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September and October are HUGE months for concerts in Arizona. Here is a rundown of live music from the Dust Devil, part I!

August 24th, 2009 Posted by: Dust Devil

Hello friends,

I have a bad habit of dropping the ball on my monthly concert rundown and posting about things late, but the next two months are going to be sweet for live music, so here we go. Get out your calender, there is a lot of activity going on the next couple of months! We will start with September.

September 4-6; Hocofest; Club Congress (Tucson). How lame am I? I knew about Calexico playing at Club Congress on Sunday, September 6. What I did not know was they are playing as part of a 3-day Labor Day weekend festival in Tucson!

Hocofest began back in 2005, an event to commemorate the 20 year anniversary of Club Congress. For the uninitiated, Club Congress is the music venue located in the lobby of Hotel Congress, a landmark hotel in downtown Tucson.

This year’s Hocofest has some stellar performers. Friday evening is “Punk Rock Reunion Night”, featuring veteran skate-punk band J.F.A. (are you serious?!) and Los Angeles’s own Painted Willie. Saturday evening will feature John Doe and Exene from X and the Meat Puppets. Sunday night Cracker will be joining Calexico for the concert.

Hocofest tickets are just $10 per day, or an even better deal of $25 for the whole weekend!

September 12; D.I.; Club Red. Interesting show, I am still debating on going to this one. DI was one of my favorite punk bands back in the day, possessing that classic Orange County hardcore sound. But that was over 20 years ago! Still, it may be fun to see Casey Royer and whoever is playing with him today if classics such as Richard Hung Himself, O.C. Life and Hang Ten in East Berlin are part of the playlist.

September 18 and 20; Arizona Fall Frenzy; Tempe Beach Park. A new three-day festival for the Valley of the Sun! Tempe Town Lake will host more than 15 acts during the weekend. Plenty of entertainment will be provided to coincide with the music, including a ferris wheel, gaming center, water slides (perfect for beating the Arizona heat), and an arts and crafts area.

Headliners for the three days include Rob Thomas on Friday, blink-182 on Saturday and the legendary Social Distortion Sunday evening. The Dust Devil is psyched to see Social Distortion for the first time in years, quite a change of venue from their days playing at Madison Square Gardens and The Metro here in town! Two other bands I am interested in seeing during the weekend include Airborne Toxic Event, who will be playing mid-afternoon on Sunday, and classic new-wave artist The B-52s on Friday.

Check out the official Arizona Fall Frenzy website for event details, and be sure to pick up tickets to Arizona Fall Frenzy before they are gone. The inaugural event folks, you have to go!

September 27; Get Up Kids and Youth Group; The Clubhouse. The Get Up Kids irritate me. Great music, but the vocal style KILLS me, and they were a huge influence on the current wave of emo that ranks right up there with disco for all-time worst genre of music. Yes, I said it. Dischord bands such as Fugazi and Rites of Spring, and Seattle’s own Sunny Day Real Estate - now that was some killer emo. But, a good friend of mine has tried to get me to like the Get Up Kids for years, so I will make it to this show.

It helps that Youth Group is opening! Kimber from Stinkweeds Records in Phoenix turned me on to this great indie-rock band out of Australia. Their latest disc The Night is Ours is brilliant, but casual fans may recall their cover of Alphaville’s Forever Young that was featured in an episode of The O.C. a few years ago.

September 28; The Killers; Dodge Theatre. Not the highlight of Coachella 2009, but The Killers did put on a solid show. Somebody Told Me is a “killer” track. Check the official Dodge Theatre website first for ticket options. TickCo is sure to have tickets to The Killers as well.

Wow, and that is just September! The scary thing is October is even more loaded with great shows, including the Dust Devil’s trip to Seattle to see Snow Patrol, Bob Mould, Sunny Day Real Estate and A Place to Bury Strangers!

Cheers!
The Dust Devil

Filed under: Concert Tour Announcements