Twin Temple brought their Doomed Lovers tour to The Van Buren on September 28, carrying a sound that remains an unusual fit for the rock and metal audiences that have embraced them. Alexandra and Zachary James draw from early rock and roll, soul, and doo-wop, pairing familiar musical traditions with lyrics about Satanism, sexuality, and individual freedom. The devil comes dressed for a different decade.
Alexandra handles vocals, with Zachary on guitar. Together, they have built a band whose imagery can overshadow the musical background behind it. Underneath the occult presentation are references to classic American pop, romance, and heartbreak. That foundation helps explain how Twin Temple can share bills with artists whose music sounds little like their own.
The stop in Phoenix came during a busy stretch of the Doomed Lovers tour. Their fall itinerary mixed headlining gigs with dates supporting Danzig and Acid Bath, with The Van Buren date falling between an Anaheim appearance and their September 29 opening slot for Jack White at the Hollywood Palladium. The ability to move from music scene to music scene, from Danzig to Jack White, has become part and parcel of the band’s story, appealing to genres many fans would consider extreme opposites.
This summer also brought a public dispute over where their performance belongs. In July, Twin Temple announced that they had been removed from two scheduled shows with Charley Crockett, attributing the decision to remove them stemming to their Satanic imagery. White subsequently, and very publically, invited them to support his Los Angeles show, giving the duo another stage amid the controversy.
Crockett later cited production requests his team could not accommodate and concerns about the performance fitting his all-ages audience. The accounts differed, but the result matters: Twin Temple were removed from two Crockett dates, and simply describing the situation as a series of departures from other tours would stretch the story beyond what happened.
There was a musical connection between Twin Temple and Crocket to warrant that original booking. Twin Temple worked with Shooter Jennings on Doomed Lovers, bringing classic American songwriting and country influences into the record. In an interview with Loudwire, Alexandra and Zachary discussed their admiration for Crockett’s music and the possibility of bringing different audiences together. The shared influences were there, even if the partnership did not survive the stage presentation.
That history gives the current tour some context, but it should not become the entire conversation. Twin Temple have a musical identity that extends beyond the argument around their imagery. Their use of vintage sounds gives the lyrics an extra bit of bite, taking styles associated with sweet devotion and letting them entertain considerably darker company.
Phoenix’s own Meldamor opened the evening, bringing a local connection and a different musical background to the bill. Mel and Dave Parley make up the electronic duo, with Mel handling lyrics and vocals and Dave contributing programming, percussion, and vocals. Dave, formerly of Prayers, carries that experience into a project drawing from darkwave, post-punk, and metal. Their artist biography places love, grief, and anxiety at the center of the music.
Meldamor has steadily expanded its catalog through releases including Never Go Back, As the Enemy Dies, My Ode to You, and True Sacrifice. This year brought singles such as “Soul Crusher,” “Sword Like Me,” and “Doom Slayer,” followed by “Faces” in September. Their appearance at The Van Buren arrived during an active period for the Arizona project.
The harder titles leave room for a more vulnerable purpose. Meldamor describes “Doom Slayer” as encouragement for people working through difficult periods in their lives. That mix of darkness and perseverance gives the duo something in common with the headliner, despite the distance between their electronic foundations and Twin Temple’s doo-wop roots.
The pairing gave Phoenix two distinct approaches to dark music, with an Arizona act sharing the bill with a band reaching audiences across genres. Twin Temple’s road continues with the announced Doomed Lovers: Resurrection tour in 2027, running from February 19 in Salt Lake City through March 20 in Los Angeles. Meldamor, meanwhile, gives anyone who discovered them at The Van Buren a growing catalog to follow closer to home.
