The Big Thief Salt Lake City show on September 22, the third in their US tour for Double Infinity, treated the audience to an hour and 40 minutes of hits from past to present. It also included a rollicking new song I am dying to hear again.
Yes it took a month for show deets and photos, but here they are!
Big Thief play Double Infinity nearly front to back in Salt Lake City
Comedians have a maxim about performing new material: You never–not ever–start with a new joke. This is not a best practice of rock and roll, in fact it is essentially the opposite. Unless you are REO Speedwagon touring on the same material you wrote 35 years ago, you always start with the newest songs, your freshest stuff. Even if that’s not what the audience wants to hear, that’s what they get.
Big Thief, always one to subvert expectations, followed the comedy route. The band played seven of nine songs from Double Infinity but started the show with 2021’s “Change.”
I’ll pause here to note, if one is to believe the set lists at setlist.fm, that in Sacramento the band started with the unreleased “Beautiful World” at their first 2025 concert; they were a half hour into the show before getting to Double Infinity’s “Words.” They similarly played for 45 minutes in Oregon at show #2 before the first Double Infinity song. In Boise, the night before Salt Lake, they lead with “No Fear.” Basically, doing whatever they wanna do.
Big Thief Salt Lake City show spotlights Adrianne Lenker guitar work
Adrianne Lenker once again showed why she is the beating heart of Big Thief. She not only directed the flow of performance but also wowed the crowd with her vocals, ecstatic shrieks and intense fretwork on guitar. Particular standouts included the bridge on “Words” and the long, reverb-drenched walkaway from “No Fear” that lead into “Simulation Swarm.”
Lenker and Buck Meeks traded center stage on guitar, effortless in silent communication. The show built to an awesome zenith with “Beautiful World,” which Lenker says she loves to perform. I could hear “Beautiful World” another 100 times with its devastating chorus:
It’s a fucked up world
Why must everything be conquered
But it, it’s so beautiful
Let’s blow a hole in the center of it
Big Thief Salt Lake City show set list
Big Thief played from all of the band’s long-play releases except Masterpiece during their main set. However they encored with two songs from their debut.
Big Thief set list
- “Change” (Dragon)
- “All Night, All Day” (Double Infinity)
- “Vampire Empire”
- “Incomprehensible” (Double Infinity)
- “Words” (Double Infinity)
- “Los Angeles” (Double Infinity)
- “Grandmother” (Double Infinity)
- “Double Infinity” (Double Infinity)
- “Mythological Beauty” (Capacity)
- “Not” (Two Hands)
- “Shark Smile” (Capacity)
- “Little Things” (Dragon)
- “Terminal Paradise” (U.F.O.F.)
- “No Fear” (Double Infinity)
- “Simulation Swarm” (Dragon)
- “Beautiful World”
Big Thief encore
- “Paul” (Masterpiece)
- “Masterpiece” (Masterpiece)
Little Moon announces new album
Springville, Utah’s own Little Moon used her opening slot to announce a new release to follow 2024’s Dear Divine. Emma Hardyman announced that tickets were going on sale for a live album recording at Salt Lake City’s Kingsbury Hall next month. She seemed surprised when a few fans hollered back at the stage that tickets were already sold out.
Hardyman won NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert contest in 2023. I thought Dear Divine was an excellent record and look forward to hearing what she records in 2025.
Big Thief Salt Lake City show images
