Marsh at Soundwell
If Soundwell is indeed a well for anything, it's bringing in the best of the best in House and EDM music. Case in point, this week's appearance by Marsh, a London-born DJ who has since adopted Cincinnati, OH as his home. His 2020 album Lailonie is a luscious album that built on his first, Life On The Shore, which was in itself an impressive dance-ready debut, employing classic club beats and loads of charisma. Released on the label Anjunadeep, the deep house imprint of Above & Beyond, it's a strikingly emotional piece of work—club-ready but also perfect for a solo dance party, complete with maybe a cathartic meltdown. That may be because it was completed in the throes of 2020, when life for everyone and especially live nightlife entertainers became much different. It especially became different for Marsh, who was supposed to be performing at shows backed by the dream label he'd just joined—but what matters now is that he is on tour, finally. He's also got new material under his belt, in 2021's live album Live from Natural Bridge State Park, Kentucky, a work dotted through with samples of birds chirping and production that somehow builds on Marsh's depth while also embodying more delicacy and minimalism than his prior release. See all the artist has to offer when he comes through to Soundwell on Saturday, Jan. 22 at 9 p.m. The all-ages show is $15 at soundwellslc.com.
Strangelove at Metro Music Hall
Winter is a quiet time, for all but tribute bands it seems. Just as they cover the songs of bands or artists that don't tour so much anymore, or can't, in the winter cover bands seem to still do what most other bands don't—tour and play shows. Something about the lull of the first month of the new year brings 'em out, and this week's cover show to look out for is Strangelove: The Depeche Mode Experience. The Los Angeles-based group is dedicated to the craft of replicating an authentic-sounding Depeche Mode experience, something they've been doing for over 40 years. From the most pop-forward hits like "Just Can't Get Enough" to their signature New Wave goth work and even their recent work, Strangelove does their best to honor all the music of Depeche Mode. They bring their own original visual production to accompany each performance, and collect vintage synthesizers and samplers to recreate that unmistakable '80s sound perfectly. According to the band, their tribute show "feels more like a shared communal fan-club celebration of halcyon days of new wave-slash-emerging electronica." So whether you're a fan who grew up with them or a younger New Wave disciple, don't miss Strangelove at Metro Music Hall on Friday, Jan. 21 alongside another tribute act in Electric Duke, who takes Bowie classics and electronifies them. The show is 21+, doors are at 7 p.m. and tickets are $20 at metromusichall.com.
Dorian Electra at Soundwell
While Dorian Electra is touring solo in belated support of their 2020 album My Agenda, the over-the-top performer should have more than enough material and energy to sate the appetite of any audience. A keystone artist in the fresh alt pop movement, Electra's style fuses genre play with gender play, with aesthetics that reference drag king culture and music that ranges from big, bright bubblegum to early millennium industrial and club beats. Their 2019 debut album, Flamboyant, was definitely that—the album is a wild ride that explores and explodes tropes of masculinity. Though non-binary, Electra gets very intimate with masculinity, showing us a winking, queer and titilating side to what is usually considered the plainer gender—songs like single "Man to Man" flirts, "Flamboyant" seduces and "Guyliner" smirks at any preconceptions over who can wear eyeliner, or indeed, guyliner. After Flamboyant earned Electra a distinctive place in the hyperpop realm, they exploded their own boundaries on their bonkers second album My Agenda. The album leans into fat, crunchy beats that squish with early 2000s club juice (especially on the Rebecca Black-assisted "Edgelord") and sometimes explodes into dizzying syntheses of nu-metal riffs and grimy EDM drop beats ("Ram It Down"). While early Electra found the fun in masculinity, this new album explores more of the aggression and toxicity—and as a result, it's a more challenging listen. See both sides of Electra's masculine coin when they stop into Soundwell on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. The 21+ show is $18 - $20 at soundwellslc.com.
Tool at Maverik Center
If you love Tool, maybe you started listening to them in their '90s heyday, when their brand of dark metal-meets-art rock first burst onto the scene—their 1993 album Undertow was a frenzy-creator that carried them through to their even more successful '96 follow-up Ænima. Their distinctive fame grew out of an angsty pool of post-grunge rock, but they stood out from the crowd by leaning into an experimental kind of prog rock that, with time, would grow into epic-length songs with ever-changing dynamacy that kept their listeners on their toes. After their first few years of fame, however, the band quieted things down, and frontman Maynard James Keenan dug into other projects like A Perfect Circle, while appearances from Tool became few and far between. They returned to acclaim, though, in the new millennium, with 2001's Lateralus and 2006's 10,000 Days, albums that further cemented their reputation as restless visionaries. Since then they've been on their longest break yet, returning in 2019 with their album Fear Inoculum and only just now touring on it. Guesting on the tour is another band that found their popularity around the same time, but which followed a meandering path of art rock, indie pop and balanced shoegaze. Blonde Redhead quickly became mainstays in the burgeoning indie rock scene of the early 2000s, releasing cult hit albums over the last two decades, including their most recent work, 2016's Masculin Féminin. See these two millennium mainstays at the Maverik Center on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $65 - $150 at maverikcenter.com.
An Update on Shows, Tours and Omicron
After last week's music picks included two shows that were postponed at press time, you're probably reading this week's music section with more than a grain of salt, and you're right to. So much is up in the air right now, with Omicron causing record cases and infecting people at such a rate it seems like if you just look at someone too long you'll catch it yourself. You're probably wondering, justifiably, if you should be going to shows, or buying tickets in advance for some spring date that just got announced. And while we wish we could offer you some certainty that spring tours will all remain on their tracks and that those shows that are coming up in the more imminent next few weeks will remain scheduled, we can't. For now, it looks like a good chunk of shows over the next month are all in danger of being canceled, whether by a venue being cautious or a particular artist—and while at this writing it seems like the big touring acts are the only ones forging ahead while locals chiefly postpone gigs, that too could change. But as we learned last year, as cases taper off in the warmer and more outdoors-friendly months, spring and summer dates become more reliable. So, this is just a reminder that for now, you should double check all shows you read about here or anywhere else—and to keep your head up, because this wave won't last forever.