Concerts in Arizona for the second half of November and December!

November 24th, 2008 Posted by: Dust Devil

Hello folks,

Yes, we are in the midst of that dreaded “R” word. The right wing claims if we don’t say the word out loud that this will all go away. Let’s see if that works …

But we must soldier on, and we still need to treat ourselves out for a night on the town occasionally. Here are some shows in the next month and a half that will help ease the pain of these times a bit.

Wednesday, November 26. Coldplay at Jobing.com Arena. Some of you may be reading this and wondering if the Dust Devil sold out. Folks, Coldplay is a great band. Soaring melodies, superb musicianship and stellar vocals characterize this Britpop outfit. This band has created some great music on the four discs they have released, and although they probably won’t play gems like Daylight or Square One in favor of newer material, you can rest assured you are in store for a quality show. There are still tickets available for the concert.

Thursday, December 4. Dressy Bessy at the Modified. This band jumped out at me when I was searching for shows on Pollstar. Then I remembered they played on the Esurance Main Stage at the Monolith Festival this year. Dressy Bessy is a band out of Denver, CO, and play an infectious, bouncy style of indie-pop, led by the vocal stylings of Tammy Ealom. One of their members, guitarist John Hill, also plays with the Apples in Stereo. This show should be a lot of fun, and of course the fact it is at the Modified makes it that much better. Kimber is doing fabulous work at bringing in consistent, quality entertainment. If you don’t go to shows at the Modified, shop for music at Stinkweeds, or support Kimber’s endeavors with Local First Arizona, then you are doing a lot to pump up big business in Phoenix, rather than supporting local and independent artists and businesses.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Tuesday, December 9. Snow Patrol at the Marquee Theatre. I saw this band in 2007 at the Dodge Theatre on the Eyes Open Tour. They SMOKED, and that is quite a statement to make about a band that plays quite a bit of mellow music. You can bet they will play plenty of tracks from their latest offering A Hundred Million Suns. This show should be a must-see on everyone’s agenda. Snow Patrol has released three great discs in a row, Final Straw in 2003, Eyes Open in 2006, their latest just last month, plus contributed the track Signal Fire to the Spiderman 3 soundtrack, so the band has a great catalog to choose from. This already is in the running for Best Concert of 2008, that is how confident I am they will put on a great show.

Sunday, December 14. The Bloc Party at the Marquee Theatre. Less than a week after Snow Patrol, it’s time to re-group for another great band, the Bloc Party out of the U.K. One of several bands that has been a part of the eighties retro movement, the Bloc Party stand out as one of few that is good enough to stand on its own merit. Combining frenetic guitar work with a classic post-punk attack, the Bloc Party has issued three incredible discs since 2005. Their latest, Intimacy, was released in October of this year, and shows a lot of progression while maintaining their trademark sound. I missed these guys last time they were in town, no way will I make that mistake again.

As more comes in I will post again. However, I am going to start pumping up a show now that takes place on Saturday, March 7 of 2009. Jimmy Eat World and No Knife will be playing a very special show at the Marquee Theatre that evening. Why special?

2009 will mark the ten-year anniversary of what may well be the best disc to come out of Jimmy Eat World, Clarity. To celebrate the band is playing a special ten-date tour where they will play the Clarity disc in its entirety. The band became media darlings with the release of Bleed American in 2001, but a true Jimmy Eat World fan knows that Clarity is the disc when the band really began to unleash its emo-inspired power-pop attack on the masses. This is also the disc when Jim Adkins began to take over as lead vocalist for the group.

No Knife is opening the show, and this is a huge deal to the Dust Devil. One of my favorite bands and a group that has actually been defunct for some time now, No Knife plays a thought-provoking style of indie-pop, driven by melodic guitars and the stellar vocals of Mitch Wilson. Their last disc Riot for Romance!, released in 2002, was an amazing display of indie art-rock. The band last played together March of 2003, but announced in early 2008 on their webiste that they may play together again. They will end up playing three of the ten dates on the Clarity Tour, and the fact Arizona gets one of those shows is a HUGE deal!

That’s it for now folks. Cheers!