Music
▼ Concerts & Festivals
Peter Murphy, Ours @ Urban Lounge 07.17
Allow me to give a bit of a precursor to why I love the music of Bauhaus/Peter Murphy more than most people in their mid-20s. To begin with the most obvious point, I grew up listening to Bauhaus a lot. My mother was a participant in Utah’s then-thriving industrial/goth scene in the late ’80s, and one of the things I inherited a strong background of industrial music. Bands like Skinny Puppy, Revolting Cocks and KMFDM were part of my playtime music, so I’ve had an instinctual draw to industrial music from the beginning. Fast forward 12 years, and I’m sitting in a crowd of sweaty midlife crises as Mr. Murphy ambled onto the raised platform and, from what I could tell, looks pretty good for being in his 50s. … read more
Deafheaven, Marriages, Cult Leader @ Kilby Court 07.10
The old adage about how the more things change, the more they stay the same is perfect for a description of Kilby Court, the favored venue of the underage and over-hip in Salt Lake City. Since the first time I attended a show there in 1998 or 1999, many improvements have been made to the venue, but the actual room itself is still a sweltering hot mess of juvenile machismo and shared sweat. Granted, the sound has improved immensely from when the venue first opened, but, at least to me, that doesn’t make up for having to wade through the throngs of terrible “ironic” mustaches, distressed V-neck T-shirts and dudes in cut-off chick jeans. Trivialities and old-man judging aside, I ventured out of my cave to attend the Deafheaven/Marriages/Cult Leader show at the aforementioned venue, and though not a total loss, it isn’t an experience I’m going to treasure for the rest of my life. … read more
Rodrigo y Gabriela @ Red Butte 07.12 with Alex Wilson
Famed guitarists Rodrigo y Gabriela graced SLC for the first time in their more than decade long history. The venue could not have been more perfect for this genre of music: Latin-inspired rock n’ roll and powerful Spanish guitar riffs. … read more
The Lone Bellow @ Red Butte 07.14
The late afternoon summer light illuminating the red rocks of the desert combined with the lavish garden complemented the performance that this Brooklyn-based trio had to show us. … read more
Crucialfest Day Four @ Shred Shed and Wasted Space 06.29
It’s Year Three, Day Four of SLC’s amazing musical orgasm CrucialFest, and I step off the Trax stop at Courthouse to get myself some delicious pizza and beer from The Pie Hole before the festivities start. Heat’s in the triple digits, and I pity the poor fools even more who chose Warped Tour over CF. … read more
Crucialfest Day Two @ Killby Court 06.27
On the second day of Crucialfest 3, the music gods looked upon Kilby Court and decided, “This is where the rock shall be.” A little slice of all-ages paradise, Kilby Court is a great venue tucked away in the back of an alley. The only downside is a serious lack of air conditioning, but fantastic lighting and sound makes up for it. Besides, it’s the summer—if you’re not sweating, then you’re not trying hard enough. One of the most fun things about Kilby Court that doesn’t really translate to a lot of venues is also the easygoing, casual vibe. “Casual” is the best way to describe Kilby all the way around, with the open garage door in back and courtyard full of stickers with a firepit flanked by park benches. Not a half bad way to catch some tunes and make some new friends. … read more
Crucialfest Day One @ The Woodshed 06.26
On a warm and muggy Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to cover the first night of Crucialfest 3 at the Wood Shed. While technically starting at Kilby Court earlier that day, I was stoked to get in and get some of that sweet Crucialfest vibe. If you’ve never heard of Crucialfest, now is a good time to catch up before next year. A huge, local festival, getting bigger and bigger every year, Crucialfest is literally a crucial part of the Utah music scene in a big way. Taking place over several days and several different venues, with mostly local acts peppered with a few touring bands, it’s a great way to dive in and get a grab bag of new tunes.
SLUG Journalist Needs Water Badly: A Warped Tour Story
On Saturday, June 29 of the year 2013, I set out into the arid wasteland of Warped Tour with little more than a camera, a bottle of water, and the cheapest bottle of suncreen that I could find. … read more
Cayucas with JBM @Kilby Court 06.21
It’s a desirable thing to go to a show with no worries. Why did I have no worries for this show? Cayucas just barely released an eight-track LP that’s drenched with summer vibes via catchy bass riffs and laid-back tales about beach life. All I knew about the opener, JBM, was that he was a multi-instrumentalist out of Montreal who makes folk music. This was destined to be an easy night, and the music I heard was authentic enough to take me where the artists were mentally when they wrote the music. Those places were anywhere but the city. … read more
Battle of the Bands @ Velour 06.15
I arrived at Velour about 30 minutes before show time on Saturday night. A week earlier, the venue’s Number Two, the lovely Kaneischa Johnson, had asked me to help out with judging the competition. Kaneischa briefed us, the esteemed judges, on the judging criteria and what she expected from us. I looked at the paper with the criteria that she had given us all, appended to a clipboard: Musicianship, Songwriting, Crowd Response, Stage Presence and Vocal Performance, all out of 10. … read more