Day 2 of Kilby Block Party 2024 has come and gone! Despite a very confusing weather delay (which we’ll touch on later), the bands continued to bring their very best to the festival grounds. How did we get our day started, then?
We headed to the Lake Stage to catch LA-based indie pop band, TV Girl! The group, typically consisting of Brad Petering, Jason Wyman, and Wyatt Harmon, brought a few extra faces to form a six-piece for this show. TV Girl powered through a few technical difficulties, with Petering proclaiming at one point, “I’ve been told to keep stalling. How the hell are you, folks???” The crowd didn’t mind, though, as they sang along with songs like “Pantyhose,” “Louise,” and “Birds Don’t Sing.” In the shadow of a stained glass window simulation, TV Girl kept transitioning between songs in the smoothest way possible, only fully stopping when they absolutely needed to. This was a solid start to our day, and it only went up from here.
After taking a brief detour over to the merch store to get a poster tube – seriously, shoutout to Kilby Block Party for selling individual poster tubes – we found ourselves at the Kilby Stage to catch Scottish indie pop legends, Belle & Sebastian. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the Glasgow-based band brought the house down with only ten songs. Opening with “Nobody’s Empire” from their 2015 album, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Murdoch and company brought an energy to the stage that is hard to come by. The stage banter was genuine and genuinely funny (“So it’s a beautiful sunny day, and we’re going to play a really f*****g sad song. Is that ok?”), and if we look for the truest embodiment of, as John Carney put it in his 2016 film Sing Street, “happy-sad,” Belle & Sebastian should be the main description. I’ve never felt so good to feel sad. If you need me, I’ll be doing an earnest deep dive into their catalog.
This is where things got a little odd, though. As we made our way to the Desert Stage to catch Bombay Bicycle Club, the stage screens across the park began to show a warning for a “weather delay,” and security was asking the crowd to step back from the stages. To their credit, there were several updates posted to the festival’s Instagram detailing how there was lightning in the area and the show needed to pause until it passed. However, because the skies above the festival grounds themselves were clear, there was a definite shift in the crowd’s mood. A general sense of annoyance seemed to take over, and the crowd became a bit restless. At the end of the day, though, the delay lasted only 25 minutes, and the festival staff were respectful while enforcing the safety protocols. The only real schedule alteration we had to make was, sadly, missing Bombay Bicycle Club to get a decent view of Death Cab for Cutie. We’ll catch you next time, boys. We promise.
Death Cab for Cutie took the Kilby Stage as originally scheduled, and immediately the crowd’s mood perked up again. Currently on tour with frontman Ben Gibbard’s other band, The Postal Service, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Transatlanticism and Give Up, Death Cab for Cutie brought their best to this headlining set. Knowing their connection with Kilby Court as a venue and Kilby Block Party as a festival (they headlined the inaugural festival in 2019), it was easy to understand why. Following the album’s second track, “Lightness,” Gibbard proclaimed, “Thanks for sticking around. This band’s called Death Cab for Cutie, we’re from Seattle, Washington, and this is Transatlanticism.” The setlist was simply the album’s tracklist, and as someone who grew up listening to the album on repeat, it was a very cathartic, emotional, and introspective set. If you haven’t checked out Transatlanticism in full yet, please do. I doubt you’ll regret it.
As Death Cab for Cutie wrapped up their performance, Ben Gibbard reminded the crowd, “But wait, there’s more! We’ll be right back. Give us fifteen minutes, we’re playing Give Up.” We took those fifteen minutes, rested in the VIP lounge while listening to a phenomenal house set from a presumed local DJ, and then got back out right as The Postal Service took the stage. Ben Gibbard, Jenny Lewis, and Jimmy Tamborello were joined on stage by Dave Depper to perform their lone album, Give Up. Released in February of 2003, Give Up has become a seminal work of indietronica, yet Gibbard and Tamborello never felt inclined to make a follow-up. During the tenth anniversary tour, Gibbard announced officially that the group would be disbanding after their Lollapalooza aftershow on August 5th, 2013. We’re glad they reformed for this twentieth-anniversary tour, though, because hearing these songs live changes lives. Songs like “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” “Such Great Heights,” and “This Place Is A Prison” become even more powerful in a live setting, particularly when Gibbard hops on drums while singing the latter of those three. The beach balls were finally out and getting bounced around, the crowd was dancing, and unlike most reunion/anniversary shows, the band genuinely seemed to enjoy being together. A great end to a somewhat strange day.
It’s hard to believe that the final day is already upon us! Salt Lake City has been treating us incredibly well, and we can’t wait to get out to the grounds one more time this weekend. Be sure to follow along on both the festival’s Instagram and ours!
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