Teddy Swims w/ Stephen• Day April 12, 2022• The Complex
Reviewed and Photographed by Vanessa Holt
When I first had been offered the opportunity to attend and photograph Teddy Swims at his Utah stop on his Tough Love tour I was excited for multiple reasons. One was the fact that this entire tour run was close to being completely sold out at every date. Salt Lake didn’t disappoint and had completely sold out the show. Another reason is that I was excited to see Teddy Swims perform for the first time ever. I’ve known of Teddy Swims for quite some time and the one thing I’ve always kept in mind was the energy that Teddy Swims has carried with him as a person would only mean that he’d put on an amazing performance.
Stephen Day
The venue was quickly filled up. Which was partly to blame due to the crazy snowy weather. But mainly because everyone was bouncing with excitement to see Teddy Swims and Stephen Day who opened for him. I went into this having absolutely no idea who Stephen Day was. But I’m always happy to accept every opportunity to hear a new artist. When I had walked into the photo pit I was greeted with the warm welcome of eager fans. When I had asked if any of them had ever heard of Stephen Day they all raved about how absolutely amazing he is as an artist. With these positive comments, I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed.
Stephen Day stepped out on stage with a full band and greeted everyone, “It’s been an absolute pleasure being able to open up for Teddy Swims every night on this amazing tour. Are you all ready to see Teddy Swims? What if we got him up here a little early?” With that question, Teddy ran up on stage and joined Stephen and his band for a song. Fans were raving and buzzing with excitement with this duo. After that, they had finished off their set and I was definitely impressed. Their soul and R&B sound was pleasant to hear and had everyone dancing around.
Usually at sold out shows you can definitely feel how packed it is about the struggle of being able to move around. Last night didn’t even feel that way in the slightest. There was enough breathing space for everyone to dance with friends and spouses.
Teddy Swims
With a quick fifteen-minute interchange Teddy came out on stage with his band. He stepped out in a University of Utah T-shirt and Buc ee’s shorts. Some soul and R&B artists I’ve seen have this subtle energy to them. They keep things more on the mellow side. There’s definitely nothing wrong with that and it definitely has this calming sense. Teddy Swims had the complete opposite. His energy wasn’t crazy to the point of getting everyone too riled up. But it was enough to keep up the same momentum that Stephen Day had created.
He bounced around on stage with his bandmates and you could just see how much lost he got himself in the music and it was really captivating. As an extra bonus, besides his songs we even got to hear two covers, Let Me Love You by Mario and You’re Still The One by Shania Twain. Both of those easily became my favorite covers to date.
I couldn’t recommend Teddy Swims and Stephen Day enough to anyone. Even if you aren’t a big fan of soul or R&B both of these artists are a definite must listen at some point. Catch one of them live if the opportunity presents itself because these singers and their entire band were some of the most humble people you could ever watch perform!
