BRONCHO
Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City • June 18, 2025
by Julius C. Lacking
Ryan Lindsey ambles to the front of the stage and lines up behind the microphone, looking like someone who usually sleeps in late but had to run a quick errand first thing in the morning. Looking this casual, and acting this casual, he begins bouncing on his heels and occasionally giving some gum a good chew, maintaining this state of mind for the rest of the evening as he coos and croons his way through the contents of BRONCHO’s new album, followed by a well-rounded selection of catalog hits and some spellbinding encores.
Before this, the stage was blocked by a screen, which began displaying something that can best be described as an experimental perfume ad, something that BRONCHO WORLDWIDE seems to be peddling as a luxurious concept, if not an actual product. As we are treated to loops and repeats of elegant shots taken in someone’s back yard, or the woods, or… it’s a fever dream of a perfume ad, backed by quick and dirty beats and that feeling of sub-reality which usually accompanies these things.
BRONCHO make the kind of music that you hear when someone is given some form of experimental hallucinogenic on the television, and the world begins to waver and color-shift into the neon spectrum. It’s an enveloping sound, swirling about you and filling the auditory spectrum with a lush bed of harmony. You can hear the understated vocals, the shimmering guitars and foundational bass, and the precise drumming, but it’s impossible to tell whether that’s all there is, if there are other instruments or treatments woven into the intersection of these known sounds, and if something like this could even be pulled off live.
Turns out it can, and effortlessly from BRONCHO’s perspective. In the center of attention, Lindsey does little more than stand with half-lidded eyes, channeling his dolphin talk into the microphone while strumming a vintage Silvertone guitar, but it is an open invitation to join whatever psychic space he is occupying. Flanking him are guitarist Ben King, on a well-worn Les Paul and an unidentified vintage model (Airline Tuxedo?), and bassist Penny Pitchlynn, thumbing on a classic black Mustang.
The heartbeat of the band is truly drummer Nathan Price, who exists in a zen of supreme focus and flow, holding as still as a statue, waiting for the moment where a movement can be made as efficiently as possible. His ability to provide the most evenly-modulated beats reminds of human metronomes like Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter or Devo’s Alan Myers, and is the secret ingredient that keeps the rest band from blending into an overbearing cassoulet of sound.
BRONCHO gets right to business by running through their most recent release, Natural Pleasure, from start (”Imagination”) to finish (“Dreamin”). Matching the mood and flow on an album you’ve listened to on repeat is an experience like no other, and BRONCHO makes the best of it. A particular highlight is “Way Into Magic,” where Price takes a break from the beat, and the rest of the band quickly sequesters us into the song’s small and cozy mood of a world.
After Natural Pleasure was done, it was time for the band to get into the back catalog, starting with their as-seen-on-TV banger “Class Historian,” following that with one of my personal favorites, “Sandman” (from 2018’s Bad Behavior), and quickly racking up other syncing specials that you may have seen on a big or small screen before settling into an eclectic mix that pulls widely from their catalog.
The band closes the set with their early hit “Try Me Out Sometime,” and the audience can’t keep their hands out of the air. There is a three-song encore, deep cuts for true fans. After it’s all over and we disperse into the warm evening, it feels like the world’s scan lines are aligning, and the color palette is returning to normal.
