THE BEST concerts OF 2019
Garth Brooks set a new attendance record at State Farm Stadium in March. So if you’re wondering what the biggest Valley concert of 2019 was, that was definitely it.
But Brooks was not alone in drawing huge crowds in a year that saw the Rolling Stones play that same venue, while Billy Joel packed Chase Field in his first ballpark appearance in the Valley.
Here’s a look back at those shows, along with other major concert highlights from the past year.
Garth Brooks
Brooks didn’t just break State Farm Stadium’s attendance record — sorry Final Four. He also set a record for the largest crowd at any single-night performance in the history of Arizona. As to how he pulled that off, if you were there, you know the answer.
Brooks has always been a master at shrinking the size of a venue, as local fans were reminded in 2015 when he came out of retirement and sold out Talking Stick Resort Arena six times in two weekends after 19 years without a Valley concert.
It helps that the enthusiasm he invests in making a connection with each individual in attendance is beyond contagious. He’s a charismatic blend of downhome country singer, televangelist, rock star, career politician, motivational speaker and more than a little bit of professional wrestler.
Innings Festival
It took Eddie Vedder all of two songs – Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart” and Pearl Jam’s “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” – to transform Tempe Beach Park, where thousands had gathered to watch the singer headline Innings Festival, into the world’s largest open-air coffeehouse.
It was as intimate as a moment involving a chorus of thousands of festival-goers had a right to be — a truly magical experience capping a weekend with plenty of magic along the way, from an opening set by the Baseball Project to the contagious charms of Sheryl Crow and the great Liz Phair.
After setting the tone with “Supernova” and “Johnny Feelgood,” Phair reached back to 1993’s career-defining “Exile in Guyville” for “Never Said,” “6’1”” and “Help Me Mary” and closed her set a short while later with two more classics from that album, “(Expletive) and Run” and “Divorce Song.”
Queen + Adam Lambert
Queen + Adam Lambert made their first appearance on a Valley stage since “Bohemian Rhapsody” became the most successful biopic of all time. And the band’s sold-out Talking Stick Resort Arena concert felt at least a little like a victory lap for Queen, whose popularity has not only endured but transcended the comforting glow of nostalgia.
Adam Lambert is the second singer Brian May and Roger Taylor have recruited since Freddie Mercury’s passing. And he’s definitely risen to the challenge in a way that suits the music and the memory of Mercury much better than their previous attempt to fill the void. With Lambert, you get the flamboyance and the aweinspiring vocal range that makes it feel like he was born to sing these songs.
The Rolling Stones
The Stones’ State Farm Stadium appearance had to be rescheduled after Mick Jagger went under the knife in April to replace a heart valve. Not that surgery appeared to slow the singer down or cramp his style. He threw himself into the kind of physical performance you’d expect. It was all very Jagger, in total command of the stage, still impossibly skinny and blessed with conviction to burn and an energy reserve most artists half his age would envy. He rose to the challenge on vocals as well.
It’s been 44 years since Ronnie Wood replaced Mick Taylor on guitar, and he and Keith Richards still sound like they’re going for “boozy camaraderie” over anything resembling precision. And it suits the music and the image of the Rolling Stones, lending a rawness to the whole proceedings.
Eric Clapton
This was one of just three U.S. dates Eric Clapton performed in 2019 as a lead-in to his annual Crossroads festival. So the sense that we were seeing something special was a given going into Talking Stick Resort Arena.
Then he strolled on stage and wasted no time in proceeding to remind us how he came to be one of the more revered guitarists in the history of rock and roll, leading a stellar assortment of backing musicians in a set that put the focus squarely on the former Bluesbreaker’s long-standing love of the blues.
It’s been 52 years since some young artist with a love of British blues and a can of spray paint suggested that “Clapton is God.” But he’s still got the chops to inspire that kind of devotion, given the way the fans reacted to some of his flashier moments.
Country Thunder
Chris Stapleton brought Country Thunder Arizona to a fiery conclusion, headlining his first appearance at the festival with a set that was soulful, authentic, impassioned and raw. And that was after Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives’ wildly entertaining blend of humor, heart and the sort of musicianship that comes with being fronted by a man who spent his teens on tour with Lester Flatt.
The formerly local Dierks Bentley brought another local artist, Austin Burke, on stage to propose to his girlfriend (after joining Bentley on a song) and Tim McGraw’s set may have peaked when Clay Walker returned to the stage for “I Like It, I Love It,” a raucous duet that benefited greatly from the natural chemistry they seemed to share.
Lil Wayne and Blink-182
Melissa Fossum found this co-headlining tour unexpected and odd when it rolled into Ak-Chin Pavilion.
“Why opt for Lil Wayne?” she asked. “Weezy is influential in his own right and has been consistently releasing music and touring for two decades as well. Blink-182 could have gone on tour with just about anyone. A contemporary artist (and previous tourmate) like New Found Glory could have had more appeal, but Lil Wayne was an awesome and controversial choice. Lil Wayne doesn’t need Blink-182, but Blink-182 definitely need Lil Wayne.”
Cher
Randy Cordova wrote, “Cher concerts often are at their most magical when the diva is simply being herself. That was the case during the star’s show at Gila River Arena on Saturday night. For instance, Cher opened the night sporting an electric-blue wig, like it’s the most normal look in the world. Her imagination is fertile and wonderfully random. Why did Cher ride a life-size elephant puppet at one point in the show? I’m not quite sure, but I still went ‘Wow!‘”
He also praised her storytelling, long and loopy though her tales may be. “It’s a bit like watching a figure skater attempt a triple axel, and you hold your breath wondering if they will make the landing,” he wrote, adding, “Damn if Cher doesn’t always make the landing.”
Alice in Chains and Korn
Serene Dominic suggested renaming this one the Unhappy Together Tour after catching the two ‘90s veterans at Ak-Chin Pavilion.
“You can be forgiven for forgetting boy bands and Spice Girls ever happened,” he wrote, “when presented with song after song aimed at the non-conformist, disenfranchised teens of 25 years ago, now in their 40s, neither as financially stable as their parents nor willing by any stretch of the imagination to go quietly into that middle-aged good night.”
What kept it from being mistaken for whatever edition of the Happy Together tour was on the road this summer, he added, was that neither band can be relegated to the memory merchants pile as comfortably.
Bob Seger
Concert photos of a young Bob Seger splashed across the screen at Talking Stick Resort Arena, serving as both nostalgia and a clear reminder that the white-haired man onstage has been around the block a time or two since he wrote “Turn the Page” in 1970.
But for all the emotional weight that may have come with knowing this was Seger’s final curtain call in Phoenix, this was more a celebration than a bittersweet occasion.
That much was clear from the time he strolled out in his T-shirt and jeans at the helm of a 14-piece band that included the four-man Motor City Horns in addition to longtime saxophonist Alto Reed, to set the tone with “Shakedown,” his smile as contagious as ever.
Tool
Tool treated fans to a visually breathtaking night of dystopian art-rock spectacle, bringing their tour in support of “Fear Inoculum,” their first release in 13 years, to Glendale for a sold-out show that served as testament to their enduring cult appeal.
In a recent interview with Classic Rock, Tool drummer Danny Carey said, “I don’t think that we were ever a metal band. I can understand that maybe we’d get compared with Pink Floyd …” That comparison made perfect sense in Glendale, where at times, it felt like watching Pink Floyd through a darker looking glass.
Maynard James Keenan proved an enigmatic presence for a frontman who stations himself at the back of the stage, in the shadows, avoiding the spotlight and occasionally dancing like someone attempting to surf while very stoned.
Kiss
Paul Stanley went into this Gila River Arena stop on the End of the Road Tour promising not just a celebration but “the biggest party ever.”
“There’s nothing somber about it,” he said. “There’s nothing bittersweet. It’s all sweet. It’s an awesome, awesome time for the band and an awesome time to celebrate.”
And that’s exactly what their farewell tour delivered — a celebration of Kiss’ peculiar brand of showmanship that touched on many of their greatest hits — both musical and visual. Gene Simmons drooled blood and breathed fire.
Tommy Thayer shot sparks from the neck of his guitar like Ace Frehley, the founding member whose onstage persona he’s adopted. There was pyro galore. And Paul Stanley cemented his standing as rock-and-roll’s loopiest master of ceremonies.
Billy Joel
It’s been 45 years since Billy Joel hit the charts with a breakthrough called “Piano Man,” a bittersweet narrative based on real-life characters he met while hiding out in a piano bar for six months, entertaining the crowd.
And it’s pretty impressive how often he managed to make Chase Field feel more like a piano bar than the largest room he’s ever played in Phoenix, complete with a pretty good crowd for a Saturday (the show sold out), if mostly through his casual between-song conversations.
Joel and his band came out rocking with “Big Shot,” and over the course of the night he made his way through such obvious crowd-pleasing highlights as “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” “Allentown,” “She’s Always a Woman” and “My Life.”
Carrie Underwood
The “American Idol” alum was nearing the end of a hit-filled set at Talking Stick Resort Arena when she took a moment to address the crowd. “So I don’t know if you guys have noticed or not,” she said, “but this tour is full of ladies.” The night had begun with a brief performance by Runaway June, who gave a shout-out to second act, Maddie & Tae, saying, “We’ve got some girl power here,” before bringing their set to a spirited close with the empowering “Buy My Own Drinks.”
Underwood invited her openers back out to join her on a tribute to “a fraction of the incredible women that have allowed us to be able to do what we get to do,” including Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette. It was nice to see Underwood using her industry clout to make that kind of moment possible in a country music landscape that doesn’t seem to worry much about a level playing field.
Hollywood Vampires
I’ve only seen him with his hair up once – on the “Special Forces” tour in
1981. But Hollywood Vampires – a supergroup he formed with Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Tim Burton’s favorite actor, Johnny Depp – is Alice Cooper’s chance to let his hair down in more of a figurative sense.
In his other band, he has to stay in character. In Vampires, he doesn’t have to be that Alice. He’s just up there having fun. And it’s contagious.
To be clear, he didn’t come across that different than the Alice character he’s played for 50 years on stage when the Vampires tour played Talking Stick Resort out by the pool. There’s still a lot of sneering. Still a lot of striking poses. More than once, he brought out his signature top hat and cane.
New Kids on the Block
You can understand why New Kids on the Block would feel a certain sense of vindication in the fact that they’re still thriving after three decades, packing rooms as big as Talking Stick Resort Arena as the main attraction on a Mixtape Tour that also features Salt-N-Pepa, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and Naughty By Nature.
As Donnie Wahlberg said at one point, “All the so-called experts said it couldn’t last.” And then, of course, he added, “They were wrong.”
These days, New Kids deliver their crowd-pleasing “Magic Mike” moments with a playful of sense of self-awareness, from the pelvic thrusts of “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” to the flashing of abs and Wahlberg tearing off his New Kids shirt. It still gets the shrieks, but it’s served with a bit of a nod and a wink.
George Clinton
George Clinton did not seem at all like a man on the verge of retiring from the road as he gave up the funk with the latest edition of Parliament-Funkadelic, rocking the rotating stage of a festive Celebrity Theatre.
Yes, he sat down on occasion. He’s 78. But even then, you could tell he was fully invested in the performance, coaxing applause with that contagious grin of his for DeWayne “Blackbyrd” McKnight as the longtime fixture of the P-Funk universe tore it up on the epic guitar lead that was “Maggot Brain.”
For most of the concert, he was every bit as animated as he’s been in years, getting into the groove while surrounded by longtime members of the P-Funk All-Stars and new blood, including a few of his grandkids, on a stage that was crowded at times with more than 15 singers and musicians.
Mark Knopfler
It’s been rumored that this could’ve been Knopfler’s final tour – at least since April, when he told a crowd in Barcelona, “This is a beautiful way to say goodbye.” But when he talked about retiring during this show at Comerica Theatre, it felt more like a running joke from a legend who turned 70 in August. At one point, Knopfler told the crowd, “I’ll come along one night and just fall over, and that’ll just take care of everything.” And then he laughed.
He played five Dire Straits songs, from an epic “Romeo and Juliet” to an encore-opening version of “Money for Nothing” that had more people standing than any other song in his roughly twohour performance. But it never felt like a nostalgia tour.
Slayer
As Bob Dylan once so memorably asked, “Oh, mama, could this really be the end?”
These metal icons have been staging a farewell tour long enough to make a fairly reasonable person wonder if they really mean it. Our reviewer is a fairly reasonable person, after all. And this is what he had to say for this Ak-Chin Pavilion performance.
“As this is just the lighting of the fuse of Slayer’s farewell blowout, it probably looked to them like the first of many
nights on an itinerary. Hundreds more plectrums and drumsticks have yet to be tossed out. Millions of fans have yet to be thanked and blown kisses from the stage. Yet for a moment, Araya looked genuinely moved and looked like he was about to say something before mumbling what could’ve been little more than ‘Thanks, we love you’ or ‘We’ll miss you.’ For a band that looked in no way tired, a band that could easily do these songs for another 10 years, farewell didn’t seem even remotely close to forever.”
Paul McCartney
As the eternally youthful legend so playfully noted at Talking Stick Resort Arena after following “Lady Madonna” with “Eleanor Rigby,” “One thing is, we know which songs you like.”
So Paul McCartney spends his tours striking a masterful balance between his audience’s expectations for a night of Beatles classics – there were 22 in this performance (23 if you include the Quarrymen’s “In Spite of All the Danger,” which was brilliant) – and his own need to remind you that he hasn’t stopped creating worthy new additions to a legacy that couldn’t be more daunting. He played three songs from his latest album, “Egypt Station,” and they held their own against the classics.
Dave Matthews Band
In reviewing this Ak-Chin Pavilion performance, Ashley Naftule wrote, “To paraphrase Howlin’ Wolf: The Dave Matthews Band were dressed for comfort not for speed. Decked out in casual tees, shorts and pants, everyone in the group looked like a dad who had just got off his shift at the sporting goods store and cracked open a cold one with the boys. Casual Friday was their look and their onstage demeanor: Chilled-out, focused on the sweet jamming and leaving the bad dancing to the crowd.”
He also noted that “while the big jams were definitely crowd-pleasers, some of the most affecting moments of the night were the quieter songs.”
Pink
There’s making an entrance and then there’s Pink.
Suspended from what appeared to be a chandelier, the singer bungee-jumped and twirled her way through a spirited call to “Get the Party Started” at Gila River Arena — the same way she opened the launch of her Beautiful Trauma Tour at Talking Stick Resort Arena. That’s just what she does. Or part of what she does.
She’s also an amazing singer, as she proved repeatedly, belting out song after song at full power despite a stage show as demanding as any you’re likely to see.
Snoop Dogg
“Anybody smokin’ that sticky icky icky?“Snoop Dogg took the party atmosphere inside the Phoenix Open Coors Light Birds Nest to a whole new level, treating the fans to a West Coast party packed with hits while exuding the laid-back charisma that made him a star.
He was backed by a great live funk band and a DJ on a crowded stage that also featured dancers. After “Sexual Eruption,” he offered a “shout out to the ladies on the poles.” He also brought along a crew of other rappers and his mascot, Nasty Dogg, who fired T-shirts to the crowd and more than lived up to his name at one point, whipping out a sex toy.
Phil Collins
It’s been a decade since Phil Collins first revealed that he had to give up drumming due to nerve damage caused by dislocated vertebrae. After making his way to center stage at Talking Stick Resort Arena, Collins took a seat, remaining seated for all but one song, “In the Air Tonight.”
If health concerns have led the legendary drummer to revamp his whole approach to live performance, they haven’t stopped his shows from selling out, including his first Valley concert since 2004. And fans in turn were treated to an often joyous celebration of his legacy that touched on many of his most enduring solo hits, a smattering of lesser-known material and a three-song sampling of his time in Genesis
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson and the Zombies brought their Something Great from ‘68 Tour to Phoenix, treating the crowd at Comerica Theatre to faithful recreations of some of the greatest, most ambitious pop recordings ever made, including “Odessey and Oracle,” the Zombies’ masterpiece, performed in its entirety.
The fact that Wilson at 77 is even touring after suffering a nervous breakdown on a flight to Houston in 1964 is something of a minor miracle. That he sits motionless behind a rarely played piano that’s more a security blanket than an instrument at this point, blankly staring off into the distance, rarely singing and frequently missing his cues to come in when he does sing somehow underscores the bittersweet appeal of his best work.
Pot of Gold
This festival drew thousands of music fans to Phoenix’s Steele Indian School Park for St. Patrick’s Day weekend (hence the name). With Post Malone, Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg headlining, it almost had to be the biggest hiphop festival in Valley history.
And if it didn’t go as smoothly as it could have on opening day, the event managed to end on a high note with a large crowd gathered at the church of Post Malone. Other highlights included Ice Cube, Tinashe, Lil Wayne and Doja Cat. But the artist with the best set of the weekend may have been Jhene Aiko.
The fact that Aiko’s most compelling onstage foil was a female harpist would’ve been enough to make her stand out. But that was merely one of several aesthetic choices that contributed to elevating her performance, which was soulfully subdued and artistically challenging but also focused on connecting with the fans, a side of live performance that too often gets forgotten in shows as artistically focused as Aiko’s.