There is something romantic about an American road trip—embarking on some wild adventure across the miles of varied terrain. A journey of this magnitude captures our country’s restless, itinerant spirit. Adventurers like Kerouac and Steinbeck set off on their travels from New York, while Portland, Ore., on the opposite side of the continent, was the launching point for Kyle Durrie. … read more
Explosions In the Sky, Zammuto @ In The Venue 04.07
In just their fourth trip to Salt Lake and my third time seeing them live, Explosions In The Sky has blasted through the ceiling that most of their post-rock counterparts live under, and are making their way into the mainstream. … read more
Alex and Dylan vs. Comeback Kid @ Club Sound 04.07
SLUG sent two of our best hardcore and punk music writers to the show for a bit of nostalgia, and they returned with broken glasses, scraped noses and the following reviews. … read more
Napalm Flesh: The Safety Fire interview
You feel that heat out there, darkhearts? This week, we sit down with guitarist Dez Nagle of prog-metal group The Safety Fire, who stopped in town on April 6 with their bros from Protest the Hero. Plus, we have your usual cavalcade of metal reviews from Aura Noir, Deathhammer, Heidevolk, Hellvetron, Primal Rock Rebellion and your weekly calendar of doom! … read more
Classical Application: Plan-B and The Scarlet Letter
Plan-B Theatre Company’s 2011/12 season is coming to an end, and The Scarlet Letter marks the last play in this season of all female playwrights, as well as Plan-B Theatre’s 63rd world premiere play. … read more
Sleigh Bells @ The Depot 04.12
Around 9:45 p.m. the room went dark and the hype for the headlining act began. A red glow illuminated the 12 massive Marshalls at the back of the stage. Moments later, not one, but two guitar players emerged on the dark stage before being followed by the tiny, raven-haired Alexis Krauss who was rocking a pair of white Keds, cut off denim shorts and a super tough leather motorcycle jacket, which was discarded by the side of the stage after only one song. … read more
Three Modalities of Enchantment: Ballet West Presents Emeralds
Utah’s Ballet West opened the run of its final show of the regular 2011/2012 season on Friday night, April 13, at the Capitol Theater. The show took its name, Emeralds, from the centerpiece of the evening’s performance, the first ballet of George Balanchine’s Jewels trilogy. Though the house was not entirely full, the audience was indeed large and energetic. … read more
WRD: Black Diamond Divas vs. Red Rockettes 04.14
Starting the night off, the Divas took an instant, rather cushy, lead. Both teams were using a strategy of slow starts and quick stops, and generally this strategy, in my own humble opinion, is a short term gain for a long term loss, but I guess the Divas knew something I didn’t as shown by the 51 point lead by Jam 12. … read more
Regal Beast, Midnight Vitals, PTO, The Message @ GoGo37 04.14
Last weekend a few of my friends and I all stuffed ourselves into a car and made a short but sweet weekend trip to sunny St. George, Utah. Aside from “the hell of it,” the reason for our journey entailed a performance by Regal Beast at GoGo 37 and an interview for SLUG’s podcast, Soundwaves From the Underground, with the venue’s owner, Ryan Groskreutz. … read more
Mountaineers in the Mist: The North Face Masters Final Destination
The North Face Masters free ride competition series returned to Snowbird from April 12-14 with over 100 competitors, both men and women, pre-registered for their chance to ‘huck mad pow,’ take home a decent paycheck and obtain the coveted Katana sword trophy. Usually, the first destination on the tour, the Snowbird event was pushed to the final stop due to lack of early season precipitation. … read more
Perfume Genius with Parenthetical Girls @ KIlby Court 04.14
Mike Hadreas doesn’t do drugs, or at least not anymore. This is what the front man of Perfume Genius connoted as he told me the story about how a destitute man carrying a baby randomly solicited him for drugs a few blocks away upon his arrival. He looks as if he wants to laugh and grimace simultaneously at this, but opts to smoke the cigarette clenched in his right paw instead. This is his first time playing in Utah. … read more
Hanni El Khatib @ Urban Lounge 04.13
Khatib has been met with almost immediate success in his newfound full-time music career and I’m not going to argue why. The guy knows how to write songs and he and his band mates can perform them even better. … read more
