When Indonesia’s Thee Marloes performed for us in Salt Lake City last Tuesday, everyone who treated themselves to a school night out was better off for it. With only a couple of albums to their name so far, the band’s not exactly a household name, not yet. More importantly, though, their brand-new album came out last month (Di Hotel Malibu, Big Crown Records), and it’s hot. Maybe I have a signed vinyl as proof, but get thee to a streaming service and absorb. (I’ll wait.)
My main takeaway from the show: it’s rare that I’ve ever seen a band so capably create such a terrific vibe onstage. From start to finish, it felt like they transformed the venue into a nightclub from an unknown era. And when they switched from singing in English to their native tongue off and on, it made us dote on them even more. An emotional pull is all we needed, and that’s plenty easy to understand. Everything about the Indonesian soul, pop, and R&B trio from Surabaya — three on the album, but five touring members — felt effortless, muted, even eerily cool. All purples and blues and dark pinks. In a perfect world, word will get out, and they’ll come back soon. They’ll become favorites of the area and return annually. Dare to dream, yeah?
And, to put it absolutely plainly, whoever’s curating the revolving lineup of incredible musicians at The State Room is doing a fine job, offering up a blend of well-known somebodies and up-and-comers. It’s always compelling, trading the tried-and-true with the mysterious; that’s needed as much in life as it is in music. It makes us want to come back, if just to be surprised.
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