This year’s edition of Kilby Block Party stood to introduce the festival as a major player to North America’s festival scene. It’s not the size of a Coachella or Bonnaroo, instead carving out its own niche with a hard focus on indie music – you won’t find a Dom Dolla or Olivia Rodrigo here, which is not a slight on the myriad of music festivals recycling headliner after headliner. Instead, it’s a testament to the booking power and history of S&S Presents, who seemingly run the show in Salt Lake City’s indie circles through their long ownership of Kilby Court and production of concerts around the city. Every band that stepped on stage talked about their history in Salt Lake, with all roads pointing back to the legendary Kilby Court which the festival’s named after. The all-ages, DIY-adjacent venue is revered in touring circles with a deep focus on artist hospitality and fan experience; this ethos shined on all four days of the festival, with indie kids, older fans, and everything in between traipsing through the Utah State Fairgrounds taking in a weekend of live music.
Kilby’s magic exists on the margins of the scene – where else will you see the long-awaited reunions of mid 2000s indie mainstays like TV On The Radio and Rilo Kiley alongside the best up-and-comers in the scene such as Being Dead and Geese? It was a multi-generational weekend – after all, Weezer headlined on Saturday with a full album play of their seminal Blue Album. Even if you came for the more established acts, you couldn’t leave without discovering your new favorite band, or having your mind blown by a set when you least expected it. The setup of the festival lent itself to awe-inspiring discovery; there’s nothing like watching a mainstage festival set, and turning your head ninety degrees and seeing snow-capped mountains surrounding you. Kilby leaned into its setting more so than any other festival I’ve attended — a vacant skatepark was used for the Skullcandy Thrasher Cup that took place over the entire weekend, and the rodeo stadium on the fairgrounds was transformed into the smallest stage of the festival, lending itself to intense dance parties under the Utah skyline. This thoroughline of community and intentionality was present in every aspect of the Kilby Block Party experience — a festival that listens to and cares about its fans should be the norm, and Kilby is paving the way for other festivals to follow. Read along for some of our favorite sets of the weekend:
DEVO
In celebration of 50 years as a band, Akron’s DEVO lit up the Lake Stage with a fiery Thursday set that served as a reminder that the legacy bands on the lineup were not there to collect a reunion check. The Spuds tore into their set with hit after hit, multiple torn-off costume changes, and an intensity from bandleader Mark Mothersbaugh that amped up the energy to take on the rest of the weekend.
BEEN STELLAR
New York’s Been Stellar turned in an early set at the aforementioned stadium Desert Stage, and with the exception of the very front row covered in the band’s merch, felt like they were playing to a brand new crowd who had never heard of them. Based on my personal experience, they probably made many fans that day – they played as if it was a stadium of thousands, echoing their 90s Brit-rock predecessors with sing-alongs, loud guitars, and shaken tambourines galore. Last year’s Scream From New York, NY put them on in critics’ circles, but look for their electric live show to convert fans all over the world this year.
HEY, NOTHING
Consider this the surprise of the weekend. Atlanta’s Hey, Nothing put on a clinic at the Desert Stage that should serve as a template for up-and-coming bands looking to imagine an incredible live show. The band’s recorded discography hews closer to Big Thief-inspired folk and emo – their live show is an entertaining party that’s determined to pull every single crowd member into their world. Bandleaders Tyler and Harlow share a sibling-like telepathy on stage in banter and in musicality – I was hard pressed to see another band all weekend that looked like they loved each other more than this one. It felt like I was watching the early days of Grouplove, in that we should expect Hey, Nothing to take over festival sets all year long with appearances at Bonnaroo and Governor’s Ball.
SLOWDIVE
As the sun began to set on Friday, Slowdive’s dreamy shoegaze washed over the festival grounds, loud enough to rattle any exhaustion off of listeners as they travelled throughout their whole discography. Slowdive exists as one of the rare bands who have reunited and gotten even better – last year’s Everything Is Alive was held up as a noteworthy and essential addition to their spotless discography, and the newer songs like “shanty” and “kisses” blended in perfectly with their 90s hits that had indie kids crying in the front row. Their music often feels like a wave taking you over, allowing for a blissfully chilled out early evening set to get ready for the rest of the night.
BEACH HOUSE
The rise of Beach House to major festival headliner status has been one to behold. Sure, one can point to the rocket ship of “Space Song” on TikTok, but this band has certified hits at every point in their now 20-year-strong career. With only a handful of US dates on the books for 2025, this set acted as a coronation of their general popularity and prowess – this was the most crowded set all weekend. Thriving on a sensory overload of haze, strobes, and a twinkling backdrop, the Baltimore duo powered through their set with a surprising muscle that I haven’t heard over 20 years of seeing them. Songs like “Black Car” and “PPP” straight-up grooved, and Victoria LeGrand’s voice has never sounded better.
FRIKO
We’ll look up and see Chicago’s Friko headlining these festivals soon. Despite opening the day up at the Lake Stage in the blazing heat, they ferociously tore through songs from last year’s debut in a way that echoed their mid-2000s influences – for a four-piece band, they sounded as if there was a symphony behind them. Lead singer Niko Kapetan is a force to be reckoned on stage, parading around like early Conor Oberst with a controlled, chaotic energy. With a tour alongside Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips in the near future, Friko will answer the call for fans looking to relive their indie glory days.
BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD
So much has been written of BC,NR’s mythology – they put out a genuine 10/10 record (2023’s Ants From Up There), and then never played a song off of it due to the departure of lead singer Isaac Wood. Instead, the band took the opportunity to transform into something completely different – you can still hear echoes of Ants in the current iteration of BC,NR, but the sounds of this year’s Forever Howlong show a multi-talented group of musicians operating at the peak of their power. It felt like we were watching a small orchestra perform on the main stage in the middle of the day, with each song blending into separate movements centered around the vocal trio of Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw. At times (particularly during the songs from 2024’s Live From Bush Hall), it was quiet enough on the festival grounds to hear a pin drop – a powerful exhibition of what this band is able to do.
OVLOV
This set was one of the surprise grabs of the festival – Connecticut’s Ovlov simply doesn’t tour often, and definitely not on the west coast. The slacker rock specialists brought one of the greatest and mosh-heavy to the micro Desert Stage – the pit never stopped moving throughout their entire set, and the band remarked several times over that this was the biggest show they’d played in their history as a band. Songs from 2021’s Buds inspired mass sing-alongs and hugs in the ground – it was an earnest and powerful set that makes me hope they have another record coming down the pipeline soon.
NATION OF LANGUAGE
Closing out the Mountain Stage on Sunday was Brooklyn’s Nation of Language, who have become road and festival warriors since my last time seeing them at Pitchfork in 2023. The trio turned the stadium into a dance party – frontman Ian Devaney looks, sounds, and moves like the beloved Ian Curtis of Joy Division, encouraging fans and listeners across the festival to let loose and dance. NoL thrives in the long game – songs like “Weak In Your Light” and “The Wall and I” start off so quiet, drawing out the intensity until a miraculous climax. This band gets better and better with every live show – with a new record coming this year on Sub Pop, I fully expect them to graduate to main stage closers at a rapid speed.
GEESE
“God of the sun, I’m taking you down on the inside”
“2112”. Bodies start flying as soon as Cameron Winter screams those words on stage.
New York’s Geese is a known entity at this point – live show dynamos, TikTok virality (with the band and also Winter’s solo record Heavy Metal), and a slot closing out the smallest stage on the festival at the last day. I was STILL unprepared for the level of intensity and insanity that this band brought to us on Sunday. Playing largely new, unreleased tracks with songs from 2023’s 3D Country mixed in, Geese played like festival veterans despite all of the members barely being old enough to drink. The crowd ate it up with a fervor I didn’t see anywhere else over the weekend. This is a band operating at the full strength of their powers – congas, backup singers, shredders and all. Do not miss them.
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