For 40 years, Dream Theater has been making music and playing shows all over the world. On March 4th, 2025, they made their way to the Maverick Center in West Valley City, Utah. This massive venue, home to many legendary performances and even the Winter Olympics in 2002, seemed to be the perfect spot for this reunion tour. With the big sound of the band, mixed with the arena setting, it seemed that there could be no other place for Dream Theater to make their return to Utah.
Kilby Court was filled with excited fans dressed in studded leather jackets, headbanging along to the incredible shoegaze band Glixen. All three bands shook the venue with their bass and had the audience nodding and headbanging along to their songs.
FINNEAS made a sold-out, highly anticipated stop on his For Cryin’ Out Loud Tour in Salt Lake City on March 2, 2025! He drew in multitudes for his show at The Union Event Center! I’ve battled for parking at concerts before, but never like I did for FINNEAS’ show! While that can pose some obstacles, I’ve found that that demand always indicates that we’re in for an incredible show! And spoiler – were we ever!
If a show is happening at Soundwell, you can expect it to be a great time. It was no different for the Mackenzy Mackay concert that took place here on March 1, 2025. With the nearly sold-out venue, there were all kinds of fans packed in the building, ranging from parents bringing their kids to groups having a girls’ night out, but the most noticeable profile of the crowd was that it was filled with young couples out for date night. Soundwell was the perfect venue for everyone there, both for the young lovers and the parents bringing their kids.
The rock and roll band, The Backfires, and the indie band, Mercury, put on an incredible show at Kilby Court. The band’s energy lit up the whole venue. Both bands were super supportive of each other and were grateful to be able to play the show in SLC and very excited to share their music with the SLC crowd. The crowd might have been on the smaller side; however, they really brought great energy to the show.
elbow are returning to the US for the first time since 2020, and their first East Coast and Canada shows since 2017, bringing their critically acclaimed catalog across North America for a headlining tour announced today. Starting in Washington, D.C. on September 26, the band will be making 14 stops across the country, winding their way to the west coast and finishing at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on October 16. Tickets will be available via https://elbow.co.uk. Fans on the mailing list will automatically get presale access. Join the mailing list here: https://elbow.co.uk/signup/
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.
We’ve had the opportunity to attend Collective Soul in concert multiple times. The takeaway from each concert we’ve been to is authenticity. This is such an authentic band. They genuinely seem to enjoy themselves on stage. Collective Soul seems to really appreciate their audience, and they appear to genuinely care about each other. Those elements make for a great concert experience. This Collective Soul concert at The Union Event Center in Salt Lake City was no exception.
When I think of tribute bands, the first band that comes to mind is The Beatles. But in what has to be a close second at this point is ABBA. Over years, I have seen a major increase in the amount of ABBA tribute bands. It’s clear that Utah is a hot spot for ABBA fans. It seems whether it’s a tribute show or a regional production of the ABBA musical, Mama Mia, fans show up to see the songs of one of their favorite bands performed. The Depot was the perfect location for ABBA fans to turn out on a cold Thursday night to be warmed up by this extremely danceable music. The show was a rare seated event at The Depot, but as I’m sure you can imagine, the seats were not used for long or very often.
The up-and-coming Carter Faith started the show with a bang, immediately causing the crowd to be shouting and swaying about. The North Carolinian moved to Nashville after college to pursue country music and was met with overwhelming success. Faith was named as “the future of the next 10 years of Nashville” by the Whisky Jam founder (a music venue in Nashville that hosts artists before they become household names) along with being named a “Rookie of the Month” by Billboard in March of 2022. Spotify also put Faith on their “Hot Country Artists to Watch” list, a huge accomplishment.
Carter Faith’s energy warmed the crowd in a dreamy manner. The flow of her dress and songbird voice were immaculate, adding to the atmosphere of her performance. Funnily enough, Faith said that she wrote one of her most popular songs, “Lasso,” while watching the TV show Yellowstone, which made the crowd laugh as the headliner for the night, Luke Grimes, played a major role in the show.
The song “Grudge” also really got the crowd moving, based on how “When you live in a small town, word gets around… and every time after you find out, you’re going to find out about it” stated Faith, while also prefacing the song with how “It’s a joke y’all, Jesus has a sense of humor” this song had the crowd cheering and singing along by the end. The passionate Carter Faith opened the night wonderfully, bringing a level of energy to the crowd for Luke Grimes
Luke Grimes came out on stage met with excited cheers from the audience, with the stage completely dark, Grimes began to play “Innerbloom Intro”. As the song ended, all the lights came up in warm reds and oranges, and Grimes asked how the crowd was doing. He was met with enthusiastic shouts and cheers, just before saying how “the crowd seems so supportive” and he’s so grateful to be able to play for the audience tonight.
Grimes grew up in Ohio, before moving to New York to pursue acting. Through the years he has had many roles on various TV shows and movies, however, the one that most of the crowd at the concert knew of was “Yellowstone”. While a very popular show, he probably drew a few more fans to the Complex since a few seasons of the television show were filmed in Utah. During the concert, Grimes said “How Salt Lake was a second home for a while, I did a lot of work out here. We were in Park City for this little TV show I did for a bit. I really miss this part of the world” meaning when he was out here filming “Yellowstone”.
While performing, Grimes had this warm and inviting energy that he brought to the stage. Even during his “slow and sad” acoustic set, he brough this passion and warm nature to the forefront of his performance. The crowd was swaying along to the music the whole show, and there were even a few couples in the crowd slow dancing to the songs.
The majority of the songs played during the show were from Grimes’ debut album “Luke Grimes” which was released earlier this year. Before the song “Black Powder” Grimes said how this was a good dancing song, and he wasn’t wrong, the whole crowd was dancing and jumping along. In the middle of the song, Grimes also took a minute to introduce the band, even saying “how sorry he was to the ladies in the audience as his bassist was taken, as he recently got married a few weeks ago, how the only thing thicker than his groove was his mustache, in regards to his drummer. Along with how his right-hand man and guitarist has the fastest fingers in the world.” Grimes also said “how much he appreciates the band and how they make him look good every weekend”
Before the end of the night, Grimes said how he had one more song and told the crowd “Thank you for being so supportive and coming out tonight” and how “sometimes I just have to look around and pinch myself because he can’t believe this is happening.” He then left the stage seemingly for the end of the night until the crowd begged him to come out and play one more song. Grimes excitedly ran back onto the stage and stated how the encore is his favorite part of the night because it made everyone turn around and come back to see the final song. That night, his final song ended up being a cover of the Nirvana song “All Apologies” which caused the crowd to go wild.
