College Times

This Saturday night, an eight-block stretch of Grand Avenue in Phoenix will host one of the summer's most affordable music festivals. Bands on Grand will feature 45 local bands at nine music clubs and art galleries within walking distance of each other. For just $10 in advance or $15 the day of the event, local music fans can purchase a wristband good for admission into all nine venues throughout the night.

Donald Martinez, the event's organizer, said he came up with the idea for Bands on Grand with the help of The Paper Heart's Scott Sanders.

"We had thought about this stuff before, having an event that showcased not only the venues on Grand Avenue but also the local music," Martinez said. "We had been talking about it for a while and Scott came up with the name ... and it kind of just grew from there."

Tony Poer, lead singer and multi-instrumentalist in Emperors of Japan, went to last year's inaugural Bands on Grand event as a fan. He said the turnout was good despite cold and rainy weather.

"What's cool is, last year, even if you missed some of the bands you wanted to check out, you still saw a lot of good bands no matter what happened," Poer said. "I got turned on to quite a few good bands last year, and I'm assuming the same thing's going to happen this year."

This year, Poer's band will play at the event, but he's still looking forward to seeing some of the other acts on the bill, including Colorstore, Sweet Bleeders, Chief Beef, Fatigo and the Minibosses. Poer said the proximity of the venues involved is one of the event's best features.

"Even if you're not turned on by a band, you can walk 50 feet further and see somebody else," he said.

Poer compared Bands on Grand to the Mill Avenue scene of yore.

"It used to be that you could go to Mill Avenue and there were three or four venues right there," Poer said. "If you didn't want to see one band, you could probably go to another venue and be totally cool with whoever was playing there. And that turned into Corporate Starbucks Avenue, and there's really not any one single place in Phoenix that has a concentrated amount of music venues."

Martinez agreed that Grand Avenue has the potential to fill the void left by the closure of most of the music venues on Mill Avenue.

"I think that is an underlying part of it," he said. "Mill Avenue was a really cool place to go, and it still is, but it became really commercialized. I think Grand Avenue is an alternative to that. There are little places popping up all over the place on Grand, and the ability to see that and do something like this kind of gives people a chance to see what's there."

Bands on Grand, multiple venues, Grand Avenue between Roosevelt and Van Buren Streets, Phoenix, Saturday, May 12, 7 p.m., $10 adv, $15 dos, pre-sale wristbands available at The Paper Heart, 750 N.W. Grand Avenue, 602.262.2020, and The Trunk Space, 1506 N.W. Grand Avenue, 602.256.6006, for a full list of bands and venues visit www.myspace.com/bandsongrand

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