Show Reviews
Built To Spill @ Urban Lounge 11.27 with Slam Dunk,...
If you haven’t seen Built to Spill live, you have no excuse. Starting and ending their most recent tour in Salt Lake City, they gave me the opportunity to see them twice in the last two months. … read more
Cat Power and Nico Turner Live @ The Depot 11.25
It wasn’t utterly packed—just full. Cat Power draws an interestingly eclectic crowd: professors, obligatory hippies, hipsters and maybe a vegan–straight edge kid, too. After the release of her electronica album, Sun, it seemed that there was a yearning for the older, more classic styling of Chan Marshall, and there was no better way to realize that desire than an intimate, seated setting where she would perform solo. … read more
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin @ Kilby Court 11.22...
From the get-go, the small cluster of people to my right, all huddled beside the large speaker hanging from the ceiling, are in their thrall. Two kids with jet black hair are laboring over a sharpie mural on the plywood wall, only stopping intermittently to do something that resembles a dance, but is more likely some ancient satanic ritual, their possessed bodies twisting along with those sweet bass lines. … read more
Bill Callahan @ The State Room 11.23 with Judson Claiborne
Bill Callahan seems like the minimalist indie songwriter par excellence, letting his lyrics, often more spoken than sung, work their dry yet poetic magic, but on stage with a full band, you realize that they are capable of a much more deep and uncanny array of tricks. They surprised from the get-go, opening with a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat,” in tribute of the recently departed Lou Reed. Callahan is perhaps the only singer who could deliver the lines more dryly than Reed. … read more
Julianna Barwick @ Kilby Court 11.18 with Grizzly Prospector and...
From where I’m standing, Julianna Barwick is a perfect silhouette. A projection of a slow moving video of white forests and breaking ocean waves frames her figure in the background, and the 50 or so people in the audience are in a trance, strewn out across the floor, some lying, some sitting, some standing, as her voice builds and reaches crescendo like a gothic one-woman choir. … read more
L’Anarchiste, Lake Island @ Velour 11.15
The music was aggressive but not necessarily loud. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t help but feel like something was off. As their first song ended, the room remained quiet. Not in a disapproving way, I don’t think … No, this felt more like a hypnotized way. It was like it caught everyone a little off guard, or maybe not. … read more
The Dreaming (Stabbing Westward Reunion Show) @ The Vinyl, Las...
At 11:45 p.m. I found myself pushing past the crowd at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. NIN had just ended their two-hour show (review here) and thanks to social media, Christopher Hall, the man behind The Dreaming and former Stabbing Westward frontman, informed the world that this is the first time Stabbing Westward has ever had NIN open for them. … read more
Nine Inch Nails @ The Joint, Las Vegas 11.15 with...
After “Copy of A,” NIN played “1,000,000,” “Terrible Lie,” “March of the Pigs” and “Piggy.” These songs flowed like magic, building up more to what I thought was going to be one of NIN’s best concerts I have ever been to. … read more
Steve Aoki’s Aokify America Tour @ The Complex 11.13 with...
After seeing mass amounts of hype on social media and music blogs about how the Aokify America Tour was thrilling concert-goers around the country, I was excited to see a highly-interactive, party-oriented show last night when the mixed bag of artists took their tour to The Complex. … read more
RJD2 @ The Depot 11.15 with Blockhead
RJD2 takes the stage. He has three turntables, a sample pad and a crate full of vinyl. Yes, the original, non-digital vinyl. RJ humbly introduces himself and begins his set with electronic sounds behind a Gang Starr verse. It’s the most OG way to start a party—I look at the balcony on the second floor covered with ladies moving and guys bobbing their heads and waving their arms in the air. The Depot is at its full potential and the audience is just as live as any rap concert as I’ve ever been to. … read more