Music
▼ Concerts & Festivals
The Devil Whale @ Subterranean
Sunday night was a lot of things. Ostensibly, it was The Devil Whale’s pre-release show. But Sunday night had layers–layers that cut a broad swathe through the musical landscape of Salt Lake City and spoke to the interconnectivity between bands, fans, and a forward thinking record store at the center of this close-knit community. … read more
Cage at Urban Lounge 06.26
Salt Lake City let the hate out on June 26. A wrecking crew of Timmy Wiggins, Chauncy, Hate Your Guts, and Cage came through the SLC area and got open at Urban Lounge. What started off as a beautiful warm summer’s Saturday night, quickly turned into one dark as hell, hate infested nightcap brought to you by Cardboard City and some pure East Coast hate music. … read more
Sage Francis and B. Dolan at Urban Lounge on 05.26
Urban Lounge can get interesting from time to time. Sage Francis and B. Dolan came through and (I guess) brought some crusty, hippie, anarchist types with em. After having Sage’s new CD on blast for a good two weeks in my car, I was worried I had overkilled it so close to a show. When I arrived there were a decent number of people in line. I was lucky enough to be taken through the Urban Lounge entrance process, and in to the show right in time to see my man B. Dolan. … read more
Mono @ The Urban Lounge
Dressed in all black with nary a discernable expression of emotion on their face, guitarists Takaakira Goto and Yoda took seats on opposite sides of the stage from each other and, without a word, began the tremolo picked upswell from 2009’s Hymn to the Immortal Wind. This reverence and austerity, punctuated with moments of pure cathartic and caustic release, would define not only the hour-and-a-half long performance, but the audience’s awed hush. … read more
Ugly Duckling at Urban Lounge
Hip hop shows, as most people who have attended them in Utah will know, can be a mixed bag. The performance-oriented nature of hip hop creates an incredible burden for those on stage, while the crowd can act however it pleases. Usually, fans are there for the headlining act, and will not have heard of any of the openers. With that quick primer, let’s compare the acts who recently took the stage at the Urban Lounge to show us what hip hop’s all about. … read more
King Khan & The Shrines @ Urban
There are very few live performances that live up to their hype. Weeks before the King Khan show took place there were already whispers that it would sell out. The day of the show there were even rumors that the show would sell out before doors even opened. The general feeling seemed to be that everyone who knew anything about music would be attending King Khan. … read more
Passion Pit @ In the Venue
When I arrived at In The Venue I was not expecting to see a giant line around the block. The guys, decked out in ironically funny vintage t-shirts they had carefully selected from a thrift store, overly tight pants and loafers, battled for scenester status with the ladies, sporting undone hair, leggings or stretch pants, thrifted shirts and grandma shoes. I figured hipsters like this had become more miniscule after the siege of indie rock had calmed, but I was so wrong. … read more
Swedes Attack: Liitle Dragon & Miike Snow
Mythically, Sweden makes two things exceptionally well: hot skirts and great pop/dance music (ABBA, The Knife, Jose Gonzalez, Miike Snow). Two of those exports, Little Dragon and Miike Snow, played at the Urban Lounge last week. … read more
Get Lucky
Get Lucky, the latest rave produced by V2 events, was a perfect example of the rave scene in Utah: great music, way too many people. The rave scene here has blown up in the past four years, and almost every V2 event at Saltair in the last two years has been bigger than the last. This year was no exception: the event was oversold by at least a thousand people, making for a frustrating night. … read more
The Appleseed Cast @ Kilby Court
Do you remember being in high school? Do you remember that impressionable stage in life when great shows weren’t just great shows; they were “OMG! That was the best show of my life!” Or when great albums were life-changing works of impossible art? This was certainly the case for me when I was 16 and saw The Appleseed Cast for the first time at the Bluebird in Denver, CO. … read more