We’re live from the Utah State Fair Park in Salt Lake City with coverage from Kilby Block Party! Well, not really “live,” since this is a recap written after the fact. The part that is true in that statement is we’re in Salt Lake City to cover Kilby Block Party 2024! This year marks the festival’s fifth anniversary, and it also celebrates 25 years of Kilby Court, “the longest running all-ages venue in Salt Lake City.” So how does Utah like to celebrate?
They bring out the best of the best in indie music! Our day started with Unknown Mortal Orchestra at the Kilby Stage. If you’ve been following our festival coverage recently, you’ll remember that we saw them headline Treefort Music Fest last year. Though the energy was a bit different during a midday set, it fit the festival’s energy perfectly. Opening with “From The Sun” off of their 2013 album, II, the band sauntered from song to song, keeping the audience engaged while providing a soothing atmosphere for the afternoon sun. In the last fifteen minutes, though, they ramped up the energy tenfold, jumping from 2015’s “Multi-Love” to last year’s hit, “That Life,” before closing with their standard one-two punch of “Hunnybee” and “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone,” adding one more chorus at the end of the latter for good measure. As a fan not just of the band but of festivals in general, this Unknown Mortal Orchestra set should be the blueprint of all midday main stage sets.
We didn’t really move all that much for our next act. Alvvays took the Kilby stage next, and if you remember my coverage of Lollapalooza last year, you probably remember how unfair I thought it was that there are, for lack of a better phrase, no visible cracks in Alvvays’ foundation. I am here to once again confirm my belief that Alvvays represent the absolute best of dream pop. Once again opening with “Pharmacist,” Molly Rankin and company torched through 45 minutes of perfection. The set was primarily focused on their 2022 album, Blue Rev, but the older releases were placed in the setlist with pinpoint precision. Hits like “In Undertow,” “Archie, Marry Me,” and “Dreams Tonite” were sprinkled in at just the right moment. Alvvays is on tour for most of the year, including stops at Boston Calling, Glastonbury, Merriweather Post Pavilion, and three nights at The Concert Hall in their home base of Toronto. If you can, get out to see them. You won’t regret it.
After Alvvays, we sprinted across the park to catch Courtney Barnett at the Lake Stage. Joined on stage by Stella Mozgawa from Warpaint and Zach Dawes from Mini Mansions and The Last Shadow Puppets, the Australian indie rock icon played a career-spanning set that covered the best of her catalog to date. Songs like “Avant Gardener,” “Need a Little Time,” and “Depreston” are some of my favorite songs of the past decade, and heaters of varying degrees like “Rae Street,” from 2021’s Things Take Time, Take Time, “Nameless, Faceless,” and “Pedestrian at Best” kept the crowd completely invested before she brought the house down, closing with “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party.” Though this was my first time seeing Courtney Barnett live, the threads that brought me here were all present onstage with her. This one was special. Expect more detail on that in the full festival recap.
Having sprinted back to the Kilby Stage to check out Jai Paul’s live performance, we were a bit surprised by how late he ended up being. Scheduled to go on at 6:20, Paul took the stage at 6:35, and my best guess would be there were a few technical difficulties that delayed his appearance. Even after getting on stage, his microphone didn’t seem to go through anything but the stage monitors until around five songs in, and it was just an odd experience overall. I’m curious to see him again in a non-festival setting because his band were some of the best musicians I’ve seen (seriously, if anyone can put me in contact with Jai Paul’s drummer, I’d love to learn from him), but this performance fell just a bit flat from the man himself. I think it would be unfair if I didn’t also mention that this was his first live show of the year, about five months since his last. Working out the kinks is something that just happens over time, and since the stage visuals and the rest of his band were top-notch, I’d wager that this could have just been rust. I guess I’ll just need to confirm that for myself eventually.
Following Jai Paul, we took a bit of a breather to wander around and check out what else the festival had to offer. Before we ended up grabbing some food from one of the many vendors on the grounds, we stumbled upon what will be a go-to for the rest of the weekend. Just Squeezed has a lemonade stand in between the Kilby and Lake Stages, and it quite honestly was some of the best lemonade I have ever had. Worth the price. Good work, guys.
To round out the day, we ended up back at the Kilby Stage for the weekend’s first headliner: Vampire Weekend. A little over a month after the release of their most recent album, Only God Was Above Us, Ezra Koenig, Chris Baio, Chris Tomson, and their four touring musicians came in and immediately turned Kilby into their weekend. If you remember my first festival coverage here, from Outside Lands 2021, Vampire Weekend turned in the best set of that weekend, and having seen them again here at Kilby, I’m beginning to believe I’m something of a Vampire Weekend sleeper agent. Though I wouldn’t necessarily consciously consider them one of my favorite bands, the second I see them live, they enter the highest echelon imaginable. Their genuine joy in their performance is infectious, their songs are amazing live, and this specific set seemed extra special to them. Ezra eventually explained, “We played the actual Kilby Court before our first record came out, in December of 2007.” An extended cover of SBTRKT’s “New Dorp. New York,” a fan appearance for the intro of new track, “Connect,” and one of the best performances of “Harmony Hall” imaginable were just a few of the highlights. If I tried to mention everything, I’d be here for the rest of the day. Safe to say that Vampire Weekend is going to make it onto the “Best of the Fest” list again.
And that’s it for Day 1 of Kilby Block Party! We’re excited to get back out there for Day 2. Keep track of our daily recaps on our Instagram stories, and be sure to keep an eye out for the rest of our coverage this weekend!
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