DEER VALLEY–While Lucinda Williams is beyond reproach as a songwriter, filling her albums with searing imagery and memorable hooks, her live shows in Utah are historically a bit more hit-or-miss.
Since I became a fan of Williams’ roots-rock, I’ve seen her deliver stirring, hard-to-match concerts full of epic storytelling, and I’ve seen her offer rant-filled, sloppy gigs that certainly didn’t do her talent, or her songs, justice.
Monday night’s show at Deer Valley landed somewhere between those two extremes. While Williams certainly came up with ample reminders of why she is considered one of America’s finest songwriters, she also led her band into holes of disjointed timing and clunky vocal performances that left some in the audience scratching their heads.
Even so, some of Williams’ songs came off as ideal one-off shots of brilliant lyrical wordplay, and several of those examples were on display Monday at a sparsely populated Deer Valley amphtitheatre.
Lucinda Williams at Deer Valley Monday night.
Williams opened with two ringers from her acknowledged masterwork, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road; opener “2 Kool 2 B 4-Gotten” was a little wobbly, and “Can’t Let Go” took up the energy on stage even as Williams struggled to keep up with her band’s raucous take on the tune.
From there, Williams bounced around her catalog, touching on her most recent release, Blessed, on occasion (like the stellar rocker “Buttercup,” which she labeled the “only bad-boy song on the last album”), and playing some brand-new, yet-t0-be-recorded cuts like “Protection,” which featured the very-Lucinda line of “I need protection from the enemy of love.”
As night fell and the Park City night got colder, Williams led her band through occasionally haphazard versions of songs like her excellent “Essence” and a cover of the Allman Brothers’ “It’s Not My Cross to Bear.” “Change the Locks” was a stomping rocker, while “Righteously” gave Williams a chance to inject a little funk into the proceedings, and it came off well.
The set closed with one of Williams’ best songs, “Joy,” and “Honey Bee” from her 2008 Little Honey album, before an encore that included Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”
Much like Williams herself, the show was unpredictable, sometimes thrilling and sometimes sloppy, but definitely worth the effort to check out. I’ve seen her probably a dozen times now, and I’ll be there again the next time, too.
Lucinda Williams and her band at Deer Valley Monday night.
Another amazing midsummer week of music in and around Salt Lake City, and a one-night-only shot of LCD Soundsystem to boot. Check out your five best bets for the week ahead.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS, DEER VALLEY, MONDAY, 7 P.M., $35-$65
Simply put, Lucinda Williams is one of America’s best songwriters, and for evidence of that, you can pretty much pick up any of Williams’ albums. 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is widely considered her best collection, and since that release she’s been putting out albums at a pretty good clip–five albums since 2001, including last year’s Blessed, plus a live record. As a live performer, she’s a mercurial one; I’ve seen Williams deliver some of the most brilliant shows of my life, and I’ve also seen a couple of near-trainwrecks, including one rant-filled night at Red Butte Garden a few years back. Much like each time she unleashes a set of new songs, though, Williams’ concerts are always worth catching, just to hear her perform some of the best roots-based rock songs of the past quarter-century. Jill Sobule opens the show.
Lucinda Williams headlines at Deer Valley on Monday, July 16.
JOSH RITTER, RED BUTTE GARDEN, TUESDAY, 7:30 P.M., $37
We westerners love to claim Josh Ritter as a favored son thanks to his roots in Moscow, Idaho, but Ritter’s more wide-ranging in his influences than his small-town upbringing would seem to indicate. Rather than pack his tales with imagery from the big lonely West, Ritter’s narratives are universally appealing, which has helped him became a popular attraction in Europe and his adopted home of New York City. With his long-time group The Royal City Band, Ritter is a regular visitor to Salt Lake City, and it will be hard to beat seeing him at Red Butte Garden. Joe Purdy opens the show.
Josh Ritter headlines Tuesday, July 17, at Red Butte Garden.
SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS, TOWER THEATRE, WEDNESDAY, 7 P.M., $8.75
Rarely does a band plan out its own demise–they typically just sort of fall apart between projects, or in a blow-out fight. Not so for LCD Soundsystem, the dance-rock project led by James Murphy that had the foresight to film it’s last concert at Madison Square Garden. Throw in writer Chuck Klosterman chatting with Murphy throughout the day of that last show, and you have the makings of this Sundance flick. It’s playing all over the country for one night only, including in SLC at the Tower Theatre. Even though LCD Soundsystem is gone, it’s obvious there’s still an audience for Murphy’s music. This will be more like seeing a concert than watching a movie, you can plan on that.
Shut Up And Play The Hits captures LCD Soundsystem’s last show before breaking up. It plays one show only, on Wednesday, July 18.
THE QUICK & EASY BOYS, SNOWBIRD, SATURDAY, 6 P.M., FREE
Portland power-trio The Quick & Easy Boys have been on my radar for a few years, and their energetic blend of punk, funk and psychedelic-rock makes for enthralling live shows. I was first attracted to them when I saw that the band’s bio namechecked the Minutemen, My Morning Jacket and Funkadelic in its first line. That’s pretty bold, but remarkably, those divergent influences can actually be heard in the Quick & Easy Boys’ music. See (and hear) for yourself on Saturday–don’t cost nothin’.
The Quick & Easy Boys headline Snowbird’s Cool Air Concert Series on Saturday, July 21.
WYE OAK/DIRTY PROJECTORS, IN THE VENUE,SATURDAY,7 p.m., $16.50 ADVANCE/$18.50 DAY OF SHOW
Wye Oak’s 2011 album Civilian was one of the year’s best, and I was lucky enough to catch the band live a few times last year. The Baltimore duo brings considerably more grit and power to their live shows than fellow Baltimore indie darlings Beach House, with singer Jenn Wasner’s raspy wail offering one of the more memorable voices in indie-rock. The band has some new material to debut during this summer run opening for experimental-minded art-rockers Dirty Projectors.
Wye Oak opens for Dirty Projectors at In The Venue on Saturday, July 21.
DEER VALLEY–Well, the programmers of the Deer Valley Music Festival seem to know their audience. Despite rain and lightning-filled weather reports, opening night of the Utah Symphony’s annual summer residency in Park City was a smashing, sell-out success.
Credit the man responsible for the night’s music–Michael Jackson’s dominance of the pop charts during his decades in the music business came through loud and clear as the symphony and guest singer James Delisco delivered hit after hit after hit over the course of what turned out to be a perfect summer night. With songs ranging from his childhood leading the Jackson 5 through his monster ’80s smashes like Thriller and Bad, Jackson’s ability to pen memorable R&B-influenced pop songs made for a slick evening of ear candy.
I arrived expecting a show heavy on the MJ ballads, figuring those songs would give the symphony the best chance to shine. I was WAY off–the show was dominated by high-energy performances that had Delisco and the two female backup singers dancing up a storm, sporting the Michael Jackson iconic attire like glittering socks, fedoras and one shiny glove at various points. Even conductor Brent Havens wore on glittering glove during “Billie Jean,” which closed down the first set and had most of the audience on its feet, clapping and dancing along.
The show started with a striking one-two punch of a couple of Jackson’s funkiest songs, “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” That surprising start was the first indication it wasn’t going to simply be a night of easy listening. “Rock With You,” “Ben” and “Human Nature” all followed, giving the Utah Symphony its first shot to take some of the focus off of Delisco and the electric band delivering the disco-era dance songs. For much of the night, the symphony seemed pretty extraneous–hard to hear or simply not adding a lot to the songs.
A double-hit of Jackson 5 songs, “ABC” and “I Want You Back,” were obvious audience favorites, getting a lot of folks on their feet for the first time. “The Way You Make Me Feel” was nicely rearranged–one of the few songs to get any sort of significant reworking by the musicians.
The second set, after a short break, delivered much of the same, with “Smooth Criminal” and “Bad” being two of the highlights. Delisco was game for working the crowd and had a great stage presence. His vocals certainly were not in the same league as the man who inspired the night’s theme, but he was a worthy lead cheerleader for songs that are so familiar that the audience could have sung them themselves if only the symphony had shown up without a lead singer.
Dusk at opening night of the Deer Valley Music Festival.
Do you love singer/songwriter Josh Ritter, the hyper-literate songsmith straight outta Moscow, Idaho? Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to check out a show at Red Butte Garden, but haven’t had the chance.
We’re here to help. Just leave a comment about Ritter or Red Butte Garden on this post, and include a way to reach you (preferably an email address), and we’ll pick some folks randomly to get a pair of tix to the show this Tuesday at Red Butte Garden at 7:30 p.m., when Ritter will play with his band The Royal City Band, along with opener Joe Purdy.
Note: Partner-in-crime Dan Nailen has also reviewed “Saturday’s Voyeur” here.
When a couple of wise guys from South Park, Colo., ripped off Salt Lake Acting Co.’s four-decade franchise on spoofing Mormons and took it to Tony Award success on Broadway, it set the bar high back in Utah for 2012’s “Saturday’s Voyeur.”
SLAC has risen to the challenge by producing a post-graduate “Book of Mormon” that is more nuanced that usual in its shots at the culture that surrounds Utahns and pervades every aspect of life, from government to where and what they drink to who they sleep with.
For all its scathing satire, “Voyeur” 2012 manages to have heart.
Never fear, it takes a raucous, bawdy trip through the bowels of the LDS Church Office Building to reach that heart. Where else but “Voyeur” would you year musical numbers that include a tribute to the gay rehabilitative power of BYU “blue bazooms” (to the tune of “99 Red Balloons”), “Do the Mo-Mo Motion” and the less-than-though-provoking “Mo-mos and the Homos Can’t be Friends.”
As I am every time I see ‘Voyeur,’ I was surprised with SLAC’s top-notch performers, choreography, book and lyrics. That alone was enough to delight an out-of-town tourist who joined me for the performance.
The plot’s arch begins with the “Curse of Obama” and leads to Mitt Romney’s presidential nomination—”Everything’s Coming Up Mormons.”
In the process, Voyeur skewers proxy baptisms, a recent membership-inflation controversy, the Mormon church’s struggles with “same sex attraction” and gay rehabilitation, its Demo-phobia and the paradox of City Creek Center, where most Mormons can’t afford to shop.
Brother Nephi, a cheeky “Internet Mormon”, suggests the church begin proxy baptizing dead Muslims. “One of these days, we’re going to run out of Jews to baptize and Muslims will be all we can get.”
Of course, Voyeur’s perennial target of choice appears as Gayle Godzicka of the Eagle Quorum, who, in this iteration, is the erotic focus of LDS uber-bureaucrat Elder Marriott. Godzicka is celebrated as a cultural icon “Too sexy for my hair. Too sexy to Nair.”
“Mitt-Bot” is lauded as “not too deep and kind of a creep,” but “We follow, we wallow, we swallow Mitt.”
Elder Marriott and Mitt-Bot plot to funnel church tithings into Mitt’s campaign, noting, “There’s no connection between this church and politics.” Then laugh uproariously.
Did I say this “Voyeur” has heart?
Oh, yeah. A thread runs through “Voyeur 2012” of sympathy for the ambivalence and heartbreak that thinking and caring Mormons have with their church’s rock-ribbed conservatism. The show closes with “Be Free,” in which the characters counsel: “Take the good from the church, leave the bad and just move on.”
“Voyeur” aficionados can look forward to humming tunes related to:
- Pat Bagley-esque church security men who double as Godzicka’s flying monkeys.
- A Borscht Belt Angel Nephi who zings one liners and advises “never take a Democrat for a wife. Get a bunch of wives with blue bazooms.”
- A wild tribute to mammary glands with lyrics that include a cascade of obscure euphemisms for boobs, including Elmer Fudds, Bobbsey Twins, pumped-up hubcaps, humped-back whales, two-point jumpers, rutabagas, porky pigs, Holy Grails, bouncing Buddhas and Prop 8s.
Media in Salt Lake City, in the shadow of the Mormon temple, never seem to be able to explore or explain the LDS power monolith as well as outside journalists. So, you can thank Mitt Romney for a growing, insightful and overdue scrutiny of Utah-based God Inc.
Businessweek offers one of he best looks yet into the secrets of the Mormon Church’s wealth–estimated at $40 billion, replenished annually by $8 billion in tithing. Blessed subsidiaries include 11 radio stations, a TV station, a miserable excuse for a newspaper, a hospitality business and insurance companies worth $3.3 billion.The article is titled, simply, “How the Mormons Make Money.”
Because the LDS Church keeps its finances secret and even high-ranking insiders say the church’s finances are compartmentalized so that no single person—not even the president, prophet, revelator knows the extent of its holdings. (So much for the “seer” part of his title.)
But even more fascinating, the Businessweek article delves into the theology and culture behind the Mormon money mindset. Other religions separate the cash from spiritual riches– for example, Jesus and his “blessed are the poor” shtick and offering lousy odds for the rich getting into heaven.
Mormons, not so much.
Historian D. Michael Quinn tells writer Caroline Winter:
“The Mormon Church is very different than any other church. … Traditional Christianity and Judaism make a clear distinction between what is spiritual and what is temporal, while Mormon theology specifically denies that there is such a distinction. In the Mormon worldview, it’s as spiritual to give alms to the poor, as the old phrase goes in the Biblical sense, as it is to make a million dollars.”
Ryan Cragun, a sociology professor and co-author of Could I Vote for a Mormon for President? says:
“Given their array of corporate interests, it would probably make more sense to refer to them as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Holdings Inc.”
This kind of $pirituality is bound to delight Mitt’s big donors, but how about the average independent voter?
Daniel Nailen 