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Taylor Goldsmith, the frontman, guitarist and songwriter of the folk-rock outfit Dawes, has a simultaneously deflating-yet-invigorating recollection of the band's most recent visit to Salt Lake City.
"Wilco was playing that same night, at a much bigger venue, obviously. And, as you can imagine, the kind of fans that would go to a Dawes show are also the kind of fans that would go to a Wilco show. But we're also obviously aware that they're a much bigger band and they're gonna win that contest each time in terms of which show people would maybe wanna go to," Goldsmith said in a phone interview. "So we ended up selling very few tickets for that show, and I was kind of, not upset, but was like, 'Really?! Why didn't you just give us a night off and have us play the next night? Maybe we could've had a few more people come through the door.' I was just bummed that we weren't gonna play to that many people. But when we got onstage, despite there not being that many people, the crowd was really ferocious and really welcoming and really energetic. And I leaned that it doesn't take a lot of folks in Salt Lake City to make a really good crowd and a really good night out of something."
"An Evening with Dawes" will feature no opening acts, but the band playing a set from its latest album, "We're All Gonna Die," and another featuring older favorites.
Goldsmith said that, as a songwriter, keeping the formula fresh from one album to the next is one of his biggest priorities.
"It's been a process that we've tried to maintain since the beginning, which is, we kinda come here with a new element to what we do. When you're making your first record, you have no artistic identity. But as time goes on, I think we've gotten to a place where it's like, 'OK, how do we make sure that we have that same high that we did when we were first starting out?' " he said. "I think we've always perceived — any band, ourselves included — that if we were to make some decision like, 'OK, that worked last time, let's do it again,' I think that's always very transparent for listeners, and, in the end, I feel like, just the death knell for the artistic experience."
No worries there. While the band retains its underlying signature style descended from the so-called "Laurel Canyon sound" ("I'm proud to wear our Joni Mitchell and our Warren Zevon influences on our sleeve," Goldsmith said, "but at the same time … there's a lot more to it"), there's otherwise little chance of confusing 2015's "All Your Favorite Bands" with 2016's "We're All Gonna Die."
The former, Goldsmith noted, "was a very guitar- and drum-heavy record," while the latter, thanks in no small part to new band member Lee Pardini's immediate impact, features keyboards and bass far more centrally.
"In a way, it's like a negative image of the record that came before it," Goldsmith said. "And we were really excited by that. Because these are aspects of our band that are always potent, but, from record to record, might not get as much face time. So we were excited that that was kind of the natural rollout of this album. We kind of like it when that happens, when the record tells us what it's gonna be like, rather than us forcing something onto the record."
Of course, as is the case with any Dawes record, Goldsmith's unique lyrical style remains perhaps the most defining characteristic.
His innate ability to come off as both conversational and cerebral is a tricky balance he seems to handle easily.
"Well, I've always been more of a sucker for prose than for verse, if that sheds any light on it," he said. "… When I was younger and dabbling with that more impressionistic approach to writing, where it's more of a series of images or impressions, where I didn't really know what they had in common, I just knew that's what came out naturally — I had a harder time trusting it. Whereas, when I wrote songs that had a clear intention, and my goal was to communicate that intention as well as I could, that was always the brass ring for me — not only the most rewarding and satisfying, but also the hardest approach to lyric-writing. So that's always been what I've gotten off on most."
Then again, maybe the ticket-sales total for Sunday's show could change that.
Twitter: @esotericwalden —
An Evening with Dawes
When • Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where • The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $20 advance, $25 day of; Smith's Tix