The 3rd Kilby Block Party, a two-day music festival in SLC, included Utah-based performers and headliners Mac DeMarco and Phoebe Bridgers.
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The DLC is a small, vibrant music club located deep in the heart of downtown’s popular arcade bar Quarters. Over the past year, the spot’s become a quality small room option for touring bands criss-crossing the west, as well as a much-needed venue for local musicians to headline a weekend night show.
After a year in business, certain patterns have started to emerge, none of them lost on the club’s manager, Shaina Floyd.
“I love doing this because I often hear local bands that I would’ve never found otherwise,” Floyd says. “And honestly, it’s really cool to be able to start hosting slightly-larger touring bands and then getting to pair local bands with those touring bands.”
Running a music schedule five days a week, Floyd sees the touring bands earlier in the week, as they make their to/from Denver and Seattle and other western villages. On the weekends, three-band local bills tend to predominate in a space that’s licensed for 200 concert-goers.
Despite the heavy commitment to local sounds, Floyd admits that for the first year, attendance has been “completely hit-or-miss.” That’s thanks to a few factors: COVID regulations and the public’s on/off desire to attend live events; local bands arguably playing too many shows in the market; and folks still finding the venue for the first time, even after 12 months of operation.
There is a bit of a secret weapon that The DLC enjoys, as dozens of folks are playing old-style arcade games in the space, seemingly at any time the bar’s open. Some serious numbers come through on the weekends, when nearby State Street is humming. Floyd says that “stragglers” from Quarters’ “captive audience” have been known to hear sounds that appeal to them, drifting into the room after arriving at Quarters with no intention of catching live music.
In the next year, The DLC may see some very light programming tweaks.
“I’d like to do more events for the holidays,” Floyd says, “and more social events. Maybe have people come up with idea for special showcases. I’d like to get an acoustic night going and different monthly events. We really want to help build the music scene.”
At some point in 2022, there’s a good chance that a second Quarters will be operation. This one will be in Sugarhouse, with a smaller footprint and a kitchen but without an indoor music venue. Construction’s been underway for a bit and the owners have become regulars at the monthly meetings of the DABC in order to stake their claim to an upcoming license.
As that process plays out, The DLC will be hosting its first anniversary party, an event slated for Saturday, May 28. A Battle of the Bands will be featured that night, with Scheissters, Strawberry Cough, Slick Velveteens, Cudney and Beneath the Sparrows taking part. The winner receives a trophy and a cool $1,000. It’s a 21 and up event with $5 tickets pre-sold at quartersslc.com.
The DLC’s first year of operation has been a process, the room’s brightly-colored stage, full bar and rock’n’roll-plus booking policy finding a foothold. Floyd figures that the club’s growth is both mirroring and pushing along the overall local scene.
On becoming a true music city, Floyd figures that “We’re getting there. There are a lot more venues opening up, including downtown. So we’re slowly getting there.”
If You Go
5 E. 400 South, SLC
801-477-7047
quartersslc.com/the-dlc
The Icelandic rock band KALEO (spelled with all caps) kicked off the Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Season on May 18, 2022 with Nashville-based rocker Bones Owens opening the festivities.
Bones Owens provided the thunder and KALEO brought the lightning and burned the house down. Owens started off with “Keep it Close,” a southern-fried hard driving rock number that set the stage for a perfect night on the mountain. Owens poured through five additional razor-sharp numbers bringing the crowd to their feet. Fans who love propulsive southern rock will want to keep Bones Owens on their radar.
KALEO took the stage and gave us all a history lesson on American roots music. They artfully blended blues, rock, folk, gospel and even a hint of late ’70s disco into a fresh new sound. They showed us that American roots music is eclectic, progressive and influenced by many contributions—even four artists from Iceland.
They opened with their new single “Break My Baby” and rolled into their signature sound with “Broken Bones.” KALEO is a relatively new band, hitting our shores in 2016 with a fantastic debut album A/B. In 2021 they released their sophomore album Surface Sounds. With only two full-length albums under their belt, you’d think their arsenal of music would be as thin as our mountain air, but both albums are loaded with great songs that make KALEO feel like a more seasoned band.
The Icelandic quartet was accompanied by two backup vocalists (Jessica Jolia and April Rucker) who gave the already soulful blues sound a dynamic gospel feel. “Hot Blood” had the crowd rising to their feet like a tent show revival. KALEO then took us on a magical mystery tour through the 1970s with “Gringo.” Frontman JJ Juliusson pulled a falsetto out of his vocal quiver for this one, reminiscent of the Rolling Stones circa 1978 (think “Miss You”).
KALEO moved with fluidity back to their signature sound, a dark brooding soulfulness with “Brother Run Fast” and “Way Down We Go.” These two incredible songs are a must for any Sunday morning playlist that’ll give you all the spirituality you’ll need without leaving the house.
The 3,000 or so lucky fans who were able to attend this sold-out show got a bounty of great American roots music. No wonder KALEO was hand-picked in 2019 to open stadium dates for the Rolling Stones. To see them headline on the Red Butte stage was a memorable evening and an incredible way to kick off the Red Butte Outdoor Concert Series.
Springtime in the Rockies is akin to Gump’s box of chocolates, but on Wednesday night we got an amazingly warm spring evening. Mother nature and the Red Butte sound crew ensured that we enjoyed pitch-perfect sound from both artists. Kudos!
- Who: KALEO
- What: An Icelandic blues/rock band (yes, there is one and they’re awesome)
- Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheater
- When: May 18, 2022
For the past five years, Kat Aleman’s been ingrained in the local music scene, the former Austinite running a music-inclined production company called Y’Allt Entertainment even as she’s worked at other gigs. At some point, she and her friend Jeff Dillon were chatting about the latter’s upcoming release, Scenes From the End, a conversation that stirred the basic ingredients of what would become a new festival called Hometown Theory; it’ll enjoy an afternoon-into-evening debut this Saturday, May 21.
Taking place at The Art Garden, the event will “bring together the Salt Lake community through food, beer, music and art.”
Dillon’s release served as a nice grounding element for the afternoon’s lineup of six bands.
“He asked me to help with an album release show,” Aleman recalls. “And I’d been wanting to do a local festival myself. So we collided and combined forces.”
Aleman found a good home for the event at The Art Garden, which she describes as “an outdoor plot near Metro [Music Hall.] It’s got local artist murals. There’re sculptures in there. It’s an open community space to throw events.”
This event will be dog friendly and is all ages, with a $12 ticket price (or $15 at the door via cash or Venmo). Tickets for the event can be found at Eventbrite.
Food trucks will include World Famous Yum Yum Food Truck, Sade’s Burritos and Leilani’s Love Shack.
The music (and water wrestling) schedule runs like so:
Petr Chubak: 3:30-4:00
Spirit Machines: 4:00-4:45
Racist Kramer: 5:00 – 5:45
Tiger Fang: 6:00-6:45
Water Championship Wrestling: 6:45-7:45
Mortigi Tempo: 8:00-8:45
Jeff Dillon and the Revival: 9:00-10:30
Aleman says this will be the first Hometown Theory of at least two festivals. It will be back next spring, with this weekend’s event providing a template of what’s possible next.
“I’d worked in the local music scene in Austin since forever,” Aleman says. “I started my first booking company at 17. When I moved here five years ago, I fell in with the local scene here and it’s something I’ve always been passionate about.”
If You Go
627 W. 100 South
801-722-5865
At the LOVELOUD Fest in Salt Lake City, the performing artists and speakers remind us that the reason for such an event is just as relevant and important as it was at its inception.
“This is not a fleeting thing,” says Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons and the show’s founder from the red carpet of this year’s festival. “We’re here for the long haul. There are still changes that need to be made. That may take 10 years, 20 years, I don’t know, but we’ve got a lot of life left in us.”
Back in 2017, Reynolds announced he was throwing a music festival in Utah to promote inclusion, love, understanding and acceptance for young members of the LGBTQ+ community.
By then, the high rate of teen suicide in Utah was already national news, and a number of organizations, like Mama Dragons, and individuals, like Neon Trees’ Tyler Glenn, were trying to sound the alarm about the particular risk of suicide among LGBTQ+ kids and teens who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the predominant religion among Utahns.
As an example of the harm the LDS Church was causing the LGBTQ+ members, many pointed to a 2015 church policy that excluded the children of gay parents from baptism within the church until they were 18-years-old (most kids born within the church are baptized at 8-years-old), at which point they would be required to renounce gay marriage in order to be baptized. The policy was later rolled back in 2019, long after the petitions and the events for the mass resignation of church members and after the policy helped prompt Imagine Dragons’ frontman Dan Reynolds to create LOVELOUD, the founding of which is the subject of the 2018 documentary Believer.
“When we played the first year, we saw the miracle of it. You would not think that something as niche as an LGBT event for people of faith would work, especially in Utah, but we’ve seen that it has,” says Glenn, who helped found the festival with Reynolds and remains on the LOVELOUD board. He has been at the forefront of the tensions between the LDS faith and sexual identity since he came out as gay, culminating in his 2016 solo album Excommunication.
The festival was meant to serve as counter-messaging. Rather than messages of exclusion or shame, LOVELOUD, from the beginning, wanted to give LGBTQ+ kids a night where they could feel celebrated and give their parents and families a place to learn more about their experiences and see diverse sexual and gender identities through a new lens.
Singer-songwriter Aja Volkman spoke to religious parents who have kids who might be exploring their sexual or gender identity. She says, “You know your children and you love your children. They are the first and foremost important thing, and where your loyalty lies is with your children and making sure they feel safe and that they feel loved.”
Reynolds, Volkman’s partner, adds, “The biggest thing that we are seeing with these youth is that they are not looking to be just accepted. They’re looking to be celebrated. It’s a celebration that these kids want.”
“All kids want celebration,” agrees Volkman.
Since that first LOVELOUD, some things have changed in Utah. The LDS church rolled back that aforementioned policy, but lawmakers have passed legislation that restricts transgender students from participating in girls’ competitive sports and LDS leaders reiterated beliefs that exclude gay couples and non-binary gender identities. At their conference in April, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, “Fundamental to us is God’s revelation that exaltation can be attained only through faithfulness to the covenants of an eternal marriage between a man and a woman.”
All of which helped fuel the passion and urgency of LOVELOUD performers and participants.
“Luckily, when people in politics or other leaders are setting up dangerous policies and places for our youth, there are a lot of people who are on the other side,” says Reynolds. “All of these people who are here [at LOVELOUD] have been fighting for these kids.”
Tyler Glenn, performing once again with Neon Trees, says some of those policies that were enacted by the church shook his faith. “I was really angry for a while, and that anger is valid,” he says. “But, what LOVELOUD has done has really healed a lot of my wounds…Hurt and anger are valid, but it has reminded me to lead with love.”
Reynolds says his beliefs and understanding have evolved since the first LOVELOUD as well. “I’m more spiritual now, not affiliated with any faith, but Mormonism is my culture. You know how it is, if you’re raised in Mormonism it’s a part of you. My whole family is Mormon. It’s my foundation. I care deeply about the people, and there are a lot of people who want change who are in the church and are active members and are not happy with what that path is like for LGBTQ youth who are in the church.”
Reynolds also offered a message to those who are struggling with reconciling their faith and identity, saying, “If there is a god, that god absolutely loves you and you are perfect the way you are. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. Don’t pray for forgiveness, don’t pray for change—you are perfect just the way you are.”
Singer David Archuleta, who has identified as both Mormon and queer, says he’s come to a point where “I’m just going to let myself be me” after grappling with internal homophobia from growing up in a conservative and religious environment. On stage, Archuleta performed a short set, as he is still recovering from vocal surgery, but he spoke to the crowd about accepting ones’ sexual identity. He says, “No matter what I tried, I couldn’t change that part of me…I hope you can learn to love and have compassion for yourself. This has been such a liberating year for me to not be afraid of myself anymore.”
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Mat and Savanna Shaw -
Encircle Youth Choir
Local father-daughter musical duo Mat and Savanna Shaw performed as well. At first, the pair worried their style and music wouldn’t be a good fit for the event. “We looked up to these artists forever, and to be here singing with them is crazy. We still look at ourselves as these small town singers,” says Savanna.
But, in the end, what is LOVELOUD about if not acceptance? “I think this crowd, especially, is so accepting and so loving,” says Mat. “It’s a cause we are so excited to support and to lend our voices to the choir who wants to make sure that this community, especially in Utah, feels loved.”
If you or someone you know needs help, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24-hour support at 1-800-273-8255.
Check out Salt Lake magazine’s coverage and photos from LOVELOUD 2019 and 2018. For more art & entertainment, subscribe to receive Salt Lake magazine’s print edition.
Chip Z’Nuff (also known to childhood friends and the internet as Gregory Rybarski) is the ultimate rock’n’roll survivor. His band, Enuff Z’Nuff, has been active for over 40 years, releasing more than two dozen albums and playing rooms of varying sizes all across the country that entire time. For select shows, he’ll even turn the group into a tribute act, The Beatles Rock Show, and the Fab Four’s influence is directly heard when Enuff Z’Nuff takes the stage today, with songs like “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Eleanor Rigby” dotting the playlist, along with Paul McCartney’s “Jet.”
These were all songs that Enuff Z’Nuff played within the first 45-minutes of their Friday night show at Leatherheads (12147 South State St., Draper) over this past weekend, a gig that saw the group turn out a fanbase of several dozen diehards who were on hand to catch an act that’s never lost the faith, despite countless changes to the looks, feels and sounds of American rock’n’roll since their self-titled debut album was released in 1989.
At that moment, the Chicagoland group was riding high, scoring two hits from that album in 1990 via “Fly High, Michelle” and “New Thing.” Both videos were MTV staples and featured a bubble-gum-bright look and a sound that incorporated a blend of everything that’d preceded them in the last couple of decades. There was the high hair of groups like Poison, the punk-meets-power-pop sonics of Redd Kross, the glammed-out hard rock of Dramarama.
Of course, 1991 was “the year punk broke” and Nirvana and their kin would take over the rock charts for the near-term future. While a host of their contemporaries lost careers at that moment, Chip Z’Nuff kept his band going, losing his co-founders along the way, while he cemented himself into a role as the band’s songwriter, lead vocalist, bassist and emcee. The latter’s job’s part of what makes an Enuff Z’Nuff a unique experience.
At Leatherheads, Z’Nuff basked in the glow of his fans’ love, reminding them, over and again, of his band’s long history, namechecking everyone from Tupac to David Letterman. Plenty of songs came with a short introduction, with Z’Nuff referencing past Utah shows and off-color hijinks at hotel rooms and tour busses within the state’s limits. Z’Nuff works blue and no one’s shocked by what might come of the veteran entertainer’s mouth, a throwback style that’s bit circus carny and a bit Borscht belt comic, in addition to his obvious role as a rock’n’roll bandleader.
These days, Chip Z’Nuff’s band is made up of Tory Stoffregen on lead guitar, Tony Fennell on bass; and Daniel Hill on drums. Together for roughly seven years in this unit, it’s not uncommon for one member to drop away for another gig, only to return to the fold later. In fact, one of Z’Nuff’s riffs was a rundown on who played in what other projects and when—a packed, little information blast mid-show.
The band played well over an hour before Z’Nuff said the magic words, cuing up “Fly High, Michelle” and “New Thing” and for a good 10 minutes, the superfans were in bliss. These were the moneymakers, the tracks that suggest you cough up $20 to see Enuff Z’Nuff on a random Friday night in 2022. Humorously, as the tracks ended, Z’Nuff pretty much said the audience didn’t need to beg for an encore as Z’Nuff and Fennell traded instruments and the rock went into a 12-to-15-minute jam that looped through some Edgar Winter, Stone Temple Pilots, Foghat and even another pinch of “New Thing.” It was a strange closer, but the band had finished up a 90-minute set almost to the minute.
As the group wandered through the green room’s curtain minutes later, they were rushed by the small audience on the dancefloor, everyone huddled around for autographs, selfies and handshakes. From out of nowhere, the PA announced that karaoke was moving inside from the patio, per police request.
Just another night on the road for Enuff Z’Nuff.
Mike Feldman knows half the town thanks to his ownership of the New York-style Feldman’s Deli while the other half know him through his acoustic duo, Two Old Guys, an act committed to “blue, ballads, bawdy, country & drinking songs.”
The deli’s namesake is bringing his two passions together under one roof on Friday, May 13, as music returns to Feldman’s in the form of the duo The Deaf and The Musician. That pair will peform (on guitar, vocals, loops and ASL) from 6-7:30 p.m., the same time that music will be featured every Friday evening going forward.
Feldman says he’s got a couple months of performances already lined up, typically going with solo acts, duos and the occasional trio. All will be acoustic, allowing for a softer edge. Or as Feldman says, “it’s not designed to be loud. It’s designed to be sweet-sounding.”
Prior to the pandemic, music was a regular feature at Feldman’s and it went away for all the obvious reasons. It’s also returning for reasons that Feldman feels are obvious. For starters, he says that room caters to an audience that’s all-ages and family-friendly, “one of the few family-oriented venues to do music.”
And there’s his connections around town from Two Old Guys playing in every corner of the region.
“Obviously, I’m a friend of lots of musicians,” he says. “I have a large community of friends who play and we all know and support one another. It’s a room where you see a lot of other musicians supporting those playing. People who come here, even if socializing at tables, are appreciative of the music and show that appreciation. Most of the bands who’ve played here have felt that.”
Potentially, some additional dates may get added to the calendar, but there’s still some COVID-era self-restrictions on that.
“We’re doing Fridays for now,” Feldman says. “I’ve got to make sure that we don’t overwhelm the kitchen; I can’t afford to have cooks stress out and quit. So we’ll try Fridays for now. I’ve got a lineup that’s booked all the way through the end of August. And I plan to book after that, as well.”
Feldman’s will be posting up weekly musical acts on its Facebook page.
If You Go:
Feldman’s Deli
2005 E. 2700 South
feldmansdeli.com
801-906-0369
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Red Butte Garden’s 2022 Outdoor Concert Series lineup is set and the Easter egg hunt for tickets is on. Scoring Red Butte concert tickets aren’t for the indecisive or faint of heart, but well worth the persistence if you succeed. This season’s eclectic lineup kicks off on May 18, 2022, with the blues-infused Icelandic rock band KALEO. (And yes, they spell it in ALL CAPS.)
Yes, Icelandic. The land of Bjork. It’s a country known more for volcanoes and glaciers than rock ’n’ roll exports. That changed in 2016 when KALEO erupted on the American music scene with their highly-acclaimed and million-selling debut album A/B. Backed by a triumvirate of strong singles, KALEO broke through with the certified double-platinum hit “Way Down We Go” and reached number one on the US Billboard Alternative Song Chart. “No Good” earned them a 2017 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance and “Broken Bones” was featured in primetime on Grey’s Anatomy.
That’s a Herculean feat for any artist trying to break into the American music charts, never mind an unknown freshman quartet from Iceland. Perhaps their meteoric rise on the American music scene wouldn’t be as noteworthy if they hit the charts with a flash-in-the-pan and soon forgotten Eurovision dance hit, but KALEO breached the fortress walls with organically raw Mississippi Delta blues tinged with Pacific Northwest garage grunge. The improbability soon washes away when you listen to their music. Frontman JJ Juliusson’s deep, soulful voice lends itself perfectly to southern chain gang blues, ballads, or modern indie-rock melodies. It’s kind of like that first time you heard Chris Stapleton singing lead with The Steeldrivers or Eddie Vedder taking the Seattle sound somewhere new. That’s KALEO. Fun fact: kaleo is a Hawaiian word meaning voice, sound. Very appropriate.
In 2021 they released a new album titled Surface Sounds and this spring they’re hitting the road with a stop at Red Butte Garden. Surface Sounds is a solid follow-up to A/B. Juliusson took a new approach for Surface Sounds, from the found sounds of the surface around him that he interpolated into the songs—from birds singing to the ambient noise of Icelandic waterfalls. He sought inspiration in both the tangible world around him and the emotional one within. “Brother Run Fast” is a great new song that’ll surely be featured on many rock/blues/roots playlists. “I Want More” and “Break My Baby” are both Triple A No. 6 singles.
Bones Owens is the well-paired opener for the May 18 Red Butte show with his hard-driving, rustic garage grunge sound. The Nashville-based roots rocker blends a more retro thunderous blues sound with solid songs like “White Lines” and “Keep It Close.”
On May 18 there’ll be some musical claps of thunder on the mountain as Owens and KALEO open up our outdoor concert season with some hard-charging soulful rock and blues. Way down we go!
- Who: KALEO
- What: An Icelandic blues/rock band (yes, there is one)
- Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
- When: May 18, 2022
- Tickets: redbuttegarden.org
When a band’s been a band for 42 years, writing and recording 25 albums’ worth of material, it’s fair to wonder if fans are going to catch the new stuff in live settings, or the old stuff, or bits of treasure from every era. For fans of Australia’s The Church, appearing in Salt Lake for a Saturday night show at The Commonwealth Room, here’s a message: rest easy tonight, you’re about to hear it all.
“We were talking about what we are going to play while having breakfast today,” founder Steve Kilbey said by phone earlier this week. “Looking at the setlist, it’s a fairly extensive thing, going right from the beginning to three tracks from the new album. I thought it was a pretty good representation and I think people should like it.”
With Kilbey now the only member of the band dating back to its early ‘80s incarnation, the band he’s surrounded himself with for this tour is “an all-star group” of contemporaries, players that he’s gigged with for years, for the most part. When reached this week, the group was Los Angeles for a round of rehearsals, just prior to their touring work on the west coast. Some warm-up dates in Australia preceded those.
“I’ll tell you what,” Kilbey says. “I’m really excited… well, excited is the wrong word to use. But I’m really looking forward to this. We did a couple of pre-shows in Sydney and the band is really locked-in during our rehearsals. We have a good bunch. I don’t think it used to matter to me as much, but we’ve got really excellent musicians who the render these songs quite flawlessly. Some of the songs on the new album are quite complex and I’m proud of the band in how they’re handling these complexities. If you like cerebral—but loud and walloping—music, I think we’re really delivering that at the moment.”
A few years back, when touring on a package with the Psychedelic Furs—a time when original guitarist Peter Koppes was in the fold—the band certainly brought the goods. True fans were treated to some deep cuts, though sharing a stage with another major band birthed in the ’80s meant trimming their set list back a bit, which served to emphasize hits like “Under the Milky Way” and “Reptile,” both played with skill and enthusiasm. And the latter’s not always easy to do, bands asked to perform songs that have decades on them, no matter how brilliant those tracks were (and are.) For this weekend’s show, there’s no opener, just music from The Church from start to finish.
So the deeper cuts have a chance to shine on this tour. And, luckily, Kilbey’s never stopped writing, collaborating with familiar musicians, all while incorporating new techniques. Such as the digital trading that was done on the latest round of recordings, the various players trading tracks from their home-based, professionally-outfitted studios.
We noted up top that the band’s 25th album is due later this year, and that’s true. Unfortunately, the album won’t be fully available until later in 2022. The good problem is that 19 tracks were recorded during those Australia/US recording sessions and Kilbey feels that all of that material’s worth release; so a second album could emerge from just those sessions.
But as a performer who’s released music as a solo artist and with short-run duos and other standalone projects, there’s always been the chance that more Kilbey-centered music is just around the corner.
“There’re always new things happening, all the time,” Kilbey says. “Can’t stop now.”
And seeing them live? Kilbey’s got an idea on that, too.
“It’s a great night,” he suggests, “to smoke a joint and listen to some rock’n’roll that had a lot of thought put into it. Thought and consideration.”
The Church play The Commonwealth Room on Saturday, May 7 at 8 p.m. This is a 21-up show, with $40 tickets; added info’s available at thestateroompresents.com.
In moving to SLC, my first music club experience came via The Urban Lounge. Not that I actually went in, mind you. Instead, the venue sat just down the street from Dick N Dixies, a bar where I found kinship through a weekly Monday evening gathering that brought together writers along with folks who’d want to talk to writers. The Urban was a curiosity for a month or more, the names of the headlining acts coming-and-going from that small marquee above the front door. “What was inside?,” I wondered.
Took a minute, but I finally made it through the door and found myself in a positively-excellent small-to-mid-sized music club. Nice stage, good sound, decent selection of local beer. And the real winner? To be honest, that’d be the men’s room, a functional space that not only serves its role, it approximates the joys of being inside an Airstream or country motel room. Photos show a well-appointed women’s room, as well, with stellar animal-based wallpaper. Well done, bathroom designer, you done good!
Those appeals aside, shows are what’ll keep you coming back. And over the past week-and-change, a trio of gigs brought me through those doors in Central City.
Destroyer with Rosali, April 26
Sometimes a new artist cuts through the clutter and asks for added attention. Rosali’s a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist heading up a self-named band. Taken by the sound of Rosali’s 2021 album No Medium, I headed into the venue as much to see her band as the evening’s headliner, Destroyer, an act with a nice, long history. The room was relatively sparse for Rosali’s set—people seemed to have their opening act antennae up and were smoking or making their way to the venue as she and her talented backing band worked through a set of pleasing indie pop/rock.
Destroyer, then, walked onstage with good vibes already in the room and the crowd reciprocated. In this case, that meant rapt attention. When songs ended, vocalist and bandleader Dan Bejar spent more time sipping at his Modelo than in engaging the room, but the folks were there for the band. Had actual pins dropped between the songs, we’d have all heard them. As a sign of respect, it was pretty profound.
Destroyer employ a mid-tempo sound, with some instrumentation swapping and a big wall of sound, supplied by Bejar’s six associates, a group that’s seen a fair amount of arrivals and subtractions over the years. Trumpeter JP Carter frequently stole the show, his heavily processed and looped horn the band’s not-so-secret weapon. They had the crowd in the palm of their hand, and it’s always impressive to see, hear, witness, experience a band in that element. This was a band and audience in lockstep.
First Daze with Elowyn and Daytime Lover, April 28
Speaking of audiences…does a quiet, respectful audience necessarily equate a good audience? Or can a boisterous, lively room give just the same love back to a performer? Let’s investigate!
On an evening in which three of SLC’s bright young indie rock acts were sharing a stage, First Daze drew the headlining slot, having released a self-titled album on streaming services that morning. The crowd built steadily as the acts moved through the evening, growing by half with each of the sets from Elowyn and Daytime Lover (who, themselves, released a nice album called I Was Asleep earlier this spring.) The mood was a good one and the phrase “release party” had a heavy emphasis on the latter word once the three-piece First Daze hit the stage.
Dual lead vocalists/acoustic guitarists Taylor Lines and Gui Peláez have created a solid, introspective, thoughtful sound, one that bumps up a bit against their self-titled mission of “makin’ music takin’ names.” If their music and words require a bit of quiet for max effect, the audience wasn’t feeling that, chatting at high volume from the opening cut, be that on the dance floor, near the bar or on the perimeter of the room. To be honest, as someone who was experiencing the group for a first time, it was…a challenge. But it appeared that the band’s friends, who came in out in force, were having a time.
The First Daze had their moment, they chatted and danced and laughed their way through a show that maybe called for a bit of active listening. They won. But there’s always the record, which can be enjoyed anytime, in as quiet an environment as you’d like.
Pink Mountaintops with Ashley Shadow and Beneath the Sparrows, May 2
We come to discuss a local band here, one that was an unlisted part of this three-band lineup. But not without noting that the headliner, Pink Mountaintops, makes the kind of a droning-yet-tuneful noise that’s reminiscent of The Dream Syndicate and similar ‘80s/‘90s kin. And we’ll say that Ashley Shadow, playing on this bill as a two-piece, creates the kind of slow, slightly-spooky rock that calls out a night around the fire pit on a chilled October evening—lovely, just lovely.
But it was the night’s first act, the SLC group Beneath the Sparrows that provides our vignette here. Drummer Noah Taub, back in the fold for this gig, provided a solid foundation and vocalist/guitarist Dave Crespo was an engaging frontman, at one point calling his band’s appearance the equivalent of getting some unexpected mozzarella sticks before a meal. Funny guy!
But our shout-out today goes to bassist Jordan Jaeger. When the band began, there weren’t a dozen souls in the Urban and three of them left within a couple of songs. Though a few more would eventually trail in, the band’s audience never topped 20 for this Monday night opening gig, though Jaeger was playing as if in front of a crowd of 2,000. He bobbed, he weaved, he bent, he laughed, he grimaced, he put on a show. He perfectly fits the role needed for his band’s muscular, straight-forward rock’n’roll and, on this night, earned his stripes. He was worth every penny.
241 S. 500 East, SLC
On Thursday, May 5, The Urban Lounge hosts Musor, Slow Malone and Roy and the Robbers. Doors are at 7. See you there for yet another new vibe. Read more about arts and music in SLC.
