Moving to Utah from Texas (Houston specifically), I was excited for a change of pace and exploring new clubs and venues. My first lesson learned, sadly, was you never know how good you have something until it’s gone.
Houston has plenty of shows going on every day of the weekend giving you choices, Utah however, moves at a much slower pace. I went to the event called Get Lucky. It was a small two stage festival with the headliners consisting of Pegboard Nerds, Manufactured Superstars, Tritonal and Above & Beyond.
Pegboard Nerds brought a high energy set with Electro, Trap, and Hardstyle. Manufactured Superstars continued the pace and really kept the crowd going.
As the vibe kept growing, I noticed an odd thing happening with the visuals. The LED walls where failing (and eventually stopped working all together). The stage lights would also randomly stop working and would stop in a position shining the focused beams of light into our eyes for minutes at a time. I also was noticing the vocals on songs were very unclear and very bass heavy.
Above & Beyond was up next and the visuals were still not fully working. Having seen A&B before I know they like to type messages to the crowd on the LED walls and not having that just didn’t feel right. The UK trio kept the crowd going playing new tracks like Hello and keeping the crowd pleased with all the classics from Group Therapy. Closing their set they played their acoustic version of Satellite. Sadly most of the crowd didn’t know how to react and seeing some people who over indulged in drugs were still fist pumping during the slow song.
Finally it was time for Austin based duo Tritonal. I have to confess, this was my least favorite set of the night. Tritonal played “Big Room Electro” the entire time and although the crowd seemed to enjoy it, I felt there wasn’t any emotion coming from them.
Over all the event was ok but with with some pretty noteworthy gripes, the biggest being the parking. . The facility hosting the event is 20 miles outside of Salt Lake City and it sits alone on the edge of the Salt Flats. The parking was in a field and they packed the cars so close together that backing out of your parking spot was damn near impossible so leaving early wasn’t even a possibility.
I feel the dance music culture is growing here in Utah and although this was a great “try” and step in the right direction, there were still disheartening moments like when I asked several people their who they were excited to see that night and 80% didn’t know any of the DJs on the lineup. I’m glad to see people are exploring a world that I hold very sacred.
I’m sure this will be one of many small adventures out here in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Matthew is a well known and respected DJ and promoter based out of Houston, TX. Dunn has well over a decade behind the decks, played alongside some of the biggest names in dance music, and is a fixture in the EDM community both on local and international level.
