Maria Vassett

Anthrax

​Anthrax
Marquee Theatre
Tuesday, January 24

Everyone knows Anthrax played the Big Four in Indio last year, of course. And as much as I hate to admit this out loud or on paper, I missed them, even though I was in Indio.

See the full Anthrax slideshow here.

They played first, sometime in mid-afternoon, and my friend Britney and I rolled into town late after leaving Phoenix that morning and were too busy drinking whiskey from a Jim Beam bottle in an ice filled trash can to realize how late we were. But while sprinting from the parking lot we heard them, and what I heard sounded awesome.

Last night I got a chance to make up for missing out. Anthrax played at the Marquee Theatre to a packed crowd. Death Angel opened and Testament followed close behind, ending around 9:45. They put on quite a stage show; dramatic, colorful and crazy loud. At 10:15 Anthrax went on, and before they had even played a note, half-full water bottles flew from the crowd, drenching moshers in anticipation of what was to come. When Anthrax catapulted into "Earth On Hell," people from the pit were already crowd surfing.

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Christopher Hassiotis

Will Cullen Hart of the Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System.

Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour

The Duce

Friday, March 4

"Can you turn up the toy piano?" is not a request many soundmen get, or that many bands make, so it's probably a good thing that the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour brought their own technician all the way from Athens, Ga.

Stalwarts of the late-'90s and early-'00s college radio scene, this tour (the second of its type) swung through Phoenix last night, bringing members of bands like the Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, The Music Tapes and Of Montreal together at the improbable venue the Duce -- how often does a band get a chance to play on a boxing ring?

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Mckay Jaffe

Malcolm in the corner?

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When I received a phone call a few days ago from our esteemed music editor, Martin Cizmar, asking me to review the You Hang Up show at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale, I agreed almost immediately. As frequent New Times readers already know, Martin has a little bit of, ahem, history with You Hang Up drummer and former Malcolm in the Middle child star Frankie Muniz and his girlfriend/publicist Elycia Marie. Unfortunately, Martin is out of town this weekend and couldn't review the show himself, opening the door for yours truly to witness - up close and in person - what was sure to be a spectacular train wreck.

Meh. No such luck.

While You Hang Up didn't exactly blow the roof off the joint, they did play a competent, mildly entertaining 45-minute set free of any discernible fuck-ups. 

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Luke Holwerda

Norah Jones performing at Dodge Theatre. See more photos in our Norah Jones slide show.

​"This place is BIG," said Norah Jones in a self-effacing way to the nearly packed house at Dodge Theatre. The way she delivered the statement made it sound like she wasn't worthy of playing such a fancy concert hall.

Turns out it was half-true.

Wearing an electric-green dress and yellow pumps, the 31-year-old songstress and her five-piece band dedicated a good part of the hour-long-plus set to material from her new record, The Fall. While each of her albums have progressively moved toward a neo adult-contemporary sound, the upbeat tunes she showcased from The Fall took that trend to the next level. The result? Cheese that sounds like it belongs on a WB show.

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Against absurd odds, Lisa Sette Gallery on Scottsdale's Marshall Way can boast that three of her gallery artists -- Enrique Chagoya, Claudio Dicochea and Angela Ellsworth -- have been handpicked to show work at the 17th Biennale of Sydney, which runs from May 12 through August 2010. Sydney's Biennale, a multi-venue contemporary arts exhibition, will be spread throughout locations surrounding Sydney Harbor, including Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) (which, incidentally, has for the first time given over all its galleries to the Biennale). Other venues include the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Sydney Opera House and Cockatoo Island, whose checkered history embraces being a former imperial prison, industrial school, reformatory and gaol (that's Britspeak for holding tank). It is also the site of one of Australia's biggest shipyards, originally built by convicts.

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Kathleen Vanesian

Modified Arts after its recent nip/tuck. See more shots in our Modified Arts slide show.

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So maybe Roosevelt Row isn't L.A.'s La Cienega in the 60s and our Grand Avenue ain't exactly Soho in the 70s and 80s. And we can definitively say that Marcel Duchamp never played chess at Phoenix Art Museum with a nude Eve Babitz (or anyone else, clothed or naked, for that matter). But that doesn't mean Phoenix doesn't have its own -- and very unique -- art history to flaunt.

Our surprisingly significant contemporary art scene is on display via artwork and advertising pieces at Modified Arts in "Modified Arts: Looking Back on the Future," curated by the gallery's new director, Kim Larkin, a non-native who parachuted into our fair burg recently to take over management of Kimber Lanning's iconic space.

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​Since Patti Smith doesn't make her way out west very often, when she does, it's a notable occasion. Added to that, last night she gave an intimate talk at LA's Hammer Museum on the artist Harry Smith -- a close friend of hers and highly influential figure in American culture, that lived in much obscurity.

Harry Smith was not only a photographer, filmmaker, artist, ethnomusicologist, and archivist, but he was responsible for collecting and organizing the Anthology of American Folk Music,

which laid the groundwork for the American folk revival, and artists like Bob Dylan. Smith and Smith met at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, and the young Patti found herself inspired by him and intrigued by his eccentricities.

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Adam Turner

Gil Scott-Heron

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(Gil Scott-Heron performed sets at 6:30 and 9 p.m. last night. This is a review of the earlier offering presented by Ed Mabrey and Black Pearl Poetry.)

He appeared jittery as he walked onstage, but once Gil Scott-Heron sat down and started playing keys and singing the blues about life getting folks down, it was on. For the next hour and a half, the 60-year old interpreted a number of solo and accompanied ditties about coal mining, the roots of jazz, and Fannie Lou Hamer (the late civil rights leader that's oft-attributed with the quote, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired"). By set's end, there was no question that he's still got it.

Throughout the mind-expanding poet's gig inside of one of MADCAP Theatres' cozy spaces, Scott-Heron chose pensive storytelling, positive vibes, and humor over the streetwise-heavy "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," "The Bottle," and "Johannesburg" that he's revered for. Decked out in all black threads and a grey wool cap, the set's best-delivered tune was "Winter in America," a piece (which is also the title of his 1974 album with Brian Jackson), according to Scott-Heron, is based on an old African folktale. Delivered by Scott-Heron's gruff voice weathered by a hard life that's included multiple stints in jail for drug possession, the song - a mixture of spoken-word poetry and soul-singing interludes that showcased a nice ode to Roy Ayers' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" - chronicled how the cold season doesn't get any love in popular song like spring and summer do.

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http://www.kathygriffin.net

Kathy Griffin at her best.

"I'm a 12-year-old gay boy at heart" comedian Kathy Griffin confessed during her performance at the Dodge Theatre Saturday. The statement summed up the sassy petite redhead in a nutshell. And that's what makes her so appealing. Like most kids, Griffin says what's on her mind without any editing.

During her nearly 90-minute stand-up act, Griffin ping-ponged her way through a variety of pop culture topics, from Andre Agassi's meth confession to balloon boy to MTV's wildly popular Jersey Shore to Oprah to her "close friend" Levi Johnston. Dressed head to toe in black, the firecracker didn't hold back about anything.

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