Spencer Sanders • The Penny Candies • Sasha Haydn • February 1, 2025 • The Rise
Reviewed and Photographed by Sam Howard
Spencer Sanders live at The Rise in Provo, UT was a night full of folk sounds and storytelling through whimsical melodies. With family, friends, and family in attendance, The Rise made for a close and intimate stage setup. Allowing the artist to interact with the crowd and celebrate their music in a cozy way.
The Rise is a venue that is smack in the middle of Center Street in Provo, UT. Being one of the key venues in the Provo music scene, The Rise brings a welcoming vibe to any and all that would attend shows here. Though it is a smaller venue it still produces big sounds and a very accommodating stage for performers. Whether you are an avid concertgoer, a starving artist, or just want to take your family out to dance, then you can’t go wrong with The Rise. This is the perfect place for all up-and-coming bands/artists to get their start.
Sasha Haydn
Starting out the night was Sasha Haydn with her very strong and powerful voice. With a band composed of a cellist, percussionist, and guitarist to accompany Sasha on stage, the excitement exuded from the stage into the crowd. As the first and second song played, you can feel the energy warming the crowd. In between songs, she would introduce each one by talking about how she came to write it. She also mentioned how her first single has just reached 12,000 streams on Spotify. Some were written about her relationships with parties. While others were written about giving advice on how to be a good person to someone that sent her a letter from across the country.
Nearing the end of this set, Sasha would go to cover a Maggie Rogers song called “Light On.” At this point in her set, she was getting everyone to feel all sorts of emotions. Even bringing a portion of the crowd to tears with how beautiful this performance was. She definitely did her version of this Maggie Rogers song justice. With the set coming to a close, it was clear that The Rise was the perfect venue for her to be performing in.
The Penny Candies
Next up in the lineup was The Penny Candies, an indie-folk band from right here in Utah. This band was composed of five people, each player putting a lot of thought into their sound. They opened up their set with The Avett Brothers, which really set the tone for the rest of the set. Their harmonies were very tight and blended very well with their instruments. While listening to The Penny Candies perform, I couldn’t help but be happy while missing the springtime all at the same time. The sounds coming from the stage were all very storybook-like and told a story that would make anyone feel like a kid roaming the forest.
Toward the end of their set, the lead singer, Riah, had us all sing happy birthday to her daughter, which made everything feel like it was one giant celebration. She also invited her son to sing with them on stage during their song “The Fox.” Throughout the performance, there wasn’t a single face in the crowd that wasn’t smiling at some point. They filled The Rise with joy. I would love to see them perform at festivals like Fork Fest and continue playing places like The Rise or The Velour, as The Penny Candies are perfect for the Provo music scene.
Spencer Sanders
Ending the night was the headliner, Spencer Sanders, with an 8-piece band. This singer-songwriter took the stage and performed his songs on the piano. The very soft melodies and warm vibes from his voice made for the perfect headline for the night. A couple of songs into the set, Spencer invited Riah, of The Penny Candies, back up on stage to sing a cover of a Taylor Swift song, “Snow on the Beach.” Riah would play the part of Taylor Swift, and Spencer the part of Lana Del Ray. Their performance of this Taylor Swift song brought a fairytale flavor to it which really made it feel like Spencer’s own song. With this song, the crowd grew increasingly excited and happy to sing along with the performers.
Continuing his performance, Spencer Sanders would explain some of the meaning behind his songs. Before he performed his song “War and Peace,” he gave background that the song was about these letters that he had come across between a World War II soldier and his lover back home. As he started playing this song, you can feel the emotion and heartbreak in both the lyrics and the melody. It was storytelling at its finest in a song.
Toward the end of the set, Spencer would invite Sasha Haydn back on stage to perform a duet of his song “Maybe…” which they had performed together once before at their Kilby Court show back in December of 2024. This duet was absolutely electrifying and left everyone wanting more from this duo. With the end of the night coming, Spencer would go on to play a new, unreleased song, giving us a sneak peak of what is to come from this brilliant singer-songwriter.
Spencer Sanders absolutely excels at telling stories through his music, especially love stories. I would absolutely love to see him put on a Valentine’s Day themed show someday, and it would be so great to see him play at places like The Velour or even Kilby Court again.
