2017 isn’t over yet!
I don’t think I can remember a year with so many concerts. Green Day was a major highlight. Bonanza showed that Utah can put on a pretty solid music festival – Cut Copy, Method Man & Redman, Odesza, and Robert DeLong all made for an epic weekend. The xx, Royal Blood, and Queens of the Stone Age were all here this week. Bob Dylan is at Eccles next week. We are bless-ed in Zion, right?
With the holidays approaching (Christmas decorations are already up in your nearest retail outlet), it could be easy to forget that there are some great shows happening before 2018.
Here are 5 I recommend catching.
•Foo Fighters on December 12th at Vivant Smart Home Arena
Now, I wasn’t really all that excited about a new Foo Fighters album this year. It’s just kind of expected. I was and am excited for a Foo Fighters tour and a chance to see Dave Grohl on stage again. I was even pleasantly surprised by how good “Concrete and Gold” is with “Make It Right” and “Sunday Rain” being some of my favorite tracks of 2017.
•Cut Copy on November 14th at Metro Music Hall
I’ve been extremely impressed with the bands being booked at Metro Music Hall this year and Cut Copy is no exception. If you’re allergic to dancing and bands like LCD Soundsystem and Franz Ferdinand, this won’t be your cup of Earl Grey. The fact I saw them once already this year at Bonanza and can’t wait for a second chance says a lot. This 4-piece Austrailian group will keep the old and new synth fans happy and I can’t wait to see some of the songs from their new album, “Haiku From Zero” (excellent title), performed live in a more intimate venue whist cutting the rugs at Metro.
•The Used on November 25th at The Complex
It’s crazy to think The Used are about to release their 7th studio album, “The Canyons”, on October 27th, which is good since it will give you about a month to learn all the sing-a-long parts for this show. It seems like yesterday that The Used released their self-titled album and Jeph was at X96 tapping his pierced member on the window of our studio at Trolley Corners while Todd Nuke’em was trying to do his radio show. Ahhhhh, memories. And while the band has been through some lineup changes over the years, the intensity and the music is still fantastic and from one of our own. It would be shameful to not show.
•Guttermouth on November 21st at Metro Music Hall
If you can fill in the blank: “Mother _________ a donkey, down in Mexico” then you should be clicking on the “Buy Now” link below. Not a song to be singing from a cubicle…or is it? Guttermouth, a staple of X96 SLC Punx (a full-hour of punk, ska, and hardcore every Sunday night hosted by Jon Smith – of which we are told is the only show of its kind in the U.S. in case you didn’t know), and a personal favorite punk band that expels of disliking of one’s mother easily rivaling Eminem. I have been going to see this band since they played on the back, cold-stone patio, of Bricks…remember that. I’m pretty sure The Exploited and Suicide Machines were on that bill. God dammit, Guttermouth, take my money now!
•Death From Above on November 11th at Metro Music Hall
Yes, another show at Metro – I told you that they were killing it with the bookings there! The power of the 2-piece – from The White Stripes to Royal Blood and all bands before and after. The last time DFA played here, they were opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at The Depot and while I like BRMC, DFA should have been headlining that bill of alphabet soup. Amazing a band with only 3 albums can hold and live up to the hype – especially when there 10 years passed between their first and second albums. Their new and third album, “Outrage! is Now” – a timely title will hopefully fit this mood of a Saturday night in Salt Lake was released last month. Then again, they are Canadian, what do they have to be upset about. Well, buy your tickets and come find out.
