Your guide to top May concerts in metro Phoenix
Remember when people did stadium tours?
You’ll have your chance to see what that was like this month when Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres Tour makes its way to State Farm Stadium with H.E.R. and the formerly local Kacy Hill.
May also brings arena tours by Eric Church and Snoop Dogg on a bill with fellow hip-hop veterans Ice Cube and Warren G.
Here’s a look at those and other highlights of the month in metro Phoenix concerts.
Coldplay
The 21st century’s most successful band returns to Glendale as part of a stadium tour in support of last year’s “Music of the Spheres,” which sent “My Universe,” their unexpected BTS collaboration, to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100. This is Coldplay’s first appearance
in the Valley since 2016, when they played Gila River Arena on the A Head Full of Dreams Tour. They’re joined by H.E.R. and Phoenix native Kacy Hill.
Details: 7 p.m. Thursday, May 12. State Farm Stadium, 1 Cardinals Way, Glendale. Resale ticket prices vary. 800745-3000, ticketmaster.com.
Steve Hackett
The progressive-rock legend gained prominence as the lead guitarist for Genesis from 1970 to 1977, during which his playing was responsible for some of their more memorable moments, from “Horizons” and “Blood on the Rooftops” to “Firth of Fifth” and “Fountain of Salmacis.” He arrives on a Genesis Revisited Tour that finds him dusting off the songs they played on “Seconds Out,” a live recording captured just before he left the folk, during a tour in support of 1976’s “A Trick of the Tail.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $37-$57. 602-267-1600,
celebritytheatre.com.
Eric Church
This is the country star’s first tour to feature an in-the-round setup, with the stage at the center of the arena to accommodate as many fans as possible, and his first appearance in the area since last October, when he headlined Country Thunder. Church’s latest effort, “Heart & Soul,” is a triple album released in three installments, the majority of which was written and recorded on a 28-day trip to the mountains of North Carolina in the midst of the pandemic.
Details: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 14. Gila River Arena, 9400 W. Maryland Ave., Glendale. $34 and up. 623-772-3800, ticketmaster.com.
Olivia Rodrigo
The Grammy-winning superstar is touring in support of “Sour,” a doubleplatinum debut that earned the teen New Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards and was chosen as the best release of 2021 by Rolling Stone. At 18, she became the youngest artist ever to be nominated for the big four at the Grammys, winning Best New Artist. She was also Billboard’s Top Hot 100 Artist of the Year on the strength of two chart-topping singles (”Driver’s License” and “Good 4 U”) and another two that cracked the Top 10 (”Deja Vu” and “Traitor”).
Details: 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 17. Arizona Federal Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. 800-745-300, ticketmaster.com.
Bastille
These U.K. indie-rockers stormed the U.S. pop charts in 2013 with a six-timeplatinum breakthrough called “Pompeii.” That song was taken from Bastille’s first album, “Bad Blood,” which topped the U.K. charts and led to Bastille being named 2014’s British Breakthrough Act at the Brit Awards. They scored an even bigger U.S. hit in 2018 with the Marshmello collaboration “Happier.” This tour is in support of “Give Me the Future.”
Details: 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 17. Mesa Amphitheatre, 263 N. Center St. $45; $40 in advance. 480-644-2560, mesaamp.com.
Power 98.3 & 96.1 Powerhouse with Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube & Warren G
The morning after playing for an audience of millions as part of the historymaking Super Bowl XVI halftime show, Snoop Dogg announced this Glendale date with Ice Cube, Warren G and other artists yet to be announced. It’s been 30 years since Snoop Dogg grabbed the culture by the collar with a featured rap on Dr. Dre’s “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang,” following through with a string of classic hip-hop hits, from “What’s My Name?” and “Gin and Juice” to “Drop It Like it’s Hot.”
Details: 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 18. Gila River Arena, 9400 W. Maryland Ave., Glendale. Resale ticket prices vary. 623-772-3800, ticketmaster.com.
Alejandra Guzman and Paulina Rubio
This is the first time these Mexican superstars have toured together. And as Billboard suggested, it’s a bit of an unlikely pairing, given how often the two have been pitted against each other throughout their careers. At a press event quoted in Billboard, Guzman said, “They have always put us against each other, but that’s the magic. This tour will give people something to talk about. We both have a big heart, a great sensitivity, we are great fighters, and we have a large audience.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 18. Arizona Federal Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $49.50 and up. 800-745-300, ticketmaster.com.
Justin Hayward
This English singer-songwriter was enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues, for whom he wrote such classics as “Nights in White Satin,” “Tuesday Afternoon,” “Question,” “The Story in Your Eyes,” “The Voice,” “Your Wildest Dreams” and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 19. Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix. $45-$75. 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.
Destroyer
Dan Bejar gets into the groove on the oddly accessible “Labyrinthitis,” an album inspired by classic disco, Art of Noise and New Order, all without losing idiosyncratic quirks that defined his less danceable triumphs through the years. It’s an intriguing backdrop for his whimsical wordplay. musicOMH said “The full listening experience is perplexing, intriguing, sometimes perhaps infuriating, but rarely less than intoxicating.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 19. Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. Second Ave., Phoenix. $15. 602-716-2222, crescentphx.com.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
NPR summed up their music as “a mix of jam and indie and whatever else you can throw into the soup … very earnest, beautiful, political, loving rock n’ roll.” Or as Rainbow Kitten Surprise themselves describe it in their press materials: “As if channeling another dimension where genres simply don’t exist, Rainbow Kitten Surprise find harmony in unpredictability – weaving together lyrical poetry, hummable melodies, and a rush of instrumental eccentricities.”
Details: 8 p.m. Friday, May 20. Arizona Federal Theatre, 400 W. Washington St., Phoenix. $56 and up. 800-745-300, ticketmaster.com.
Vijay Iyer Trio
This pianist-composer has been named Jazz Artist of the Year in Downbeat Magazine on four occasions and he’s touring on an album called “Uneasy” that made the year-end critics’ list at Pitchfork, the New Yorker, NPR, the Boston Globe, Jazz Times, PopMatters, Brooklyn Vegan and KCRW, among others. He’ll be joined by bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Jeremy Dutton. Oh is the featured bassist on “Uneasy” and Dutton has frequently collaborated with Iyer in the past.
Details: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 21. Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 E. Second St. $32-$48. 480499-8587, scottsdaleperformingarts.org.