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Utepils Brewing, SMA & Cities 97.1 present Live at Utepils featuring Guster with special guest Ratboys on Friday, July 8!
Tickets are on sale now!
Ticket prices
GA: $30 (Standing Room Only)
VIP: $100 (SOLD OUT!) | VIP tickets offer premium sight lines from house right, access to a VIP-only bar, VIP lounge area with first-come seating and two complimentary drink tickets.
*Children 2 and under are free with a paid adult.*
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About Guster‘s new album – Look Alive
Look Alive is Guster’s eighth album. The bulk of it was recorded in a vintage keyboard museum in Calgary AB, during a January stretch when the temperature reached 30 degrees below zero. They ended up in Canada because their British producer, Leo Abrahams, couldn’t turn around an American work visa fast enough, and they feel lucky to have discovered Studio Bell at the last minute. Despite have access to room after room of well-maintained analog keys, Leo gravitated to a cheap Ensoniq Mirage synth from the 1980’s that made Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation-era sounds from floppy disks. Leo spent countless hours poring over these floppy disks while the band gawked at the mellotrons, harpsichords, and other vintage equipment housed at Studio Bell. It was the beginnings of a stylistic clash that would ultimately play out beautifully, Guster had always gravitated to “warm” sounds. Leo would introduce them to “cold” sounds and the way they challenge them as listeners. He was the perfect complementary piece for Guster.
Title track “Look Alive” is an ominous, processed sonic collage with haunting words about waking up and becoming active in the midst of hollow words and fake heroes. “Hard Times,” written in the studio, came out more like the dark pop of Peter Gabriel / Depeche Mode / Tear for Fears that what people might think of Guster. “Overexcited” felt like classic Brit-pop and so Ryan sang it with a British accent over an Ensoniq marimba. Some of Guster’s critics will say “but you can’t do that” – and that’s something we’ve heard our entire career. We don’t describe to the same musical ideology they do and never have.
Writing songs for the second straight record with multi-instrumentalist Luke Reynolds (who joined the band in 2010) has been a key to Guster’s evolution. Working with artists like Leo Abrahams, John Congleton, and Collin DuPuis proved to be inspiring and adds to a “brain trust” that bolsters the song. With Look Alive the plan is simple. Grow their musical community. Write better and better songs. Keep their minds open. Never repeat themselves and create a legacy of music that is undeniable.
About Live at Utepils
Guster is the first show in a new joint music series, LIVE at Utepils, which offers live music fans an amazing outdoor concert experience, nestled on the banks of Bassett Creek right between Downtown Minneapolis and Theodore Wirth Parkway.
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