You’ll find all of these events in our rundown of the biggest and best concerts happening in February. It includes names like Neko Case, Meek Mill, Bob Seger, Pedro the Lion, The Interrupters, John 5, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Jesse McCartney.
Elsewhere in this month’s concert calendar, KISS will stage their final performance in the Valley, KONGOS will return to Phoenix for a hometown show, and the annual Crush Arizona music festival will fill Rawhide in Chandler with massive amounts of beats and bass.
Details about each of these shows can be found below in our list of the best shows happening in the Valley in February. And for even more live music happening around the Valley, hit up Phoenix New Times' online concert calendar.
Al Jardine
Tuesday, February 5
Musical Instrument Museum
Al Jardine played stand-up bass on the very first Beach Boys single, "Surfin'," and since then he's been an integral part of the band's sonic makeup, playing guitar and navigating complexities not often associated with The Beach Boys: environmental concerns ("Don't Go Near the Water," written with Mike Love), transcendence ("All This Is That"), and spoken-word prose (Jardine read Robinson Jeffers's poem "The Breaks of Eagles" as part of the band's stunning "California Saga" from Holland).
Though he left the touring version of the 'Boys in the '90s, Jardine settled a lawsuit with Mike Love and contributed to the 2012 album That's Why God Made the Radio with all surviving original members. He’s also toured and performed with various incarnations of The Beach Boys over the last several years. This month, he’ll make a stop at the Musical Instrument Museum on his “A Postcard from California” tour, which shares its name with his 2010 solo album. Jason P. Woodbury
Joan Osborne
Tuesday, February 5
Mesa Arts Center
When Joan Osborne comes to the Mesa Arts Center’s Ikeda Theater this month, she may or may not perform her most famous track, “One of Us.” That’s because the singer-songwriter is currently performing sets filled with Bob Dylan songs as part of a tour based on her recent album paying tribute to the folk legend, a collection capped by her residencies singing
Andrés
Wednesday, February 6,
FiftyOne West in Tempe
Imagine if the vocalist behind your favorite Disney movie songs joined a pop-punk band. Andrés Aparicio is hard to tack down when it comes to the music he makes and the influences he draws from. Formerly playing as Terra Alice, Aparicio at one moment cranks out pop-punk melodies like Fall Out Boy and raps over math rock and emo compositions the next. On Heroes, Villains, and All That Jazz, Aparicio’s most audible evolution is the soulful confidence he projects with his voice. He still raps and he’s still a pop-punk singer, but he’s stretching his range to add drama to his delivery. Julian Hernandez
Jesse McCartney
Thursday, February 7
The Van Buren
Jesse McCartney. Remember him? Listen to “Beautiful Soul” and it might ring a bell. Chances are someone you know had a poster of him, a CD of his or at the very least, a crush on him. McCartney was the king of Radio Disney in the early 2000s, singing his way into the hearts of girls around the world. Maybe you even remember his appearances on Disney Channel shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody or Hannah Montana. Ashley Tisdale and Brenda Song's characters swooned when he came to the Tipton, and even Hannah Montana herself had fantasy dreams of McCartney.
It’s been 10 years since McCartney’s peak on the Billboard charts with the release of “Leavin’” toward the end of his sweeping teeny-bopper fame. The same girls who cranked up his hits on their iPods and who ogled his pretty blond hair in high school are now well into their 20s. Attend one of his shows, including his gig in early February at The Van Buren, and you’ll witness how McCartney’s fan base has stayed loyal. As a matter of fact, McCartney’s concerts are a sentimental reunion party for millennials reliving their childhoods and the screams are just as strong as when he was Disney’s biggest heartthrob. Now 31 years old and about to drop his sixth studio album, the first in years, McCartney is still killing it — and audiences are delighted that, at heart, he’s still the same teenage singer they grew up with. Isabel Arcellana
Arizona Roots Festival
Saturday, February 9, and Sunday, February 10
Rawhide Western Town in Chandler
Love reggae, rock, dub, rocksteady or any combination of these genres? You’ll likely dig this two-day music festival on Rawhide’s Riverwalk with performances from more than 20 local and touring bands and artists of the reggae-rock/roots reggae variety, as well as a few prominent rappers.
The lineup on Saturday, February 9, will include sets from Rebelution, Atmosphere, J Boog, Trevor Hall, Mike Love, Katchafire, Clint Stevens, Tha 'Yoties, and Rilen' Out. On Sunday, February 10, there will be performances by Stick Figure, Dispatch, Collie Buddz, The Movement, Iya Terra, Xiuhtezcatl,
Gregory Alan Isakov
Tuesday, February 12
The Van Buren
On first listen, with the banjo fills and fiddle and rare, low-mixed gasps of drums, it would be easy to dismiss Gregory Alan Isakov's music as folk songs played through a Valencia Instagram filter. But Isakov's is the sort of mournful, pensive music suited for rainy days and worthy of repeated listening. Born in South Africa, Isakov moved to Pennsylvania and ended up in Colorado, where he established himself as a first-rate singer-songwriter. Part of his success comes from his tremendous stage presence. Quiet, often hunched slightly, Isakov approaches the microphone with his guitar and begins singing in his smoky baritone, somehow commanding the undivided attention of every person in the audience. Few singer-songwriters can own a crowd
Pedro the Lion
Wednesday, February 13
Crescent Ballroom
Did you know that Pedro the Lion lead singer David Bazan is a Phoenix native? The indie rocker lived in the Valley for the first 13 years of his life, and as he elucidates in a recent interview with Phoenix New Times, he's got a lot of conflicted feelings about the place. He's put some of that into the latest Pedro record, Phoenix, the first in a series of five albums that marks the end of a lengthy hiatus for the project. Pedro will stage a homecoming show at Crescent Ballroom in February, bringing Tomberlin along for the ride. Douglas Markowitz
KISS
Wednesday, February 13
Gila River Arena in Glendale
Legendary rock band KISS
Famed for their extreme staging, pyrotechnics, heavy metal costuming, and the distinctive black and white face paint
The current lineup of KISS features Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer replacing Frehley and Criss, who left the band years ago. Douglas Markowitz
Neko Case
Thursday, February 14
The Van Buren
Neko Case knows how to twist and turn a phrase to make her lyrics sparkle and crackle, conjuring tender, fading memories and gossamer dreams in listeners’ minds. A sonic storyteller for more than 20 years as a member of Canadian indie rockers The New Pornographers, Case’s work with the Pornographers, with her band (Her Boyfriends) and as a solo artist has firmly established her as indie rock royalty. Released in June, Case’s self-produced Hell-On is her eighth studio album and seventh solo LP. In 2016, she teamed up with k.d. lang and Laura Veirs for case/lang/
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
Friday, February 15
Talking Stick Resort Arena
When Bob Seger’s "Night Moves" broke through on classic-rock radio in 1976, some observers described it as an overnight success. But the Michigan native was a force in the vibrant Detroit music scene as far back as the early ’60s, and his national audience eventually caught up to the singer’s rawer, earthier regional hits, such as “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.”
It’s never clear what this self-proclaimed “simple-minded guy” actually believes in. He has dissed draft dodgers (“The Ballad of the Yellow Beret”) and written anti-war songs (“2 + 2 = ?”), and the longtime shill for Chevy trucks now wants to save the environment on his latest album, Ride Out. With Seger, it’s always been more about his craggy mountain of a voice than his lyrical vision. Falling James
Crush Arizona 2019
Friday, February 15, and Saturday, February 16
Rawhide Event Center
As any local EDM kid will tell you, Crush Arizona is one of the biggest and longest-running dance music festivals in the Valley. The annual
And they also come to rage and get rowdy amid giant inflatable hearts or other enormous decorations. Needless to say, Crush is one of the more unique EDM events in the Valley. It’s grown tenfold over the last decade, outgrowing its previous venues, and now takes place at Rawhide Event Center in Chandler, and features a slew of top-shelf DJs and dance music artists.
Crush will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year with a two-night event over Valentine’s Day weekend. DJs and EDM artists scheduled to perform include Seven Lions, Slander, Joyride, Spag Heddy, Wuki, Kaivon, and
Jonny Lang
Saturday, February 16
Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale
Being a prodigy can sometimes suck. Take Jonny Lang, for example. When he burst onto the scene as an astonishingly gifted 14-year-old guitar wünderkind, it must have seemed like the coolest thing in the world. Of course, as gifted as Lang is, his success was intimately linked to his youthfulness — a sort of novelty factor. Pretty quickly, that novelty began to take on a different air, with critics frequently applying his age as a qualifier, asking, essentially, if his limited years had an inverse relationship with his audience's perception. Lang, however, chose to do something at which prodigies often fail — he grew as an artist. Over the course of two decades and eight albums, Lang has moved away from the strictures of structured blues, embracing a host of styles ranging from Southern-fried rock to Memphis-style soul to gospel, finding room in his music to embrace the spirit of the blues that got him started in the first place. Nicholas L. Hall
KONGOS
Saturday, February 16
Crescent Ballroom
When the four Kongos brothers became KONGOS in capital letters, it was with the hope that their uniquely crafted South African township-tinged alternative pop would take them to all far-flung corners of the world and earn them a decent living that would sustain the making of future music.
Then, a funny thing happened. Three years after the band’s initial indie release in 2011, their track ”Come With Me Now” got the attention of a few radio program directors, labels came a-
That hasn’t stopped the band from releasing new material. In 2016, they put out Egomaniac, which reached No. 80 on the Billboard charts, and followed it up last month with 1929, Pt. 1. KONGOS return home to the Valley in mid-February for a show at Crescent Ballroom in support of the new album. Serene Dominic
Smoking Popes
Monday, February 18
The Rebel Lounge
The brothers Caterer had no way of knowing the far-reaching effect they would have on the music world when they formed the Smoking Popes in 1991. How could they? At the time the youngest of the three, guitarist Eli, was only 16 years old. Fast-forward nearly three decades, and the seminal pop-punk band's work is cited by many of today's giants of the field as an influence.
Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba has said it was one of the reasons he started a band in the first place; Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz has compared the group favorably to fellow Chicago act Naked Raygun. In this writer's opinion, however, Smoking Popes blows all of the aforementioned bands out of the water. Daniel Hill
West Coast High 2019 feat. Cypress Hill and Hollywood Undead
Wednesday, February 20
The Van Buren
Are you insane in the membrane? Or are you just an American tragedy? Either way, we're pretty sure you're a fan of
Toni Braxton
Thursday, February 21
Wild Horse Pass Hotel & Casino in Chandler
Toni Braxton
Braxton’s still treating audiences to such hit tracks as 2000’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough” and “How Many Ways,” a one-two punch that kicks off performances on her current tour. She’ll also perform “Just Be a Man About It,” probably while finger-waving her way through one of her (oh so many)
Lords of Acid
Thursday, February 21
Club Red in Mesa
Mix licentious fun with some dense, pulsating electronica and comical lyrics and
Lords of Acid fans have aged. The band hasn't toured in about eight years, and it's anybody's guess whether the new generation will sex it up the same way. Praga Khan will be the only original member. And Lacey Conner, known mostly as the bitch/badass from Rock of Love, will step in as the female vocalist. So it's also up in the air whether the current lineup will be able to please old-school fans. Erica K. Landau
Noname
Friday, February 22
The Van Buren
When Chicago rapper Noname dropped her mixtape Telefone in 2016, the response to her stream-of-consciousness raps was immediate. Many were first exposed to her in 2013 as a feature on the track "Lost" off Chance the Rapper's acclaimed mixtape Acid Rap. Last year, her debut album, Room 25, displayed her changing world for all to see. The quick-witted, rapid-fire verses from Telefone remain, but Room 25 adds more introspection laced atop jazzy percussion and soulful strings. She's also touring and releasing music without the backing of a label, remaining an independent artist. Julian Hernandez
Humdinger Festival
Saturday, February 23
Mesa Amphitheatre
The M.O. behind the Humdinger Festival is pretty simple: local bands getting the chance to shine at Mesa Amphitheatre, one of the Valley’s more legendary music venues. A co-production of local concert promoters Danny Zelisko and Stateside Presents (full disclosure: Phoenix New Times is also involved), the ongoing event will feature acts and artists from across the Valley performing at the Mesa Amp every month from now until June. The first edition of the festival takes place on Saturday, February 23, and will include sets from The Pistoleros, Banana Gun, Fairy Bones, Michael Nitro, Wyves, Sara Robinson Band, Bear Ghost, Jim Bachmann, and The Runner Up. Doors open at 1 p.m. and the music starts at 2 p.m. Admission is $12. Benjamin Leatherman
Joy Williams
Monday, February 25
Musical Instrument Museum
Joy Williams has been building a steady following of fans for years now. A winner of multiple Grammy awards, her career started in the early 2000s as a faith-based musician before morphing into a larger scope with her musical involvement in the critically acclaimed duo, The Civil Wars. Following their dissolution, Williams decamped to Los Angeles and used her new surroundings to cope with both the professional breakup and the death of her father. There, she also released Venus, a hook-laden album with a broader pop palette than many of her fans were accustomed to hearing.
Fast-forward to late 2018 and Williams is in a more settled place. For starters, she and her family have traded in the California coast for
Meek Mill
Tuesday, February 26
Comerica Theatre
After being released from prison in April 2018, Meek Mill didn't just start advocating for prison reform: He also returned to the studio and released his highly anticipated album Championships. The record is a true return to form for the rapper, with both the album and “Going Bad” featuring Drake topping the charts. While special guests for his upcoming tour have not been announced, his show at Comerica Theatre in February is guaranteed to be Mill at his most triumphant. When the low horns in the intro of street anthem “Uptown Vibes” begin to play over the sound system, the spot is sure to blow up. Julian Hernandez
Leftöver Crack
Tuesday, February 26
Nile Theater in Mesa
The New York City-based anarcho-punks don’t advocate for hopes and dreams as solutions. They call for unequivocal, sociopolitical action and have been doing so since Mediocre Generica, their debut album, which serendipitously (or, ill-fatedly, depending on your view) was released on 9/11/01.
That was nearly 18 years ago. It’s been a decade and a half since the band’s 2004 ska-core classic, Fuck World Trade. The cuts from those albums were passionate, call-for-change songs about police brutality, ecological destruction, war-mongering and prisons for profit. Because nothing has changed on those fronts — and arguably has gotten worse in practically every case — LoC’s is still singing about those same issues today. The band will blend a healthy mix of songs both new and old at its upcoming Nile Theater show in late February. Jesse Sendejas Jr.
John 5
Tuesday, February 26
Club Red in Mesa
When John 5 received his first guitar at age 7, it became a lifelong love affair (lucky for us). He had no way of knowing that, within just a few decades, he would be seen as one of music's most acclaimed and sought-after guitar-slingers. All I gotta say is when Slash calls you one of the most mind-blowing guitarists around, you know you're doing something right. Not that John 5 needs
He's played guitar for an array of high-profile artists, including David Lee Roth, k.d. lang, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marilyn Manson, and Rob Halford. Since 2005, he's worked as Rob Zombie's main guitarist and released a string of solo albums, cementing himself as a virtuoso guitar hero and pioneering a style that's part shred guitar, part wild country pickin', part flamenco, part mesmerizing macabre. Lauren Wise
Sarah Brightman
Wednesday, February 27
Comerica Theatre
She has the voice of an angel and she sort of looks like she came out of an episode of Game of Thrones. Sarah Brightman has been serenading the world with her silky soprano voice for 40 years, becoming one of the biggest classical crossover artists ever. Later this month, the legendary English lady makes a stop at Comerica Theatre for a night of her signature ethereal pop music. Golden-voiced singers Vincent Niclo and Narcis Iustin Ianau are opening. Falyn Freyman
The Interrupters
Wednesday, February 27
The Van Buren
As ska devolves further from its Jamaican roots in the late 1950s, the genre these days often replaces soul and imagination with jock-rock conformity, transforming ska's madly insidious rhythms and uplifting messages into mere background music for frat parties. Of course, the Two-Tone revival in Britain in the early '80s helped reinvigorate the genre and give it new life, but so much modern ska is merely escapist and shallow. The Interrupters