Danielle Ponder trades The Van Buren for a Valley Bar basement in March

The Rochester soul singer hasn't played Phoenix since 2022; she comes back March 3 with a new Dead Oceans album and a 250-capacity room under Roosevelt Row.

The last time Danielle Ponder sang in Phoenix, it was in a 1,900-capacity hall. The next time, there will be about 250 people close enough to see her breathe.

Danielle Ponder plays Valley Bar on Wednesday, March 3, 2027, at 8 p.m. The date was announced Oct. 13, and tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster/TicketWeb. It is her first Phoenix show since Oct. 7, 2022, when she played The Van Buren, more than four years between visits for a singer whose voice made that bigger room feel full.

A lot has happened since then. Ponder, the Rochester, New York, vocalist who built her following on a big R&B and soul voice, released her debut album, *Some of Us Are Brave*, in 2023. Last month she followed it with *Everything Has Changed*, her second album, out Oct. 9 on Dead Oceans. She signed to the label in a partnership with Phoebe Bridgers, and the new record was produced by Grammy winner Mike Elizondo with Barney Lister. The singles leading up to it, "Power," "Sun and Moon" and "God of You," pointed to a bigger, more confident sound, and the title is no accident: the tour carrying the record is billed *Everything Has Changed: The Tour*, and the Valley Bar listing carries the same name.

More than four years later, she comes back with a new record and a basement room.

The room is half the story. Valley Bar is, as its own neighbors like to say, literally underground: a basement club beneath a 1949 building downtown that once housed The Hub art galleries, Bickoff's Deli, Theater Triad and the Sub Cultural Arts Center, and later sat empty as storage. Charlie Levy, the promoter behind Crescent Ballroom, opened it in May 2015 as a 250-capacity lounge, two years before he opened The Van Buren. Levy has since sold The Van Buren to Live Nation but kept Valley Bar and Crescent independent, which makes this booking a small homecoming of its own: Ponder moves from the Levy-built big room to the Levy-owned small one.

For the audience, that means a very different night from 2022. A voice that filled a former car dealership on Van Buren Street will be working in a low-ceilinged basement with a bar along one wall, where the back of the room isn't far from the front. A Wednesday-night show in a room this size also tends to go quickly, so anyone who saw her at The Van Buren and wants to compare notes should not sit on it.

What to expect musically is mostly the new album. Ponder has described *Everything Has Changed* in interviews as a record about upheaval and growth, and a tour named after it will lean on those songs, with room for the *Some of Us Are Brave* material that brought her here the first time.

Phoenix has waited four years and change for this one. It's going to be a tight squeeze, and probably a loud singalong.

Sources: Danielle Ponder announces second album Everything Has Changed — The Line of Best Fit (thelineofbestfit.com); Danielle Ponder Announces New Album 'Everything Has Changed' — Clash (clashmusic.com); Danielle Ponder Shares "God of You" — FLOOD (floodmagazine.com); Danielle Ponder signs to Dead Oceans in partnership with Phoebe Bridgers — Dead Oceans (deadoceans.com); Everything Has Changed: Danielle Ponder Opens Up — Clash (clashmusic.com); Rochester vocalist Danielle Ponder — WHEC (whec.com); Valley Bar: a 10-year look at Phoenix's underground venue — Phoenix New Times (phoenixnewtimes.com); New Downtown Phoenix Music Venue Valley Bar to Open in May — Phoenix New Times (phoenixnewtimes.com); Crescent Ballroom turns 15 — Hoodline (hoodline.com); Danielle Ponder at Valley Bar — tickets (TicketWeb) (ticketweb.com)