Rainy days are the best for concerts. The atmosphere flashes with lightening that almost seems to blend and highlight the most fantastic of musical notes. The splattering drops plodded away the evening of June 26 at Kilby Court, and the bands were more than willing to lend themselves to the polite, contemplative brooding of a nice little storm. The first act was L’Anarchiste. The newly six-piece band (formerly three) performed their first show as a complete act that night, and they were completely entertaining in their efforts. L’Anarchiste played a sort of musical chairs with their instruments, and the last one to sit seemed to end up with the banjo. This showed off the musical whereabouts of the band and gave each song a unique voice. The set featured soulful harmonies with flowing rhythms that everyone seemed to be into. The lead singer possessed a strong, complementing voice and partially melted the three women standing next to me with his croons. SLUG’s own Alex Gilvarry manned the bass and keyboard throughout the show and was kind enough to chat with me for a moment at the merchandise table after their set. L’Anarchiste did a remarkable job of starting off the evening and had most the crowd saying, “Who the fuck are those guys” as a merit to their performance.

The next act featured the musical talents of Flashbulb Fires. Being that they were from Denver, they were high on my list of must-see live performances (I was formerly a Co. native). The Flashbulb Fires have two albums to date, the second of which, GASCONADER, is quite the album. It’s impressive, since it was recorded around extensive touring. Watching them live, you see that the band centers around enthusiastic keyboarding—it takes two of them. Lead singer Patrick McGuire brings energy into the performance with jumps, shouts and general merriment. The rest of the band transitions between melodies in a way that would make even the bravest of modern tunesters blush—not waiting till the next song before mixing it up. Moving around the crowd, it was enjoyable to see people start to lose themselves in the music. Whatever concerns and humdrums they brought to the show seemed to be leaving at an eager pace. One lady in particular was doing a slide dance I found particularly amusing, in that she didn’t seem to care who was in the way of her intended flow, to the dismay of those recording the live act. Good natured grins were displayed when they saw the cause of such intrusions. Flashbulb Fires had the crowd’s complete attention, and when they were done they actually had to tell the crowd, “We’re done” because everyone kept staring with anticipation and bated breath. This was echoed in their CD sales because when I went to purchase their first album, Glory, they had to dig to find a copy.

Finally, Genre Zero took the stage. Genre Zero should teach a class on product distribution—almost half the audience was wearing their T-shirt. This is reiterated further in my purchase of their 7”, which features a neat little dub tuning when you turn your receiver to mono and switch the acoustics off, thanks to Producer Noah Gabbard. It was the band’s CD release party, and devoted followers were there in abundance. Cheeky “WANTED” posters were strewn about featuring the four different band members and their various counter culture crimes. This wit also came across in their genre bending performance. It was like hearing The Cure, if Robert Smith was on handfuls of ecstasy. Genre Zero plays folk infused alt-punk rock with splashes of pop to keep it interesting. Their sound is epic in nature, and you get the feeling they are bound for arena rock. Occasional help to create one of the most unique sounds I’ve heard in some time. The crowd, at this point, was no longer losing itself and safely could be described as lost (if lost people were prone to jumping and bobbing). Genre Zero’s eclectic performance is thanks to its band members. The five-some all have various musical and regional backgrounds, causing a creative orgasm to take place when they play with their accompanied song producing gadgets.

By the end of the evening, everyone was sufficiently rocked, and this monkey with a computer was eager to get home and dork around with my newly acquired CDs and 7”. Genre Zero graciously thanked everyone for coming, and Kilby Court dripped away after the storm. The crowd high-fived while walking out, and all was well for Salt Lake City’s indie rock scene. Thank you to all the bands for playing … please feel free to bless our local scene as much as you like.