It was pretty much guaranteed that Sunday night would not be a typical Punch Brothers show when frontman Chris Thile announced at the onset that fiddler Gabe Witcher would not be on hand due to the impending birth of his baby.
Throw in the remaining members’ discovery of High West distillery’s Double Rye whiskey before the show (not to mention enjoyment throughout), and the result was a gig that might not have been all it would have been with Witcher on hand, but also one that hardly seemed to lack in showmanship, outstanding playing and strong songs.
Mandolin ace Thile and his fellow Punch Brothers–guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert and banjo man Noam Pikelny opened with the sprawling Josh Ritter tune “Another New World,” stretching in myriad directions while each of the players took a solo to loosen up after Thile compared not playing with the full lineup as “sort of like camping. We’re missing some of those essential comforts, like a roof.”
Bouncing between instrumental jams and songs with Thile on vocals, as well as between new songs just recorded for a new album and older favorites, the Punch Brothers cruised through nearly 20 songs over the course of a perfect evening at Deer Valley. Songs like “This Girl” and the rapid-fire instrumentals got the crowd going early, and the energy stayed high throughout.
A cover of Elliott Smith’s “Clementine” was a nice surprise early on. Same goes for brand new songs like “Charleston” and “Heaven is a Julip on the Porch” later on.
“I am really feeling the love from this whiskey!” Thile announced before taking another sip and leading the band into “Patchwork Girlfriend,” easily one of the show’s highlights. Another was when Eldridge took over on lead vocals for “Through the Bottom of the Glass.” Appropriately, Punch Brothers ended the set with their tune “Rye Whiskey” before a brief encore.
Opener Willie Watson was a late addition to the bill, and his solo folk/country set was a winner as well. A former member of Old Crow Medicine Show (thanks for the knowledge, Dan and Kiki Buehner!), Watson delivered several tunes from his Folk Singer Vol. 1 album, including “Rock Salt and Nails,” “Keep It Clean,” “Stewball” (which he managed to turn into a singalong) and his cover of “Midnight Special.” A talented guitarist and banjo player, Watson also proved a distinct vocalist during his 40 or so minutes on stage. Well worth seeing him next time he comes around.
PUNCH BROTHERS, DEER VALLEY RESORT, PARK CITY, Sunday, July 6, 7 p.m., $40 lawn, $55/$75 reserved
I’m sure I’m not alone in being drawn to the Punch Brothers via the presence of mandolin master Chris Thile–best known as one-third of acoustic stars Nickel Creek. When that band went on hiatus for nearly a decade, Thile was the member of the group I was most curious to follow, and he didn’t disappoint in his choices. He made some interesting music with the likes of Yo Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. He won a MacArthur “genius” grant. And he started this intensely skilled and highly entertaining group, Punch Brothers, along with guitarist Chris Eldridge, bassist Paul Kowert, banjo man Noam Pikelny and violinist Gabe Witcher. Together, they might look like a bluegrass crew, but they are incredibly skilled musicians capable of delving into any number of styles. They do just that on their three albums, as well as projects like contributions to the Coen Brothers’ most recent film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Hearing them in the outdoor setting of Deer Valley seems a pretty ideal way to end a holiday weekend.
Saturday’s Voyeur, Salt Lake Acting Company’s annual skewering of Utah culture and a major fundraiser for the theater company, always relies on the news for inspiration.
Happily, writers Nancy Borgenicht and Allen Nevins were handed a heaping plate of Zion-inspired “news of the weird”-type headlines in the year since last summer’s Mitt-centric version of the show. With gay marriage arriving in Utah, Sen. Mike Lee working to shut down the federal government, the push for the priesthood from some women in the Mormon church and a Riverton beauty queen busted for making bombs, the two had plenty to work with in addition to the typical silliness always delivered by the Utah Legislature and their leadership, ie. Gayle Ruzicka.
From back to front, left to right: cast members Olivia Custodio, Austin Archer, Leah Hassett (back row) Justin Ivie, Jaron Barney, Eb Madson (Moroni), Hayden Warzek, (3rd row) Jenessa Bowen, Angela Chatelain Avila, Connor Norton (2nd row) Latoya Rhodes (in front)
The 2014 version of Voyeur brings back some characters from the Mormon church office building featured in the past couple years, giving Voyeur regulars reason to cheer for the hilarious returns of Nephi Jensen (Austin Archer), the swinging proxy-baptism executioner, or Elder Marriott (Just Ivie), the Fox News-loving closeted worker bee who, along with Fletch (Alexis Bague), is putting together a Modesty and Values pageant in honor of Sen. Lee (Eb Madson). Also back is the partying Moroni (also Madson) who lives in the basement along with the ghost of a church docent (Jenessa Bowen).
Plot is always secondary to saucy one-liners and big production numbers, and that’s certainly the case across the three acts of Voyeur 2014. There were some fun running gags of people trying to break into a version of “Let It Go” from Frozen before being shouted down, or Pharrell’s almost-as-ubiquitous “Happy.” Several of the songs provided highlights through the actors’ voices and choreography tackled by director Cynthia Fleming. I particularly liked “Yellow Air Alert” (sung to the tune of “Yellow Submarine”), “Life Before Gays” (sung to “Those Were the Days”) and “Rockbusters” (think “Ghostbusters”) sung to commemorate the Goblin Valley rock-tippers.
Cast members Olivia Custodio, Jaron Barney (in front), Connor Norton, Angela Chatelain Avila, Leah Hassett, Latoya Rhodes (behind)
The energy of the actors is always undeniable during Voyeur shows, and this year is no different. Newcomer Olivia Custodio deserves special notice for her role as the liberal Mormon Sister Marriott, and the interactions of Ivie as Elder Marriott and Bague as Fletch were consistently hilarious. Hayden Warzek and Jaron Barney got a lot of mileage in their roles as gay cast members of Broadway’s The Book of Mormon who take jobs at the church office for the health insurance, and Leah Hassett is winning as Miss Riverton, Kendra.
This year’s Voyeur is stronger than last year’s. And while some of the Mormon jokes went over my head as someone with little knowledge of the faith’s history or theology beyond what I’ve picked up just living in Utah, much of the proceedings are rooted in news events familiar to anyone at least halfway paying attention to life in Utah in 2014. Saturday’s Voyeur remains a vivid and fun reminder that the conservatives that seem to run the state aren’t the only ones living here.
Saturday’s Voyeur runs Wednesdays through Sundays at Salt Lake Acting Company until Aug. 31. Visit SLAC’s website for showtimes, tickets and more information. Photos courtesy of Salt Lake Acting Company.
Fitz and the Tantrums sold out Red Butte Garden Monday night, filling the mountainside amphitheater with a high-energy blend of retro soul moves and pop flourishes that attracted an audience considerably younger than the typical wine-and-cheese regulars.
I was expecting a massive dance party led by the Los Angeles sextet’s two vocalists, Michael Fitzpatrick–aka “Fitz”–and Noelle Scaggs, and both the band and the crowd delivered on that front. What I was not expecting was the Beatlemania-style shrieks of packs of pre-teen girls. I’ve reviewed the likes of Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Beyonce in my lifetime, so that high-pitched squeal is not a completely foreign sound–but I don’t recall ever hearing it at Red Butte Garden.
In that regard, the essentially unoriginal sound of Fitz and the Tantrums led to something new Monday night. And there’s no denying the band’s pack of horn-driven, synth-tinged tunes’ ability to get the people on their feet and moving. That always makes for a great scene at Red Butte, and Monday’s show was no exception.
Fitz and the Tantrums filled their 90 or so minutes on stage with songs from their two full-lengths, 2010’s Pickin Up the Pieces and last spring’s More Than Just a Dream. At the beginning, they alternated between the two; “Get Away” from Dream made for a funky show opener, and they followed it up with the powerful Pieces track “Don’t Gotta Work It Out.” Then came the new “Break the Walls” before the older “Breakin’ the Chains of Love,” both preceding Fitz and Co. setting off on a long string of songs from the new album, only pausing for a well-placed cover.
That cover, a high-energy singalong version of Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” proved remarkably pliable. The original is an icy bit of classic ’80s synthesizer pop, swathed in the powerhouse vocals of Annie Lennox. Fitz and the Tantrums took out any darkness that might have existed and turned it into a sweet pop confection for people to bounce along to. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that–but it did make me kind of yearn for a little more edge to the band’s songwriting.
I was clearly in the minority on that point, as people bopped along to Fitzpatrick and Scaggs’ boy-girl vocal trade-offs and the band’s work recreating the sounds from the albums. James King, who switched between saxophones, keyboards and guitars throughout the night, is worth noting as a band musical MVP. His talents helped the band tear through songs like “Keepin’ Our Eyes Out,” “MerryGoRound,” “House on Fire” and the monster hit “Out of My League” over the course of the evening.
“This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to on tour,” Fitz proclaimed at one point. “We usually pull up in dark alleys behind clubs. This is glorious, guys.”
No doubt the hardcore Fitz fans in the crowd felt exactly the same–but they weren’t talking about the setting.
FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS, RED BUTTE GARDEN, Monday, June 30, 7 p.m., sold out
The soulful and funky Los Angeles sextet Fitz and the Tantrums first formed in 2008, and literally starting playing public shows within a week of their first rehearsal. Michael Fitzpatrick, the band’s founder, thought it was important for the band to start playing concerts as quickly as possible—even before he thought they were ready—to bring out the best in the young musicians in the band. The strategy seems to have worked well, considering Fitz and the Tantrums starting getting some really big gigs after just a few months on the L.A. club circuit. The band landed tours opening for the diverse likes of Irish punks Flogging Molly and pop-rockers Maroon 5 before a showcase at the South by Southwest Music Conference in 2010 earned the band a record deal. As soon as Fitz and the Tantrums released their debut Pickin Up the Pieces, the band almost immediately turned from a live phenomenon into full-blown radio stars. That 2010 release stayed on Billboard’s sales charts for more than a year as the band circled the globe playing festivals and headlining their own tours. In 2013, the band released its sophomore album, More Than Just a Dream. Expect a heavy dose of the new one Monday night. Max Frost and Holy Child open the show.
CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD, UTAH ARTS FESTIVAL, Friday, June 27/THE STATE ROOM, Saturday, June 28
Any long-time fans of Chris Robinson’s main band, The Black Crowes, knows the man like to have a bit of a jam now and again. With this band, the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, the lanky singer and guitarist gets to stretch out plenty with the cohorts Neal Casal, Adam Macdougall, George Sluppick and Mark Dutton. The band’s latest album, Phosphorescent Harvest, packs 10 songs with a lot of twists, turns and exciting connections between the musicians on hand. Robinson’s soulful vocals ring through, though, and the band’s blend of psychedelia and rootsy rock should make for a popular attraction at the Utah Arts Festival Friday night. You’ll want to be sure to explore the festival’s entire music lineup–there is plenty of national and local music well worth your while this year, including Angelique Kidjo and MarchFourth Marching Band, as well as locals the Hollering Pines and Zodiac Empire. On Saturday, Robinson’s crew will headline a sold-out show of two sets at The State Room. It might be tough to get a ticket, but it will be a memorable show to be sure.
Daniel Nailen 