E nthusiasm is contagious. When people are genuinely amped, others catch the mood. It’s one of the best things about being human. For the last few years, E.P. Bradley and his wife and bandmate, Kayla Long, have been putting together an absolute gem of a free local music festival, and this year, it’s bigger and better than ever. Tempe Noise Takeover (soon to be the well-known Valley acronym, TNT) has risen from the ashes of Tempe Noise Pop Takeover thanks to another organization saying, “Hey now…. ‘Tempe Noise Pop Takeover’ sounds a little too much like our name,” (It didn’t), and getting all legal. The best part about it is how gosh-darned excited literally everyone New Times spoke to about the event. If a free music festival wasn’t good enough, there is also an art exhibition at two venues. Proceeds from the event, including a nice portion of the liquor sales at Time Out Lounge and Yucca Tap Room, will be headed to local nonprofit organiza- tion One-n-ten, which provides essential support to LGBTQ+ youth. Rock out, do good and get your steps in while feeding your soul. What could be better on a Friday and Saturday night in Tempe? Somewhere, a mathematician is devising a formula proving that multiplying the enthusiasm a promotion team has for an event (F) by the talent of the bands involved (U) and the proximity of the venues (N) offers a measure of an event’s fun. Stats never lie, so it must be true. For those who are already sold on the concept, three Tempe venues are hosting a total of 40 bands (give or take, you know how bands are) on Friday, Sept. 5, starting at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 6, beginning at 4 p.m. The participating venues are Yucca Tap Room (21+), Time Out Lounge (21+), and Rocket Space (all ages). Google Maps guesstimates that you can walk between the three venues in about five minutes, but Google definitely does not consider stop- ping to say hi to friends or checking out the art in the venues. Walking venue to venue will be an excel- lent opportunity to turn yourself on to what the local music scene offers. This is of utmost importance to Bradley, who grew up in Phoenix but bounced around the country for many of his adult years, and is no stranger to putting together significant music events. “We did a thing called the Big Ass Boom Box in Portland (starting in 2014),” says Bradley, who is also a member of the band, Joan of Arkansas, and will be playing the festival on Saturday night. “We did about five of those, and we basically wanted to see how we could make a free festival. I wanted to make a thing where, you know, we were going to promote the hell out of it, get a good crowd, and get bands some good exposure.” While Tempe Noise Takeover is a labor of love for Bradley and Long, they realized that for the festival to grow from where it began in 2023, they needed help. Building a free festival takes time, money and dedica- tion, and the duo, who recently got married before Joan of Arkansas played a celebra- tory set on Aug. 2 at the Yucca, have enlisted several friends, as well as the Tempe Arts and Music Coalition (TAMC) and Coven PHX. With enough help, mountains can be moved. Critical to the shared vision: welcoming festival-goers of all ages, a first in 2025. “It’s super important,” Long says. “I’m a native Arizonan, born and raised, and when I was a kid, even in my early 20s, I could hardly scrounge up $10 to go see a show. Having the free element makes it accessible and equitable for a lot of people. I want a 16-year-old to show up that has never seen live music before and be able to walk into a fully curated art show and see some really rad musicians that we’ve handpicked over the past couple of months.” Rocket Space, the TAMC-led all-ages venue for the festival, is a creative hub of artists and art activists who foster events. It’s just down the sidewalk from Yucca Tap Room in Danelle Plaza, at the corner of Southern and Mill avenues. Jacqueline Swan, TAMC’s executive business director and board president, says the debut of the all-ages dimension of Tempe Noise Takeover is core to the orga- nization’s mission of creating free Tempe NOISe TAkeOver by TOm reArdON Two-night, walkable, free music festival turns you on to a slew of local bands and artwork. Tempe Noise Takeover festival rocked the Yucca Tap Room from Sept. 6 to 8, 2024, to support the Abortion Fund of Arizona. (Neil Schwartz Photography) Kayla Long and E.P. Bradley of Joan of Arkansas. (Ben Mejia) >> p 18
