It’s a great music week in Salt Lake City (and Provo), but we start with a farewell party for one of SLC’s coolest stores.
1. Frosty Darling Bye Bye Bash, Friday, April 27, 6 p.m., free
Frosty Darling is a gem of Salt Lake City, a cool little shop at 177 E. Broadway where you could always find an awesome retro toy or lunch box, among other supercool treats thanks to the discerning eye of owner/artist Gentry Blackburn. Sadly, the place is closing its doors soon after five years in business, but before they do, there’s a party! Cupcakes, a DJ and live tunes from Sugartown are on tap for Friday night.
2. Desert Noises Tour Sendoff, Velour, Provo, Saturday, April 28, 8 p.m., cover tba
The latest in a steady line of Provo bands making some noise nationally (no pun intended), Desert Noises is firing up a farewell show in the town down south before heading out across the country in support of their latest release, Mountain Sea. If you’ve never been to Velour, one of the best live music venues in Utah, this would be a good reason to make the trip to Provo. The Archers Apple and The Mighty Sequoyah open the show.
3. Lambchop, The State Room, Sunday, April 29, 8 p.m., $20
Mark Wagner’s Nashville crew started its now-two-decade career by priding itself on being the “most fucked up country band in Nashville.” Eleven albums into Lambchop’s run, and not much has changed. The band’s latest release, Mr. M, once again combines some twangy elements with elegant lounge sounds, some soul and slightly damaged folk. All together, it makes for some entrancing music, and Wagner is a great lyricist, with a voice that should thrill fans of Leonard Cohen and Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merritt. Awesome local crew The Folka Dots open the show.
4. Ben Kweller, In The Venue, Monday, April 30,6:30 p.m., $18 advance/$20 at the door
If it seems like Ben Kweller has been around forever, it’s because he has, at least in terms of the music community’s public consciousness. Just 31, Kweller has been touring the country and playing shows since his teenage band Radish made some noise in the early ’90s. His latest album, Go Fly a Kite, is a return to rollicking rock and roll after he veered in a more countrified direction on his last release, Changing Horses. Guess that will happen when your home address bounces between urban meccas like New York and San Francisco and the decidedly dustier Austin, Texas. Sleeper Agent and The Dig open the show.
5. Delta Spirit, The Urban Lounge, Monday, April 30, 9 p.m., $15
San Diego’s Delta Spirit have been thrilling audiences with their brand of soulful alt-rock since they debuted in 2005, and their third album, a self-titled set, just came out last month. They got a lot of great buzz out of this year’s South by Southwest Music Conference, and their tour brings them to The Urban Lounge Monday night. Waters and Tijuana Panthers open the show.
From a living Utah legend to a free celebration for Earth Day, there are plenty of options for your perusal this week.
Joe McQueen, Wednesday, April 18, The Garage, 8 p.m., $7
Joe McQueen visited Ogden in the 1940s as a traveling saxophone player, and the jazz man never left. He was the first black man to play in Ogden’s whites-only clubs back in the day, and folks like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong (both of whom McQueen’s played music with) left his name on the guest list when they played in Salt Lake City, helping McQueen break the color barrier in the capital city’s whites-only clubs as well. He’s never stopped performing, and at 93 he’s ready to headline a gig at the swinging little roadhouse on Beck Street.
Happy Accidents, Friday, April 20, 314 W. Broadway #250, 7 p.m., free
What happens when a bunch of Salt Lake City’s best contemporary artists get together and paint along with two episodes of Bob Ross’ legendary TV show, The Joy of Painting? Find out for yourself at this opening to reveal the results from the likes of Brad Slaugh, Sri Whipple, Lindsey Frei, Trent Call and Tessa Lindsey. And you can even walk away with some of the artwork–buy a $5 raffle ticket via 24Tix.com; all proceeds go to lymphoma research.
Record Store Day, Saturday, April 21, Graywhale locations, various times, free
I’m neither a vinyl aficionado nor a music rarities collector, but I can still always find something to love at Record Store Day. All manner of artists put out exclusive Record Store Day-related music each year to help support indie record stores, and often that material is delivered via LP or even 7″ vinyl. Thankfully, there are also parties that deliver slates of fine local bands playing for free. I’ll be at the University Graywhale in Salt Lake City to see Bronco, The Rubes and Joshua Payne Orchestra, among others, starting Saturday at 11 a.m. Visit the Graywhale Web site to see the local chain’s RSD events, check out the Record Store Day Web site for a list of special releases, and be sure to check in at The Heavy Metal Shop and Uprok for their schedules and special deals.
Save Our Canyons 10th Annual Lone Peak Celebration, Saturday, April 21, Salt Lake Hardware Building, 6 p.m., $40
It’s time for Save Our Canyons to throw their annual fundraiser, which this year also serves as a celebration of the group’s 40th year fighting the good fight in Utah. The Folka Dots and the Cy Schmidt Band will be playing, Cannella’s is catering and Squatters is providing the drinks–not a bad combo, eh?
HEAL Utah Earth Day Festival, Sunday, April 22, Liberty Park, 11 a.m., free
Beginning at 11 a.m., HEAL Utah is throwing an Earth Day Festival on the east side of Liberty Park that will have music from Bronco and Jen Hajj, tasty grub from the Chowtruck available for purchase, activities for kids like face-painting and a balloon artist, as well as info booths from various enviro booths and at least a few fiery speeches, no doubt.
One of the blogs I visit on a daily basis is Whitney Matheson’s “Pop Candy” blog at USA Today, where she digs up all manner of pop-culture goodies and passes them on to us readers, from cool DVD releases to entertainment news to her own interviews with the famous and infamous.
She also regularly has readers submit “Pop Traveler” guest pieces, and I wrote one about Salt Lake City that she posted today! You can check out my piece here, and you should bookmark the “Pop Candy” blog on your computer if you want to give yourself something entertaining to read every day. 
Colleen Baum is a wonderful actress familiar to Salt Lake City theater audiences for roles in productions big and small, dramatic and comedic. And in the Salt Lake Acting Company world premiere of playwright Kathleen Cahill’s Course 86b in the Catalogue, Baum may have just found a role that offers her a chance to play to the full spectrum of her talents.
As Stevie Stuart, a paleontologist who runs off to teach at small-town Delta Community College after her marriage collapses, Baum carries the play through virtually non-stop laughs with a wide-eyed wonder that conveys her excitement at the fossil discoveries in her new neighborhood, as well as bewilderment at the strange characters around her in a town that, as she puts it, isn’t so much a town as some buildings in the middle of nowhere.
Among her fellow occupants of said town: Dell Nelson (played by Elis Groves), a small-town girl with an innate talent for anatomical drawing (minus those nasty sexual organs,which her religious background prevents her from including in her drawings); Sterling Jensen (Topher Rasmussen), an ape-man of sorts and Dell’s unlikely beau; and Bill Stuart (Daniel Beecher), Stevie’s ex-husband who has followed her to town and moves into a chicken coop not far from her house, swearing he’s ready to start a family with her, despite his history of infidelity.
Together, via Cahill’s wondrous script full of great one-liners (one of my faves: “I’m a paleontologist, I’ll miss you when you’re dead”), the cast explores issues ranging from history to evolution to religion, all of them used for comedic value, as well as pushing Baum’s Stevie across an arc that takes her from a despondent divorcee at the beginning to an electrified (you might even say born again), curious woman willing to give love a shot once again by show’s end.
Cahill is a treasure as a playwright, familiar to SLAC audiences through shows like Charm and The Persian Quarter in recent years. This latest work is an inspiring comedy that never makes fun of its small-town inhabitants. Keven Myhre’s stage design takes the audience into the desert, from Bill’s chicken coop to the road that takes Stevie to a wonderland of artifacts. Tracy Callahan’s direction moves the characters naturally through the set, and elicits performances from the actors that never turn into camp, even as they all seem on the verge of being completely unhinged at one point or another.
That’s all part of the fun of Course 86b in the Catalogue–you’ll laugh throughout, while still being given the chance to ruminate on some massive ideas. You should definitely take advantage of this melding of fine acting, serious laughs and stellar dialogue–it’s a package deal that doesn’t come around every day.
Course 86b in the Catalogue plays Wednesdays through Sundays through May 6; visit the Salt Lake Acting Company Web site for tickets and show times.
If you’re only experience with The Scarlet Letter is high school English class or the forgettable Demi Moore film version, consider this a hearty recommendation to find tickets to Plan-B Theatre Company‘s new adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic penned by Jenifer Nii.
That won’t be easy–all shows are sold out except the April 21 show as of this writing, but standby tickets are available nightly in case of no-shows. But if you can get in, you’ll be rewarded handsomely with outstanding performances and a thoughtful, challenging story. Nii’s script delivers poetry where Hawthorne’s novel was more of a slog (if memory serves–I certainly haven’t read it since high school), and the four actors involved take that script to memorable, emotional heights.
The story, for the unfamiliar, revolves around Hester Prynne, a woman scorned within her early-1600s community for giving birth to a daughter, Pearl, out of wedlock, and refusing to name the father. Forced to wear a scarlet “A,” Hester raises a vivacious, headstrong daughter through the taunts of the townspeople, keeping her secret, and that of Pearl’s father, despite the appearance of her revenge-minded husband, Roger Chillingworth.
David Fetzer plays Dimmesdale in Plan-B Theatre Company's "The Scarlet Letter." (Photo by Rick Pollock)
The performances by all four members of the cast are outstanding. Claire Wilson’s Pearl is the heart of the play, commenting on the hypocrisies of the adults around her, whether it’s her mother Hester (an excellent Lauren Noll) showing one face to the world and another in the home, or the good reverend Dimmesdale (masterfully conveyed by David Fetzer) and his struggle to live up to the expectations of his congregation while holding on to his secret relationship with Hester and her daughter. Mark Fossen also excels as the somewhat sinister Chillingworth, playing the role in a way that lets the audience share Dimmesdale’s early friendship with the intellectual, while also chilling the audience to the bone when his dark side emerges.
Once again, the Plan-B technical talent excels as well as the talent on stage. Cheryl Cluff’s direction is fluid, and her sound design memorable for its blend of choral music and recorded chants of Hester’s townspeople mocking her. Randy Rasmussen’s set is built on a multipurpose, striking structure with multiple levels for the characters to use–a really impressive use of the simple space inside the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. The costumes, the lighting, the props like the cat o’ nine tails Dimmesdale uses to flog himself–it all works perfectly in tune with the actors and Nii’s glorious, musical dialogue.
Again, getting tickets will be tricky, but make the effort and go down for stand-by tickets during a performance Sunday or next week, when it will run Thursday through Sunday. It’s worth it–and you can put off reading the novel again for, oh, the rest of your life.
Claire Wilson as Pearl (left) and Lauren Noll as Hester Prynne in Plan-B Theatre Company's "The Scarlet Letter." (Photo by Rick Pollock)
While watching the Sleigh Bells show at The Depot Thursday night–a bombastic extravaganza of flashing lights, smoke, Marshall stacks, screeching guitars and sung/shouted vocals–a few questions kept popping into my head:
“What sounds are actually being played, and which are pre-recorded?”
“If every song is epic, are any of the songs REALLY epic?”
“Is this rock ‘n’ roll, metal, hip-hop, or dance music?”
“Is my high regard for ‘authenticity’ and roots-music misplaced?”
And, ultimately, “Why am I enjoying this so much?”
There’s a lot to be said for attitude getting a band over, and Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller have attitude in spades. Even though the duo’s songs are delivered with deafening volume and little variation in their pace or style, the enthusiasm of Krauss as a frontwoman is infectious; she’s like one of the Anarchy Cheerleaders from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video grown up into a lead singer. She bangs her head, waves her hands, encourages the audience to shout along, and harmonizes along with her own pre-programmed vocals while Miller and an additional, unnamed guitarist (Jason Boyer) thrash around on either side of her.
The crowd Thursday ate it up, as Sleigh Bells ripped through songs from their new-ish Reign of Terror album and their 2010 debut, Treats. They played 15 songs over the course of maybe an hour, encore included, and from the opening “Demons” to the one-two encore punch of “Never Say Die” and “A/B Machines,” the energy in the room never flagged.
Credit for that goes to Krauss, whose non-stop rocking and obvious excitement at the sound of her own band’s music kept her bouncing and fist-pumping throughout, and helped the crowd stay pumped even for the less familiar songs from the album. Songs from Treats definitely got the biggest reactions from the audience, and “Tell ‘Em,” “Treats,” “Infinity Guitars” and “Rill, Rill” was an awesome quartet of songs leading into the encore, both insistent in their poppy hooks and noisy as hell.
Among the new songs, “Leader of the Pack,” “True Shred Guitars” and “Born to Lose” offered the most memorable performances.
Of course, with a show moving as fast as a Sleigh Bells gig does, and with the fuzzed-out sound they specialize in dominating every song, it’s hard to say any tune is more memorable than another. But you can’t say a Sleigh Bells show isn’t memorable, or that it isn’t a great time.
Even if I’m still struggling to figure out why.
Daniel Nailen 