2006 she independently released her debut album Violet Journey. Not only did it receive enthusiastic press response, it won her a record deal with Geffen. The album was reissued a year later by Universal, while she played as an opener for guitarist Steve Vai on a world tour.
Upon her return, Orianthi emigrated to Los Angeles. While working on her sophomore album she played extensively as a session and touring musician. Her abilities were noted by millions of television viewers when she joined Carrie Underwood‘s band for a 2009 Grammy Awards performance. That same year, an email invitation arrived asking her to audition for Michael Jackson, who was assembling a band for a 50-date residency at London’s O2 Arena. One blistering rendition of the “Beat It” solo was enough to land the gig, but the King of Pop unexpectedly passed in June of that same year. Orianthi sang at the memorial service, and rehearsal footage of the guitarist backing Jackson was featured in the popular film Michael Jackson’s This Is It.
Her second long-player, Believe, arrived several days before the movie’s release, featuring the Top 20 single “According to You.” It was re-released in 2010 as Believe (II) with four different songs, including a cover of John Waite‘s “Missing You.” It also featured a guest spot from Vai on the tune “Highly Strung.” The set charted inside the top half of the Top 200. The following year, Orianthi released the digital EP Fire featuring production from the Eurythmics‘ Dave Stewart. In 2013, Orianthi returned with her third full-length album, Heaven in This Hell. Also produced by Stewart, it contained all five tracks from the EP and centered on modern country and blues. It charted inside the Top 40 on the Independent Albums chart. Orianthi also appeared during the Top Seven week on season 12 of American Idol to play guitar for each of the performances.
While working with Cooper in 2013, she met former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora who was vacationing in Hawaii. Cooper, who was playing a benefit for the Maui Food Bank, invited Sambora on-stage. He and Orianthi played Hendrix‘s “Voodoo Child” and Montrose‘s “Rock Candy” (the latter was sung by its original vocalist Sammy Hagar). The pair hit it off professionally and personally. A month later, Sambora invited Orianthi to join him for a tour of Europe and Australia. By the time it ended, they were a romantic couple. After fulfilling her remaining commitments to Cooper (while fending off numerous invites from Prince to join his band), Orianthi and Sambora built a home studio while making plans for a recorded musical collaboration. It took two years, but by 2015, the pair’s band, called RSO (after their respective initials) enlisted Bob Rock as producer and began tracking some of the 70-plus songs they had penned together. In 2017 they released the five-track EP Rise and followed it a year later with the album Radio Free America. In May of 2018, they performed during the 11th season of the PBS performance series Soundstage. Though they eventually split as a couple, RSO remained a going concern.
In November of 2020, Orianthi released her fourth solo album, O, produced by Marti Frederiksen on Frontiers Records. It was followed two years later by Live from Hollywood, a concert album recorded at L.A.’s Bourbon Room. On the heels of that release, she delivered her fifth studio album, 2022’s Jacob Bunton-produced Rock Candy. ~ Matt Collar & Thom Jurek, Rovi

Born in the Arizona desert and reared on stages across North America, The Black Moods deliver a modern update of a timeless sound, breathing fresh life into a familiar mix of electric guitars, anthemic hooks, and percussive stomp. The Black Moods’ three members — frontman/guitarist Josh Kennedy, drummer Chico Diaz and bassist Jordan Hoffman — aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel. Instead, they’re piling into a vehicle that’s existed for decades, souping up the engine to suit their contemporary needs, and steering those wheels toward their own rock & roll horizon.
The band formed in Tempe, Arizona. Inspired by local heroes like the Gin Blossoms and Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers — both of whom have become champions of the Black Moods, often tapping the group as a high-profile opening act — The Black Moods began building their audience the old-school way: by hitting the road. They toured heavily, promoting albums like their 2012 self-titled debut and 2016’s Medicine with gigs across the country. By the time “Bella Donna” hit the radio airwaves during the summer of 2018, The Black Moods’ fanbase had grown exponentially. The song became a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, paving the way for the band’s biggest shows to date.
Modern-day torchbearers of ageless rock & roll, The Black Moods aren’t shy about nodding to their influences. “Bella Donna” was inspired by the Doors’ slinky strut, while the chorus of “Bad News” points to rockers like the Foo Fighters.

Tool & Elder at Footprint Center
2024-02-09 19:30 - 23:30, 2024-02-10 19:30 - 23:30 | Mortgage Matchup Center, 201 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, 85004, United States
Tool established themselves as one of America’s most enduring and unpredictable acts with an ever-evolving brand of muscular but mind-altering sonics, a wry sense of humor, and a mystical aesthetic that attracted a cult-like following of devoted fans with just a handful of albums spread across decades. Their greatest breakthrough was to meld dark underground metal with the ambition of art rock, crafting multi-sectioned, layered songs as if they were classical composers. While embracing the artsy, they also paid musical homage to the relentlessly bleak visions of grindcore, death metal, and thrash. Even with their post-punk influences, they executed their music with the sound and feel of prog rock, alternating between long, detailed instrumental interludes and lyrical rants in their songs. Debuting in the early ’90s with Undertow, they were initially lumped in with the nu-metal contemporaries of the time, which made them a hit on rock radio with their sophomore effort, 1996’s Ænima. However, they soon broke away from those associations, evolving beyond the confines of traditional song structures and song lengths, crafting epics that often clocked in past the ten-minute mark on LP head-trips Lateralus (2001) and 10,000 Days (2006). After a lengthy 13-year hiatus, they returned to the fold in 2019 with their fifth opus, the chart-topping, Grammy-nominated Fear Inoculum. In 2022, they celebrated their 30th anniversary with “Opiate²,” a re-recorded version of their debut single.
Formed in Los Angeles by percussionist Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, vocalist Maynard James Keenan, and original bassist Paul D’Amour, Tool had a knack for conveying the strangled, oppressive angst that the alternative nation of the early ’90s claimed as its own, which helped them slip into the scene during the post-Nirvana era. Buffered by a prime slot on the third Lollapalooza tour in 1993, their debut full-length album, Undertow (Zoo Entertainment), rocketed to platinum status. Fervor for the band even resurrected their first effort, 1992’s Opiate EP, on the Billboard charts. While they were in the studio recording a follow-up, D’Amour amicably parted ways with Tool and his spot was filled by Justin Chancellor. By the time the fresh quartet delivered their sophomore album, Ænima, in late 1996, the alternative rock mainstream was ready. The album shot to number two on the Billboard charts and was certified multi-platinum in less than a decade. Singles “Stinkfist,” “Forty Six & 2,” and the Grammy-winning title track were all Top Ten hits on the U.S. Rock chart, boosted by the twisted and often disturbing music videos created by Jones. After a co-headlining slot with Korn on Lollapalooza ’97, Tool remained on the road, supporting Ænima into the next year.
As nu-metal established its mainstream dominance at the close of the decade, Tool returned to the shadows. During their hiatus, Keenan formed a side project with former Tool guitar tech Billy Howerdel. A Perfect Circle debuted in 2000, and their album Mer de Noms was a surprise hit. Their ensuing tour was a sold-out success as well, which only served to fuel Tool breakup rumors. To quell the speculation, they issued the stopgap B-sides/DVD set Salival late the same year. Meanwhile, in the studio, the band continued to journey down a new path that further distanced them from the mainstream. Delving deeper into their own mythos, songs grew longer, lyrics more inscrutable, and artwork increasingly psychedelic. Though they retained their pummeling, metal-oriented base, the quartet smashed the formula by further experimenting with complex time signatures, expansive atmospherics, and a classical approach to song compositions. The first taste of 21st century Tool arrived in January 2001 with the Grammy-winning single, “Schism,” which was also their first song to chart on the Hot 100. Lateralus (Volcano) arrived that May, topping the Billboard 200. Subsequent singles “Parabola” and “Lateralus” were favorites on the U.S. Rock charts, and the album soon went multi-platinum.
After another several-year sabbatical — during which time Keenan bounced back to A Perfect Circle — the group returned with another chart-topper, 2006’s 10,000 Days. Their most esoteric statement yet, the album spawned the singles “Vicarious,” “Jambi,” and U.S. Mainstream Rock number one “The Pot.” Although it was also the band’s lowest-selling effort to date, the record still managed to win the group their third Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. At the conclusion of touring, Tool began another extended hiatus. Although the band re-emerged for a brief summer tour in 2009, it would be another ten years before fans could hear new music. During this period, Keenan debuted his de facto solo project, Puscifer, and returned for a third album with A Perfect Circle. Behind the scenes, the band was also bogged down by a lawsuit that wouldn’t be resolved until 2015. The next year, shaking off the cobwebs, Tool returned to the road for another quick jaunt in the U.S., kicking off another cycle of speculation from fans starved for new material.
After an interminable 13-year gap between albums, Tool returned in 2019 with their epic fifth album, Fear Inoculum. Their third straight chart-topper, the set also featured their second Hot 100 placement to date, the ten-minute title track, which became the longest song to ever appear on that chart. Meanwhile, for the first time, Tool made their entire discography available for streaming; this propelled all of their past albums back to the charts, breaking records in the process. They embarked on a sold-out arena tour of the U.S. alongside Killing Joke and capped their successful comeback with a pair of Grammy nominations for “7empest” and “Fear Inoculum.” The former track scored them a Grammy in 2020 for Best Metal Performance. In March 2022, they released “Opiate²,” a re-recorded version of their 1991 single “Opiate,” issued to mark the 30th anniversary of their debut EP. ~ Neil Z. Yeung & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Elder is a genre-pushing rock band that melds heavy psychedelic sounds with progressive elements and evocative soundscapes. Formed in a small coastal town in Massachusetts in the mid aughts, the band has reinvented their sound over the course of six albums to grow from a stalwart of the stoner/doom scene into one of the most unique voices in the heavy rock underground. Their long-scale compositions unfold as journeys, running the gamut of styles from the 70’s to the present within a single song with a penchant for “sheer gatefold-era grandeur” (Rolling Stone).

Tool at Crypto Arena in Los Angeles, CA
2024-02-14 19:30 - 23:30, 2024-02-15 19:30 - 23:30 | Crypto Arena, 1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA, 90015

BEARTOOTH + The Plot In You at The Van Buren
2024-02-20 17:30 - 23:30 | The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
The fearlessly determined and creative Ohio-based powerhouse perfected a sound sought by a generation of bands, equal parts solitary musical confession and celebratory exorcism. BEARTOOTH music is an outright refusal to suffer in silence, weaponizing radio-ready bombast to deliver raw emotion mixed with noise-rock chaos. They combine hard rock and hardcore in a way that’s smart, lean, melodic, and irresistible, without apology. After over 900 million streams from songs like “The Past is Dead,” “Fed Up,” and “In Between”, in addition to the band’s fourth album, Below, topping charts and finding its way into Best Rock/Metal Albums of the Year in 2021, Rolling Stone introduced BEARTOOTH as one of 10 New Artists You Need To Know. The 2013 Sick EP was an emotionally stranded Shomo’s “message in a bottle,” tossed into a figurative ocean. Disgusting (2014), Aggressive (2016), Disease (2018), and Below (2021) expanded those themes of desperation, each sonically getting a step closer to the magical balance between the blood, sweat, and tears of classic recordings and the smooth gloss of modern production. Their latest single “Riptide” is the culmination of that battle: a furiously courageous song of self-empowerment serving as a victory lap to memorialize a struggle with mental health and self-acceptance, which has defined so much of BEARTOOTH since its inception. BEARTOOTH offers no cure, but the recovery comes in the process; the journey is the destination. So enjoy the ride.

Through balancing even the most extreme dynamics, The Plot In You consistently overturn and upend expectations. On any given track, it might seem like they’re about to go one way, but the band will turn on a dime and shift course before the crowd can even catch a breath. This uncanny element of surprise has entrenched the gold-selling Ohio quartet—Landon Tewers [vocals], Josh Childress [guitar], Ethan Yoder [bass], and Michael Cooper [drums]—on the cutting edge of heavy music. Whether it be threads of alternative, electronic, pop, or R&B, nothing is off limits, and everything is fair game for their creative process. That process has continued to morph. Following a series of fan favorite releases, the band made major waves with DISPOSE [2018]. “FEEL NOTHING” surged on social media as a viral phenomenon, generating hundreds of millions of streams and picking up a gold certification from the RIAA. The musicians only maintained this momentum with Swan Song in 2021. Hysteria rated it “9-out-of-10.” Simultaneously, they sold out shows coast-to-coast. During 2023, the band kickstarted another era with Vol. 1. “Divide” generated 9 million Spotify streams right out of the gate followed by “Left Behind,” exploding to the tune of 15.9 million Spotify streams. Upon the arrival of “Forgotten,” Revolver praised it among the “6 Best New Songs Right Now.”

Amid a generation gripped by loneliness, fear, and a desperate concern for the state of the world, Invent Animate are grabbing fans by the hand and choosing to walk with them.
There’s a sense of duty among the band – comprising vocalist Marcus Vik, bassist Caleb Sherradan, drummer Trey Celaya and guitarist Keaton Goldwire – to bare their own pain and tragedy for their listeners, indeed creating a safe, familiar place for listeners to process their own. It’s this deeply empathic and concerned approach to their output that sets Invent Animate apart, and has seen the band develop a close knit, cult-like following over their 10 years together. Stationed across Texas, Colorado and now Sweden (following Vik’s recruitment in 2019), the four-piece mark the latest addition to the UNFD roster. Home to a plethora of the band’s touring partners including Silent Planet and ERRA, alongside Spotify “sounds like” mates such as Like Moths To Flames, Void Of Vision, and Thornhill, Invent Animate perfectly complement their new label address with their ambient metalcore, djent and prog blends.

In January 2023, Sleep Theory’s first song (“Another Way”) hit 500k views on TikTok within 36 hours of its release. But what seemed like an overnight success was years in the making. Since retiring from the US Army several years ago, vocalist Cullen Moore’s dedicated his entire life to carving his own path in the music industry. Officially starting Sleep Theory in 2019, the current incarnation of his musical journey began as a studio project to fuse his love of hard rock, funk and R&B.
Now a four-piece band, Sleep Theory’s first two tracks both reached #1 on SiriusXM’s Octane, played their first run of shows to massive crowds, and signed to Epitaph Records for the release of their debut EP. Combining metalcore-like breakdowns with bluesy grooves and a pop sensibility made for modern radio, they’ve also racked up 13M global streams in 6 months and saw “Numb” crack the Top 40 on the Active Rock chart.

Gloria Trevi at Arizona Financial Theatre
2024-02-23 20:00 - 23:30 | Arizona Financial Theatre, 400 W Washington St, Phoenix, AZ, 85003, United States
With more than 25 million social media followers, and surpassing over 30 million records sold worldwide, Gloria Trevi continues to be one of the most influential, impactful and inspiring Latin artists of all time. With a career record spanning over three decades, she’s been recognized with multiple high honors, including Billboard Latin and Premio Lo Nuestro awards, the BMI President’s Award and a Latin GRAMMY® nomination. In addition, she was recognized by Pollstar magazine as one of the “best-selling touring artists of the 21st century” and “the best-selling Mexican touring artist in North America.” Gloria Trevi made history in 2022 as the only female artist to have three tours simultaneously, which she also produced (Isla Divina World Tour, Trevi Hits and Valientes with Monica Naranjo). Her Isla Divina World Tour was recognized by Pollstar as the “second highest-grossing Latina female tour in North America of 2022” with more than 250,000 tickets sold. She was recently nominated for Premio Lo Nuestro 2023 for “Pop Album of the Year” (“Isla Divina”), “Female Pop Artist of the Year” and “Pop/Ballad Song of the Year” (“Ensayando Cómo Pedirte Perdon”). As the most successful Mexican songwriter of our time, Gloria Trevi kicked off 2023 with the same passion and fury that characterizes her, and just one month into the year she achieved 4 irrefutable SOLD OUTS in León, Monterrey and two in Mexico City. Undeniably, Gloria Trevi is not alone.
