It’s finals week, and stress levels couldn’t be higher. You need a break! Whether you’d like to laugh, think, dance, scream or even relax, DevilPass has the perfect remedy.
Dirty Ghosts and Screaming Females
- Tuesday, May 1
- 7:30 p.m. Doors; 8:00 p.m. Show
- The Trunk Space: 1506 NW Grand Ave.
- Getting there: Bike—15th and Grand avenues
- Price: $8 in advance at statesidepresents.com; $10 at the door
Recommended if you like: Aesop Rock, wailing guitars, unlikely collaborations
Dirty Ghosts is a new musical sound for a familiar indie face. For a decade-plus, Aesop Rock has been a steward of the indie-rap scene, rapping and producing a dizzying number of albums. This latest project finds Rock (nee Ian Bavitz) playing a supportive role, producing and contributing some drum programming to his wife Allyson Baker’s debut album as Dirty Ghosts. The garage/lo-fi band has already picked up major momentum, with Rock providing a well-regarded remix of the group’s first single, “Shout It In,” and gaining rave reviews for high-profile performances at Noise Pop Festival and South by Southwest Music. The rap/garage matchup though is not as rare as one might think, calling to mind the work of Gnarls Barkley member and world-famous producer Danger Mouse with rock’s latest saviors, The Black Keys, on its last three albums. Will Aesop Rock’s magic touch yield the same success for Dirty Ghosts as Danger Mouse did for The Black Keys? Co-headlining with Dirty Ghosts at the Trunk Space is Screaming Females, the underground punk sensations that have risen to moderate popularity and massive critical acclaim on the wailing guitar leads and fierce yelps of lead singer and guitarist Marissa Paternoster. The group just released its fifth full-length, Ugly, on the New Jersey-based Don Giovanni Records.
- Thursday, April 26
- 8:00 p.m.
- Carly’s: 128 E. Roosevelt St.
- Getting there: Walk—Second and Roosevelt Streets
- Price: Free, with food and drinks available for purchase
Recommended if you like: Phoenix history, John Cage, livestock
Nerds unite! That’s the calling card of Carly’s Bistro’s regular celebration of nerdiness and epicurean desires (that’s food and drink, for those keeping score). The semi-monthly event brings together local figures knowledgeable in a very specific area and sets them loose, presenting all that they know in an educational, quirky presentation. Winner of a 2011 Best of Phoenix award, Nerd Nite returns tonight for “Bovine History, Buckhorn Baths and the Music (?) of John Cage.” Presentation No. 1 comes from Erica Fudge, director of the British Animal Studies Network and Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, who will present on the vital importance of cows in 17th-century Essex, England. Following Fudge will be Phoenix’s favorite retro figure, the venerable Marshall Shore, who will illustrate the local ties between baseball, taxidermy and Mesa’s legendary (and now-dormant) Buckhorn Baths. Lastly, Catherine Reid, a local music educator will honor the 100th birthday of the late John Cage, reflecting on Cage’s assertions on the constant presence of music, even in everyday sounds. With presentations as eclectic as these, Ignite Phoenix looks positively stuffy in comparison.
- Saturday, April 28
- 6:00 p.m. Doors
- The Trunk Space: 1506 NW Grand Ave.
- Getting there: Bike—15th and Grand avenues
- Price: $5 at the door
Recommended if you like: outsider music, tongue-in-cheek fun, performance art
Since 2005, Ryan Avery and friends have been causing quite the stir in downtown Phoenix. Always scheduled right around the time of the Coachella music festival in California, the local musicians have made a mockery of all the hipster-seriousness and big-money artists associated with the mainstream festival, presenting their own “all-star” roster of local acts and “international” stars. In years past, the REAL Coachella has boasted performances by Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, the Specials, Jack Johnson and The Jesus and Mary Chain, though not in the forms most might expect. The false billing of such top, often disbanded acts has drawn the ire of numerous local music fans, thinking they were in for a treat seeing a legendary act inside the tiny confines of the Trunk Space. But no year has caused as much distress as this one, billed as featuring performances by M. Ward and Macy Gray’s Jagged Little Pill (supposedly a Macy Gray tribute to Alanis Morissette’s ‘90s alt-rock album). Enough M. Ward fans complained this time to get the official Facebook event page taken down as “abusive”. Year after year though, the festival gets a select group of local music troublemakers excited like no other time, with this year’s show featuring legitimate sets by local favorites like elderly space-rapper Space-Alien Donald, ‘60s rocker Serene Dominic, psych-rockers Man-Cat and garage-rockers Andrew & His Feisty Felines. See what all the fuss is about this year. Swallow your pride and join in on the joke.
SanTan Wheelie Jam Super Picnic
- Saturday, April 28
- 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
- Steele Indian School Park: 300 E. Indian School Rd.
- Getting there: Rail—Central Avenue and Indian School Road stop
- Price: $5 at the door
Recommended if you like: bike-related fun, transportation advocacy, local learning
Bike culture is constantly on the rise these days. On the heels of last week’s immensely-successful Pedal Craft comes the second-annual SanTan Wheelie Jam, a fundraiser and bike-pride event scheduled to fill the day at the ever-popular Steele Indian School Park. This year’s event brings together bike workshops, parades and competitions, with great food and local brews, and bike-centric vendors. Live entertainment will be provided by the ever-popular local bands Dry River Yacht Club, Future Loves Past and Snake! Snake! Snakes!, alongside newcomers Doctor Bones and Static Confuzion. The nominal $5 entrance fee gets you a raffle ticket and access to all of the event’s activities, with all proceeds earned going to local bicycle nonprofits Tempe Bicycle Action Group, Bike Saviours, Rusty Spoke, WE-CYCLE-USA and Bicycle Cellar.
- Friday, April 27
- 7:00 p.m. Doors
- The Trunk Space: 1506 NW Grand Ave.
- Getting there: Bike—15th and Grand avenues
- Price: $6 at the door
Recommended if You Like: dusty folk, local troubadours, storytellers
Truck driver by day, D.S. Yancey truly knows what it’s like to be a nomad. The ever-wandering folk artist isn’t simply relaying the travels of an average musician, instead sharing the innumerable landscapes and people he encounters in his work, and pocketing them to utilize in his passion: music. At his fairly-rare performances, Yancey opens up his journal notes for all to hear, telling stories of forgotten people and places, the kinds of things only seen by one who dwells on the road. For his Trunk Space homecoming, the folk singer will be joined by local wanderer Andrew Hiller of the Wizards of Time, along with the rapidly-rising Monophonic Hillside, Late Reader and Said Gun.
- Friday-Sunday, April 27-29
- Friday-7:00 p.m. Show; Saturday-7:30 p.m. Show
- Performances at Herberger Theater Center: 222 E. Monroe St.
- Getting there: Walk—Second and Monroe streets
- Price: $15 in advance for performances; $20-$100 for workshops/conference
Recommended if you like: Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The Torch Theater, acting games
Starting in 2002, the Phoenix Improv Festival modestly attempted to bring a forgotten acting art to the local landscape. Eleven years and a few venue shifts later, the festival is attracting improv troupes and enthusiasts from across the country to view the absolute best in the business on the main stage of the Herberger Theater Center. Spread over three days, the festival will feature a local showcase of eight troupes on Friday night, followed on Saturday night by a national performance featuring five troupes from four states. During the day Saturday and Sunday, host organization The Torch Theater has organized nearly a 18 workshops on running a business, puppetry, improv techniques, slam poetry and improv instruction to meet the needs both newcomers to the scene and the most seasoned veterans. Expect the unexpected; it’s the very excitement upon which improv is built.
Events compiled by Connor Descheemaker
