MUSIC: Concert Review: Cowboys and Indies 4 (Night One)
Last night, Velour Live Music Gallery hosted part one of its fourth annual Cowboys and Indies festival, a two-night event that attempts to bridge the gap between Provo’s dominant genres — folk and indie — by putting leading local acts from both camps on the same stage. On Friday, Velour manager Corey Fox managed to roll out a line-up nearly as diverse as the crowd in attendance.
First to play was the religiously themed and angst-ridden Salt Lake group, the Second Estate. Though the group’s lead singer had a powerful, captivating voice, his dramatic stop and start delivery of scriptural quotations over pounding acoustic guitar and brushed drums was not exactly conducive to getting the party started.
Next to take the stage were Provo favorites Shark Speed. There could not have been a greater shift in feeling in crowd if MGMT had just followed Bright Eyes. So far as I have gathered, Shark Speed’s indie stylings have been somewhat divisive in Provo — gaining a large following, but also becoming the butt of almost all the indie jokes I’ve heard recently. Regardless of one’s position on the group, I can attest they got the crowd moving with their upbeat guitar work. The song “Cast Off Dance Off” (featuring a trumpet) was an audience favorite.
Salt Lake’s the Devil Whale brought a little more pop sensibility to their folksy set and even went into full rock mode on their closing track, screaming the final refrains. Unfortunately, it seemed that a number of people had either left or just gone outside after Shark Speed’s set, perhaps because the Devil Whale are not quite as well known in Provo, especially among the high school set. Nonetheless, they showed solid musicianship to accompany their unquestionably indie hair.
The undisputed stars of the show, however, were Imagine Dragons. Those who read my review of their self-titled EP just a few days ago will remember my tepid response to their music, but I must confess — their live show blew me away. I think I would go see this band anywhere. (More on this coming in a future article.) Drawing their set list from new material as well as old favorites, they had the crowd in the palm of their hand through dance numbers and emotionally wrenching slow jams (tears on stage, even). Much to everyone’s delight, they opened everything up for their encore — huge, empassioned vocals, hard hitting drums, dancing, and one hell of a guitar solo.
Overall, Cowboys and Indies is a good collaborative effort, aimed at building unity between the two scenes. I would have to say Friday night’s show seemed to be only marginally successful in that regard, as the indies seemed to garner much more crowd attention and appreciation than their cowboy counterparts.
Tonight’s show promises to be equally entertaining with Seve Vs. Evan and Moses taking the stage, among others. Come dance to your heart’s content — or sit around and joke with your friends about the inevitable fashion mistakes and moves of those who do!
Read Steve Pierce’s review of night two here. Also, download our FREE local music compilation here.
William Sutton is a popular culture correspondent for Rhombus.
Hahaha wait wait wait I’m in Shark Speed and I was shown this so I can not help but to comment on this a little. First I have never heard an indie joke or one that I’m a butt of so please fill me in. Second the comment that our “stylings have been divisive” is confusing to me. Maybe it is because I’m not connected enough to the local scene or something, but the word “divisive” means (causing or tending to cause disagreement or dissension) so this suggests there are disagreements on if our style is “indie” or not? Which could sound ironic in many ways. Just wondering maybe you can clarify it for me. I’m truly interested and I’m not trying to sound like a jerk. I have read several reviews on our band and almost all of them you can pull some truth out of them. This one is hard for me to understand which is surprising to me because it comes from a local review, maybe this is why I’m so interested in it.
thanks
I apologize if what I wrote lacked clarity, which it probably did because it was pushed out very quickly in order to be up before night two of the show took place. As I am sure you noticed, my review was mostly a overview on the show, not so much an extensive look at any of the individual acts. Basically the points that I was trying to make were that a) The crowd enjoyed your high energy set. b)Your music has been divisive in exactly the way i described, lots of people love it, but lots also kind of make fun of it. (It was not intended mean divisive as to what genre or style you may or may not fall into.) What I meant by the “butt of indie jokes” line is that I have noticed that there is some feeling in Provo that the band is trying too hard to dress, act, or sound a certain way or has found popularity among a demographic that is perceived as acting/dressing “indie” or “hipster.” I personally have not listened to you guys enough to make my own judgment on the matter, I was just trying to convey both sides of what I have heard on a day to day basis. It seems that from what I have heard on the street, so to speak, people either really love you or really don’t. I hope that clarifies a bit, but let me know if there are any other questions I can clear up. Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend and keep on doing what you love.
The point I missed is that you were reviewing a show when you had four or five lines to describe a live performance, and you chose to dip into stereotypes and judgments on the way people dress or act. For this reason I feel its obvious you must share these same judgmental opinions about the band. If acting “indie” means you fund your own recordings, book your own tours, hire your own P.R. company and release your own records even when your approached by labels well color me indie my friend. Next time say people hate our music and avoid the politics. I’m 27 it has been a while since I did something or “tried too hard” just to impress a certain demographic.
You said “I personally have not listened to you guys enough to make my own judgment on the matter” well I’ll give you a heads up. We don’t list our wardrobe or our personality traits in any of the songs, so it might be hard for you to form your own opinion on the matter but from what was said above it looks like you already have.
Just because a white kid likes rap does not mean he is “trying too hard” to be black, some people just like and do things because they like to. Stereotypes and ideas like these are bogus and should not be mentioned or used as reference when some one is trying to describe or review music. I would think about this before you sling your stereotypes around, then you might have something to say when someone accuses you of “trying too hard” to be B.Y.U.
I as well am very displeased, not so much about hearing that people don’t like us or think we’re “trying to hard”. That i could give two shits about. I’m in my mid twenties myself and could care less how a demographic feels about my personal clothing choices. What upsets me is that this William Sutton is given an ounce of seriousness and air time via Rhombus Magazine. How does comparing ones personal style have anything to do with ones music. Unless you’re stage appearance/getup is inseparable from you’re music found with the likes of Gwar and The Aquabats. For example, when writing about The Devil Whale’s set he said “Nonetheless, they showed solid musicianship to accompany their unquestionably indie hair.”-William Sutton. What this Will doesn’t know is that Brinton Jones has been a Provo/Slc local musician for upwards of 6 years. KEEPING the SAME personal style all the way. Its really sad because for a second i had some respect for this up and coming magazine until, in my opinion, it branded itself a very local magazine from here on out.
Thanks for the music review…psych! It’s sad that high school popularity contests have been brought to this local scene.
Well William, a critic isn’t made by being insultingly witty…at least not a legitimate critic. I’m no critic, but I can recognize you need all the luck you can get to make it. Shark Speed or Devil Whale may be politically correct in their rebuttals, but I’ll just say it straight up (because I represent no party but myself) that this review sucked. In fact it’s not a review but a desperate play for popular standing and an exercise of social stratification via media. Yup, I’m confidently insulting your work.
I am sorry that you didn’t think the review was fair. I assure you that my intentions were not malicious in any way.
I think this point has been made, but I want to make sure you understand and anyone else that reads this understands, that I’m not upset because someone did not like our music. It is more along the lines that I felt the music was the last last thing reviewed. I’m happy to hear that some people hate our music and some people love our music. I have always felt it is better to be something to someone besides nothing to no one, and maybe this is what you were striving for in this review. Which brings us all back to square one….next time I’m just going to stay out of it.
Man you guys take this stuff way too seriously. so you didnt like your review. so what. You were entertaining to watch. I ride a fixed gear and get called a hipster all the time for doing so but do I get butt hurt? nope
You missed the point…and it was pretty clear
ok ok ok this is my last comment but I have thought this over and I have made a conclusion. First yes Matt I was butt hurt because before I was Indie I was Emo….back in the day when Mineral was called Emo just kidding! But really after thinking it over I realized this is just a bunch of people reading too much into each other. William you said your intentions were not malicious, and well I’ll take your word for it. I’m beyond over this….Matt if you are Matt Codina your right you are a hipster and your fix gear is really nice, and we still have not hung out and gone riding! Anyways William I have enjoyed your others posts and I’m sorry things got a little crazy!