▼ Music Time to Rock 10 April concerts we’re stoked for. BY BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN will be crammed with notable names and influential acts, blockbuster tours, and even a festival or three. One of the big reasons is the return of A Coachella. A number of bands, artists, and DJs are scheduled to perform at the high- profile music festival in Indio, California — including Billie Eilish, Orville Peck, Baby Keem, Omar Apollo, The Hu, Girl in Red, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard — over the course of two weekends also have dates in the Valley before, after, and in between their Coachella appearances. You’ll details about each of their respective gigs below in our rundown of the biggest concert in metro Phoenix in April, as well as info about such local festivals as PHXLIGHTS: Altered Orbit, Country Thunder Arizona, and KUPD’s annual UFest. Other highlights include shows by the Alan Parsons Live Project, Haim, Rob Zombie, Poppy, Deftones, Ace Frehley, Los Tigres del Norte, and Spiritualized. (And for even more live music happening in the Valley in April, check out Phoenix New Times’ concert listings.) 34 Lil Durk at Arizona Federal Theatre Rapper Lil Durk has been the longest- lasting champion of the drill scene that came out of Chicago. His latest album, 7220, released in March, gives us a new chapter in the legacy of the Chicago MC. The drill scene was a sound of the youth of Chicago and many of the artists that came out of that scene were very young when they found themselves in the public eye. At 29, Lil Durk has more years in the game than most his age. The 18 songs featured on 7220 offer a slew of first-rate features (like Future, Gunna, and Summer Walker), including a surprising appearance by country music star Morgan Wallen (who was embroiled in controversy after being caught on video using the N-word) on the track “Broadway Girls.” (The rapper stated on a recent episode of The Full Send Podcast that he doesn’t believe Wallen is racist.) It’s just one of the ways Durk continues flexing on the world. His tour in pril comes by its status as one of the biggest months for concerts in the Valley honestly. The next 30 days and nights (give or take) Sub Pop Records Masked country singer Orville Peck. support of 7220 will hit Arizona Federal Theatre, 400 West Washington Street, on Friday, April 8. The gig starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $39.50 to $79.50. JEFF KINNI AND BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN Alan Parsons Live Project at Celebrity Theatre Alan Parsons became a household name around the world via the succession of gold and platinum albums that began with Tales of Mystery and Imagination in 1976, which were credited to The Alan Parsons Project. Although his partnership with co-founder Eric Woolfson ended in the ’90s, it did allow for us to finally enjoy the music the duo made in concert, starting with a 1995 European tour. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you ... The Alan Parsons Live Project. “I do wish we’d done it sooner; the circum- stances weren’t right,” Parsons told Phoenix New Times in 2018. “Eric wasn’t interested in touring, and it was only [when] we parted company after making the Freudiana album [a rock opera about Sigmund Freud] and all the legal wrangles that ensued after that, that we decided to put another band together to support another album that year called Try Anything Once [Parsons’ first solo album].” The project brings its prog-rock masterpieces to Celebrity Theatre, 440 North 32nd Street, on Saturday, April 16. Start time is 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $35 to $125. SERENE DOMINIC Deadbeats Arizona 2022 at Phoenix Raceway Genreless music formed by heart-stopping beat drops and deep bass repetitions is the name of the game for electronic music group Zeds Dead. Since debuting in 2009, the duo of Dylan Mamid and Zachary Rapp-Rovan has been bringing electri- fying dance anthems to the masses. This month, they’ll do it at Deadbeats Arizona, an electronic dance music event at Phoenix Raceway, 7602 Jimmie Johnson Drive in Avondale, on Friday, April 22. NGHTMRE, Dimension, Dion Timmer, Rossy, and other DJs will perform at the annual event, which is returning after a two-year absence due to the pandemic. Gates open at 7 p.m. and tickets are $55 to $125. MEGAN MARPLES Orville Peck at The Van Buren Masked country singer Orville Peck’s 2019 debut LP, Pony, is a sprawling outlaw rhapsody, nodding at everyone from Elvis and Johnny Cash to The Velvet Underground and X. On Pony, Peck presents a vast, intersectional landscape for listeners to get lost in, one that he produced and assembled almost entirely by himself. Peck has played in many bands over the years in a variety of capacities. But with Pony, he finally had the reins from top to bottom. The album was an enormous hit, both critically and commercially, and earned Peck an appearance on Jimmy Kimmell and slots at festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach. His upcoming follow-up, Broncho, is set to be released in early April and will be “anchored in country,” Peck says, but will also include tips of the hat to bluegrass, country rock, and psych. He’s released singles from the albums in “chapters,” including dropping “Daytona Sand,” “Outta Time,” “C’mon Baby Cry,” and “Any Turn” in February. You’re very likely they’ll be included in Peck’s setlist when he performs at The Van Buren, 401 West Van Buren Street, on Tuesday, April 19. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and tickets are $35 to $38. ASHLEY NAFTULE AND BENJAMIN LEATHERMAN The Hu at The Van Buren The members of The Hu are badasses. That much is clear. Combining tradi- tionally Mongolian sounds — throat singing and the two-stringed morin khuur horsehead fiddle — with the bass, beats, and production techniques of modern rock, the four-piece band from Ulaanbaatar has a distinctive beefy sound that lends itself to energetic fist-pumping. The Hu were recently featured on Metallica’s special 30th anniversary Black Album reissue covers project, for which they covered the legendary band’s “Through the Never.” They’re making an appearance at both weekends of Coachella this year, but in between, they’ll tear up the stage at The Van Buren, 401 West Washington Street, as part of their Black Thunder Tour. The show starts at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, with an opening set by The Haunt. Tickets are $30 to $129. BRENDAN DRISCOLL Deftones at Arizona Federal Theatre At its best, Deftones’ take on alt-metal is lush, heady, and seemingly always on the verge of collapse. At its worst, the band’s music hovers somewhere between nu-metal and something even more innocuous. Wherever your opinion falls between these two extremes, you have to admit Deftones has survived longer than most bands from its era. Formed in 1988 by vocalist/guitarist Chino Moreno, lead guitarist Stephen Carpenter, >> p 36 APRIL 7TH– APRIL 13TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
