Local Natives at Twilight Concert Series

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

See 2013’s hardest working band, Local Natives, perform in Salt Lake City this Thursday at the Twilight Concert Series! So what does it take to receive the hardest working band crown? The website Songkick annually crunches numbers on total shows performed by bands to determine the winners, and after a whopping 188 shows in 2013 L.A.-based indie rock group Local Natives came out on top. During this time they visited 26 countries, lapped the Earth 5 times, and traveled about ¾ of the way to the moon…and they’re still not slowing down.

The stop in Salt Lake City is just one of many this year for the group that first began in the early 2000s with three founding members (Kelcey Ayer, Ryan Hahn, and Taylor Rice) who attended high school together in Orange County. But it wasn’t until they graduated college in 2008, added drummer Matt Frazier and bassist Andy Hamm, and moved into a shared home in Los Angeles that their sound developed. 

Here they wrote songs, partied with friends, and jammed on thrift store instruments before funding and releasing their debut album, Gorilla Manor, in 2009 in the U.K. then in the U.S.A. in 2010. It was so named after the party pad they shared where the album was written. The album drew acclaim from critics and music lovers alike, and its success on the Billboard Charts and their leap into prominence led them to open for bands like The National and Arcade Fire at festivals around the world.

Bassist Andy Hamm left the group in 2011, and the group's members went through their own dark times in the years that followed, but the addition of bassist Nik Ewing in 2012 and the release of their sophomore album, Hummingbird, in 2013 have pushed the band's continued growth and success. 

Listen to Local Natives before the show or learn more about them on their official site.