The State Room | A Live Music Venue | Salt Lake City, Utah

with special guest Reptar

When the members of Grouplove met it was like a dream. The setting was a remote artist colony on the exotic, mysterious Greek island of Crete. Drummer/producer Ryan Rabin and his childhood friend and former bandmate, guitarist Andrew Wessen came from California, guitarist Christian Zucconi and keyboarist Hannah Hooper traveled from New York, and bassist Sean Gadd was the lone Brit. Each member went to Greece for their own independent reasons but over time they gravitated towards each other and discovered the sound that unified them: a merging of richly narrated, intricate songs with anthemic classic pop production. It took the band the better part of a year to reunite after they left the island, but since the release of their debut album Never Trust A Happy Song, they're starting to realize what began as a fantasy has now become very real.

Doors 7 pm  |  Show 8 pm

with special guest Buffalo Jones

"Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers (RCPM) are proof that the crazy, reckless, restless, swaggering soul of American rock is still burning a hole in the night sky...guitars blaze, quake and quiver, drums slip, thud and thunder with killer melodies and hooks and the occasional reggae or mariachi rhythm laced through the middle to keep it all honest and interesting." — Paste Magazine

Roger Clyne doesn't like serving the musical version of junk food. "I like to put a little more heart into my cooking than that," Clyne said.

For over a decade, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have avoided unnecessary additives, preservatives and sugary substances that may initially be satisfying, but ultimately provide no sustenance. Instead, they have been serving up nothing but uncompromised, unadulterated, pure rock-n-roll. RCPM have stuck to their credo of letting art lead commerce by mixing relentless guitar licks, four part harmonies and thought-provoking lyrics.

Doors 8 pm  |  Show 9 pm

with special guest TBA

"I've always thought of the BoDeans as a truly American band," says Kurt Neumann, the founder, primary writer and frontman of the veteran Milwaukee-based group. "We were blue-collar kids straight out of the heartland—how could we be anything else? 'Roots rock' was a label I fought when I was younger, but I came to realize that if by 'roots' you meant blues, rock, country and soul all slammed together into one sound, then I'd say yes—that is the sound of American-made music."

Doors 7 pm | Show 8 pm

Special Guest TBA

You've tried the rest, now try the best! Tab Benoit's amazing new Medicine, 100% pure musical snake-oil. A melodic potion that provides immediate and satisfying relief for all aches and pain. Benoit's Medicine is a guaranteed cure for heartache. It's the genuine article – this Medicine is for whatever ails you.

Medicine, Benoit's seventh solo release on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group, successfully joins two gifted guitarists/songwriters in a session that proves greater than the sum of its very talented parts. Set for April 26, 2011 release, the 11-track recording features seven new Benoit originals co-written with ace songwriter Anders Osborne (his song "Watch the Wind Blow By" was recorded by Tim McGraw in 2002, hitting No. 1 on the country charts for two weeks and selling over three million albums, and Keb' Mo's 1999 GRAMMY®-winning album Slow Down, featured two songs he had co-written).

Doors 7 pm  |  Show 8 pm

with special guest David Oliver

 Speaking from his home in the Midwest on a beautiful spring day, singer-songwriter Jon McLaughlin would strike you as a pretty relaxed guy. As he recounts his numerous accomplishments without any bravado, it would be understandable for McLaughlin to feel like he could coast a little as he prepares to release his third album, Promising Promises (Razor & Tie). Case in point: An aptitude for piano discovered as a child, submersion in all school related music programs, college to continue his study of music, cultivating a big online following in the early days of social media, scoring a label deal at age 21, inking big song placements on television and movies, a performance at the Academy Awards, selling 170k albums, debuting at #1 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart - pretty heady stuff for a guy from Indiana who just wanted to be able to play like Billy Joel someday.

 Doors 8 pm  |  Show 9 pm

with Elizabeth Ziman from Elizabeth and the Catapult

Almost 2 years ago to the day, I drove a moving truck cross-country from Los Angeles. I had been on I-40 for a day when I looked at my phone to see my mom calling. I realized I had forgotten to tell my parents I was moving to New York - and I am close with my family. Fact is, I hadn't really told anyone. I had lived in southern California my whole life, and quite loudly those last few years. Leaving with any sound at all hadn't crossed my mind. I realize that frames me as quite the mystery - I'm really not. And I wasn't running, I had done that extremely well years before. I wasn't angry or disillusioned, those tricks never completely caught on with me. It wasn't conniving or vindictive, purposely curt or desperate. It really wasn't anything that might be associated with such an exit. It was just a quiet and gentle finish to something that had run its course.

Doors 7 pm  |  Show  8 pm

Special Guest No Nation Orchestra

How do you compress a thirty-year epic into a few pages? Tinariwen, whose back-story has variously been described as "the most compelling of any band" (Songlines), "the most rock'n'roll of them all" (The Irish Times), "hard-bitten" (Slate.com) and "dramatic" (The Independent), are both a dream and a nightmare for any aspiring music writer: a dream because the most superficial 'headlines' of their tale – rebellion, guns and guitars, desert nomads, Ghadaffi, the real Saharan blues – are like easy nuggets of gold to thrill-seeking journalists and literary prospectors. And a nightmare, because none of these clichés really do the band justice or even begin to describe who they are, what they feel or the music they play. The following comprises only the chapter headings, the main way markers of the long road the group have travelled from the wild empty places of the southern Sahara desert to the concert stages of the world.

Doors  7 pm  |  Show 8 pm