Music

Indie-rock duo Illiterate Light illuminated The State Room stage on Wednesday night with an energetic show providing fans with a much-needed release after two years of isolation and uncertainty. They opened their set with “Wake Up Now,” a song from their album scheduled to drop in January. It did what its title promised. If anyone was sleeping, they woke up. The blasting guitar and provocative lyrics provided us with a cathartic release from the troubles of the past few years. I’m looking forward to hearing the recorded version. Appropriately enough, they followed with “Light Me Up,” another new song that signals a hopeful emergence from the darkness. Its breezy melody, made better by thunderous beats, resonates in your chest when you hear it performed live. “Growing Down” is a sleeper song from their 2019 EP Sweet Beast. Seeing it performed live illustrated the generational angst faced by young people today. The tune captures the frustration of doing all that you’re supposed to do. But, instead of growing up, you feel like you are growing down. Witnessing how the audience connected with the band’s thrashing energy, I appreciated why the tune connects with fans. It feels like a “Smells Like Team Spirit” for another generation.

Stepping into the spotlight at the edge of the stage, they slowed down a bit for a heartfelt acoustic rendition of “Sometimes Love Takes So Long.” That quiet moment didn’t last long. They soon refueled with a high-octane version of Neil Young’s “Vampire Blues.” They are resurrecting this obscure 1974 cult classic, a song about the demonic greed of corporations and kings who control fossil fuel, just in time. Nearly 50 years later the song is still relevant. Maybe someday we’ll wean away from fossil fuels and we can drive a final stake through the vampire’s heart. Maybe vampires really do die.

They ended with “Better Than I Used To.” Their winning formula of great songs and boundless energy make for a dynamic live show. I’ll add Illiterate Light to my list of dynamic duos I’ve seen in The State Room, like Little Hurricane and Shovels and Rope, whose music amounts to more than the sum of its parts. And, I will always want more of that. 

Colorado-based roots rockers Kind Hearted Strangers opened the show with “Redwood,’” a James McMurtry-styled slice of Americana. They introduced us to the beginning, middle, and new pieces of their growing sound. Their eight-song set delivered layers of American roots music and featured new material from an album due out early next year. Our sneak peek of this talented quartet featured a hard-edged, electric guitar-forward sound mixed with the same acoustic elements of their earlier work. Anchoring their progressive new music included their opus “Cerberus,” a dead-head type Americana jam with Allman Brothers’ influences that’s now available on streaming services. They ended their set with “Runnin’ Next to You,” their first single from 2018. This is a band distilling rock ‘n’ roll through a modernized filter to brew up music with a refreshingly familiar taste.  

The State Room crowd on November 18, 2022 got to experience the next generation of rockers cutting their own path in new and interesting ways. It felt great to be back at The State Room seeing up-and-coming acts as they enthusiastically showcase their music on the venue’s venerable stage.

Who: Illiterate Light w/ Kind Hearted Strangers

What: Indie-rock

Where: The State Room

When: November 18, 2022

Info: thestateroompresents.com, KRCL.org.

There’s plenty we missed in 2020-21, especially live music. Lucky for us, KRCL is partnering with The State Room to help us make up lost ground by hosting a Virginia-based indie-rock duo, Illiterate Light, on Nov. 18, 2022. In 2019, they were an up-and-coming band who had just signed with Atlantic Records and released their self-titled debut record. Then the pandemic hit and interrupted their ability to tour and promote it. Of course, great music doesn’t have a shelf-life. It’s never too late to discover a solid debut album even if it’s three years old. Thanks to the DJs at KRCL for staying current, even when the rest of us might be stuck in a time warp. They always seem to find the best new music. There’s no better place to see an exciting new band than The State Room.

The two-piece power duo consists of Jeff Gorman on lead vocal and guitar (he also plays bass notes with a foot pedal) and Jake Cochran on vocals and stand-up drums. Fun fact: Gorman is the nephew of Black Crowes’ founding drummer Steve Gorman.  

Their indie-rock sound, with its folky edges and hints of psychedelia, has been compared to The Band of Horses. I wouldn’t corral them by such a narrow association. Indeed, they are cutting their own path in the Indie-folk genre. Stylistically, they run the gauntlet of early millennia indie rock bands like Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, and Wilco. I can also hear textures of Houndmouth and The Flaming Lips in their sound. Another fun fact: the band’s name was inspired by the line “that illiterate light is with us every night.” from the Wilco song “Theologians.” 

Gorman’s voice has a tonal quality similar to Neil Young’s. In fact, on their live EP In The Moment they scoured Young’s massive catalog to resurrect an obscure, deep-cut, “Vampire Blues.” Their fresh, live version of the 1974 cult classic about the dangers of fossil fuel dependence is both prescient and relevant today. Hopefully, they’ll include it on their setlist for The State Room show. “I Wanna Leave America” and “American Boy” are both great original songs with a Youngian (not to be mistaken with Jungian) flare that makes a connection between the socio-political despair of Young’s 1970s and today.

Their sophomore album Sunburned is set for release in January 2023 with a couple of teaser singles already out like “Heaven Bends” and “Light Me Up,” both trippy and melodic tunes with kaleidoscopic harmonies and a driving rock beat. Armed with a growing repertoire of great indie-folk rock songs and a reputation for a high-energy live show, I can see why KRCL is presenting this dynamic duo.

Opening is Colorado-based roots rockers, Kind Hearted Strangers. They just released an 11-minute opus “Cerberus” that’s an electrified, mind-bending, dead-head-styled jam that should blend nicely with their more contemporary folk-rock songs like “The California Zephyr” and “Red and Blue.”

In a spooky post-Halloween coincidence, I sat down to write this preview while listening to KRCL. They played “Sometimes Love Takes So Long” by Illiterate Light. How did they know what I was writing about? Is that COVID vaccine microchip implanted in my arm tuned to 90.9 FM and the DJ can channel my thoughts? Or can we just trust KRCL plays the best under-the-radar music that commercial radio constantly ignores?

• Who: Illiterate Light w/ Kind Hearted Strangers
• What: Indie-folk rock
• Where: The State Room
• When: Nov. 18, 2022
• Tickets and info: thestateroompresents.com, KRCL.org

I’m here to testify. Salt Lake City rocks on a Tuesday night! The unknown legend Mike Campbell and his Dirty Knobs played to a packed house at The Commonwealth Room on Oct. 18, 2022. For me this show offered a personal musical bookend. I first saw Mike Campbell on my 16th birthday in July of 1978. He was the lead guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers who opened for those bad boys from Boston, the J. Geils Band at the now defunct “sweat box” (The Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth, Mass.). Through the haze of reefer smoke, I witnessed one of my first great rock ’n’ roll shows. At 16, there was no place I’d rather be. 

Fast forward to 1987. I saw Campbell and Petty again when they opened for Bob Dylan in London. That night, a rare hurricane-like storm hit the city and nearly blew the roof off the bed and breakfast where I slept happily exhausted from a night of youthful exuberance (but that’s a tale for another day). The J.Geils Band broke up after they released their 1981 hit album, Freeze Frame. And, tragically, Petty left us in 2017. And now we fast forward once again to the Commonwealth Room where Campbell was the last rocker standing from that memorable 1978 show of my youth.

Campbell, and his band the Dirty Knobs, have been busy opening for The Who in arenas across the country. Lucky for us, Campbell, at 72, made a detour to the Commonwealth Room to play for a smaller Salt Lake City audience. My impossible task is to report on the highlights of his performance. He played 20 songs over 2.5 hours, well past the last TRAX train home.  Temporarily stranded, but happy, I felt 16 again. And, just like that legendary show in 1978, there was no place I’d rather be.

For those hungry, old-school rockers looking for something fresh, never fear, “new” classic rock exists. The Dirty Knobs released two new albums in 2020 and 2022. They opened their Commonwealth Room show with “Wicked Mind” from their 2022 release External Combustion. and played “Irish Girl” from 2020’s Wreckless Abandon. Artists will cover Petty for decades to come, but Campbell does more. As his co-writer for 40-plus years, Campbell channels Petty’s spirit through new, original tunes. When he played “Irish Girl,” the sympathetic energy of Tom Petty filled the venue. It seems like a wished-for song from a new Petty and the Heartbreakers album that will never come. Petty’s lyricism has rightfully passed to Campbell who already mastered the music.

Campbell played with a youthful zeal and connected frequently with the audience. You could tell there was no place he’d rather be. He gave us a musicology lesson when he brought out a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar and started playing opening riffs to several classic songs that featured the guitar’s sound. We were watching a master class on the history of rock ’n’ roll. For example, he told the crowd he co-wrote a song with Don Henley, but he’d never played it live. Since the Dirty Knobs bassist and guitarist were both in Henley’s solo band and they knew the song well, they agreed to play it for us. I expected “Boys of Summer,” which I knew he co-wrote. Instead, they knocked out an authentic version of Henley’s hit “Heart of the Matter” (another song he co-wrote.) What a bonus!

My thanks to the fan who requested “Electric Gypsy” from External Combustion, a great song I hoped would be on the setlist. Campbell played “Refugee,” an early radio hit he wrote with Petty. In this version, he slowed down the tempo to accentuate Petty’s great lyrics. But, when it came to his guitar solo Campbell cranked it up and crafted a beautiful balance of lyricism and high-octane rock ’n’ roll. “Running Down a Dream” ended the setlist and included a Campbell-esque guitar solo where he playfully inserted Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” riff. The chord progression flowed naturally between the two songs. Campbell kept it loose all evening. In my mind, he was paying homage to my London hurricane misadventure!

For the encore Campbell asked the audience what they wanted to hear. Someone shouted “Little Queenie” and on cue, the band tore into that Chuck Berry classic. They also played an extended Bo Diddley, 12-bar blues medley, featuring “Road Runner,” “Who Do You Love,” and “You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover.” And, in the finale, they snuck in a chorus of Skip James’ 1931 Delta blues “I’m So Glad.” The crowd joyously sang along. Though it may have been a nod to the 1966 Cream remake, I’d like to think the Commonwealth crowd was singing a 91 year old Delta blues number. This proves that the blues will never die. 

Alvin Youngblood Hart, who opened the show, was a case in point. He schooled the audience in his  electrified Delta blues in the old-school tradition. “Big Mama’s Door” and “Highway 61” felt like  modern, amplified versions of old resonator classics. Yet, “Big Mama’s Door,” is an original Hart composition. He ended his eight song set with an obscure Rolling Stones song “Child of the Moon.” He stripped away most of the psychedelic 1968 layers to reveal a raw, blues rocker. (For you Rolling Stones trivia geeks like me, “Child of the Moon” was the B-side of the 45 RPM single “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”) Thanks Alvin Youngblood Hart for reacquainting me with a B-side treasure from my childhood.

For those 500 or so lucky patrons who witnessed the master guitarist and rock legend Mike Campbell ply his craft at the Commonwealth Room, tag and post your pictures or videos. You can’t let such an epic show go by unnoticed. Here’s the feeds: @stateroompresents (#stateroompresents), @mikecampbellofficial, @slmag

• Who: Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs
• What: External Combustion tour
• Where: The Commonwealth Room
• When: October 18, 2022