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The Eccles Theater was built on a 6-foot-thick concrete slab designed to keep the sounds of the bustling Salt Lake City downtown and passing TRAX trains out and the performances in.
On Wednesday, the theater was alive with indie rock sounds now imbued into the building's foundation alongside the slab, as a sold-out rock show from Seattle-based indie sextet The Head and The Heart inaugurated the brand-new 2,500-seat performing-arts venue.
Opening with new single "All We Ever Knew," the band debuted a new era of its own to the audience — early in the set eschewing the more folk-driven sound of the first two albums to play a brighter, more energetic sound off the third offering: "Signs of Light."
The audience wasn't quite sure how to react in the beginning to the theater's impressive tiered Broadway roadhouse setting, some sitting and others standing, but by the third song, a group of fans had rushed to the front of the stage to dance and filled the side aisles back to the fifth row.
After an electric performance of "Rhythm & Blues," vocalist Jonathan Russell, who was elevated to lead the band as Josiah Johnson deals with addiction, remarked that the Eccles wasn't the band's usual venue to play in Salt Lake.
"This is quite a step up from Urban Lounge. … Not gonna lie, it doesn't have the same feel," Russell opined. Fellow vocalist Charity Rose Thielen tempered his comments a bit, adding that the band could "re-create the healthy, dirty vibe" of the Lounge.
Russell and Thielen starred together throughout the night, their burgeoning chemistry apparent on the ballad "Let's Be Still" that allowed the band's set at midpoint to breathe.
"Lost in My Mind" from the band's first album in 2010 was a highlight, with the lyrics " 'Cause there are stars up above" mingling perfectly with the star motif built into the ceiling of the theater.
The venue's finely tuned acoustics were crisp throughout the show, but were especially apparent on the clean guitar intro and solo performance from Russell on "Oh My Dear" as he crooned, "Well, honey, I'll take the blows when it gets rough," before the rest of the band joined to finish the song.
To cap the set, the band played the acoustic beauty "Down in the Valley," the crowd swaying and joining in to provide backing vocals for Russell and Thielen.
But true to their biggest hit, the final encore featured "Rivers and Roads," the reverent folk anthem building to new heights with a stunning vocal solo from Thielen as she belted out the song's chorus.
Clad in a Real Salt Lake jersey, 17-year-old English indie rocker Declan McKenna opened the show, with intricate lyrics and musical arrangements beyond the years of McKenna and his bandmates. His tunes and inflection were an amalgamation of The Strokes and Vampire Weekend, "Paracetamol" touching lyrically on a transgender teen's suicide and the broader portrayal of LGBT issues in the media. The highlight was single "Brazil," a musical criticism of corruption in international soccer that is bright with Britpop and synthesizer influences that jive with McKenna's shy frontman presence.
The Eccles Theater is stunning on the outside and within, but as the opening concert revealed, is still finding its identity to effectively host an indie concert one night and a Broadway musical the next.
But The Head and The Heart delivered and showcased the potential and versatility of downtown's newest performance palace.
Up next: The Goo Goo Dolls, Friday at 8 p.m., with tickets ranging from $30 to $85.50 at artsaltlake.org.
Twitter: @BrennanJSmith —
Housewarming
The Head and The Heart inaugurate downtown Salt Lake City's Eccles Theater with a lively show.
Where • Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main St., Salt Lake City
When • Wednesday