When I saw that Berlin, OMD, and the B-52’s were going to tour together to celebrate the B-52’s 40th anniversary I was really excited. I also thought this was such a random collection of great bands from the 80s. Being from the same decade is really where their similarities stop. But maybe that was enough because the show at Red Butte Garden Amphitheater totally worked! It was one of my favorite concerts of the whole summer.
Wow, Courtney Barnett can put on a show! Last Thursday’s Twilight Series was quite the concert, with a great lineup and a large turnout. Things kicked off with Salt Lake City’s very own Choir Boy. How I have never heard of them before surprised me, because they seem to have a very large following here in Utah. Their music and performance gave me some serious 80’s electronic, synth vibes and I absolutely loved it! It was fun to watch them on stage, dance along to their music and really get in the groove of things. They’re super stylish too. I was very impressed with them and added a new band to check out on my list!
The future is now. Last night I attended a concert that I think could very well start many trends in the electronic/EDM world. Musician, DJ, and music producer Flying Lotus made a stop at the Union Event Center as part of his massive world tour. Bringing elements that I had never seen in a concert before. I wasn’t extremely familiar with his music but knew the second they handed me the 3D goggles when I walked into the venue, that I was in for a treat.
O.A.R. is still killing it like it’s 1996. That’s when the rock band originally formed but you wouldn’t be able to tell, because the band is still so alive and filled with so much energy. You can see how happy they are to play, almost as if it’s their first big show, which is definitely not the case. Last Friday, Red Butte Garden was packed with fans of all ages, eager to enjoy a nice night and a good show. It definitely was a great show!
As we get older and we grow up, we many times attend concerts of our favorite bands to remember the “Good Ol’ Days”. And many times nostalgia fills us and we go back to that time when we were younger when we saw a particular band for the first time. There are times when we’ll go to a show for that nostalgia trip and unfortunately a band has passed their peak and we’re sadly reminded that we’re all older and that the band we’re seeing probably needs to call it a day. Then there’s The Alarm. Sometimes I wonder what it was like seeing The Alarm back in the 80s or 90s. (My first time seeing them was last year.) Could it have possibly been better than what I saw on August 8, 2019, at The Complex? There’s just no way. I think through the circumstances of Mike Peter’s life he has breathed new life in The Alarm, especially in their live shows.
I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else last Wednesday night, in Salt Lake City other than at the Summer Salt concert. The combination of good vibes, great music, and a night filled with excellent performances, I mean, what else could you want from a summer concert? Not only was Summer Salt amazing live, but their two opening bands, Dante Elephante, and Motel Radio pumped up the crowd and the energy never died down.
Dante Elephante opened up with some awesome tunes that started to get everyone in the mood, heads bobbing, feet tapping, and warmed the crowd up for what would be a killer night. Their lead singer brought everything he had to the stage, singing his heart out as he stood barefoot on stage, playing his guitar. There was so much passion in their performance and it was so much fun! Towards the end of the set, he even hopped off stage and went into the crowd, singing into the mic, as fans new and old surrounded him. The first opening band wasn’t even done with their set and everyone was already smiling and vibing.
By: Kaden Severn w/ contributions by Efrain Cuessy
If anyone has ever doubted hip-hop fans of Salt Lake City for not being true supporters of the genre, they were dreadfully wrong. For example, last night at the Vince Staples concert at the Gallivan Center. Wednesday night was another installment in the Twilight Concert Series featuring one of rap’s rising superstars Vince Staples, best known for his smash hits like: “Norf Norf”, “Big Fish”, and “Oops.” The Twilight concert has been bringing out some absolute killer acts and Vince Staples was a perfect act to introduce Hip-Hop to the mix.
Enter a dystopian timeline à la Rod Serling, and at the exact geographic midpoint between the Chihuahuan Desert and the Pacific Northwest, there is sure to be a dimly-lit bar where Roselit Bone is always the main act. This according to the Portland-based group’s first two albums, which transmit surf-rock rhythms accented by brassy conjunto that seem to transcend notions of time and geography.
While the Pacific Northwest does not seem a likely region to produce sonic epics that could reverberate across red-rock canyons and bounce off mesas, Roselit Bone proved the contrary at Rye Diner & Drinks, where the seven-piece band (normally eight, missing their pedal steel accompaniment) played the second-to-last-stop on their tour during an early evening show. As the sun set, frontwoman Charlotte McCaslin guaranteed that after the attendees finished their meals and it got a little darker, the band would “get weirder.”
Whenever you think of a concert or live music what comes to mind? Loud music? A crowd going nuts and dancing around? The frontman running around the stage and getting the crowd going? Those aren’t wrong answers. But sometimes a great concert can be the opposite of all of those things. Such was the case at Last Thursday’s SLC Twilight with Blind Pilots. If you wanted to spend a summer evening sitting outside kicking back and relaxing while listening to some great music then this was the show for you.
It doesn’t seem fair that one band can have so many talented musicians, so many talented vocalists, and so many talented songwriters that create so many great songs. There are bands out there that are barely able to squeeze out maybe one solid hit (which is more than I could ever do). Then there’s The Head and the Heart who have what seems like an endless supply of really great songs.
Fresh off two sold-out concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, The Head and the Heart met up with us here in Utah for their third show in as many days. Those Red Rock shows were streamed online. I took a peek at the first show and I knew we were in for a great night I was really excited to hear a lot of songs from the new album Living Mirage. I have really enjoyed that album. When UCR saw them at Park City Live back in March, The Head and the Heart played some songs from Living Mirage which was still a couple of months away from being released. I loved those songs and was excited to see how many more songs they’d perform on this tour.