Tag: Vivint Arena

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UCR INTERVIEW: Sydney Macfarlane of The National Parks

The National Parks

On March 20th, The National Parks will be performing at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City. The National Parks formed in Provo, Utah in 2013. They’ve continued to grow in popularity selling out shows across the country. The Vivint Arena show is significant not only for the Utah-based band headlining their first arena concert but for their fans as well. Hopefully this a sign that things will be getting back to normal in the live music world. As the band prepares for this monster event, I had the opportunity to visit with The National Parks Keyboardist and Vocalist, Sydney Mcfarlane. Enjoy!
-Kevin

Interviewed By Kevin Rolfe

 UCR: First off, thank you so much for taking the time. I imagine you probably have so much prep going on leading up to all this. So thank you very much.

Sydney:  Oh, yeah, no problem.  Yeah, it’s busy, but it’ll be good. We’re excited.

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Miranda Lambert February 25, 2020 Vivint Arena

By: Kevin Rolfe

Photo Credit: Tyler Conrad

We’ve had a few canceled or postponed shows in Utah in the last few months. Some due to weather, and some due to illness. The latter is the case for Country Music superstar, Miranda Lambert. From what I read on social media, Ms. Lambert became under the weather and wasn’t comfortable performing with her voice in the state it was in. It’s disappointing when a show needs to be postponed, but I admire Miranda for wanting to give her fans the best show possible. This performance was well worth the wait.

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Hip Hop Legends: February 29, 2020, Vivint Arena

By: Kaden Severn

Photo Credit: Kaden Severn @simplybrilliantstudios

Saturday was Leap day and many people came together at the Vivint Smart Home Arena to, in a way “Leap” back into the past for U92’s Hip-Hop Legends concert featuring E-40, DJ Quik, Xzibit, Fat Joe, Ja Rule, and Ludacris. While I might be a little too young to know all the songs of those artists. I was familiar with most of them and was excited to see some artists that have been huge in Hip Hop! I was surprised to see how many people showed up for this awesome collaboration of talent. As I looked around the room I noticed that there were people of all ages. The arena filled up quickly.

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Brandi Carlile February 8, 2020, Vivint Arena

By: Kevin Rolfe

Photo Credit: Melissa Majchrzak @melissamajch

Brandi Carlile made her much-anticipated return to Utah Saturday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena, easily the largest venue she’s played in the Beehive State.  Carlile was originally set to play Vivint Arena on December 6 but found it necessary to reschedule due to a bruised vocal chord following a bout with laryngitis.  Rescheduling a show can be difficult. Most of your tour is already laid out, and usually, it’s taking you further and further from the location you’ve had to cancel.  I was happy to get a firm rescheduled date. Sometimes the “We’re working on a new date…” can hang in limbo until we forget about it or the artist is ultimately unable to find a new date on the calendar to play.  But Brandi Carlile made sure she was coming to Utah, and we didn’t have to wait too long. She rescheduled the arena date to February 8, almost two months exactly from when her original show was meant to be. That can also be unusual.  KISS, for example, had to postpone their September 2019 show out at USANA Amphitheater and weren’t able to reschedule the date until this upcoming summer. So, a huge thanks to Brandi for making up her show so soon!  

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Chris Brown August 23, 2019, Vivint Arena

By: Kaden Severn

Photo By: Kevin Rolfe

In the music industry, there are those who are great musicians and singers, and then there are others who are great performers; and then, there’s Chris freaking Brown! Friday night found many Utahns gathered together at the Vivint Smart Home Arena to attend the show of one of the most well known R&B artists in the world, Chris Brown on the third stop of his Indigoat tour.

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Backstreet Boys August 7, 2019, Vivint Arena

By: Kevin Rolfe

The Backstreet Boys bought their DNA World Tour to a sold-out Vivint Smart Home Arena on Wednesday, August 7.  Twenty six years after starting as a group they’re still selling out venues. You’ve got to admit, that’s pretty impressive. Now I don’t know if I’m the best person to be writing a review about a Backstreet Boys concert or not.  First of all, I’m a guy. And judging by the ratio of guys to girls inside Vivint Arena, this review might be best written by a woman. I also can’t say I have ever owned a Backstreet Boys album or would call myself a regular listener to their music.  But if you were in your teens or twenties in the nineties or early two thousands, which I was, the Backstreet Boys were unavoidable. My friends and I talk about how lame they were while secretly and sometimes no so secretly singing along to “Larger Than Life”. How many of you know the words to “I Want it That Way:? All of you? It’s impossible to not know the words to that song! They were huge, and their fans still love them. So while I may not be the best person to be writing this review I was the one covering this show.  I was there on August 7 and I have to say I was amazed at what I saw. 

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Shawn Mendes July 16, 2019, Vivint Arena

By: Kevin Rolfe

Shawn Mendes is as big a pop star as there is right now.  It’s virtually impossible to not know who he is. He has the type of fame that gets him featured on everything from Saturday Night Live to TMZ.  He’s everywhere! But on July 16th Salt Lake City had Shawn to themselves at Vivint Smart Home Arena.  

The arena was packed! I didn’t hear if it was a sellout or not, but if it wasn’t there couldn’t have been many seats left.  I walked in just as Mendes took the stage and the audience filled with mostly teen to preteen girls was deafening!  The roar subsided (slightly), and I could make out that the first song was “Lost in Japan”. I looked around at the frenzy to get a sense of the crowd and who was there.  Next to many of these rabid teenage fans were what seemed to be their parents. I would see a group of about four to five girls and there would be a couple of moms with them.  Every so often I’d see a dad in the mix. God bless them. 

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