The Paper Kites • Hayden Everett • September 24, 2025 • The Complex
Reviewed and Photographed by Nate Bonney
The Paper Kites brought their 2025 US Tour to The Complex in Salt Lake City. They were joined by Hayden Everett. Utah Concert Review has enjoyed covering The Paper Kites in the past. They’re one of those bands that we always look forward to seeing. Turns out we weren’t the only ones. They had an audience of adoring fans who showed up.
Hayden Everett
Before The Paper Kites took the stage at The Complex on September 24, 2025, the crowd was treated to a quietly captivating opening set by singer-songwriter Hayden Everett. With only an acoustic guitar, a harmonica, and a hushed vulnerability, Everett delivered a 6-song set that felt both intimate and expansive — the perfect prelude to the headliner’s atmospheric storytelling.
He opened with Flower Shop, a tender guitar-driven piece that immediately set the tone for the evening. Everett’s falsetto floated effortlessly above minimalist chords, pulling the audience in with emotional clarity rather than volume. His stage presence was unassuming but magnetic — speaking softly between songs, he came across as both reflective and sincere.
Birds Eye View and Glue followed, showcasing his blend of folk and ambient pop. With layered textures and introspective lyrics, these tracks felt cinematic, evoking vast emotional landscapes with surprising economy. By the time he reached Redwoods, arguably the set’s most transportive moment, the venue was nearly silent — the kind of silence earned, not given.
He then introduced Taylor, a new and unreleased song, as “something close to my heart,” and it showed. With its vivid storytelling and delicate guitar work, the track hinted at even deeper lyrical growth ahead.
Everett closed with Seize The Sun, a hopeful, soaring anthem that gently lifted the energy in the room just in time for the main act.
In just six songs, Hayden Everett left a lasting impression — a quietly confident voice in modern folk-pop. For many in the audience, his performance wasn’t just an opener; it was an awakening.
The Paper Kites
On this cool autumn night in downtown Salt Lake City, The Paper Kites took the stage at The Complex and delivered a hauntingly beautiful performance that reaffirmed their reputation as one of indie folk’s most emotionally resonant bands. With a setlist spanning their entire discography — from early hits like Bloom to newer, moodier pieces like Marietta and June’s Stolen Car — the band created an immersive, cinematic experience that left the audience hushed, moved, and deeply satisfied.
A Quiet Beginning with Depth
The band opened with Bleed Confusion, a textured and brooding number from their Twelvefour album. The track’s slow build and bluesy undercurrent immediately set the tone for the evening: this wouldn’t be a show of flashy stage antics or overproduced sound. Instead, The Paper Kites invited the audience into a space of stillness and emotional honesty.
Sam Bentley’s vocals — always soft, measured, and vulnerable — cut through the quiet of the room with remarkable clarity. Without much chatter, the band transitioned into Revelator Eyes, one of the more upbeat tracks in their catalog, with its synth-laced chorus and driving rhythm giving the night its first gentle sway. The crowd responded in kind — not with raucous cheers, but with focused energy and movement, as if everyone understood that this was music to feel, not just to hear.
Nostalgia and New Depths
As the set moved into St. Clarity, the lighting dropped to warm amber tones, and a collective hush fell over the room. The layered harmonies between Bentley and keyboardist/guitarist Christina Lacy shimmered, evoking the same quiet awe as the song’s studio version but with an added rawness that only live performance can provide. It was clear the band knew how to work with silence — how to let space breathe between notes, a rare skill that elevated the entire evening.
Newer tracks like When the Lavender Blooms and Marietta brought with them a deeper, dustier flavor, a reflection of the band’s stylistic expansion into Americana and alt-country territory. The storytelling in Marietta, delivered with aching subtlety, gave the night one of its emotional high points, with lyrics painting vivid, melancholic scenes of longing and departure. Bentley didn’t need to explain the song — it landed with weight, all on its own.
Every Town and Black & Thunder followed, giving the set a slight lift in pace and rhythm. The band’s cohesion was tight without ever sounding rigid. Josh Bentley’s drumming was precise but restrained, perfectly matched to the band’s subdued aesthetic, while Dave Powys’s slide guitar and harmony vocals added rich layers without overpowering the arrangements.
Tenderness in the Middle
The heart of the concert came with a run of deeply emotional tracks. For All You Give, originally a duet with Lucy Rose, was reimagined with Christina Lacy stepping into the co-vocal role. Her delicate, ethereal voice paired beautifully with Bentley’s, creating a moment so tender and still that the entire venue seemed to hold its breath.
Only One and Paint kept the momentum of emotional intimacy going. The former glowed with soft guitar textures and ambient pads, while the latter, an old fan favorite, was performed nearly stripped-down, allowing its delicate harmonies to shine.
The moment everyone was waiting for arrived with Without Your Love, another standout duet originally with Julia Stone, and Bloom, the track that launched the band into international recognition. These songs were delivered without any frills, but they didn’t need any. Bloom in particular carried a near-sacred energy — as soon as the first notes rang out, fans whispered the lyrics back to the stage, creating a communal moment of nostalgia and gratitude.
Don’t Keep Driving, the final song before the encore, was a slow-burning farewell that hinted the show might be coming to a close — but also that the night wasn’t quite over.
A Perfect Encore
The band returned to a glowing blue stage and launched into June’s Stolen Car, a moody, road-worn ballad that captured the spirit of solitude and escape. The slow pacing and lyrical storytelling served as a kind of emotional coda to the main set, reinforcing the reflective tone of the evening.
To close, they played Electric Indigo, a fan favorite from Twelvefour that brought the energy back up one last time. Its shimmering guitars and expansive chorus provided the night’s most cathartic moment, drawing cheers and movement from a crowd that had largely spent the evening in introspective silence.
Final Thoughts
What stood out most during this performance wasn’t just the band’s technical ability or the strength of their songwriting — it was their control of mood. The Paper Kites know exactly who they are: masters of quiet storytelling, weaving delicate soundscapes that don’t shout for your attention but gently take hold of your heart and don’t let go.
The Complex, with its mid-sized intimacy and excellent acoustics, proved to be the ideal venue for this kind of show. The sound was full yet never overbearing. The lighting was warm and simple, matching the band’s understated style. And the audience — diverse in age and background — remained locked in throughout, offering standing ovations not with rowdy noise but with deep, appreciative silence before erupting into applause.
By the time the final notes of Electric Indigo faded, there was a feeling in the room that something special had occurred — something personal, gentle, and profoundly human. In a world of overstimulation, The Paper Kites reminded Salt Lake City that quiet music still has the power to move mountains.
