Discover Salt Lake magazine’s music section. Here you’ll find previews and reviews of upcoming local concerts and performances in Salt Lake City, along the Wasatch Front and Back, and around Utah to help you discover great live music and events.
Alison Krauss & Union Station performed atRed Butte Gardens’ Outdoor Concert Series last Friday (July 25, 2025) and, once again, promptly sold the place out. The band’s in the midst of its Arcadia Tour (named after their impressive 2025 album of the same name) and had an incredible neon sign onstage in case anyone forgot. Krauss needed little help playing and singing to the gathered mass, but she brought along Willie Dixon and Jerry Douglas anyway, spreading talent in every which way Friday night.
For her part, every song Krauss sang was an immediate soul salve, an invitation to breathe a little easier, a song preceding a long night of rest. She quipped at one point that the collective had mostly sad music in its repertoire — that their entire goal was to leave the crowd feeling far worse than they did before they arrived — but it hardly dampened spirits. Both songs and band received their appropriate spotlight, and we were better off for it. Whether it was Douglas offering frequently long jams on his Dobro or Krauss easing us through the band’s catalog (“Looks Like The End of the Road,” “The Hangman,” even an O Brother Where Art Thou nod with “Down to the River to Pray”), it was a welcome respite to the week. When bluegrass delves into lullaby territory, it creates a mood you don’t ever quite want to stop. Thank you, Alison. Thank you, players.
The musical circus, Elephant Revival, is coming to town! On Wednesday, July 30, 2025, the lovely Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre will serve as their proverbial big top. The Nederland, Colorado sextuplet thrills their audiences with a genre-fluid, multi-instrumental newgrass sound, a musical style that blends transcendental folk and Kentucky bluegrass with the devil’s lettuce. It’s folk music–if the folks were Celts, gypsies, and hippies. Their ethereal and earthy, soul-soothing sound will fill our mountains with positive vibes. They’re the perfect elixir for these fractious times.
Band leader Bonnie Paine blends her siren vocals with multiple instruments like the washboard, cello, and musical saw. The six-piece ensemble creates a celestial symphonic sound with guitars, mandolin, fiddle, upright bass, pedal steel, banjo, and a variety of drums. In the past, they’ve included a drumline and aerial acrobats to add to the carnivalesque atmosphere (though I doubt the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre stage is built for aerial acrobatics.)
The band formed in 2006 and toured extensively with frequent stops in Utah, including a couple of New Year’s Eve shows at The State Room, which are forever etched in my mind. In 2008, they released their debut self-titled album that featured trippy favorites “Ring Around The Moon” and “Sing to the Mountain.” The band has six full-length LPs to their credit, including my personal favorite, These Changing Skies (2013).
In 2018, the band announced an indefinite hiatus (a gentle way of saying “breakup”), but fortunately for their legions of fans, they resumed their music-making in 2022 and started touring in 2023 (minus Daniel Rodriguez, who had set off on a solo career). The reconstituted ensemble is back and better than ever!
Here’s a preshow teaser– enjoy their mind-blowing cover of Tool’s “Schism. Click Here for the Video.
Opening is Two Runner, a folk duo from Northern California. Their beautiful harmonies will send you to the right headspace for Elephant Revival’s magical musical experience. Songwriter Paige Anderson and fiddler Emilie Rose blend a twangy clawhammer banjo and fiddle with sweet vocal harmonies. In 2023, they released their debut album Modern Cowboy. The record features a fresh mix of eclectic mountain music that finds a home in the High Sierra, Rockies, or along the Appalachian Trail. The album stretches the boundaries of bluegrass, folk, and country, capturing a majestic sound with minimal instrumentation.
Summer is fading fast, so don’t miss an opportunity to groove on the otherworldly sounds of Elephant Revival in a bucolic setting. It’s also an economical night out, considering you can bring in your tasty treats and soothing libations without paying the inflated concession prices of similar venues.
Who: Elephant Revival w/ Two Runner What: Red Butte Outdoor Concert Series 2025 Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre When: Wednesday, July 30, 2025 Info and tickets: https://redbuttegarden.org/concerts/
Built to Spill returns to The Urban Lounge on Wednesday, July 23, at 7 p.m. In advance of the show, we spoke to Built to Spill frontman Doug Martsch. We caught up to him before a gig in Minnesota.
He was in a good mood, as well he should be: he’s doing what he loves to do and has done since the band formed over 30 years ago in 1992. The Boise-based rock trio was playing a string of summer dates with Yo La Tengo (another trio keen on making a lot of noise) when we spoke. Even though both bands played Salt Lake’s Kilby Block Party earlier this year, it’s the first time they’ve toured together, and he says it’s been fun.
And when you’re in a band that tours nearly half the year — about 150 shows, give or take — having a good time doing it is likely one of those constants, a goal to always reach for.
“If you’re having a good night, it feels good. It’s not work at all,” Martsch says about playing live versus being holed up in a studio. While making albums always has felt like starting over from scratch, he says, stepping onto a stage for a few hours always feels easy.
Part of that is about stripping songs down to their most key elements. While he grew up trying to emulate the sounds of his heroes at the time (including Dinosaur, Jr., Butthole Surfers, Camper Van Beethoven), now he spends his time absorbing old soul and reggae records. All are filled with sounds that never feel overly complex.
There’s a utilitarian nature about the albums created 50 years ago, and those artists delivered their music without adding anything fancy on top, Martsch says, and that’s a draw.
“When I was younger, I was trying to be clever and find chords that were different from what others were doing, finding new melodies. But as I grow older, that no longer matters to me,” Martsch says. “It’s more about who the real person is [for me], a chance to glimpse into someone’s soul. Musically, things are simpler. Now it’s about trying to emote better.”
Playing live always allows for that.
“Just plugging my shit in and playing is much more satisfying. I’ve become more comfortable figuring out ways to play that make sense for me to do, my personal strengths. When you’re young, you’re figuring out what you can do and what limits to push, who you want to sound like. At my age, I know what my limitations are and what I sound like. I can try and do my best within that. Every night I’m up there, I can try to sing and play songs better than I ever have before, and there’s still room to fuck around and make it different from night to night.”
“Most wouldn’t pick up on that, and you would have to see a bunch of our shows to pick up on that happening. But for me, it feels like freedom.”
See for yourself what freedom can sound like this Wednesday. Buy your ticket before the showHERE.
On Wednesday night (July 16, 2025), Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue transformed the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre stage into their magical, traveling porch, inviting us to join them for an uplifting musical adventure. North Carolina (minus the humidity) became our first sonic waystation with Giddens and Dirk Powell delivering a powerful rendition of Elizabeth Cotton’s “Freight Train.”
Giddens’ former musical partner in the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Justin Robinson, stepped up on the porch with fiddle in hand to pay homage to the late Joe Thompson, a shared mentor who taught them both the banjo and fiddle tune, “Georgia Buck.” The remaining members of the ensemble joined in with Jason Sypher on upright bass, Amelia Powell on guitar, and rapper Demeanor (Giddens’ nephew) on bones and any other instrument within reach. We stayed in the Carolinas for one more number as the porch-rockin’ string band symphony played “High on a Mountain.” That, we were.
Our next musical stop was South Louisiana. Dirk Powell led with “Dimanche Apres-Midi” (or Sunday afternoon for us Anglophones), an uplifting accordion-forward Cajun tune followed by the 2-step “Back of Town.” That Zydeco-adjacent sound liberated me from my low-back chair and sent me scurrying to the garden’s dancing space.
Giddens’ rendition of a Yoruba language folk song, “Laye Olugbon,” then took us to a rich landscape of American roots music in Southwestern Nigeria. That trip across the ocean is an essential part of the American musical flight path. The banjo, brought to us by Afro-Caribbean slaves, occupies a central place in our heritage. Throughout the evening, Giddens & The Old-Time Revue demonstrated the versatility of the banjo and how, for generations, it provided struggling laborers (free and enslaved) with a conduit for telling their stories. Case in point: Giddens’ nephew, Demeanor, performed a genre-bending banjo-driven rap song, “Polyphia.” Don’t look so puzzled. Blending a traditional sound with a modern style, he showed us the best of the American roots tradition. And it all made sense! Come on, Snoop Dogg, grab that four-string!
The captivating, 20-song set made us wonder where we’d go next on our road trip. We landed in Bakersfield, California. Amelia Powell added just the right amount of Merle Haggard honky-tonk twang with her soulful rendition of “Somewhere Between.” Dirk and Amelia Powell (father/daughter) then teamed up with Demeanor on a new song they recently penned together. “Out of Sight” stayed true to its name. The catchy Cajun-roots-pop sound has all the earmarks of a hit.
Our American roots tour then took us to the Mississippi Delta when Giddens brought out a 1850s-style fretless banjo and shredded an original blues number, “Step Away Blues.” Who knew you could rock the blues with a banjo?
The evening drew to a close much too quickly. Giddens played “At The Purchaser’s Option,” a fan favorite from her fantastic 2017 folk album Freedom Highway. The ensemble ended the show with A.P. Carter’s “God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign.” That old-school country gospel tune provided a perfect “amen” to end an evening of American Roots music.
Giddens returned to the porch and delivered a heart-stirring a cappella version of “Pretty Saro.” Her pitch-perfect, soprano voice wafted over the crowd and echoed through the mountains and back to her audience, who listened intently in the Garden. The full ensemble came out and jammed “Riro’s House” to end a perfect evening.
Fun fact: In addition to a couple of Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize in music, Rhiannon Giddens received a MacArthur “Genius” award for her work to revitalize the black string band tradition. The crowd at Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre on Wednesday night witnessed that brilliance.
Sunny War opened the show with a stellar 8-song solo set. Her dreamy vocals and skillful finger picking immediately won the crowd’s attention. Listeners put aside their precious chickpea dip and chardonnay to fully embrace War’s bluesy folk. I particularly liked her gritty “He Is My Cell.” Then she played two bangers, “No Reason” and “Whole,” from her 2023 album Anarchist Gospel. I was hoping for several tracks from her remarkable new record Armageddon In A Summer Dress, but I guess that’ll have to wait for another time. I would love to see her again with a band at an intimate listening room, such as The State Room or Urban Lounge.
Who: Rhiannon Giddens &The Old Time Revue w/ Sunny War
Ben Kwellerpaid Salt Lake City’s Urban Lounge a visit on Monday (July 14, 2025). Everyone was as happy to see him arrive as they were sad to see him leave.
It’d been a few years since he played here and, judging from Monday’s crowd, the locals missed him hard. From the time he and his band of merry men showed until the time they called it a night, it felt like a long and intimate embrace, one of those where neither quite wants to let go. Kweller and his band (which notably included Christopher Mintz-Plasse on bass, aka Superbad’s McLovin) played a loose, fast set that borrowed heavily from his latest effort, 2025’s Cover The Mirrors without leaving behind longtime favorites like “Falling,” “Family Tree” and “Sundress.” The 20-song setlist he bounced his way through allowed for a lot of joy (onstage and off) and, considering his latest album is about his late sixteen-year-old son, that’s saying something. It wasn’t a somber look back, but a celebration of a life abbreviated.
If you were a more a casual fan than a memorize-every-lyric sort, it was nearly an out-of-body experience to not only watch Kweller thrill, very ably playing musical chairs with himself (flitting from piano to harmonica to guitar and so on), but to be surrounded by so many enthusiastic echoes, fans singing his own words back at him. He invited that response, encouraged it even; he ditched the microphone and guitar to sing most of “On My Way” acapella, leading all like an enthusiastic choir director.
Julian Lage and Leo Kottke co-headlined a sold-out concert at The State Room Monday night (8/5/2025), meshing similar acoustic worlds together, yet remaining miles apart.
It was the kind of concert where showing up on time meant you were already late, the kind where you’re grateful for a spot to stand in the very back. When Lage took the stage, people may have held their breath collectively. It got so quiet, they may have sometimes thought they were swallowing too loud. While he was short on words, opting only to share a few song titles on occasion, he let his hands do the talking. Each song was a journey with no clear destination, an exploration into what was possible, and the audience wanted to see where it led. It felt like we were paying to meditate collectively, eyes wide open. Lage gave us a chance to witness what genius looks like, and it allowed for the most immediate standing ovation I’ve seen in several months.
When Kottke traded places with Lage for the last half of the performance, he immediately said it was time to close shop for the night. What more could he have to offer? He had the timing and jokes and stories that Lage simply didn’t. So in addition to his well-honed abilities as a guitarist (trading between two throughout the night), he offered up warmth and laughter. He even sang on occasion, a change of pace when it felt like it was needed. I discovered Kottke years ago in the Salt Lake City Public Library, where they may still have most albums he’s ever recorded. There are not a few. The filled seats were testament to his long and lasting legacy, staying power he almost seemed to casually shrug off.
Both men showed us where their talents have led them. In return, we gave them our time, rapt attention, and grateful ears.
Who: Waxahatchee Where: Gallivan Center What: Waxahatchee (with singer Katie Crutchfield) has been on a real tear since 2024’s Tigers Blood released. Cities are clambering after them to play there. Singers are pairing up for duets. All for good reason, of course. The band’s visited our state since the album dropped, but they picked up their first Grammy nomination just this year. Expect great things Wednesday. When: 6pm
Who: Rayland Baxter & Langhorne Slim Where: The Commonwealth Room What: While I can’t say I know all that much about Rayland Baxter (sorry), there was a time over a decade ago that I caught Langhorne Slim in a strangely carpeted (and very poorly laid out) bar in Florida. By the end of his set, he’d led us outside to a dusty courtyard to put a proper finale on his string of music. We surrounded him in a circle as he sweated and belted his heart out, a man with a cool hat and an acoustic guitar. Memory solidified, right there. When: 8pm
Who: Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening Where: Deer Valley Resort What: This will be a monster of a show. Did you see our earlier interview with Jason Bonham? This was a great bit. He said: “I only got to see three Zeppelin shows in my life. The first time was in Birmingham (England) to an audience of 2500 people. The next time, they played in front of 70,000. I was 11 and I asked who else was playing. I couldn’t comprehend how big they’d become. And the last time I saw dad play was in 1979. 200,000 people were there for that one. I have these moments where I think to myself: Did he have any idea of who or what he was going to become? Did he realize what legacy he was leaving behind? Did he realize any of that in the midst of it?” When: 7:30pm
Who: My Morning Jacket Where: Red Butte Gardens When: 7pm What: My Morning Jacket may end up being the loudest band to play the Gardens this season. That’s only a maybe. They can play quietly too. One of the greatest displays of showmanship I ever saw was when lead singer Jim James did a full solo set of somber and yearning songs on a tiny outdoor stage in Las Vegas. The crowd was in tears. Once he finished, he grabbed a baseball bat and started swinging at pumpkins lining the edge of the stage. From crying to Smashing Pumpkins, the audience got its money worth (and then some).
Who: Wilco Where: Ogden Twilight When: 5pm What: If you asked me what my 10 favorite bands were, this one’s earned its spot. Might even have to place them in my top five. They’re poetic while still being a rock band. They’re funny without ever being pretentious. There are guitar solos that’ll bend your mind. Attempted singalongs. If you’re already a fan, you’ll enjoy knowing they’re opening for themselves in Ogden. Two full sets of music for less than the price of one. Bargain shopping never sounded better.
Who: Alabama Shakes Where: Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater When: 8pm What: Easiest admission: I love seeing Brittany Howard sing and play. Saw her play with her band years ago at Hard Rock Cafe and was baffled that everyone else wasn’t there to do the same. Small crowds happen. Don’t expect the same scenario when the band returns to Utah, though. It’s the first time they’ve toured since 2017, so expect it to be triumphant.
Who: The Wallflowers Where: The Commonwealth Room When: 7pm What: Ever since it was announced The Wallflowers were coming around to play another show, I’ve had friends talking about how excited they are for it. It might be the whole “son of Dylan” thing. And it might be because they wrote some bangers. I spoke to Jakob Dylan recently and asked him what it’s like to hear “One Headlight” playing on the radio so many years later. “I grew up listening to the radio. Hearing your song get played, it never gets old,” he said. “The first time you hear your song on the radio, it’s a stunning moment. Nearly 30 years later, it still feels the same.” Coming soon: the rest of that interview.
Who: Horsegirl Where: Kilby Court When: 7pm What: Horsegirl pays us a visit on the heels of its 2025 album release, Phonetics On and On (Matador). It’s a departure from their debut, replacing what singer/vocalist Nora Cheng calls their “teenager record” with far more experimentation. The album became less about filling up space, more about playing with ways to create a pop song. “It was the first time we had ever written outside of [bandmate] Penelope’s family basement in Chicago,” she told me recently from Brooklyn. “Now we had a strange warehouse space in industrial Brooklyn to practice in, one with a tiny little window. It was kind of punishing, this new place. Even the sound of our instruments, how it bounced off the walls, changed the way we thought about sound.” Three-word review of the new album? So worth it.
Elephant Revival, a six-piece orchestra from Colorado, delivered a spellbinding hippy, trippy, Celtic-infused set at the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.
The band expertly blended their transcendental folk into a unique Americana symphony with a surprising combination of instruments: electric guitar, fiddle, pedal steel, mandolin, cello, bass, musical saw, washboard, and drums (with a little goddess magic mixed in). Add in the ethereal vocals of lead singer Bonnie Paine, and we were blessed with a unique patchwork of music that was both soothing and psychedelic. It reached that celestial plane where classic music meets classic rock.
The epic 20-song performance began with Bridget Law playing an uplifting fiddle-forward Scottish instrumental, “The Reel McKay Wedding.” Then they gently massaged the audience into a blissful trance with fan-favorite “Remembering a Beginning.”
Photo credit Paul Montano
Dueling electric guitar and mandolin traded hot licks on “Stolen,” creating a Romani/Spanish vibe. I know that may seem a non-sequitur. But somehow the two instruments blended beautifully with the fiddle and Bonnie Paine’s haunting warble and signature washboard. That combination proved an intoxicating sonic elixir.
Elephant Revival shared new music, too. I hope that means a new album is in the works. One fresh offering, “What Does Wonder?” felt like Elephant Revival 2.0 (the band went on hiatus in 2018 and only recently reunited). It conjured up all the pre-2018 magic and more. Paine bowed her electric cello while Dango Rose did the same on his electric upright bass. Charlie Rose added the right amount of twang on his pedal steel, and newcomer Daniel Sproul provided depth on electric guitar. Darren Garvey kept perfect time on percussion, and as always, Law’s fiddle brought it all together. That’s the formula fans have been grooving on for nearly 20 years.
Much to my delight, Paine flexed her saw and played “Ring Around The Moon,” a band classic. Her vocal pitch matched the sound of the fiddle and the saw perfectly. I could almost feel myself levitate off my Tommy Bahama low-back chair.
Photo credit Paul Montano
Other surprise highlights included Charlie Rose singing the lead vocal and plucking his banjo on “Rainbow Connection.” I think Kermit would approve of Elephant Revival’s trippy version. (I hope someone has this on video for the next PBS Utah fundraiser!) While we’re on the topic of rainbows, the crowd joyfully rose to their feet for an amazing version of Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar.”\
“Paine held us in rapt attention as she donned a set of sadistically sweet, metal-claw-tipped gloves and scratched a washboard worn like an armored vest, accompanying the appropriately foreboding Gaelic song “Ciamar Nimi.” Beginning as a hauntingly sorrowful tune (It’s Irish, after all), the song moved into a hip-hop musical space. I think I may have experienced my first Gaelic rap! Move over Commitments! You never know what musical mysteries await you at an Elephant Revival show.
For the encore, Emilie Rose and Paige Anderson of Two Runner joined the ensemble on stage for a spirited rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” Paine ended the show with her majestic vocal soundwaves on “Rogue River,” with a brief reference to Richie Havens’ “Freedom” woven in.
Two Runner opened the show. The Northern California duo features Emilie Rose on fiddle and Paige Anderson on banjo and guitar. Anderson’s high-lonesome voice perfectly blends with Rose’s softer vocal harmonies. They started us off with a new fiddle and banjo number, “Road Runner” from an upcoming new album. In all, they managed 11 songs, including fan favorites “Run Souls” and “Devil’s Rowdydow.”
Two Runner connected deeply with the Red Butte Garden audience, given the duo’s link with the Salt Lake City music scene. Indeed, they recorded their latest single, “Late Dinner,” at Daniel Young’s Orchard Studio in North Salt Lake, with Young’s help as the track’s engineer. They shared a story of how a late-night drink at Duffy’s Tavern after a performance at The State Room gave inspiration for the song “Strawberry Rhinestones,” and Anderson penned “Helmet” following a motorcycle ride through Zion. They also gave a shout-out to the Tuesday night jam sessions at Gracies. Ah, shucks, I felt proud of our musical community that night.
Their final tune, “Burn it to the Ground,” was not inspired by our city, thank goodness. But, it did reflect on a feeling to which many in the audience could relate: the frustrations of growing up in a small town, where everyone knows your business.
Fun Fact: Bonnie Paine and Bridget Law bought the stunning gowns they wore on stage at Decades Vintage Clothing on 6th South.
The natural acoustics of the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre made it the perfect outdoor venue. Occasionally, I got a brief whiff of nature–that sweet skunky perfume of freedom. Rock on!
After spending the entirety of his life in the UK, Wang Chung’s Jack Hues recently relocated to Austin, Texas. It’s where he is when we catch up with him. He married a girl he couldn’t let get away, he said. He’s getting used to his new surroundings there, but settling in just fine.
Maybe being responsible for time-tested songs like “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” “Dance Hall Days,” and “To Live and Die in L.A” helps. If nothing else, those three songs alone have helped the English new wave duo enjoy a lengthy career.
“It’s certainly not what we planned,” Hues says about their first surprise hit. “Dance Hall Days” made it to the top 40 in the UK, peaking at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” followed, going all the way to No. 2 on that same chart.
The songs still follow Hues around, showing up in the most curious circumstances.
“I’m renting an apartment currently. I was standing in the front office, waiting to speak to a lady about the trash being taken out, and ‘Dance Hall Days’ started playing,” Hues says. “And I immediately thought to myself, ‘We have arrived!’”
Q: The now-famous line we now know (and tend to repeat on cue) — “Everybody Wang Chung tonight” — that was supposed to be replaced, right?
Hues: Yeah, yeah. Back in those days, to use your band’s name in the song seemed a bit desperate. We were just mucking around musically. And the disdain we received from certain music critics for leaving it in — and that initial hesitancy for them to like what they were hearing — faded into the fun people have had with the song ever since.
Q:What’s it feel like to create songs that have stood the test of time?
Hues: It’s amazing for many reasons. I was in the UK, where we’re less well known than we are in this country, and I remember “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” coming on in a restaurant. I was looking particularly disheveled after losing a night’s sleep in the studio. This waitress came over and I wanted to say, ‘I wrote this song,’ but didn’t. I thought she might call security.
“Music is a harsh mistress to devote yourself to. At our age, we’ve done a lot of devoting. We’re in place to reap a certain set of rewards.” (J. Hues)
Q:And when you wrote “Everybody …,” you had to know it would be a hit.
Hues: We needed it to be. “Dance Hall Days” was an international hit. We had the problem of following it up without doing the exact same thing again. As an artist, that’s impossible.
Out of the blue, director William Friedkin got in touch with us, and we did the soundtrack to his movie, To Live and Die in L.A. In retrospect, it may have been our most commercially successful project. At the time, it wasn’t a successful movie. It was so dark. The soundtrack didn’t even make a mark on the charts, which is what we were supposed to be doing.
After that, we needed a number one record. “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” was about doing that, and it worked out. Music is a harsh mistress to devote yourself to. And at our age, we’ve done our share of devoting. We’re in place to reap a certain set of rewards.
Q: Does music run in your family?
Hues: My dad was a saxophone player. His sense of being a musician was that it was about playing live. He didn’t understand recordings, which is what I was doing. He said stuff like, ‘If you’re on time for a gig, you’re late.’ Or ‘You’re only as good as your last gig.’ There was a slight military sense to all that, really, of almost being in a war.
Q: So it was your father who helped you get into music then.
Hues: He facilitated it. Seeing The Beatles and hearing them on the radio got me to play guitar. My dad was a trained musician. He said he’d get me a guitar, but I had to take lessons and learn to read music in return. As a kid, you don’t notice how much time you’re spending repetitively learning to write out treble clefs. But by the time I was 18 and thinking about attending university, I could study music at that level because I had the right background. I studied classical music — there were no courses in rock or jazz — but three years studying Bach and Mozart was incredibly good for me. That genre remains the center of my musical interest.
Q: And then Wang Chung happened after you answered an ad in the Melody Maker.
Hues: I was 23, just out of college. I moved back with my parents, because I had no money. I quickly fell in with a bunch of local musicians, a covers band, and they liked that I was writing songs. A mate of theirs had a recording studio, and the band developed from there.
Q: What do you think surprises people most about your shows?
Hues: The impact of it is far bigger than they might expect. Maybe people think of four artists from the 80s using music videos as a backdrop, that it’s all a bit artificial. And in the 80s, we were obsessed with drum machines and synths. It was the latest technology and it gave us our very characteristic sound. But when you see these bands play now, we’re all fascinated with drums and guitars. The synths are in there, but it’s really translating those songs into this legacy of rock and roll, of the ’60s and ’70s. It’s got that other history to it, of what inspired us as kids.
When I spoke with Jason Bonham, son of John Bonham (as in Led Zeppelin’s late drummer), he was in sunny Florida and ready to talk about his famous pops, drumming styles, the staying power of Physical Graffiti 50 years later and how he puts his stamp on all of it.
If imagination has any say in this setting, he was somewhere near ocean waves at the time.
Bonham brings his Led Zeppelin Evening to Deer Valley Sunday, August 10. They’ll be playing most nights in August, making this their busiest year since doing this. A lot of that comes from choosing to celebrate Physical Graffiti in its entirety all year long, he said.
Q:What’s it feel like, getting to perform Led Zeppelin tunes?
Bonham: Well, I still call this my side project, a way of having fun with friends while playing the music of Led Zeppelin. Once I got comfortable knowing we could do it in a different way — part storytelling, part musical journey — it made more sense. All I’m doing is highlighting an amazing band, one that had a very eclectic musical taste. They were allowed to be as diverse as they wanted, and had such an amazing variety of songs to perform, from folk to blues to rock, even Caribbean funk. When I put this show together, I wanted to highlight all of that. Songs the band never did live were even more important for me to perform.
The idea of doing Physical Graffiti start to finish came about, and it turns 50 this year. It’s one of my favorite albums. The agent said it would be a very limited run if we chose to do that. Two months ago, though, we did 24 shows, and it’s the most successful we’ve been. They were wrong about the album having a limited audience. Everybody enjoyed it. We added 24 more shows in August, and another 25 in October and November.
All things considered, it’ll be the most shows we’ve played in a year. Normally, we do 30.
Q:Does doing this tribute help connect you to your dad in any way?
Bonham: I’m very fond of the music, and it does bring me closer to [my] dad. When I’m playing, I can just drift. It takes me back to such a happy time. Sometimes I haven’t even had to rehearse certain songs before getting them right. That’s the uncanny bit: I can play a Led Zeppelin song I have only played two or three times in my life, and I don’t know why, but I’ll just know it.
Photo credit Frank Melfi.
Q:Do you change your drumming style when you play Zeppelin versus your own songs?
Bonham: Hell yeah. When I’m playing my own stuff, my drum parts have elements of all my heroes. From Phil Collins to Keith Moon, their influence comes into my playing. I can listen to an original song and know when it starts to sound like Phil Collins. Or Keith Moon. Or Simply Minds’ Mel Gaynor. Or my dad. Other people will listen and say, ‘No, that’s you. That’s the way you play.’ But that’s not what I’m hearing in my head.
Bonham: If somebody says to me that they love “Rock and Roll” or “Black Dog” or “Stairway to Heaven”, I say, ‘Fair enough. You own Zeppelin IV’. I’ll suggest they listen to the next album. There’s great stuff there, too. “The Rain Song” is one of my favorites to play, even though there’s no drums for ages. It’s an epic masterpiece of songwriting that surfaced at a time when everyone saw them as a heavy band. And yet, it’s so beautifully written. To this day, when those strings come in, I get goosebumps.
Q:How have the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reacted to what you’re doing?
Bonham: We haven’t talked about it. Robert [Plant] said to me that, once everything went quiet, I was one of them. What he meant was, once you get close enough to the circle of Zeppelin members, there’s no more correspondence. Robert said to always be ready, though. If any of them were ever unhappy, they’d let me know. But do I want to be the kid who sends a video and asks them to comment on how great the cover is, a song they created? It doesn’t work that way. The last thing Jimmy wants to hear is, ‘Listen to this guitarist. He plays just like you.’
Q:Does playing your dad’s songs allow fans to celebrate someone who wouldn’t otherwise be celebrated?
Bonham: The music my father made, if I don’t perform it, it’s not going to be forgotten. But I try to give the audience the human side of who he was: this quiet, regular guy who was a carpenter as a kid, coming up in the family building business. In four years, he went from getting his first drum kit to recording Led Zeppelin I. His path was just meant to be.
The reality he knew disappeared pretty quickly. He was still a humble guy. A little too much sauce or booze could lead to a little bravado, but he was 20 years old and suddenly a millionaire, part of the biggest band in the world. Two years prior, he was living in a 16-foot trailer behind his mother-in-law’s place and couldn’t afford to buy diapers. It was a big change.
Q:When you were a boy and seeing him experience that, were you able to separate the two sides, who he was on stage versus who he was at home?
Bonham: I only got to see three Zeppelin shows in my life. The first time was in Birmingham (England) to an audience of 2500 people. The next time, they played in front of 70,000. I was 11 and I asked who else was playing. I couldn’t comprehend how big they’d become. And the last time I saw dad play was in 1979. 200,000 people were there for that one. I have these moments where I think to myself: Did he have any idea of who or what he was going to become? Did he realize what legacy he was leaving behind? Did he realize any of that in the midst of it?
If he saw somebody good, he’d say, oh my god, I can’t do that. He was easily wowed; when he heard great players, it turned him on. I introduced him to Stuart Copeland (of The Police) in the late 70s, and he absolutely loved the band’s energy. He’d say he didn’t know if he could do what he did anymore. He was 31 years old and ready to leave it to the new kid in town.
Q:How far do you think you’ll take your Zeppelin experience?
Bonham: This is a journey we get to share as fans — what the band and songs have meant (and mean) to me — and we play these songs to the best of our ability. If you want to enjoy the music along with us, please do. We get to pay respect to some of the greatest music ever written. Yes, my dad was in the band, but we do this out of our love for the music.
Doing this, I get to share about time I’ve spent with [Led Zeppelin] and playing with them, something I never thought I could do. I’ve done that a few times, though. Once, I won a Grammy. My mom said ‘Your dad never won a Grammy.’ When I countered, saying I won by playing with my dad’s band, she’d say, ‘No, I won’t let you make it seem like it’s nothing.’ She said I should be proud. When we played, she said the other band members had nothing to prove. The world was waiting for me to screw it up. When I pulled it off, my mom said it made the rest of them play great in return.
The longer we do this, the more it allows us to keep enjoying and playing the music, and continue connecting with those who want to enjoy it with us.
