The Square Life

John Vanderslice is on stage at Velour praising the club owner, Corey Fox.

“Does everyone here know Corey?” the Bay Area native shouts to the crowd. “Corey is a total genius. It’s hard to run a club, but he’s done it. Everyone should give him a kiss on the lips.”

Vanderslice heard of the Provo venue through a fellow Barsuk records artist, Rocky Votolato, who sells out every time he plays Velour. Just like Vanderslice and Votolato, more traveling bands are making their way down to Utah Valley, playing great crowds, finding great venues and loving it.

This year, Thanksgiving Point in Lehi also attracted the eye of the touring crowd. Adam Peterson, chief marketing officer, said it started with a stand-up comedian Bryan Regan this summer.

“Bryan Regan was a little hesitant at first (to play here),” said Peterson. “But after his show, he said, ‘I’m going to book two dates next year and tell everyone I know that this is the coolest venue.’”

Peterson said Regan was impressed at with the professionalism of the venue and the crowd that came. Word traveled fast this summer and Thanksgiving Point began to book shows that were different from events normally hosted.

“We drew a little different crowd than we are used to,” Peterson said. “We had Arcade Fire play, which brought another new crowd. It was a good experience. We felt great about it…for a lot of those people we heard the same thing we hear from a lot of folks that come to our property, ‘Wow we had no idea this was here, we had no idea this was such a great concert venue.’”

Kyle Snarr from West Jordan saw Arcade Fire last month at Thanksgiving Point. “We saw them at Red Rock (Colorado) the week before – it was a great show,” Snarr said. “But here they were amazing. They really let loose.”

Thanksgiving Point has three venues for concerts, the Show Barn which holds 1,200, the Garden Amphitheater with 4,000 and the Electric Park Pavilion with over 10,000.

Another venue for large performances is the McKay Events Center at Utah Valley State College. With 15 concerts a year, the center has become an accepted arena for many popular musicians. Teela Ware, a junior at UVSC, said her first concert there was when Maroon 5 played in 2004. “It was right before they got super big that summer,” she said. “It was a great show, and cheap.” Ware said the concert only cost $12 with her student discount. “I also liked that after the show was over; I just walked home to my apartment.”

Mark Hildebrand, McKay Center director, said UVSC is a great venue for bands because of the large student population in Utah Valley. “Between BYU and UVSC, you have a base of 45,000-50,000 thousand students,” he said. “We try to have bands that aren’t going to be too rowdy but still appeal to young people going to college.”

The McKay Center holds 7,400 people with sell-out shows for artist like Gwen Stefani and Tool. Modest Mouse, Rilo Kiley, Damien Rice and the Smashing Pumpkins were among others who preformed at UVSC this year. “Everybody loves it here,” Hildebrand said. “The audience always seems like enjoy they themselves.”

For Corey Fox, the music scene in Utah Valley has always been good, with or with out touring artists. “I’ve worked with local bands forever and that been my priority,” said Fox. “I’ve always had touring artist come through but never went specifically looking for that.”

Fox said after the successful opening of Velour in 2006, promotion companies contacted him requesting more information on his club. “It’s kind of like a happy bonus. We had Salt Lake City kids coming down to see some of these big local shows,” Fox said. “The word instantly got up, and we had Salt Lake promotion companies tell us that kids…would rather drive down to see a show at Velour than some places in Salt Lake.”

Fox said he has received positive feedback from the bands that come to Provo. “All these tour people, once they play here, they love it.” said Fox. “John Vanderslice signed a poster for us that says, ‘I will be here every tour.’ That’s been the reaction from most of these touring bands. Either they are playing here in addition to their SLC show or there are choosing to play Provo over Salt Lake.”

Matt Nathanson, from San Francisco, Calif. played at Velour in September. Nathanson has been a regular to the Provo scene for years, but hasn’t played a show here for awhile.

Provo is a different world, has it’s own vibe,” Nathanson said. “Kind of like a contained experiment. It’s good to be back.”

Nathanson said he was excited to once again play in Provo. “Now that Corey is here, I’ll be coming back quite a bit,” he said. “It’s nice to have an established place to play, somewhere that will be here for a long time and not turn into a burger joint.”

With venues like Velour, Thanksgiving Point and The McKay center, music from other regions has found it’s way down to Utah Valley. Fox said he is often asked why he opened Velour in Provo instead of the more populated Salt Lake City. “They don’t get that I chose to open this in Provo, and not Salt Lake,” he said. “There are great bands here. There’s a great scene here. I’ve always chosen Provo.”

VENUES:

VELOUR LIVE MUSIC GALLERY

135 North University Avenue, Provo
801) 818-BAND
PREVIOUS TOURING ARTISTS: The Starlight Mints, The Autumn Defense, Matt Nathanson, Rocky Votolato. John Vanderslice, Bishop Allen

THANKSGIVING POINT

3003 North Thanksgiving Way, Lehi
(801) 768-2300
PREVIOUS TOURING ARTISTS: Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Aquabats, Dashboard Confessional, The Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Morrissey

MUSE MUSIC

800 West University Parkway, Orem
(801) 863-SHOW
PREVIOUS TOURING ARTISTS: The Fray, Modest Mouse, Rilo Kiley, Death Cab For Cutie, Damien Rice, Smashing Pumpkins