Previously on this blog I wrote about my concert bucket list, with The Growlers being one of the artists. This past Tuesday my friend and I packed up my car and drove six hours to Salt Lake City, Utah in order to catch The Growlers on their City Club Tour. I can easily say it was definitely worth every second on the highway.
After getting the mandatory In-N-Out Burger, we made our way excitedly to The Depot, just in time for us to scan over the merch table and make our way to the side of the crowd, where there was enough room for all of our amazing dance moves.
We were surrounded by people from different walks of life, who were all there for the same reason. There were older fans, couples, teenagers that were draped in denim and angst and everything that fell in between. And while it may seem like there was nothing that could get all of those groups into one room, The Growlers managed to pull it off.
More and more people filed into the lower level as everyone awaited the arrival of 8:30 p.m. and with it, The Growlers. When the band took the stage, I felt the energy slowly rise as we all watched intently for Brooks Nielson, lead vocalist, to enter the stage.
Brooks made his way onto the stage and the crowd erupted as the band started to play “Big Toe.” The crowd all came together and almost danced in unison while singing their hearts out. As the show went on, the energy of the crowd did not waiver.
Friends danced together, couples swayed and there were even a few crowd surfers (probably those angsty teens) sprinkled throughout the entire show. I found myself dancing uncontrollably every time a new song started.
One of the main reasons I wanted to see The Growlers so bad was the uniqueness that is Brooks’ vocals, and let me tell you — it was amazing. There were times during the show where I found myself spacing out on the sound of his voice and asking myself, “Is this man even real?”
After the show was a little bit over half way through, Brooks left the stage while the rest of the band played “People Don’t Change Blues,” which was amazing live. When Brooks came back, he came back with a completely different energy. The energy before was great, but when he came back it was outstanding.
He came out and announced, “Now is the time to wake up!” The band started playing “Vacant Lot” in a way that was somehow the same as the recording, yet a completely different version at the same time. It is something that I can’t necessarily put into words, besides that I loved it.
The main takeaway from this show that I got was that The Growlers are somehow 10x better live than on recordings. Which, to be quite frank, I didn’t think was a possibility because all of the recorded songs sound so great already. It was seriously to the point that I don’t think I’ll ever like the recorded version of “Wet Dreams” because the live version was that amazing.
With all of that in mind, I would go as far as to say that this is probably my favorite concert I have been to thus far in 2017. I would definitely recommend that any fan of The Growlers make their way to one of their shows as soon as possible because I am still dreaming of how great their show was and I’m not sure I’ll stop anytime soon.