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.
When Triggers & Slips’ frontman Morgan Snow was growing up, he and his older brothers spent their days and nights camping and fishing, hunting and barbecuing. No matter what the activity was, their soundtrack was always predetermined: all Waylon Jennings, all the time.
Snow’s band, Triggers & Slips, will perform a tribute night of Waylon Jennings’ music at The State Room on Sunday, June 15, 2025, at 8 p.m.
That music became ingrained in him as he grew older and became a musician in his late 20s. When his band of 15 years started prepping for their Waylon Jennings tribute show months ago—gathering dutifully to rehearse a couple times a week—they already knew 10 of his songs by heart. By the time they play Sunday, they’ll have doubled that number, landing on ways of channeling all the grit, attitude, and character of the late Grammy-winning country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and finding ways of making his songs their own.
Their mission in paying tribute to Jennings is two-fold: helping those who love his music remember how incredible it was while allowing those who’ve never heard his songs to understand how iconic that music ultimately still is.
“The sad reality is, if you turn on the radio, you’re unlikely to hear any Waylon,” Snow says. “The opportunity for people to hear a single song is next to none. You have to seek him out or know what to be listening for,” Snow says.
The concert was initially set to happen at The Garage on Beck, now defunct after 17 years. It’s where Snow was in January when he decided this long-considered tribute finally needed to happen. The light bulb moment that set it in motion was simple enough: he discovered Waylon “Hoss” Jennings’ 88th birthday would happen on Father’s Day, June 15. It’s the same day he needed to make this happen.
Tributes aren’t new territory for Snow. He was attached to nights of music celebrating Justin Townes Earle and Bob Dylan earlier this year and even did a countrified take on the Alice in Chains catalog in 2019, spending over six months practicing to get it right.
But Sunday’s show will likely feel more personal than those others. One reason: when he started writing music, his songs came out sounding like Waylon songs. That was hardly planned for, but it wasn’t a huge surprise, either: Waylon is, after all, one of his biggest musical influences. Sometimes the late singer even pays visits to his subconscious.
Snow wrote a song called “Old Friends” in 2012, the result of a dream he had where he found himself on Waylon’s tour bus. They were joined by Snow’s recently deceased buddy, too, who was killed in Iraq. It made sense, as that friend had taught him guitar when he lived in Myrtle Beach. The bus was either going to Heaven or Hell or both. Snow says the song had a Waylon vibe; the recording sounded like how he believes he would have done it.
“It’s authentic what they were doing then. There’s never going to be another Willy [Nelson] or Waylon. That era is done. It’s not possible to recreate it,” Snow says. “But we can still be inspired by them. They can remind me to keep finding ways of continuing to be me and allowing that to find its way into the songwriting.”
WHAT: Waylon Jennings Tribute Show
WHO: Triggers & Slips, w/ special guests J-Rad Cooley, Dylan Schorer, Kate LeDeuce, Jerry Cochran, Rick Gerber, Michelle Moonshine, Megan Blue + others
When Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen paid Salt Lake City’s Red Butte Garden a visit on Sunday (June 8, 2025), part of Bingham’s 17-date All Night Long Tour, his wide-eyed fans did everyone on stage a solid by selling the night out. They also wore a lot of cowboy hats and/or boots because, well, both tend to match a country music show nicely.
It’s safe to assume that many of the assembled audience had first discovered Ryan Bingham from the popular Kevin Costner vehicle Yellowstone (AKA Cowboy Falcon Crest). Bingham, who is also an actor, played Walker, a hang-dog ranchhand and itinerant barroom troubadour, who became one of the series’ most popular secondary characters.
Opting to play two complete sets of music instead of bothering with an opener, fans got even more than what they bargained for, and that’s always a good-to-great thing. Bingham casually made his way through older favorites (“Jingle and Go,” “Bluebird,” “The Weary Kind”) as well as songs so new they’ve yet to be recorded (and his “Americana” deserves to be played on the radio already). Looking a little like Matthew McConaughey’s kid brother and owning up to a similarly easy Texas grin, Bingham and the rest of his players were in great spirits, which had a ripple effect on all attending.
Is it OK to end a review with a request? (It’s got to be because I’m about to do it.) The locals deserve a whole night of music from The Texas Gentlemen whenever their next time rolls around. They’re a more than capable backing band—not unlike the Heartbreakers sans their late Tom Petty superstar—and pointing a spotlight in their direction would more than prove that. And whatever tour manager takes me up on that suggestion will find that out for themselves. Music gods, make it so.
The 17th Annual Ogden Music Festival is the closest we’ll come to Woodstock on the Wasatch. Blue skies and great vibes greeted the festivarians who gathered to celebrate three glorious days of peace, music, and the multifaceted roots of Americana.
The gala featured 26 performances, a second-line-style parade, jam sessions, workshops with featured artists, and nearly 24 hours of music. The Ogden Music Festival is the signature event of The Ogden Friends of Acoustic Music (OFOAM), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance our community’s quality of life through music. They’re also dedicated to getting musical instruments in the hands of our kids and developing the next generation of musicians and music lovers.
It’s a tall task to boil down such a mammoth affair into a short review. Let me start with recognizing the OFOAM leaders and volunteers who put on an amazing and well-run event. Bravo!
The festival began on Friday, May 30, 2025, with five eclectic acts. Salt Lake City’s own Hot House West Swing Orchestra kicked off the weekend with “I’m an old cowhand,” a 1930s classic. The 14-piece western swing and gypsy jazz orchestra dazzled us with a dozen high-energy tunes covering everything from Bing Crosby to Patsy Cline and included original compositions like “Saguaro Serenade.” Melissa Chilinski joined the orchestra as a guest vocalist, and her Pompe n’ Honey bandmates took the stage for the final number, “Side Saddle” complete with a trippy Lawrence Welk-inspired bubble machine.
Photo by Jay Blakesberg.
The music never really stops at the Ogden Music Festival. When one main stage act ends, another begins. “Tweeners” keep the music flowing during the interludes when roadies (always dressed in black) ready the stage for the next performance. Megan Blue delivered a fine bluesy solo set once the Hot House West’s bubbles dissipated and before the next act plugged in.
Pokey LaFarge, sporting a slicked back pompadour, delivered a fabulous 75-minute, 12-song rock-a-billy tent show revival set. Grooving to all that retro-coolness, the audience rose to their feet and communed with the musical spirits conjured by LaFarge and his band. He opened with “So Long Chicago” from his stellar 2024 release Rhumba Country. He reached back into his deep catalog with “Get It ‘Fore It’s Gone,” “End of My Rope”, and “Fine to Me.” He closed his set with “Something In The Water.” Though not the headliner, the crowd demanded more, and he encored with “La La Blues.”
Primera Linea, a youth band from Havana, Cuba, travelled the furthest to entertain us. They blended Afro-Cuban funk, hip hop, and New Orleans-style jazz into a short but energetic “tweener” set. It warmed my heart to see the next generation of artists expanding the Americana songbook.
Cimafunk and his band La Tribu (Spanish for The Tribe) headlined the evening. Cimafunk, a multi-Grammy-nominated artist and musical mixologist, blends Afro-Cuban funk, American retro soul, Latin rock, and hip hop to create a diverse and highly danceable sound. Though I don’t speak Spanish, I am fluent in funk and the universal language of soul. The crowd didn’t need any translation either. They abandoned their low-back chairs and turned the space into a ground-shaking dance party. Cimafunk brought out the members of Primera Linea to jam alongside him on “Me Voy,” ramping up the energy and giving the kids a wonderful moment to shine on stage with the master musicians. The remarkable evening ended with a spirited version of Parliament’s “Give Up The Funk.”
Rumor has it that the U.S. Geological Survey, the folks who detect earthquakes, might have noticed the seismic activity coming from Ogden Friday night. But we will never know, since a certain Ketamine-infused maniac fired all the weekend staff (joking, not joking).
Saturday’s noon to nearly midnight showcase started with Mariachi Fuego, an 8-piece mariachi band decked out in their splendid regalia. They set a festive tone for a warm afternoon embrace of roots-based music.
With a jam-packed schedule of artists on the docket, I had a full bingo card of must-see favorites.
Margo Cilker topped my list. Since reviewing her March 2024 show at The State Room, I’ve been eager to see her again. Her style is country-folk with a West Coast edge. It’s outdoorsy, pack up the Subaru and head to the hills kind of music. She opened with the catchy “Low Land Trail” followed by “Barbed Wire (Belly Crawl)” and “Tehachapi.” On her fourth number, she took us on a journey in a “‘64 Mercury Comet.” I hope she records this lovely coming-of-age banger on a future album. She managed to squeeze in a dozen songs in an hour, including “Keep it on a Burner.” Cilker is a rising star, and I hope she finds her way back here next year (if not sooner).
John Craigie with the Coffis Brothers. When Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival back in 1965, his fans called him a traitor. Craigie didn’t get the same reaction in Ogden. Fans were delighted to hear his electrified music. (He did, however, play a song called Judas.) Craigie usually dazzles audiences as a solo performer armed with his acoustic guitar and his comedic wit. But this summer there’s less standup and more music. Joining him on his tour is the five-piece Coffis Brothers band, who make his finely-crafted tunes pop (and rock). They opened with “Damn My Love” and followed it with “Part Wolf.” Craigie records his songs with multi-instrumental backing, so hearing the larger production of a full band didn’t seem out of place. He gave the band a break and did “I Wrote Mr. Tambourine Man” solo. When the band returned, they performed an unexpected cover of Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer.”
“I Am California” included captivating guitar and keyboard solos that enhanced his signature tune. He ended the show with a rockin’ rendition of “Nomads.”
Craigie and the Coffis Brothers returned on Sunday for another full set (with 80% different material). On their final festival run, they closed with a spirited version of “Laurie Rolled Me a J.” These two performances were a true festival highlight.
New Dangerfield is a relatively new quartet that is reinvigorating the black string band tradition. I particularly enjoyed their original organic “Put No Walls Around Your Garden.”
Nashville’s Newest Bluegrass Ambassadors East Nash Grass just won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s New Artist of the Year award, so of course, the OFOAM crew had to bring them out to our festival. They uplifted the crowd with their 11-song set of fresh-cut grass.
Sister Sadie is a six-piece, all-female band that blends bluegrass with ‘90s country. Their performance of “Let The Circle Be Broken,” the latest single from their upcoming album, created the most powerful musical moment of the festival. The beautifully harmonized tune about breaking the cycle of generational trauma and abuse received a standing ovation from the crowd for its sheer beauty and the courage it took to play it.
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives headlined the Saturday show. Stuart is a country music legend, multi-Grammy winner, and inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He started his career at thirteen years old touring as a mandolin player in Lester Flatt’s band. He later joined Johnny Cash’s band as a guitarist before moving on to a highly successful solo career. Stuart draws on a depth of musical influences and styles to produce a beautifully rich, timeless sound. He opened with a hard-driving retro country number, “Tear The Woodpile Down.” His country music fans were delighted with “The Whisky Ain’t Workin’.” They played a cool surf rock instrumental, “Space Junk,” and the rockin’ “Tomahawk.” They flawlessly mixed genres through their impressive 18-song set and encored with a surf rock guitar jam before ending with the trippy Doors-esque “Space.” Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives were the perfect headliner for the festival. He connects the dots from many of the genres that make up American roots music.
The great vibes continued on Sunday with local grassers Theoretical Blond, who welcomed festivarians with their uplifting sound just as the morning caffeine started to kick in.
Fretless, a Canadian string quartet, featured the ethereal vocals of Madeleine Roger. As festivarians sat under a scorching sun with cottonwood snow falling all around them, Fretless played tunes that conjured up mental images of both an Appalachian holler and an Irish peat bog. Their cover of Bruce Cockburn’s “Wondering Where The Lions Are” transcended space and time. As the haunting sound of a cello played, two violins and a viola wailed as Roger’s otherworldly voice sang the lyric “some kind of ecstasy got a hold of me.”
Lone Piñon, a string band from New Mexico, blended styles such as Cumbia, Bolero (and so much more) into a masterful set that reached from North to South America and to the Caribbean, highlighting the Latin roots of Americana music.
AJ Lee and Blue Summit closed out the 17th Annual Ogden Music Festival as the Sunday headliner. Their blend of spirited California grass served as a sonic exclamation point on the wonderful and diverse three days of music. Opening with “Hillside,” they played many fan favorites from their hefty catalog, which included “Seaside Town,” “City of Glass,” “Tear My Stillhouse Down,” and “Bakersfield Clay.” I particularly enjoyed their rendition of New Riders of the Purple Sage’s “Glendale Train.” It had all the psychedelic undertones of the original but with a punchier tempo. They also covered Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up The Sun,” which captured the essence of the day. They ended their set with “Lemons and Tangerines” and returned for a remarkable encore with a beautiful version of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and ended the fest with “To Mine.”
Throughout the three-day festival, we enjoyed the contributions of the mostly local “tweener” contingent of artists who played between main stage setups. The length of each tweener set depended on the speed of the transition, but the quality of their performances never wavered. So thank you to Megan Blue, Primera Linea, Dylan Clough, The Last Wild Buffalo, Pepper Rose, Debra Fatheringham, Cooper Lavallee, Finch and the Magpies, Love Juliet, and Riley Rawlins for keeping the great musical vibes going all weekend.
The Ogden Music Festival is a music lover’s dream. The crowds are right-sized to bring in marquee acts, but small enough to keep it intimate and approachable. Festivarians can see award-winning musicians in all their on-stage glory and then jam with them, up close and personal, at “Jam Camp.” The festival runs like a well-oiled machine, and the vibe is always joyous.
Mark your calendar. The 18th Annual Ogden Music Festival runs from June 5-7, 2026. There will be a variety of ways to participate: Camping, a single-day outing, or grab a full three-day pass. This year, the Sunday ticket cost $25 for 8 hours of great music and fun activities. Follow them at www.ofoam.org. Early bird tickets usually go on sale in December. It’s the perfect Christmas gift for the musician or music enthusiast in your family.
Who: Ogden Friends of Acoustic Music (OFOAM) What: 17th Annual Ogden Music Festival Where: Fort Buenaventura (Ogden) When: May 30, 2025- June 1, 2025 Info: ofoam.org
Who: Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen Where: Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre When: 7:30 p.m. What: Any chance you’ve seen 2009’s Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges (aka everybody’s favorite)? It was my gateway drug to Ryan Bigham’s genius. He wrote the movie’s theme (“The Weary Kind”), and that song alone has all the power in the world to get stuck in your head for days (weeks?) in a row. It led to album buying and Bingham liking/loving. As for The Texas Gentlemen, that’s another story entirely, and they’re worth their own time in the spotlight. Consider this night a twofer, folks. Extra bangs for all of your precious bucks.
Who: They Might Be Giants Where: The Depot When: 8 p.m. What: If you snagged a ticket to either of their two Salt Lake City shows, count those lucky stars 1-2-3, my friends. It’ll be a hot time in ye olde time machine. From the band’s site: “We are doing favorites and new stuff, along with very different old stuff. With 85+ songs now in active repertoire, the shows change radically from night to night, and there is a different album in the spotlight every night. This tour is a full-on celebration of all things They Might Be Giants. 8-piece band. 3 horns. 2 sets. It’s ‘An Evening with’ so it starts early, with no opener. Doors at 7, we are on stage at 8.”
Tickets: SOLD OUT!!
Thursday, June 12
Who: Bloc Party Where: Union Event Center When: 6:30 p.m. What: What goes around, comes around, and when it comes to solid muzak, that’s a welcome thing, maybe the most welcome. It wasn’t many years ago that Bloc Party was playing small but powerful shows at In The Venue downtown. The fact they’ve graduated to a much larger space to match their enormous sound is cause for celebration, not to mention getting the chance to revisit some of their greatest hits (and songs like “Helicopter,” “Banquet,” and “This Modern Love” are so worth the revisit).
Who:Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Where: Capitol Theatre When: 7:30 p.m. What: One of the greatest parts about seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform is how little they tend to focus on the unnecessary. There is no light show. There (usually) isn’t a warm-up band. Whether you’ve seen the duo live or watched any footage surrounding their current tour, it’s all about their harmonies. Those are what’s on display. The duo is so good together that it’s hard to tell where one voice starts and the other stops. It makes for a magnificent sound, one of the best in the music world. If you pick just one show to head to this month, I gently urge you in this direction. Fingers crossed that Gillian does a little clogging, too.
Who: Weird Al Yankovic Where: The Maverik Center When: 7:30 p.m. What: He’s retired from making albums (or so he says), but Weird Al is still bringing all his weirdness out on tour, where it belongs. This night promises to be Bigger and Weirder than anything he’s done previously. Reminds me of a time I pressed a friend of mine who lives in Vegas, asking who was the best act he’d ever seen on the Strip (and he’d seen plenty). Without hesitating, he shared that Weird Al was his number one. It’s a lot of parodies, sure, but it’s also frequent costume changes, dancing, production, etc. The songs are goofy, but that spectacle’s extra shiny. His Utah date has been mostly sold out for a minute, but it’ll be worth it if you can land a seat at this one. Especially if he dons his “Fat” suit.
Who: James McMurtry Where: Commonwealth Room When: 8 p.m. What: McMurtry is one of the more familiar faces in these parts, and we welcome him any time he cares to pass/amble through. He’s a storyteller on all levels, one of the most verbose singer-songwriters still creating tales worth telling. It’s a feat in itself that he can remember so many verses and lyrics. McMurtry shares his writing secret: “You follow the words where they lead. If you can get a character, maybe you can get a story. If you can set it to a verse-chorus structure, maybe you can get a song. A song can come from anywhere, but the main inspiration is fear. Specifically, fear of irrelevance. If you don’t have songs, you don’t have a record. If you don’t have a record, you don’t have a tour. You gotta keep putting out work.”
Who: Modest Mouse Where: Ogden Amphitheater When: 7 p.m. What: Part of the Ogden Twilight series, this is one of the more sold-out shows on this list (it seems to be trending, that), and for a few very good reasons. Modest Mouse is still one of the hardest-working bands there is; they’re playing more than half the dates in the month of June alone. Also, they remain one of the best bands to see live. Period. Isaac Brock doesn’t know how to give less than 1500 percent, and that has a glorious ripple effect on his audiences. Did I snag a ticket before they all went away? No, I did not. And I’ll have to think long and hard about the errors in my ways.
For bonus points, pay these shows visits too: The Detroit Cobras (6/11, Urban Lounge), Trevor Hall w/ Fruit Bats (6/13, Granary Live), Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (Capitol Theatre, 6/14), Waylon Jennings Tribute Show (6/15, State Room), Drive-By Truckers w/ Deer Tick (6/17, Red Butte), Polyrhythmics (6/28, Commonwealth)
Trampled By Turtles paid Salt Lake City’s Red Butte Garden a visit on Thursday, May 29, 2025, and it felt a lot like perfection. As just the second band to play Red Butte’s stacked Outdoor Concert Series this season, the bluegrass folkers from Duluth, Minnesota, landed here on one of the best weather days in eons. Spring’s getting stretched out this year, so it was cool, never cold. It was warm at times, but never too hot. Goldilocks weather. Add some banjo, hands blurring fast as they play the mandolin, voices made to harmonize together, and that’s a good recipe for happiness. The band was feeling it too; frontman Dave Simonett remarked halfway through, “This is the best time I’ve ever had in Salt Lake City … and I’ve been here lots of times.”
The sold-out crowd got to enjoy a more than generous 24-song set that included favorites like “You Never Let Me Down,” “Right Back Where We Started,” “Whiskey,” and “Wait So Long.” And while their discography is riddled with plenty of originals, even their choice of covers last night deserves mentioning. Their twangy take on “Wild Horses” was fittingly apropos — and it invited the swaying, the singing along, the old-school familiarity. When a bluegrass band decides to take on “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead, though, that’s something else. We noticed. We pulled out our phones to capture a bit of it. We paid close attention as they paid tribute. They made it their own but did right by Thom Yorke and the rest of the boys simultaneously.
Same time next year, guys? We’ll save you a spot. After last night, you’re in.
Full photo coverage and gallery by Natalie Simpson, Beehive Photography. Instagram @BeehivePhotoVideo
Sunday marked the fourth and final day of the Kilby Block Party festival (May 18, 2025). While it was the coldest (at times) and definitely the wettest day of the rest — there were soaked attendees and large puddles to navigate around and/or splash through as constant proof — the diehards showed up early. It was not unlike rubbing shoulders with a crowd of sturdy and determined birdwatchers — wide-eyed, smiling, staring, slack jawed — only this one came with a more varied soundtrack, no binoculars required.
Nation of Language. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive PhotoSuki Waterhouse. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive PhotoTennis. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
The sun started peeking out as The Pains of Being Pure At Heart played, and the shot of warmth was added cause for celebration. Their breezy set was a preview for the rest of the day, too, as it delved heavily into indie music territory with sets by Real Estate, Tennis (taking its final lap and on their last tour ever), Jay Som, Suki Waterhouse, Nation of Language, among a few scattered others. It felt like the dial of time got turned back a decade or two, as elements of the ‘80s and ‘90s were on full and vibrant display in most behind the microphones. In most (if not all) ways, the masterminds behind Kilby gave attendees/customers what they most wanted to hear and experience. If there were any complaints, they were drowned out by those doing all the cheering.
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Photography by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
The most anticipated band of the day easily belonged to TV On The Radio, currently enjoying a welcome resurgence in popularity. As they gave an electric performance (complete with stunning visuals and political messages, reminding us that all the music they played was anti-fascist in nature), the sunset even played its own part. It dropped out of the sky for good shortly before “Staring at the Sun” paved the way for Justice as the final band of the night.
TV on the Radio. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
A festival rarely gets it so right, but Kilby regularly did so. What started as a little festival competing with the more prominent ones is becoming a growing replacement. It is a thinking man’s fest that challenges itself to think outside the box and “festival better” than others. A favorite part personally was getting to ride the train to and from the festival every day, and leaving parking woes behind. Ticket prices included public transportation for all days; if it’s not something other festivals are doing throughout the country already, it’s a great idea to absorb.
As I reached the halfway point of Day Three of Kilby 2025, I assumed the line of the day would go to the electronic musician George Clanton, who said about Kilby, “This is the new Coachella; Coachella’s dead.” But ultimately, that honor goes to Hugo Burnham, drummer for Gang of Four, who emerged from behind his kit for the first and only time just as his band finished its explosive set. Using a crutch, Burnham walked to the front of the stage to leave us with two directives, of which few in the crowd would contest: “Be the resistance. Support live music.” And with that mic-drop moment, the best show I’d seen at Kilby so far came to a conclusion.
George Clanton. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive PhotoGang of Four. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
The appearance was part of a farewell tour for Gang of Four, the post-punk pioneers whose combination of angular rhythms, mutant-disco grooves and leftist politics galvanized a movement in late ‘70s England that still reverberates today—and, it must be said, influenced just about every band that has taken a Kilby stage, directly or indirectly.
Their show was exhilarating for every second, and I hadn’t left a Kilby set so sweaty or energized. Jon King is only the latest of this festival’s riveting, instrument-free frontmen, a theme this year following memorable sets from Future Islands and Perfume Genius. Whether crouching down, hands on his knees, and crab walking (crab hopping?) across the stage or lassoing his microphone cord in reckless bombast, King was an irrepressible force in a pale-pink button-down shirt. At one point, a member of Gang of Four’s crew lugged a heavy microwave oven onto a platform, and King proceeded to crush it into bits with a baseball bat, in time with the music, sending small pieces of shrapnel into the front section—a Gang of Four gambit dating back decades that never ceases to thrill.
Not to be outdone, recent addition Ted Leo’s guitar work, so pivotal to master, left a searing imprint on the audience, which started up a mosh pit just from one of his solos. Bassist Gail Greenwood, on loan from L7 and Belly, laid down notes thicker than motor oil, and shared King’s flair for performance. If this really is Gang of Four’s final tour, I can’t imagine a more marvelous send-off.
Of course, the day had plenty of other highlights as well, starting with Panda Bear, the solo project from the Animal Collective singer-songwriter, whose Day-Glo psychedelia really hit home, adding vibrancy to the overcast afternoon. The songs flowed together without breaks, functioning like an endless groove or a multipart symphony, and manifested as perhaps Kilby’s most cohesive merger of the analog and digital, the human and the synthetic. Panda Bear’s guitar fused with electronic squiggles reminiscent of vintage video games, samples of breaking glass and other quirky sound collages, while the hectic animations shuffling behind the band proved at once distracting and appropriate to Panda Bear’s avant-pop, which felt like surf music for a five-dimensional future.
Black Country New Road. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
Black Country, New Road (BCNR), which followed Panda Bear on the Kilby Stage, entered their set to a recording of the Band’s “The Weight,” an Americana classic and the first indication that their show would be an outlier among the festival’s most common genres. Indeed, it’s difficult to classify this outfit at all. I can think of no obvious antecedent, at least for this version of BCNR, which shifted some of its gears for their 2025 release Forever Howlong following the departure of their original lead singer, Isaac Wood. This version of BCNR, at least, jettisons typical song structures, and earworms are not their forte. It’s difficult music to dance to, and seems more tailored for cerebral venues—art museums, botanical gardens—than even a big-tent music festival like Kilby.
But the result, once you clued into its wavelength, was enchanting, and patient listeners were rewarded with more instrumental color than anywhere else in the lineup, from banjo and mandolin and bowed bass to accordion, flute, recorder and saxophone—and even whistling. If headliners Weezer are a dog of a band—cuddly, eager to please, easy to love—BCNR are a bunch of cats for whose affection you need to win. By the end, I certainly felt the purr.
Ovlov. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
I spent a minute or two with Ovlov over on the Desert Stage and was taken with the Connecticut-based band’s infectious enthusiasm for being on the Kilby lineup, which singer Steve Hartlett called “surreal as f***,” adding “we are not professionals. We shouldn’t be here.” Even when Hartlett’s guitar cable malfunctioned, leading to a delay in the set, he was quick on his feet with a rejoinder: “We wanted to drop a song anyway.” Ovlov’s sludgy post-punk hit home with many—slam-dancers moshed to nearly everything, and there were so many crowd surfers that they collided while aloft—but it was the only set I encountered that was certifiably too loud, and having neglected to bring earplugs, I ducked out of it early.
Without further ado, the aforementioned Weezer constitute the biggest “name” on the Kilby lineup this year, and their goofy, high-concept “Voyage to the Blue Planet” tour did not disappoint. The show opened with a faux news report, projected on video, that introduced the plot: The members of Weezer have been called upon to embark on an interstellar voyage to a blue plant dozens of light years away. Another video followed, this one a five-minute countdown accompanied by borrowed sounds of a rocket preparing to launch, which led to yet another video, this one showing the Weezer guys dressed as NASA astronauts and striding toward the spacecraft. One impatient wag behind me, ready for the blessed beginning of live music, joked, “skip intro, skip intro!”
Weezer. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive PhotoWeezer. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
He wasn’t wrong: This was much ado for a rock ‘n’ roll show. Weezer finally emerged, space suits and all, opening with newer material while projected animations progressed the story. Yes, we were expected to follow the narrative as well as the music, as Weezer’s craft soared above clouds, planted a “W” flag on the moon, traversed the planets and exited the Milky Way for the final frontier, en route to what Rivers Cuomo referred to as “an important and dangerous planet,” where only the music from their debut LP, colloquially called The Blue Album, can revive its barren topography.
“Hash Pipe” saw our boys arrive at a neon space station; “Island in the Sun” was, literally, an island in the sun. At one point, an alien called Bokkus, Weezer’s green-skinned nemesis, flew in front of them in a UFO and pelted them with desserts, which damaged the ship and forced it to crash-land on the “Pinkerton Asteroid Belt,” leaving Weezer to salvage components from a desolate wasteland in order to complete their flight. It’s only fitting that material from Weezer’s most angst-ridden album was the soundtrack for their existential crisis.
Weezer. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
By the time the set list finally arrived at a full-album run-through of Blue—and the band had landed at its destination, with Cuomo now dressed as Captain Kirk—I all but abandoned any concept of following this kitschy nonsense and gave in completely to the music. Our group reward was the unalloyed joy of belting “Buddy Holly,” “Surf Wax America,” “My Name is Jonas” and, of course, the greatest of all modern rock singalongs, “Say It Ain’t So,” in unison with several thousand fellow devotees. The band occasionally made reference to Salt Lake City during their set, name-dropping the famous Red Iguana in the spoken-word intro to “The Sweater Song,” after which the locals in the audience went expectedly bananas. But otherwise, the band didn’t tinker with perfection, playing the songs as they appeared on the landmark album, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. And if we needed to go to outer space to get there, so be it.
Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan had the line of the night during the Kilby Block Party 2025 first-ever Thursday event, and it came before night even fell. Noting the presence of turn-of-the’80s staples New Order and Devo at the top of the bill, Kaplan, 68, then quipped, “It’s nice that Kilby is giving a young band like ourselves a shot.”
Yo La Tengo frontman Ira Kaplan. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
Indeed, the alternative-music tapas of this abbreviated first night did skew older than the festival’s typical demographic, both in the talent and the audience. It was billed as a legacy night, with the four main touring acts dating back at least 20 years. (OK, 19 ½ for Future Islands, but who’s counting?) Festival organizers are considering it an experiment of sorts, and judging by the staggering turnout and rapturous reception these artists received, I’d say it’s a successful tweak to Kilby’s formula.
My evening started with Yo La Tengo, Hoboken’s finest, who opened their set at the Lake Stage with the screeching feedback and blissed-out noise of “Big Day Coming” and ended it with the guitar freak-out of “Ohm,” filling these bookends with partly a greatest-hits set and partly a tour through their many avenues of musical influence—a tall order for a 50-minute show. This included the infectious shuffle of “Autumn Sweater,” the honeyed ballad “Aselestine,” the sunny psychedelia of the Harry Nilsson-esque “Shades of Blue” and the vintage AM-radio soul anthem “Mr. Tough.” “Fallout” segued into an interstellar instrumental interlude, which threaded straight into “Sugarcube,” just one example of a band wasting nary a second of its too-short set.
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The evening leaving little time for catching one’s breath, I had five minutes to trek to the Kilby Stage just as Future Islands entered the chorus of their opener, “King of Sweden.” To be fair to this quartet, I should give equal weight in my praise to the instrumentalists onstage, especially the dreamy shimmer of Gerrit Welmers’ keyboards and Michael Lowry’s flawlessly executed four-on-the-floor dancehall drumming, but let’s be honest: Like most who have caught a Future Islands gig, I could scarcely take my eyes off of vocalist and songwriter Samuel T. Herring.
Future Islands. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
“Force of nature” only begins to describe this guy’s gladiatorial charisma. From jogging in place to balletic twirling, from vogueing like a 1980s fashion model to kicking like a Rockette, Herring was a perpetual motion machine, clearly feeding off the crowd’s adoration and vice versa. More than on his albums, he sang certain notes in a guttural death-metal growl, and was never approached as a novelty: He seemed, at times, to be exorcising his own demons. He belongs in the lineage of other great non-instrumentalist singers such as Henry Rollins and Morrissey, but he exceeds both in ageless exuberance. Herring didn’t simply graduate with honors from Frontman School; he wrote the curriculum.
I expected excellence from DEVO, having seen them a few years ago at a music festival in California, and they did not disappoint. The group is steeped in retro-futuristic fashion signifiers that bled from stage to crowd; the most faithful fans in the DEVO cult had been sporting iconic red energy domes for hours leading up to the set. The band entered initially wearing identical black suits emblazoned with an energy-dome icon that, not coincidentally, resembled a cryptic corporate logo. Videos evoking the VHS era projected behind the band, including an interlude straight of a Carl Sagan documentary, with astronomical data on the enormity of the cosmos and Earth’s infinitesimal place in it, to which Devo is “an insignificant blemish with a lifespan too short to mention,” the voice-over opines. After this bit of self-effacing humor, the group returned in their familiar yellow jumpsuits, which they promptly began to shed.
DEVO performed with the polish of a band that has played the same set—with minor variations for set length—hundreds of times: It was loud, in your face, tightly choreographed and damned infectious, with the musicians adjusting their playing style to fit the song, from Josh Freese’s caveman drumming on “Down Under” to the deliberately apelike synthesizer playing on “Are We Not Men?,” a highlight among highlights.
The night culminated with New Order, and while it’s unfathomable to imagine the group as anything but the main headliner, they showed why, for so many artists at so many festivals, DEVO is a tough act to follow. Don’t get me wrong—I love New Order’s music, and there was enough to like in the legendary synthpop act’s career-spanning set, especially in the bells-and-whistles department, such as the elaborate light show that blanketed the audience, and the often-trippy videos that accompanied the songs.
New Order’s Bernard Sumner. Photo by Natalie Simpson | Beehive Photo
But having finally seen New Order live for the first time, I tend to agree with former bassist Peter Hook, who split acrimoniously from the band in 2007, that the version without him underwhelms. Part of it was the low energy coming from the stage. I felt a weariness in leader Bernard Sumner’s singing and presence, and his comparatively toothless vocals on the smattering of Joy Division songs in the set list only underscored how irreplaceable Ian Curtis was. Furthermore, Sumner’s vocals were too low in the mix, and the sound was often muddy and inconsistent, cresting high and then curiously dropping out before retaining its proper volume. Despite an unexpected cameo from guest vocalist Brandon Flowers, of the Killers, on “Bizarre Love Triangle,” the show began to resemble a subpar bootleg recording.
The general vibe in the Fairpark didn’t seem to mind, with spontaneous dance parties popping up everywhere. Crowds can forgive a lot when the music itself is so wonderful; certain substances probably didn’t hurt either. Nor did the absolutely idyllic weather, with a couple of tiny flirtations with rain on an otherwise overcast evening. Many took advantage of the agreeable climate to relax on loungers shaped like Andy Warhol’s famous banana painting from the Velvet Underground’s debut LP; fight gravity on themed pinball machines in the arcade bar alcove in the VIP lounge; and play beer pong with enormous red Solo cups—activities I hope to enjoy over another jam-packed Kilby weekend ahead.
Sharon Van Etten heralded a busy week of music in Salt Lake City when she played Metro Music Hall on Tuesday (May 13, 2025), supporting their latest, 2025’s Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory. Without leaning on any opener, the band started out quietly and powerfully with “Live Forever,” and kept an attentive crowd nothing less than captivated from that point on. On one hand, it immediately felt like a band that’s risen to the full extent of its superpowers. On that other hand, it was just ethereal. Powerful. Emotional. If a resident (or touring) witch cast a spell on the lot of us on Tuesday, we were all the better for it.
This album is the first the band’s ever written together, and the concert felt like an extension of that. Throughout the evening, Van Etten did her share of checking in with all on stage, pulling attention and giving the rest their due whenever it felt right to do so. While new songs were primarily on display — they tackled all but “Indo” off their 10-track album — Van Etten still dabbled into crowd favorites territory, with a nod to the late, great David Lynch (“Tarifa”), a sped-up version of “Every Time The Sun Comes Up,” and, of course, “Seventeen”. That last tune found Van Etten bending down and sing-screaming directly into a fan’s face on the front row, which was likely a far better souvenir to take home than anything at the merch booth.
It’s worth noting that the new album feels especially good and already fits whatever your most comfortable tee feels like. If you’ve not scooped up or streamed it yet, you’re doing yourself a grave disservice. This review comes with the best kind of homework: go listen to all of it. Dance along. Sing. You may even accidentally fall in love.
ICYMI, Amos Lee and his band performed with the Utah Symphony last Saturday (May 10, 2025) at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City. In short, it was lovely. It’d be easier to say “no notes,” but that would defeat the purpose of this review. Instead, I’ll say it was like hearing some of your favorite songs with a lush movie score along for the ride as added emphasis.
While it isn’t uncommon for some of the more easy-to-love voices and singers in our midst to have their songs rearranged for classically-trained musicians — and it’s practically a rite of passage for some — it wasn’t just the ticket buyers who benefited; it was a home run for all involved. It was a way of giving the audience above and beyond what it could have ever expected. Lee’s band was constantly thrilled by what the orchestra behind them did with their pieces, and it regularly showed in their expressions.
Lee paused frequently to share how thrilled he was to be the glue holding all the swirling pieces together. In the generous 20-song set that included songs like “Street Corner Preacher,” “Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight,” “Sweet Pea,” and “Arms of a Woman,” Lee showed his impressive range throughout. He was a singular talent surrounded by rich talent (his band), which was backed by even more talent (Andrew Lipke was conducting the orchestra and, by the looks of it, having a lot of fun doing so). Maybe it’ll never be repeated, and that would be a shame. But if there is another night like this one, even if it’s a few years down the road, let’s hope the sequel has as much magic as they created this time around.
