With a sold out show in one of Utah’s biggest venues, dedicated fans made the 30 minute trek outside of the city to the Great Saltair on June 3rd to see the highly anticipated performance of Quinn XCII. Touring his new album, which is also the name of his tour, Quinn brought the “Peoples Champ” tour to Utah and fans were ready for what would be a memorable night.
The first performance of the night was Julia Wolf, I personally hadn’t heard of her before tonight but she is definitely one to watch as she brings a great energy to the stage, and captures the crowd with her clever song writing. My favorite song of the night was a song called “Hinge Boy” written about the various dates she has been on with guys from the internet. She told the crowd a story about a college professor of hers telling her that she would never make it in the music industry. From this experience as well as other experiences throughout her life, she left the fans with the message of, “Be who you are and go after what you want despite what others may say.” I hope to see Julia come through Salt Lake again.
Next up was a band called ARIZONA, from the moment they came on stage the energy was contagious. Lead singer Zach Hannah has perfectly encapsulated the front man energy of a performer and his fellow band members are just as energetic. My favorite song of the night was “Nostalgic” . This has been one of my favorites for a long time and hearing it while the sun was setting against the backdrop of the Great Salt Lake made for an almost cinematic moment. Zach spoke highly of Salt Lake saying that one of their favorite places to perform is the small but notable venue of Kilby Court. He raved that in the 7 years of touring Salt Lake City has never disappointed. One of the last songs they played was a song called “Graveyard” ; it’s the first song on their new album that came out a couple weeks ago. This song seemed to be a crowd favorite and Zach had great emotion and connection with the crowd as he sang it.
At last it was time, the stage set up for Quinn’s set was really fun and a highlight reel of his tour showed on the big screen, somewhat resembling a jumbotron, as the lights went down. Then a pregame show came on screen as the announcers talked about Quinn, where he was from, how many albums he’s released and so forth. As the band got ready to come on stage they announced each member, what instrument they played, and a random fun fact about them. Finally Quinn was announced and the crowd went wild as he took the stage.
I am fully convinced that a person hasn’t really been to a concert unless they have been to a Quinn XCII concert. His stage presence and the way he interacts with the crowd is so authentic you can’t help but love him. After playing a few songs he made a comment about needing bug spray to counteract all of the mosquitoes flying around. After spraying the general area around him he gave some to fans at the barricade. Upon receiving he back he gave them a hard time about using it all. The way that Quinn is able to be funny while also keeping his composure as an artist was so cool to me and it made him so likable.
Throughout the show fans sang and danced along loudly, he let the fans sing the chorus of his song “Straight Jacket” and everyone got so loud while doing so. One of my favorite songs of the night was a song off his new album and it was called “The Lows”. His whole show was set up similarly to a football game as he had a “half-time show” in the middle of his set and a post game show before he came out for the encore. He has openly talked about some struggles he has had on this tour with vocal problems but made it light hearted by singing a highly autotuned cover of “Believe” by Cher with a fan who was brought on stage and joked with the crowd that anyone can sound good with autotune. His encore started off with an acoustic version of his song “Another Day in Paradise” and ended with the song “Candle”. After the show security guards had to usher people away because everyone was just standing around talking to each other about the performance they just witnessed.
Needless to say this was a night few will forget. With shows continuing in the U.S throughout June be sure to grab tickets now as this will be one you won’t want to miss. As for Salt Lake, fans are ready for the return of Quinn XCII.
