It can be hard to know all the concerts coming into the Phoenix area. Even more difficult to know when and where the good concerts are if one isn’t paying close attention. Here are SPMs sites to ease the my-favorite-band-was-here-last-night-and-I-didn’t-know?! pains.

Bandsintown.com – Select your location, range of dates, distance and price, and this site will do the rest. After signing up, users can get notifications when bands are coming to town, upload pictures from concerts on their profile and add friends. The best feature is the tag cloud of bands coming to town with users favorites in large bold font and with local band shows that users might like according to their taste listed as well. Simply putting the cursor over a band name reveals the date and place of the concert. Simple and wonderful.

Last.fm - Create a profile, download the application and it tracks what songs users listen and makes keeps a record of it own the user profile. With this information it also can show users charts of their musical listening habits of themselves and added Last.fm friends. The musically oriented site also, lo and behold, lists concerts coming to the users nearby area. The concert listings can be sorted by date and genre. Last.fm even places red stars next to concerts it think will be of interest to the particular user looking at the events list, and the concerts can be sorted to only show Last.fm’s recommendations as well. Users can also RSVP to shows and write comments on the event page. The personalized charts may be the most appealing thing about this site, but the recommended events are the icing on the cake.

Gruvr.com - A mashup of Google maps and concert listings. The site automatically detects the location of users and then searches and lists a defaulted amount of bands in the surrounding area. Some of the listings are double listed because of typographical errors or double listings online. The Top Shows Within 24 Miles is listed on the right with links to buy tickets. This site is for those most concerned with the distance and location of a band, or maybe someone who just wants to know where to find live music in their neighborhood tonight.

iConcertCal.com – Putting iTunes libraries to good use, iConcertCal is installed on the users computer and, after a few changes to the settings, users can see when the artist within their libraries are coming to town or releasing new albums. The trippy graphics of iTunes Visualizer are replaced by the bands listed in the iTunes library local concerts and release dates. This is an easy and hassle free way to check concerts coming to town, and it has a nifty feature of having a box pop-up to inform you that the artists the user is listening to has a upcoming local show or album release. The fact users don’t have to leave the comfort of their iTunes makes this application very appealing.

Reach the reporter at lana.burke@asu.edu.