Salt Lake City has a strange reputation. In this bonus episode of Concert Cast, Kyle Lamont peels back stereotypes to find a creative, edgy and kind music scene. Illustrator Travis Bone shares with us his surprising process when designing a concert poster while the co-owner of the Urban Lounge, Will Sartain, reveals his venue’s live music lore. It turns out that Mormonism influences Salt Lake City in unusual ways.
Salt Lake City has a strange reputation. When Kyle Lamont peels back the stereotypes however, she finds that the city’s concert culture is creative, edgy and kind. We will go from salt flats to velvet curtains, passing through local nerd caves. We will hang out with Travis Bone, a world renowned illustrator, and hear his surprising process when designing a concert poster. We will meet up with Will Sartain, the co-owner of the Urban Lounge, who might just spill secrets about the venue's live music lore.
Religion quite literally shapes this city’s geography. After spending time with Travis and Will, you will hear how Mormonism also deeply influences the city’s concert culture. It’s a brand of kindness that seeps out from the artists in a very Salt Lake City way. Here, community is more important than celebrity. Take this episode as your invitation to couch-surf through Salt Lake City’s caring crowd.
Music heard in this episode: The songs you heard in this episode are Paint over Prayers, Coma, Face Against the Glass, This Winding Road and More Melody. They were written and performed by Will Sartain. Produced by Kilby Records and Exumbrella Records. Body Language was performed by Monotonix and produced by Drag City Records. And Exceptional Whore is by Vile Blue Shades recorded at the Urban Lounge.
[00:00:05] When it comes to live music, it's easy to assume that those who create the spotlight also like to be in the spotlight. But when I meet Will Sartain, the co-owner of Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, a venue [00:00:15] for bands to shine and also let loose, they.
[00:00:18] Had taken a couch from the green room and were crowd surfing on the couch.
[00:00:23] And Travis Bone, a concert poster illustrator who creates poster art for these same shining bands.
[00:00:28] It's more [00:00:30] about representing a feeling that maybe the music brings out.
[00:00:35] I'm reminded just how simple the industry can be, where egos are set aside and the passion for creating shared experiences is at the very center.
[00:00:43] When I hear someone say something [00:00:45] like, you're instrumental to the community or whatever, I've never thought of it like that.
[00:00:49] But talking to them, I can't help but wonder, why are Will and Travis so modest, and what does it have to do with their city? And speaking of, when it comes to Salt Lake City, well, even [00:01:00] more assumptions can come to mind.
[00:01:02] I think the Salt Lake has kind of earned a strange reputation in a lot of places, and it's not entirely undeserved. It's definitely a weird place, but there's always been a pretty heavy live music [00:01:15] scene as well, across the entire gamut of different musical genres.
[00:01:21] Hey, I'm Kyle Lamont, and in this episode of Concert Cast, the stereotype of self-important venue owners and promoters will melt away like a mirage, and my own view of [00:01:30] Salt Lake City changes right before my very eyes. Explore a concert culture that reveals itself to be down to earth, creative, community forward, kind and edgy all at the same time. Why [00:01:45] I'm in Salt Lake City and I'm lost. One because I keep getting distracted by how gloriously close the snowcapped mountains are to me. And two. Well, the main reason I'm lost is because the streets make no damn sense to me. They're [00:02:00] all numbers. After talking with some locals, here's sort of what I learned when designing Salt Lake City. Mormon city planners created a grid system of identical square blocks organized around a center point, which is Temple Square. [00:02:15] Basically, every number indicates how far away you are from the temple. So 2100 East means 21 blocks east from the temple. It's a mathematician's dream, but it's confusing as hell. And the temple is headquarters for [00:02:30] Mormons around the world. And it's also sort of like the musical heart of Salt Lake City, because every Sunday, 360 volunteers sing with the Tabernacle Choir, 360 people all singing like [00:02:45] this.
[00:02:47] This day of joy and gladness for. Be [00:03:00] my. Rain.
[00:03:05] In the mid 1800s, Mormons were forced out of the eastern part of the country and they came to Salt Lake City looking to build a refuge and spiritual utopia. [00:03:15] Just 29 days after the first Mormons arrived, they assembled a choir that became the Tabernacle Choir. And it was a priority because singing in a community was seen as a direct channel to God. As I sat listening, assumptions I had about Mormons [00:03:30] were suspended for a bit. I kept on thinking about how the temple doesn't feel too different from music venues that I've been to. I mean, you've got to look past its massive pipe organs and spaceship ceiling, but once you do, there's a familiar sense of exaltation [00:03:45] and reverence for music.
[00:03:47] Morrison in the last. We.
[00:03:56] After my visit to the temple, I head to the outskirts of town to meet up with Travis [00:04:00] Bowen. I'm here with Mr. Bowen in his nerd cave. It also happens to be [00:04:15] where a majority of his concert posters are made.
[00:04:20] Yeah, this is my office where I draw things and keep my nerd things.
[00:04:26] Travis has a very long beard and gentle eyes. He's [00:04:30] also wearing a newspaper boy hat. We're surrounded by little bobblehead sculptures and a ton of sketches. I met Travis through a series of live music and filmmaking synchronicities. When Travis speaks, it's with a slow and measured voice, but he lights up [00:04:45] when he talks about music, and he's filled with pride when he talks about his posters. Going to a good home.
[00:04:51] I like that feeling of watching somebody like, pick it up at the merch booth and like, look at it and smile or whatever and carefully [00:05:00] roll it up and take it home.
[00:05:02] But getting to that point takes time.
[00:05:04] I feel like each poster job that I've done kind of starts. It's like you're at the bottom of a mountain, and there's a lot of stuff that you got to do to get the thing finished.
[00:05:13] And when it's finally [00:05:15] the night of the show.
[00:05:16] That's like sitting at the top of the mountain and you're done. And it's a good feeling.
[00:05:23] Internationally, Travis is known as the poster artist for turtle. He's got a reputation of creating rich [00:05:30] visual worlds for musicians. How would you describe your style to our listeners?
[00:05:36] Simple. I'm into simplicity, large fields of color. I am into animals. [00:05:45] I like to draw animals.
[00:05:46] He sure does. I'd like to think it's his signature style. When you listen to a band, do you see the poster being made? Or do you see maybe something in nature and you [00:06:00] say, well, that might fit with the Avett Brothers? You know what comes first? The music or the vision?
[00:06:08] I think the music comes first, but that's just kind of the springboard for me. [00:06:15] It's more about representing a feeling that maybe the music brings out. Not so much trying to come up with images that fit specific lyrics, but just more like maybe what I'm feeling at the time [00:06:30] when I'm listening to this band.
[00:06:33] See, there's no flaunting or vanity with Travis. He's genuinely in the game for the satisfaction of making good work.
[00:06:40] I feel like beyond that, it's just totally out of my hands. Hopefully the [00:06:45] vibe is good. Hopefully it's a great show and hopefully at the end of it, maybe someone has picked up a poster and it's a reminder of everything that the show was to them at that specific time.
[00:06:57] My screen printed concert poster [00:07:00] collection started while working as a box office manager for a music venue called the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri. While there, I would greet burgeoning artists who would stop by with stacks of concert posters ready for me to hang up or hand out. I was fascinated [00:07:15] by the incredible paradox of creating visual art, which is an absence of words and sound for a live music concert. I also enjoy collecting concert posters because they're a delightful memento, but really, the concert poster has a straightforward start. [00:07:30]
[00:07:30] Before social media and the internet and everything, it wasn't as easy to know when a band was going to come to town and play at some dance hall or something, and so they need these things to advertise. It was it was advertising. [00:07:45] And at some point there was a little bit more of an artistic bend that happened. A lot of.
[00:07:54] People think that in the States, the bend happened in 1969 with the original Woodstock poster, [00:08:00] one guitar, one bird, one typeface, and a patchwork of bright colors. That's all it took. Oh, and three days of iconic folk and rock music. The concert poster became a true artifact.
[00:08:12] There were people that would want to hold [00:08:15] on to these as mementos of these shows that they'd been to, or bands that were kind of like soundtracks to their lives, and so people kind of started collecting them.
[00:08:26] Fast forward to 2002 to the Flatstock poster [00:08:30] show in San Francisco. This festival was important to the industry because it finally recognized poster art as fine art.
[00:08:36] And I think that in turn, led to the idea that a band might want to commission a poster for an individual show [00:08:45] where it's not now an advertising piece, but it's a piece of merchandise.
[00:08:52] Coincidentally, this very same year is when Travis started making posters for bands, and he would use Myspace as a way of reaching out to them.
[00:08:59] The [00:09:00] first Screenprinted poster that I ever made was for a band called Mogwai from Scotland, and they were. One of my favorite bands at the time. They're still one of my favorite bands, so I made a design for their European tour 2004. [00:09:15] But then, like when I would see bands that were coming to town that I was really into, I just kind of thought that that would be a little bit easier than putting together something like a European tour poster [00:09:30] for a band that's in Scotland. Because they're coming to my hometown. I can make the posters, I can deliver them. The night of the show.
[00:09:37] Slowly, Travis earned a very awesome reputation for drawing what music evokes in him. But here's what surprised me. [00:09:45] You'd think that after sitting with a band's music for hours and carefully building them a visual world, that he would jump for joy at the opportunity of meeting the bands, but he doesn't. How special is it, then, to sometimes meet the band that you've made the poster for?
[00:10:00] I [00:10:00] mean, it can be cool for sure. It's not something that I try to do very often, but I think some of my favorites have been when I've been in a place where there are a lot of bands and I may run into somebody [00:10:15] who plays in a band, and I've never heard their band, and so it's almost like, you know, you hang out, you chat. Maybe there's kind of like a friendship, and then you kind of learn about the band after the fact.
[00:10:29] And when [00:10:30] Travis is at a concert, he disappears into the crowd and melts into the music. When the night is over and he reflects on the poster, he remembers the magic of the evening itself, not the creative process.
[00:10:41] Which is why I probably can never make like a big book of [00:10:45] my posters with these great explanations of my inspiration and everything else, because I just don't remember. But I feel like the people who buy the posters again, it's a similar thing. I can see the poster and I can remember [00:11:00] the night, and I think that's what's cool about it for me.
[00:11:09] It really feels like the most unpretentious way to make a poster for a band that you admire. And when I asked [00:11:15] Travis if Salt Lake City was a concert poster, what would you illustrate?
[00:11:22] Well, I would just say Mormons, but that would be the easy answer. Salt Lake, where a concert [00:11:30] poster. I mean, it would have to be tied into the outdoors in some way. Outdoors are kind of like the state's second religion.
[00:11:40] And Travis is right. Nothing prepared me for Utah's breathtaking and dynamic [00:11:45] landscapes. From the majestic mountains in Zion to the red rock wonderland in Moab, lush green forests and Summit Creek. And if that's not enough for you, there are sparkling white salt flats in this state too. Speaking of, I want to take you back to the [00:12:00] first day I drove into Salt Lake City. I was on highway 80 and like a mirage, rising out of the pristine white salt flats, I saw what looked like a sand sculpture. And then I smelt this odd aroma in the air.
[00:12:14] That [00:12:15] smell is brine shrimp, I think. I think it's dead brine shrimp.
[00:12:19] Maybe you just heard from Will Sartain. He's the co-owner of Urban Lounge, and we're going to be hanging out with him in just a sec. Turns out what I saw was a music venue called Salt Air, a place with [00:12:30] a very long history.
[00:12:31] It was a posh resort for rich people who would go out and relax on the beach at this beautiful lake.
[00:12:37] The resort was built in 1893 by the Mormon Church, and their intentions were for it to be a, quote, wholesome place of recreation. [00:12:45] The place looked like Coney Island of the West, and they really wanted it to be a tourist attraction, a way for Mormons to bring their culture into the mainstream.
[00:12:54] But salt air has evolved, and it burned down twice, and it's a really interesting [00:13:00] situation. The owner owns the building, but the land is federal land, so he has to lease the land. It's interesting because the water used to go right up to the venue. Now the water has receded so much they can like basically do a big events on the salt flats next to the venue [00:13:15] and it's super cool. I think the most describable part of it is these grand staircases that come up from each side, and they kind of get smaller as the staircase goes up, and it looks sort of ornate, you know, it's unique and weird. I mean, it's a weird venue, [00:13:30] but ultimately the experience is a good experience.
[00:13:33] The venue holds about 1200 people and attracts some of the biggest performers in the business. But to Will, it's a place where music and nature meshed together. His face lights up here.
[00:13:44] Being able [00:13:45] to walk outside and seeing that amazing lake and those salt flats and like an amazing sunset. It's a Utah experience for sure.
[00:13:56] Before we head inside Urban Lounge, let's talk about Provo, [00:14:00] a town about 20 minutes from Salt Lake City. Culturally speaking, though, it's miles away.
[00:14:06] You could kind of make a parallel between, like, Provo and like The Town and Footloose. You've kind of got a super conservative religious city council [00:14:15] trying to make sure that the kids aren't dancing.
[00:14:18] Travis tells me about Corey Fox, who opened up a music venue called velour. Corey learned how to dodge the rules put in place by Provo City Council, and he was good at it.
[00:14:27] So in a very real way, he saved [00:14:30] live music for that community and he still got the venue. He's he's still putting on great shows and I'm glad he never gave up.
[00:14:40] He quickly became a mentor for young musicians in Utah. And if saving live music [00:14:45] wasn't enough, Corey made sure velour was stunning with stained glass windows, a chandelier on stage, and of course, a heavy velvet curtain.
[00:14:53] Artistically speaking, it's an inspiration. Corey, the guy that runs it, he's kind of like a consummate [00:15:00] collector. And so there's just a lot of cool stuff everywhere. And from sitting in my nerd office, you can probably see why that's appealing.
[00:15:11] Saltair and velour couldn't be more different from each other in size, origin, [00:15:15] story, and location.
[00:15:16] Every venue here has kind of its own personality and own feel.
[00:15:22] It's time finally to explore the Urban Lounge, a venue where Travis has a bunch of posters hung up, and when I ask him how many times he's [00:15:30] been to the place, he tells me.
[00:15:31] About 900 million times.
[00:15:35] Just like Saltair and velour, Urban Lounge is a legendary spot in Salt Lake City, but unlike those two venues, Urban Lounges appearance is [00:15:45] unassuming.
[00:15:46] No, it's pretty much a box. It's just kind of a squat little building with a marquee.
[00:15:52] So if Urban Lounge is just a box, why is it that people, including Travis, return to it again and again and again? Well, [00:16:00] let's go there and find out. Your. Come. I meet Will on 241 [00:16:15] South and 500 East. Yes. Those are the street names. He's wearing all black. Has darling dimples and is welcoming as hell, especially at 11 in the morning. In addition to co-owning multiple venues [00:16:30] and promoting hundreds of concerts a year, Will's a talented songwriter. You're listening to the song This Winding Road from his album called The Listening Booth. Right now.
[00:16:40] I love slowing.
[00:16:51] How [00:16:45] would you describe this venue.
[00:16:53] As a place where you can see the artists from any spot in the room? It's large but intimate.
[00:16:59] There are [00:17:00] a few high top tables with bar stools peppered around an ever present disco ball and a high end lighting rig. But the crown jewel in this venue is definitely the stage. It's wide, seemingly limitless, a blank slate for expression. But [00:17:15] as a former cleaner of a music venue, I just had to know. Have you had any bands just absolutely shred this stage to shit?
[00:17:24] You know, it's really just when they do confetti and it gets everywhere. I [00:17:30] remember Yelawolf played here before he was big and it was almost sold out or almost sold out, and they did confetti and we were like, no. And then we were trying to clean it up after, and he's hanging out with us and he's like, you. [00:17:45] You're doing this all wrong. You got to pick and grit. So he gets the broom. And it was like cleaning up his own confetti, showing us the method, the correct method of getting it up. And it was. That was pretty memorable too. The funny thing is this stage when we bought it, I mean, it was much smaller. When we bought it, it was [00:18:00] probably six feet less on each side, and then these wings were smaller. It seemed big at the time, but yeah, we've had to make the stage a lot bigger because it was way too small, even like a six piece band was suspect because it was too small. So [00:18:15] this has been great. From wing to wing, it's about 25ft and from the back to the middle is 12ft. So I mean, it's about right for this size.
[00:18:24] Well, I think this is a beautiful venue. It feels like you said, very close. And I [00:18:30] mean, I love a good show where the band and the concertgoer feel as one. I'm sure you've seen bands be screaming up into people's faces. How fun is that?
[00:18:42] It's great.
[00:18:43] Well's been in the industry since he was [00:18:45] 16. He started out cleaning Kilby Court, which is another music venue in town.
[00:18:49] I showed up and I cleaned, cleaned the shit out of it and worked hard, and.
[00:18:55] Then he worked his way up to being the door person and later the sound tech. And then, together with his friend [00:19:00] and now business partner Lance Saunders, they decided to buy the venue. And soon after that they bought Urban Lounge.
[00:19:07] When we bought this place, it was such a junk hole and smoking was still allowed inside and there was like shitty tile on the floor and [00:19:15] it was just so gross. And there was like fur on the walls. And I was 23, so we didn't really know what we should do. We knew we had to improve it, but we didn't know how or what.
[00:19:26] Well, Sartain and Lance Saunders make up presents, which is Salt Lake City's [00:19:30] premier live music promotion company. They're independently owned and they employ dozens of locals.
[00:19:36] Lance is a handy one. I see myself as the guy, the idea guy, and he's sort of like the up for anything guy, whereas I'm my energy, like kind of ebbs [00:19:45] and flows and I'm not always up and I'm sometimes I'm down anyway. He's always a consistent force. That really does make us a good partnership.
[00:19:58] Today Presents also [00:20:00] owns Metro Music Hall and Blue Jeans, a new bar right next door to Urban Lounge, which is a perfect place to pregame before a show. When Will and Lance purchased Urban Lounge? They were young and because money was tight, they had to make some hard choices, [00:20:15] prioritize high end acoustics or aesthetics.
[00:20:19] So I'd rather drop $50,000 on a PA system and have the space look like this, which is. It's a nice enough space, even.
[00:20:26] Though at the time they prioritized bass over beauty. They haven't given up [00:20:30] on making Urban Lounge look awesome, and the two see themselves almost like dads with never ending house projects.
[00:20:36] You're just always coming over, going, whoa, why is this? This is different now. Okay, that's a little. There's a little change. Okay? There's some curtains up there. Here's some art [00:20:45] up. Finally, here's these new benches. I mean, okay, it's getting better. I like to see it changing. I like we just got these new seats here. I like to see it evolving all the time. I think it sort of keeps it fresh for me and for the people coming to see [00:21:00] shows here. I guess what I'm looking for is a very nice room and it takes time. It takes learning how to do that.
[00:21:07] In the corner of the lounge above the bar, I see oil paintings of basketball players. Let's [00:21:15] talk about the Utah Jazz oil paintings that are just so delicately hung.
[00:21:20] So my good friend Andrew Sato painted these. We've had a couple incidents with them. Someone grabbed it off the wall and ran out and got away. Never got caught. So [00:21:30] he made another one for us as.
[00:21:31] A venue co-owner, he's had to navigate some pretty wild situations, and stolen oil paintings are just the start of his stories.
[00:21:38] I think the weirdest thing that's happened in this green room. God, do I say this is this. I don't know if I can [00:21:45] say this.
[00:21:45] Here's a piece of Urban Lounge lore we do have access to.
[00:21:49] And there was this guy, and he kind of had a limp, and he would walk around and he was kind of a shithead, and he got into a fight with someone on stage. And so this big fight escalated [00:22:00] and there was like 20 people fighting.
[00:22:03] The fight overflows into the parking lot. He rushes out and sees the man on the ground.
[00:22:07] So we thought this guy's leg had been cut off and it was dangling there, and he was screaming in pain and someone was like, his leg got cut [00:22:15] off and it turned out he was the one legged guy. But still, I mean, that moment where you thought the guy had had his leg cut off at a.
[00:22:22] Show was pretty epic.
[00:22:25] In retrospect, it's funny, but it was not funny at the time.
[00:22:28] These days, this sort of thing happens a lot [00:22:30] less, largely because Will has a lot more experience. He's gone from booking 40 shows a year in 2006 to over a thousand per year. That's multiple shows a day across multiple venues. But even though Will is a big name in the city, he doesn't have a big head. [00:22:45]
[00:22:45] I've been doing this for 15 years and I'm still excited every day. I'm still excited to hear a new band. I don't often think about like, oh, we built this. I don't think about that very much. But when I do think about it, it is like it's pretty overwhelming.
[00:22:59] Just like how Travis [00:23:00] melts into the music and forgets all about the weeks of poster design work. Same thing goes for Will. The emails, tough phone calls, sleepless nights, all that fades away when his favorite band takes the stage.
[00:23:13] I forget everything I don't even think [00:23:15] about when I'm in a really good show. It's pretty overwhelming seeing one of your favorite artists on stage at your venue. Oh, it's the best. Yeah, that's a good feeling.
[00:23:28] As we wander around the venue.
[00:23:29] Let's [00:23:30] look over here.
[00:23:30] Some familiar artwork catches my eye before I even bring it up. Will's pointing to one of Travis's posters. The image is of a little blue bird perched on top of a mustard yellow jukebox, which is growing out of a flower pot. And to me, because the jukebox [00:23:45] is drawn on a slant, it feels like it's flying.
[00:23:48] The Silver Jews monotonic show monotonix. They had taken a couch from the green room and were crowdsurfing on the couch before Silver Jews.
[00:24:13] During [00:24:00] this particular concert, [00:24:15] Will says that he only partially had his venue co-owner hat on.
[00:24:19] How do you shut down a couch? Crowd surfing, you know. What do you do? Pull it out and, you know, drag it out the venue. Tisk, tisk.
[00:24:27] Go back to your room. Sit in the corner.
[00:24:29] Okay. [00:24:30] You're grounded.
[00:24:31] This is one of the wildest moments I've ever seen at a concert.
[00:24:44] So [00:24:45] who is Travis Bone to you?
[00:24:47] I met Travis, and I didn't know who he was. And he had written me an email saying, I'd like to do a poster for this. And I was like, oh, whatever, who is this guy? And then we met and I was like, oh, this guy is so nice. And then I saw his art. And of course, his art is amazing. So he's [00:25:00] an amazing asset to our community because his stuff is internationally known and he's a great guy. So anytime you can have a great artist and they're also really nice, that's that's that's a plus.
[00:25:11] I love the Urban Lounge. It's just one of those [00:25:15] places that they're getting more and more rare, where you can interact with people in a community, in person, off a computer. As far as just quality of the acts that they book, it's just unparalleled. [00:25:30]
[00:25:30] What is it like being a venue owner here in Salt Lake City?
[00:25:33] Being a venue owner is the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done. It feels good to be a part of something that people can enjoy and that people love. I feel so thankful [00:25:45] to be a part of this. And I mean, I mean it, it's just special.
[00:25:58] I stayed in Salt Lake City for about a week, [00:26:00] so by the time I left, the numbered streets were almost second nature, sort of. On my way out of town, I kept thinking back to a question that I had asked Will. If Salt Lake City was a band, what would the genre be? I was half expecting [00:26:15] him to say choral music or something stereotypical like that. But you know, that's not what I got.
[00:26:20] I am a little bit protective of the religious aspect. There is a niceness about that religion that's very kind. People really care about you and want to take care of [00:26:30] you. In a way. I think here the city is unique for that. If the city was a band, gosh, I don't I think I think of this band called Vile Blue Shades. That was one of my favorite local bands, and it was like a 12 piece band with three drummers [00:26:45] and like three guitars and keyboard and bass and dancers, and that's kind of what sums up the city for me, you know? Nice. And we want to have fun.
[00:26:55] Before coming here, my view of Salt Lake City was stuck in the stereotypical image of [00:27:00] Mormonism. And yes, the city is quite literally shaped by the religion. But through Travis and Will, I also got to see how the Mormon brand of kindness seeps into the city's concert culture. Here, community is more important than celebrity. [00:27:15] There's no way of knowing what you're going to get from a music venue in Salt Lake City until you place your assumptions aside and couchsurf in its crowd. This [00:27:30] has been a Good to Go Studios production created and produced by Kyle Lamont. Hey, that's me and our co-writer and co-producer for this episode is Zo Bailey and our editor and engineer is Pete McGill. [00:27:45] The music you heard in this episode is made by Will Sartain, Monotonix and Vile Blue shades. For a list of all the songs, including production credits, check out our show notes at Concert Cast Live. Special thanks to [00:28:00] Travis Bohn, Will Sartain, Heidi Stanton, drew, and thank you for listening.
[00:28:07] Getting out again. Thank [00:28:15] you.