Ashe • June 14, 2025 • The Depot
Reviewed and Photographed by Matisse McMullin
You know that a show is good when you leave feeling like you just had a heart-to-heart with a friend. That’s exactly what Ashe gave Salt Lake City on Saturday night. From the moment her backlit silhouette emerged through the fog on stage, she had the whole room locked in with her captivating presence, voice, and vulnerability.
She wasn’t just performing at the crowd, but to them. At several points during the show, she crouched down low or got on her knees so that she was face-to-face with the fans pressed against the barricade. She sang like she meant every word just for that one person in front of her. It created an environment that felt intimate and special, even in a packed venue.
Whether she was belting out an emotional ballad or twirling around playfully to something more upbeat, the connection she built made the night feel deeply personal like each person in the room was part of it.
Ashlyn Rae Willson, known professionally as Ashe, kicked off The Trilogy Tour earlier this year in May. The show is divided into three acts, each dedicated primarily to one of her albums: Willson, Rae, and Ashlyn.
This structure takes the audience through the different phases of her evolution and growth as both an artist and a person. Each act seemed to have its own tone and visual style, reflecting the mood and themes of the album it represented. The transition between acts felt like flipping through chapters of Ashe’s life with each one marked by its own sound and emotion.
Watching the three-act Trilogy Tour feels a lot like watching a classic movie which fits perfectly with Ashe’s Old Hollywood and 70s inspired aesthetic. The way the show moves through these acts, with vintage style lighting and outfits, makes the whole thing feel like stepping into a nostalgic film. Her show wasn’t just a concert, but a story told through music and visuals full of a timeless and cinematic energy.
The show opened with several songs from Ashe’s newest album, Willson. As her most recent and, in my opinion, most personal release, it felt raw, unfiltered, and emotionally rich. The music displayed her growth as a songwriter and person. Of the three acts, Willson sounded the most experimental, blending stripped back moments with layered production that highlighted her honest and complex storytelling.
Act I began with a burst of energy. Ashe danced and skipped across the stage, waving and connecting with the crowd as she sang. The atmosphere was playful and electric, setting the tone for the rest of the night. Her joy was infectious and the audience fed off of it instantly.
Willson then turned slowly toward the fans, smiling wide before cheekily calling out, “Salt Lake Cityyyy!” This moment captured her charm perfectly.
She then acknowledged her dress strap that had broken mid-song, joking, “Imagine if the tape hadn’t taped.” The crowd laughed in response. Ashe asked if anyone in the crowd happened to have a safety pin, and sure enough and a fan passed one up to the stage. When the quick fix didn’t work, she threw on a red cardigan over her dress for a few more songs before later changing into a retro black dress with a cherry-print pattern.
She twirled back onto the stage and said, “Let me get back to what I was going to say…Hi, I’m Ashe! I feel so honored and embarrassed to be here.” The crowd responded with cheers and laughter. She admitted that she was fighting a cold and would need the audience’s help singing that night- an invitation that they gladly accepted.
Willson gave a brief introduction to the show, telling her adoring fans, “This is your night. I want you to feel every emotion in your body if that’s what you choose to do.”
She followed this up with the mellow and introspective “I Want to Leave You (But I Don’t),” and the crowd swayed along, singing every word. Despite being under the weather, Ashe hit powerful notes with ease.
Then came heavier hitting songs that build in intensity like “Dear Stranger” and “Pull the Plug.” Though deeply vulnerable, these songs carried a thrashy, dramatic energy. At one point, she took a fan’s phone onstage and turned it towards the crowd yelling, “Salt Lake City! Everybody scream!”
She closed act I with “Ashe”, a quieter, more folksy song. Sitting on the steps with her guitarist, she invited the audience to take a deep breath with her. As she paused during the bridge, the crowd carried the lyrics and she watched in awe.
The vibe shifted to more cheeky as Ashe transitioned into act II. Opening with a fan favorite, “Another Man’s Jeans,” Willson turned her back to the audience and began swaying her hips to the beat of the song, then faced the crowd sporting a pair of chic red-rimmed sunglasses from a fan.
She kept the energy high with “Angry Woman,” “Shower With My Clothes On,” and more, pacing the stage and channeling rage with flair. The crowd fed off of her energy, matching her anger and sass.
Ashe then took a moment to read several of the signs from fans. Some mentioned birthdays, breakups, and cross-state drives to be there.
Act III began with another fan favorite, “Save Myself.” Wearing a fur trimmed coat that further contributed to the 70s aesthetic of the show, Ashe belted the emotional track, leaning into the drama by reaching to the audience in desperation as she sang. During the bridge, she dropped her nightly ‘lore’ with tonight’s being about an ex dating someone with her name.
She followed with “Pushing Daisies,” a groovy, psychedelic tune that originally features Suki Waterhouse, and then the moving “Love You Need,” which she dedicated to the fans, thanking them for sticking through her lowest moments, “Thank you for being here. This is for you.”
Audience members swayed to the music, hugging one another and holding paper hearts in the air, part of a fan project. As the song came to a finish, the room was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Ashe put a hand on her heart and, voice full of emotion, said, “Salt Lake, you’re so beautiful. The hearts are so cute!” She then jokingly got mad at the fans for trying to make her cry.
Afterwards, she played a stripped-down version of her new song, “The Little Mess You Made” originally written and sung with longtime friend and collaborator Finneas for their new band The Favors.
She then followed with “Till Forever Falls Apart”, joined onstage by her fiancé and fellow musician John Canada. The crowd swooned as they sang together and Ashe beamed as she announced their October wedding.
To end the night, she performed her hit single “Moral of the Story.” The familiar piano keys had fans mesmerized instantly and they sang along with every single word. At the bridge, Ashe instructed everyone to get down low. On her command, the whole room exploded upward as people jumped and sang.
“The best part of a show is that you never know what you’re going to get.”
At the end of the song Willson said, “I love you Salt Lake City!” as she ran across the front of the stage highfiving her adoring fans.
