Osees played to a sold-out-and-immediately-moshing crowd at Salt Lake City’s Metro Music Hall last Tuesday (9/9/2025). Openers DMBQ out of Tokyo effectively lit the fuse leading to the powder keg explosion of a beginning by scream-singing songs I didn’t understand a single word of. Maybe it was all in Japanese and maybe that made it even better? Either way, it’s been a long stretch since I’ve liked (okay, loved) an opening band so immediately.
San Francisco’s Osees is a band other musicians will tell you to see — the band other bands are okay to go record with liking — and that small nugget of knowledge was enough for me. Without knowing many songs at all, I ranked reputation a little higher than familiarity and managed to score a ticket before the rest sold. From their very first song, it was wildly evident what would continue to happen for the remainder of the show. As the band began thundering away with its two equally intense drummers and the weight of a very fast, very powerful steamroller, the audience of mostly moshing men knew what to do next: they reacted. As long as a song was in play, they were slamming into some and pushing others. Put another way, when Osees called, fans responded, and neither seemed to ever tire of the other.
Maybe the most honest review of the night came without words, though: they were all the happy, exhausted faces of the slam dancers who had to find exits and tap out for a long second or more. The smiles on their faces said all that needed saying. The look of absolute fulfillment is rare in a concert, but it was all over the place Tuesday.
Photo gallery by Nathan Christianson. Instagram: @npcplus
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