Phoenix Tickets Finder

Country music star Kenny Chesney is on tour and has a stop planned a Cricket Pavilion in May. It turns out he is still famous for something other than marrying Renee Zellweger then having the marriage annulled. Here is some info from his wiki:

Kenneth Arnold Chesney (born March 26, 1968) is an American country music singer. He became known for his songs “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” and “When the Sun Goes Down”.

His first major hit was “Fall in Love,” which reached the Country Top 10 in 1995. The follow-up, “All I Need to Know,” also reached the Top 10, but ensuing follow-ups were not so successful. In 1996, he scored the Top 5 hit, “Me and You,” and returned again with “When I Close My Eyes” in early 1997. He hit No. 1 for the first time with “She’s Got It All” in August 1997; the song spent three weeks atop Billboard magazine’s country singles chart.

Other No. 1 hits included “How Forever Feels” (six weeks in 1999); “The Good Stuff” (seven weeks in 2002); “There Goes My Life” (seven weeks in 2003); and “When the Sun Goes Down” (a duet with Uncle Kracker in 2004). Notable No. 2 hits include “That’s Why I’m Here” (1998); “Young” (2002); “Big Star” (2003); “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem” (2003); “The Woman With You” (2004) and “Who You’d be Today (2005)”.

While some believe Chesney’s music shows the influence of Jimmy Buffett and John Mellencamp. He often performs several traditional country songs at his shows (particularly, music from George Jones). He won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year honor in both 2004 and 2006.

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this upcoming concert at the Cricket Pavilion box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Crooner and Jazz Man Harry Connick Jr. is bringing his band into town in May for a show at the Dodge Theater. It ought to be a good time for all — big band stuff always is. Here is some info in Harry for his wiki:

Connick was born Joseph Harry Fowler Connick in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 11, 1967. His father, Harry Connick, Sr., of Irish Catholic descent is the former district attorney of New Orleans from 1977-2003. His New York-born Jewish mother is a former Louisiana Supreme Court justice. His parents also owned a record store. Connick’s musical talents soon came to the fore when he learned the keyboards at the age of three, played publicly at six and recorded with a local jazz band at 10. His musical talents were developed at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and under the tutelage of Ellis Marsalis and James Booker.

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With Connick’s growing reputation, director Rob Reiner asked him to provide a soundtrack for his 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally…, starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. The soundtrack consisted of several standards, including “It Had to Be You”, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, and achieved double-platinum status in the United States. He won his first Grammy for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance for his work on the soundtrack.

Connick made his screen debut in Memphis Belle (1990), about a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber crew in World War II. In that year, he began a two-year world tour. In addition, he released two albums in July 1990: the jazz trio album Lofty’s Roach Souffle and another album of standards titled We Are in Love, which also went double platinum. We Are in Love earned him his second consecutive Grammy for Best Jazz Male Vocal.

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Dogde Theater box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Sesame Street Live is taking over the Dodge Theater for a few days in early May. Here is some info on the show from the wiki:

Sesame Street Live is the live touring show based on the children’s television show Sesame Street.

Produced by Minneapolis-based VEE Corporation, the show opened on September 17, 1980, with a production of Sesame Street Live “Missing Bird Mystery” playing at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN. Sesame Street Live is now produced as three or four separate tours, each performing a different show, with its own plot, characters, scenery, and soundtrack. Shows are performed in arenas and theatres around the world, generally working on an eight to ten month touring schedule ending in the spring and resuming in the late summer. While in the United States, Sesame Street Live is a bus and truck show, with the equipment moving by two or three trucks and the personnel travelling by bus. (This is contrasted with a show that travels by rail, such as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.) Outside of the US, air cargo and sea containers are used.

The shows feature original music scores and songs, complemented with old favorites from the show, and professional dancers as costumed characters performing the parts of the Muppets. The productions are done in a theatrical style. In an arena, a stage is built and a false proscenium is created to make the experience more similar to going to a theatre.

It ought to be a blast for the kids. If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Dogde Theater box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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The Professional Bull Riders tour is coming into the Phoenix area in June for gig at Jobing.com arena. This should be a cool sight to see. Wikipedia says this about the PBR:

Professional Bull Riders, Inc. is an international professional bull riding organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. PBR events are televised on Versus, FOX and NBC. More than 800 cowboys, from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico hold PBR memberships.

The organization began in 1992 through the efforts of 20 professional bull riders, who each contributed $1000. Since that time, the organization has grown to include four tours which collectively stage over 100 events a year. Prize money has exploded from $250,000 in 1994 to over $10 million in 2006.

The PBR’s premier tour, the Built Ford Tough Series, includes 31 events across the country every year. Pyrotechnics, pulsating music and special effects open each event, and each features the top 45 riders in the world at the time. Riders attempt to stay on a bucking bull for eight seconds, and rides are judged based on both the rider’s and the bull’s performance. At the end of each event, the top 15 riders compete in the short round, or “short go”; the rider with the highest point total from the entire event becomes the winner.

Total viewership, including event attendees and the television audience, grew 51.93 percent between 2002 and 2004. In 2004, 16.4 million fans watched or attended a PBR event.

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Jobing.com Arena box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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I had to lookup Heaven and Hell just to figure out what the, umm, heck it is. Wikipedia says this:

Heaven and Hell is a music collaboration featuring current Black Sabbath members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler along with former members Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice. Founding member Iommi decided to name the group Heaven and Hell as the original lineup of Black Sabbath (featuring Butler, Iommi, Bill Ward and Ozzy Osbourne) is still active but on hiatus.

The possibility of a reunion of the lineup which created the Black Sabbath album Mob Rules in 1981 was first announced on the Spanish site Rafabasa on September 28, 2006. [1]

Previously (August 16), Ronnie James Dio also announced that he and Tony Iommi had written a new track for the Black Sabbath box set consisting of music from the two eras in which he was present in the band.

Rumours of such a reunion were officially confirmed by the following announcement on Tony Iommi’s official website:

The highly anticipated reunion of Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward appears to be shaping up and taking a new form. After various promoters have approached their respective management; the guys have started taking all of this very seriously, as they have wanted to reunite for some time now. It looks as if the new shape may be that of Heaven and Hell - that’s the moniker that the band is likely to use on their new venture.

If all goes well, Heaven and Hell should be hitting the road in early 2007.

So there you have it — it’s a bunch of geezers playing metal still. Or if you prefer, a bunch of metal legends still rocking out…

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Dogde Theater box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Classic rockers ZZ Top have a show scheduled at the Dodge Theatre in April. I’ve always sort of thought this band was the hard rock equivalent of A Flock of Seagulls — known more for their hair than anything else. But they did have some hits and seem to have a solid fan base. Their wikipedia article says this:

ZZ Top is an American blues rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The group members are Billy Gibbons (guitar and vocals), Dusty Hill (bass guitar and vocals), and Frank Beard (drums). They hold the distinction of being one of the few rock groups still composed of its original members after more than 35 years, and until September 2006, the same manager/producer, Bill Ham.

They reached the peak of their commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, scoring many hit songs during that era; but they remain together today and are still touring and releasing albums. ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2004. Summarizing their music, Cub Koda wrote, “As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America’s finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom … while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.”[1] Their song lyrics often feature sexual innuendo and humor.

Gibbons and Hill are also famous for their nostalgic guitars, many of which were co-designed with master luthier John Bolin of Bolin Guitars.

Nearly as well-known as their music is the group’s appearance: Gibbons and Hill are always pictured wearing sunglasses (a nod to their 1979 song “Cheap Sunglasses”), similar (if not matching) clothing, and their trademark chest-length beards while, perhaps ironically, Beard sports a mustache but not a beard. In 1984, the Gillette Company reportedly offered Gibbons and Hill US$1 million apiece to shave their beards for a television commercial, but they declined.[1]

The origin of the band’s name was not officially known for many years. Some theories included: the two brands of rolling paper, Zig-Zag and Top; a tribute to blues legend Z. Z. Hill; Z-shaped barn-door braces Gibbons once saw at a farm; and/or Billy Gibbons seeing the two words running together on a dilapidated bill board. The real origin, as told by Billy Gibbons and also recorded in his new book (Rock + Roll Gearhead), is derived from the name of blues master B.B. King. They wanted to call themselves Z.Z. King, but that sounded too similar to their blues legend hero. They figured that “King” was at the “top” so thus settled on ZZ Top.

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Dogde Theater box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Actor/Comedian/Singer Jamie Foxx has a show coming up in April at the Dodge Theatre. I’m not sure if this will be more concert or comedy or what but fans of Foxx will probably be happy whatever he does. Here is some info on him from wikipedia:

Jamie Foxx (born Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American actor, Grammy-nominated R&B singer, pianist, and comedian.

He came to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to start a music career. He released an album in 1994, called Peep This and later sang the theme for Any Given Sunday. Even as he pursued a music career, Foxx did stand-up at comedy clubs, mostly on open-mic nights. On his name: “I wrote down all these unisex names at this comedy place because they would always choose the girls to go up… So I wrote down Stacy King, Tracy Brown, Jamie Foxx… And they picked Jamie Foxx. I got up, had a great night and that’s how the name stuck.” In California, he won the 1991 Oakland Comedy Competition and then joined the cast of In Living Color, which at the time starred Keenen Ivory Wayans.

In 1995, his daughter Corrine Marie Bishop was born. Corrine was Foxx’s date to the 2005 Academy Awards.

His first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone’s 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where Foxx played a heavy-partying football player. Considering his athletic background, it wasn’t much of a stretch. He has since evolved into a respected dramatic actor. Following Any Given Sunday, Foxx was featured as taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His real standout performance, however, was his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Foxx is only the second male, and the first African American, in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray. The only other male actor to achieve this was Al Pacino.

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Dogde Theater box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Bill Gather has a big show coming up soon at Jobbing.com arena. Wikipedia says this about him:

William J. Gaither (born March 28, 1936) is an American singer and songwriter of southern gospel and Contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife, Gloria. Besides performing solo and with his wife, Gaither has appeared as part of the Bill Gaither Trio, the Gaither Vocal Band, and as a part of his “Homecoming” groups.

Since Gaither first began singing with the Bill Gaither Trio in the 1950s, he has constantly been performing. The Bill Gaither Trio originally consisted of Bill, his brother Danny Gaither and his sister Mary Ann Gaither. In about 1964 Bill’s wife, Gloria, took the place of Mary Ann. The trio sang traditional gospel songs along with original compositions by the Gaithers that gave them a more contemporary feel.

Gaither has a high bass voice (or low baritone), and would often sing while playing a guitar with the Bill Gaither Trio. He also plays the piano.

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Jobing.com Arena box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Singer/songwriter John Mayer has an upcoming tour stop in the Phoenix area. (No, it’s not spelled Mayor, Mare, Maher, or Maier…) I doubt he’s bringing Jessica Simpson with him though. His Wikipedia entry says this:

John Clayton Mayer (born on October 16, 1977) is an American Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist. Originally from Connecticut, he briefly attended Berklee College of Music before moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1998, where he refined his skills and began gaining a following. After originally performing mainly acoustic rock, in 2005 he made a transition towards the blues genre with the formation of the John Mayer Trio. The blues influence can also be seen on his latest studio album Continuum, which was released on September 12, 2006. Mayer won two Grammy awards for Pop Vocal Album for Continuum and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Waiting on the World to Change” at the 49th Grammy Awards in February 2007.

After playing the guitar for several years, Mayer enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of nineteen. After two semesters, he chose to cut his studies short in favor of a move to Atlanta, Georgia, with his college friend and bandmate, Clay Cook. They began their career in earnest there, quickly making a name for the two-man band, LoFi Masters. They frequented the local coffeehouse and club circuit in venues like Eddie’s Attic. After the band LoFi Masters split due to creative differences, Mayer began his solo career. With the help of local producer/engineer Glenn Matullo, Mayer recorded the independent EP Inside Wants Out. Cook is also cited as the co-writer of many of the songs from the album, most notably, the ballad “Comfortable.”

If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Jobing.com Arena box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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Alt Rock rising stars The Shins have a show coming up in early April at the Celebrity Theater. These guys have been getting a lot of buzz lately so this show is like to sell out. Here is some info from their wiki:

The Shins are a musical group on Sub Pop records comprising singer, songwriter and guitarist James Russell Mercer, keyboardist/guitarist/bassist Martin Crandall, bassist/guitarist Dave Hernandez, drummer Jesse Sandoval, and Eric Johnson of the Fruit Bats. Their sound is commonly described as indie rock, drawing on several musical genres including pop, alternative and folk. The Shins are based in Portland, Oregon.

The Shins began in 1997, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a side project of Mercer (previously of Blue Roof Dinner) and Neal Langford, who were both members of the lo-fi musical group Flake (formed in 1992). By 1999, Flake (which by then had been renamed Flake Music) was disbanded and all of its former members became The Shins. The band released two 7″ singles on Omnibus, “Nature Bears A Vacuum” (1999) and “When I Goosestep” (2000), before going on tour with Modest Mouse. During the tour, they were met in San Francisco by a Sub Pop representative, who eventually offered to release their debut album.

The Shins’ first album was 2001’s Oh, Inverted World, released to critical acclaim for its lyrically deft, jangly pop sound. Dave Hernandez, former member of Scared of Chaka, joined the group following the departure of bassist Neal Langford. In 2002, the band relocated to Portland, Oregon. Chutes Too Narrow followed in 2003 to much fanfare in indie music circles, featuring even more multi-layered lyrical inventions and a musical approach that explored new genres, song structures, and levels of production fidelity.

If you can’t find the tickets you need to this show at the box office here are the places to shop for after market tickets:
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Ok so My Little Pony Live is coming to Jobing.com arena in Glendale soon. It turns out that this show is produced by the same people who do Sesame Street Live. The idea is that it is like a play (musical actually) but the actors are the My Little Pony, umm, ponies. My Little Pony has been a favorite for little girls for a long time now. We get this from wikipedia:
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Up and coming alt-rock quartet Brand New has a show coming up in Phoenix. These guys from somewhere in New York state have received quite a bit of airplay and now are signed to Interscope records. If you are having trouble finding tickets to this show at the Marquee Theatre box office here is where you should look for after market tickets:

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