They’re coming from all over the world to Salt Lake City for the Olympic Games. But at night, visitors to the state will be looking for entertainment, and almost all the official Olympic entertainers are non-local. Several venues are planning to correct that oversight by throwing the spotlight on native talent. Club 510, formerly the Warehouse Gallery, will present a project dubbed They Came From Salt Lake every night during the Games, and it’s a 100-percent Utah product.
Organizer Derek Dyer says it’s not just a showcase of local music, but Utah culture in all its forms. “Almost two dozen of the best local artists will have works on display, representing all artistic media, from painting and drawing to sculpture, photography and a fire cauldron by sculptor Chris Coleman.” Photographers Teresa Flowers, Angela Brown, Kim Riley and Ron Berry will exhibit, along with paintings by Jason Jones, Natalie Hart, Tessa Mecham, Derek Mellus, Carolyn Toronto, Grant Fuhst and T. Honeyville. Sculptors include Coleman, Tim Wilson and Mike Smith, who is living in New York but is originally from here, and who studied art at the University of Utah.
Former Utah Jazz basketball player Antoine Carr has been enlisted as master of ceremonies. “Carr is currently working on becoming a hip-hop musician, and he’s interested in promoting some local DJs,” explains Dyer. “To keep the music going all night long, we’ll have about 20 DJs spinning in addition to live performers.” The musical lineup includes IO, Koteba, Alchemy, Erosion, Steven Wells Band, Violet Run, Samba Gringa, Spent, Kingdom, Mishmash, FistFull, Gina French, the Item, Red Bennies and Gentry. Trippy projection art will be provided by Symbiotic Productions, as well as by Dyer himself. Dyer notes that it will be the only legal after-hours entertainment available. “I hope it’ll be good for people coming from China who can’t get on a sleeping regimen,” he winks.
He received e-mails from as far away as New York, Portland and San Francisco from people wanting to perform or exhibit, but he limited the selection to locals. “I was tempted to book a jazz band from New Orleans, though,” he grins. Perhaps the most fascinating ensemble slated is Somnio, a movement performance group of University of Utah modern dance majors. “A typical performance could include them painting themselves silver and suspending themselves from the ceiling,” says Dyer. “They are like Cirque du Soleil, and they’re the only group performing seven nights,” he adds. Other performance artists include Liquid Silver, a belly-dance troupe, fire dancers, stilt walkers and last but not least, poetry. There will be time for open-mic and also several nights with local group Closet Poets.
“Originally I didn’t want to do anything during the Olympics, since I’m not especially excited about the events,” he says. “But as it drew closer, a lot of local bands said they felt left out of the festivities. They went outside to get art for the Cultural Olympiad, but there a lot of talented musicians right here.” The $10 admission will benefit Dyer’s Diversity Ball project to build the world’s largest disco ball to promote diversity. He has coordinated numerous other shows at the venue.
