OCT 21 | SALT LAKE CITY, UT | THE UNION EVENT CENTER TICKETS ON SALE NOW
With Special Guests Touché Amoré and Self Defense Family To Support
After a year+ of no live music, California rock band Thrice are back and hitting the road this fall in support of their 11th studio album, Horizons/East. Thrice’s 2021 Autumn Tour will be making a stop at The Union Event Center in Salt Lake City on October 21. Tickets are on sale now here.
Gojira, Knocked Loose, & Alien Weaponry at The Union
Reviewed by Maralee Nielson
A rainy cold night in Salt Lake City rapidly turned into a hot, sweaty, and energy-filled night. All thanks to Gojira, Knocked Loose, and Alien Weaponry. October 11th, The Union Event Center was filled with metalheads all alike. Ready for the return of live music, and more or less ready to rage. Salt Lake City was the first night of the tour with the full lineup. As doors opened and fans rushed in, a good handful was running towards the front of the barricade (as venue staff was yelling ‘NO RUNNING’) but another handful running to look at merchandise, and another going up to the bar to pick out the best overlook of the stage. Soon enough the venue was pretty packed and anxious for the show to begin.
I was experiencing some major dé jà vu last week when Angels & Airwaves made it to Salt Lake City for their Lifeforms tour! They were playing at The Union Event Center once again, a whole year and some days later since the last time they were here in 2019! Now that concerts and live music are back, the crowds are more eager and excited than ever to see their favorite artists perform. When you have a legend like Tom DeLonge in the house, you know it’s gonna be an incredible show and an amazing night!
Marking their tenth stop on the Direction Of Dreams Tour, Hippie Sabotage took Salt Lake City by storm. Hippie Sabotage is an indie duo from Sacramento California, composed of brothers Kevin and Jeff Saurer. Stopping by Utah for the first time since last summer’s SLC Twilight, Hippie Sabotage put on one of the best concerts that I have ever been to. Fans were allowed into The Union at 7 PM, however, they started lining up long before then trying to secure their spot at the front of the barricade.
“I love you,” Slug (Sean Daley,) says to the Union Event Center crowd on a grey, late winter night. Then he says, “If there is one thing I want you to take away from this show, just one thing. We are Atmosphere, and we make music!” He then dropped into ‘Onemosphere’; an eruption from the crowd shook the building as we hummed along.
By: Local SLC musical artists: Valerie Rose Sterrett and Annie McAllister
Photo Credit: Julien Bourgeois
Cradling two microphones in her right hand as if she were holding a pair of birds, Chan Marshall, known as Cat Power, pours her powerfully enchanting voice into them, the audience staring into her shadow as if she were casting a spell. The atmosphere was very intimate as the audience swayed and nodded their heads in agreement with her music. You could see her fans feeling it, some smiling with their eyes looking up to her in awe, while others danced freely with eyes closed and arms gliding. The Union is a spacious venue, but it held what felt like a purposefully modest audience in chairs that reached a little more than halfway back into the space. Toward the middle of the concert, she waved for us to leave our chairs and come closer.
I’ve been a fan of Ingrid Michelson for about ten years now. Of course, I knew her big songs, “You and I” and “The Way I Am”. But it wasn’t until July 21, 2010, that I truly got it. Ingrid opened for the British band, Keane at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California. It says a lot about an artist when they can win over 6,000 people who are at a venue to see someone else. But she did it. She had the entire audience eating out of the palm of her hand by the end of that set. I think she forced Keane to up their game because the audience must have had high expectations after her set. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Ingrid Michealson a few times here in Utah, both at The Complex and In the Venue and she delivered every time. I always look forward to her coming to Utah. But this time I was especially excited because one, she hadn’t been here in about four years, and two I loved her latest album Stranger Songs, and couldn’t wait for her to perform those songs live.
What a night. What a line-up. What a crowd! Not since Warped tour in 2005 have I witnessed such an amalgam of people and music lovers; hardcore fans, old school punkers and die-hard Irish circle mashers. This diverse crowd swamped the bar lines around the dimly lit ambiance of The Union Event Center’s balcony; a tour de force of a show about to take place and I have a front of house pass to the hammering guitar riffs and spitting vocals of Wayne Lozniak, and Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed; the jamming smooth bass lines and pure American gravel that come with the classic rockers in Clutch and last but not to be left “tossed a lily,” the prolific Irish ensemble that is ever pervading, consuming and inclusive: Dropkick Murphys. The energy and palpitation flowing around the throngs of mid-generation butt-rockers was nothing short of soul shaking. If I could flashback to 2010: the last time I witnessed The Dropkick Murphys in concert. What a day of hardcore and death metal enormity that my then developing psyche just could not comprehend. This show had much of the same feeling and overpowering hunger for a sense of comradery and community. Everyone there had been listening to the same punky and essential hardcore ballads for years, letting it combat the inevitable yuppie growing within all of us; here they are, ready to melt faces and transport all of us right back into 1997.
I don’t think there are words that could truly describe how incredible yesterday was, not only for myself but for thousands of Angels & Airwaves/Blink-182/Boxcar Racer/Tom DeLonge fans that attended the AVA show in Salt Lake City. However, SLC fans were treated with a special, intimate acoustic AVA set, earlier that day at Club 50 West, hosted by Utah’s favorite alternative radio station, X96. Space was limited so fans, including myself, lined up hours early to make sure we snagged a spot. I stood in line for about 3 hours. The first 50 people in line also got wristbands that allowed us to get a photo with Mr. Tom DeLonge and the rest of AVA after the acoustic set. I was bursting with excitement I almost couldn’t contain it. Angels and Airwaves and Tom himself have been a major part of my life since my pre-teens. And even to this day, at 23 years old, AVA’s music inspires me, fills me with hope and has gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life. I listen to AVA when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m hurting, and when I’m rocking out with friends in the car. They hold a special place in my heart.
