Saturday night at the Complex focused on the comeback of a band that sincerely wanted to make amends and a crowd that was ready to forgive. Pinegrove, an indie-folk band, made a stop in Salt Lake City to promote their newest album release, “Marigold”, based on their experiences over the past few years.
For the next two weekends, Velour Live Music Gallery will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of their highly acclaimed all female showcase Les Femmes De Velour. This is one of our favorite events of the year here at UCR. The showcase has been expanded from one weekend to two and will be featuring 26 incredible female artists. We caught up with Cherish DeGraaf who will be performing on Night 1 (2/20). Here is our conversation. Enjoy!
“I’ve come to terms with the fact that I write the same song over and over,” Sarah said, “so with my limited musical ability, I try to spice things up by switching instruments.” This isn’t true, of course, but it does show a level of self-deprecation and humility rare for an artist of her renown.
I honestly don’t even know how to begin to explain what an amazing concert The Band of Brothers tour brought to Salt Lake City. For a Monday, it was a party at The Complex, and I don’t mean that lightly. The performers were PUBLIC, Magic Giant and American Authors. I was stoked to see American Authors perform again. It would be my third time seeing them live and my second time photographing the show, last time was when they were here in the summer and performed at Red Butte Garden. That time, they were opening so it was going to be great to see them as a headliner this time. I had never heard of Magic Giant and I only knew one PUBLIC song. However, it was a huge turn out from the moment doors opened, so I expected these other bands to be pretty good.
Finding humor in the every day is easier said than done, but Miss North Carolina 1963 (better known as Jeanne Robertson) makes it look like a breeze. This isn’t a product simply of age experience, it’s the result of a finely-tuned analytical perspective sharpened by wit and just the right amount of wackiness—specifically, the type of wacky that decorated the lobby of the Eccles Theater with signs encouraging the night’s attendees to enter a drawing to win a “JEANNE ROBERTSON SIGNED AND SAT-ON ROCKING CHAIR.”
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!