The Music of Queen with the Utah Symphony

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I am a huge fan of the band Queen and since I also love the Utah Symphony last night's concert at Abravanel Hall was pretty much the best!  I loved every minute of it and I sang along with every word (and also played a mean air guitar and air piano).  The orchestra was joined by guest conductor Brent Havens and vocalist MiG Ayesa (who played Galileo Figaro in multiple productions of the musical We Will Rock You) to perform some of Queen's most well-known songs.  They began with "Tie Your Mother Down" and then continued with "Play the Game," and "These Are the Days of Our Lives."  Then "Another One Bites the Dust" got everyone up dancing and that was so much fun to see at Abravanel Hall!  Next came "Under Pressure" and "Killer Queen" and then Ayesa gave an incredibly sultry rendition of "My Melancholy Blues" (at one point he was lying across the podium) which featured an extended piano introduction.  This was followed by "One Vision" which included an extended drum solo.  The first set concluded with a beautiful and poignant performance of "The Show Must Go On" which is the final song recorded by Freddie Mercury.  After the intermission, Ayesa and the orchestra performed a rousing rendition of "Fat Bottomed Girls" followed by "You're My Best Friend."  One of my favorite moments of the show came next when the orchestra performed an incredible arrangement by Havens of "Who Wants to Live Forever?"  This brought tears to my eyes (hearing it performed live always makes me emotional).  The crowd got on their feet once again during "A Crazy Thing Called Love" and "Hammer to Fall" and then lit up their phones during "Somebody to Love."  A highly theatrical performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was another highlight for me (obviously) and I love that Ayesa wore a gold frock coat borrowed from the costume department of the Utah Opera for this song!  The concert concluded with "We Will Rock You" (with the requisite audience participation) and "We Are the Champions."  Ayesa gave an incredibly dynamic performance with lots of funny interactions with the crowd and even replicated Mercury's famous call and response!  I think many of Queen's songs are very symphonic so they sounded fantastic played by the orchestra!  I loved this show and had so much fun singing along with the energetic crowd!

Note:  Quite a few years ago there was a reality show called Rockstar: INXS on TV.  It was a competition to pick a new lead singer for INXS and Ayesa made it to the final three.  I remember him because I really wanted him to win!

The Smashing Pumpkins at USANA

The last time I saw The Smashing Pumpkins it was an absolutely amazing concert so I was really excited to get to see them again at USANA Amphitheatre last night.  I was definitely not disappointed!  The setlist was an eclectic mix of the band's biggest hits, deeper tracks from their extensive discography, as well as a few songs from ATUM, their latest release which has been billed as a rock opera in three acts, so I spent half the time screaming and singing along to my favorite songs and the other half just listening to the shredding guitars and Corgan's signature voice on some of the more unfamiliar (to me) songs.  I really enjoyed "The Everlasting Gaze," "Doomsday Clock," " Perfect," "The Celestials," "Purple Blood," and "This Time," despite the fact that I didn't remember all of the words, and the new songs "Beguiled," "Empires," and "Spellbinding," even though I wasn't familiar with them, because the band sounded as good as I've ever heard them.  However, it was when they performed "Today," "Disarm," "Ava Adore," "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "Jellybelly," and "Hummer" that I really came alive because these songs took me back to the 1990s when I would listen to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Siamese Dream almost continuously on repeat!  They also played several covers and I have to admit that their version of "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads was really cool but almost unrecognizable!  My favorite moment of the show was an incredibly beautiful acoustic version of "Tonight, Tonight" by Corgan and James Iha.  Corgan dedicated it to SLC because of the lyric about a city by the lake.  The crowd was incredibly chill (almost everyone around me sat for most of the show) but the final three songs, which were "1979," "Cherub Rock," and "Zero," got the crowd up on their feet and it was the perfect way to end the concert!  The stage featured interesting (if somewhat strange) visuals and included dramatic lighting that was almost mesmerizing.  Corgan is such a weirdo and he was in fine form with white makeup on his bald head and face and a long black tunic featuring Masonic symbolism.  He was very tentative with the crowd at first and delegated all of the usual frontman duties to Iha (who favored us with a hilarious rap) but he eventually warmed up.  I had such a great time at this concert because it was filled with so much nostalgia and it was the perfect summer night for an outdoor show (not too hot with a nice breeze as the evening wore on).  I even got out of the USANA parking lot within 10 minutes!

Talk to Me

After hearing lots of praise for Talk to Me I was really excited to have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night.  The hype is definitely real because it is incredibly unsettling.  Mia (Sophie Wilde) is a teenager who is still traumatized by the suicide of her mother Rhea two years prior.  She reluctantly attends a party with several of her friends, including Jade (Alexandra Jensen), Riley (Joe Bird), Daniel (Otis Dhanji), Hayley (Zoe Terakes), and Joss (Chris Alosio), and one of them proposes a game that has been making the rounds on social media which uses a mysterious statue, purported to be the embalmed hand of a medium, in order to summon the spirits of the dead.  The subject lights a candle, holds the embalmed hand, and says "Talk to me" to meet a spirit then "I let you in" to be possessed by it but the candle must be blown out within 90 seconds or the connection will not be severed.  Mia volunteers to be the first subject and, even though she is possessed by a malevolent spirit who resists leaving, she is energized by the experience and all of the teens eventually have a turn and feel the same adrenaline rush that keeps them coming back for more.  However, when Riley takes a turn, Mia is convinced that he is being possessed by the spirit of her mother and events quickly spiral out of control.  There are some truly terrifying scenes (with mostly practical effects) but what kept me so unnerved is the way the filmmakers create escalating tension with ominous sound design and disturbing imagery.  In this regard it really reminded me of Hereditary because I felt the same sense of unrelenting dread (although, thankfully, I did not scream out loud).  The young and relatively unknown (to U.S. audiences) cast is outstanding, especially in the possession scenes, but I was particularly impressed with Wilde because her fully committed physical performance is electrifying.  Finally, I really enjoyed the exploration of how grief and trauma can take possession of someone interspersed between the scenes of gore.  I highly recommend this to fans of the horror genre.

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real at Sandy Amphitheater

 
I am a huge fan of Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real!  I have seen them at USANA (backing Neil Young), at the Commonwealth Room, at Red Butte Garden, and at Sandy Amphitheater.  Last night I went back to Sandy Amphitheater to see them again and I absolutely loved the show!  They were in town promoting their latest release Sticks and Stones (it is so good) and the majority of the songs in their main set came from this album.  They started the show with "Alcohallelujah" and continued with the title track, "Every Time I Drink," "If I Didn't Love You," "Overpass," "Icarus,""All Four Winds" (my favorite from the new album), "The View," "Lying," "Wrong House," and "Ladder of Love."  I really enjoyed hearing these new songs performed live because Nelson and the band looked like they were having such a great time playing them and they sounded really tight despite the fact that they haven't played them as much as the older songs.  However, I was thrilled to hear so many of my favorites, including "Fool Me Once," "Four Letter Word," "Just Outside of Austin" (with a really cool piano intro), "Carolina," "(Forget About) Georgia," "Die Alone," and "Find Yourself" (with lots of participation from the crowd during the chorus).  They also sang a cover of Willie Nelson's "Bloody Mary Morning" which was awesome!  I was really hoping that they would play "Set Me Down on a Cloud," which is my favorite Promise of the Real song, so I was absolutely thrilled when I heard the opening notes!  It was the perfect song to end their main set with!  For the encore, they performed a rousing rendition of "Something Real" with an extended intro featuring the drums.  I am not a big fan of country music but I absolutely love this band (they do have more of a rock-country sound) and I love Nelson's voice (he sounds like his dad Willie Nelson but a bit edgier).  Nelson wasn't as talkative as I have seen him be but he and the band gave a really energetic performance with very little down time between the songs.  They had a stripped down stage filled with lots of instruments and, since I was sitting on the fifth row (he definitely made eye contact with me), it was fascinating to watch Nelson playing the guitar.  There was a major thunderstorm near the end of the show but even the rain couldn't dampen my enthusiasm (the rain stopped just before "Set Me Down on a Cloud" which made me very happy).  I had so much fun and I hope they come back again next year!

Note:  I have loved every Promise of the Real concert but if I had to pick a favorite it would be the show at the Commonwealth Room.  This was right after the movie A Star Is Born came out (Promise of the Real portrayed Jackson Maine's band) and they played "Shallow."  It was sans Lady Gaga but it was epic!

The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Tuacahn Amphitheatre

I always like to see at least one show at Tuacahn every year so I took a quick road trip to St. George for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Tarzan and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are the other shows being performed in repertory) last night.  I really love this musical and I knew it would be spectacular against the red rock!  Quasimodo (Justin Luciano) has been hidden by his master Frollo (Randal Keith) in the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral all of his life because he is deformed.  He wonders what it would be like to leave the cathedral and decides that he will be safe on the streets of Paris during the Feast of Fools.  He is eventually crowned the King of the Fools but when the crowd turns on him the gypsy Esmeralda (Sophia Marie Guerrero) rescues him.  She also catches the eye of the captain of the cathedral guard Phoebus de Martin (Sean Thompson) who falls in love with her and she bewitches Frollo who becomes obsessed with possessing her.  When Esmeralda rejects Frollo, he orders Phoebus to arrest her but when he refuses they both become fugitives who are given sanctuary in the cathedral by Quasimodo until the final confrontation in the bell tower.  The four main leads are amazing!  My favorite song in the show is "God Help the Outcasts" and Guerrero sings it beautifully; Keith's version of "Hellfire" is incredibly dramatic (it is also staged brilliantly with a projection of Esmeralda dancing in flames on the rose window of the cathedral); Luciano's rendition of "Heaven's Light" brought tears to my eyes; and Thompson is so romantic when he sings "Someday" with Guerrero.  The ensemble also does an excellent job narrating the story in "The Bells of Notre Dame" and its multiple reprises.  One of my favorite aspects of the show is the use of gargoyles as characters who help and inspire Quasimodo.  Most productions that I've seen use three actors who are costumed as actual gargoyles but this show features many of them who appear on the outside of the cathedral and the bell towers and then are brought to life as puppets by the ensemble.  This change is particularly effective in the song "Made of Stone" when they accuse Quasimodo.  The choreography is very energetic and engaging, especially in "Topsy Turvy" (I loved the ribbons) and "The Rhythm of the Tambourine."  As with most productions at Tuacahn, there are lots of fun details which set this apart from the other versions I have seen.  Phoebus appears in the cathedral square for the first time on horseback, King Louis XI visits Frollo in a carriage pulled by horses, real fire is used to burn the brothel down, Quasimodo really swings from a rope to save Esmeralda from the pyre, and he really throws Frollo from the bell tower (with some amazing special effects).  Finally, the set is absolutely spectacular!  The stage is dominated by a Gothic cathedral with two large bell towers on either side.  A large screen behind the cathedral features various projections (I especially loved the beautiful rose window when the inside of the cathedral is shown) and I think they are used very effectively.  The area in front of the cathedral becomes a square with the addition of a few set pieces and it becomes the inside of the cathedral when the doors open and pews and votive stands are added.  I was very impressed with this show and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets to this and the other shows this season).