Alex G at The Salt Shed Concert Review 09/17/25

On Wednesday, September 17^th, I got the privilege of seeing Alex G live at The Salt Shed in Chicago, IL. Alex G might just be my favorite artist of all time, so it was an extremely special night to me personally.

Photo by me

What stood out to me the most about

this concert was how hard the live

renditions of his recorded music were. Alex G is most popular for his sad guitar core, melodic piano, and his low-fidelity indie sound from the 2010s, but this live performance brought a lot of energy. While most of his songs, I would like to say, are very guitar-forward, this performance was very indie-rock-heavy. The snare drum from the drum kit was very punchy and driving, and there were drum fills that are nowhere to be found on his recorded versions. I loved it because it made this concert such a unique experience! The opener, Nilüfer Yanya, also served a great performance. I wasn’t a listener of her songs, but she brought a nice ethereal vibe that was very engaging!

Photo by me

This show was specifically a part of his tour for his newly released album, Headlights. I’m pretty sure he played every song from the album. The setlist for the concert was as follows:

Setlist:

Louisiana

Gretel

June Guitar

Runner

Real Thing

Beam Me Up

Afterlife

Oranges

Bug

Kicker

Brick

Horse

Blessing

Immunity

Logan Hotel

Is It Still You in There? (Instrumental)

Bounce Boy

Spinning

Kute

Headlights

Encore:

Far and Wide

Sarah

Mary

Snot

After Ur Gone

Animals

Photo from Setlist.fm

When it comes to the encore, it looks like he’s been playing different songs for each concert. The day before in Toronto, he played “Harvey”, “Gnaw”, “Mis”, and “Bobby”, and the day after in Saint Paul, he played “Harvey”, “Gnaw”, “Brite Boy”, and “Crab”. I think it’s a pretty cool idea because it gives off a sense of exclusivity, that I got to hear a song that few others got to hear. However, purposeful or not, it also leaves me wanting more and wanting to attend again, so I can maybe hear some of my favorite songs that weren’t played.

Photo by me

I can’t stress enough how awesome it was to see this concert. I was curious how Alex G would perform some of his electronic sounds or pitch shifted voice for some of his songs, but he was able to do it by incorporating effects on his voice when needed, and his band did a great job encompassing such an expansive sound that is Alex G. The setlist had a nice range of quiet and slow songs to stand still and take in like “Is It Still You in There?” and crazy songs to move your body to like “Horse”. While a 2010 Alex G show might have been mostly an intimate acoustic guitar and piano DIY concert, this performance featured a mature version of the same old Alex G songs, amplified and transformed with a fully realized band. I was pleasantly surprised to hear cool drum fills, beat drops, and electric guitar parts that created some awesome tension and release moments. Even though his live renditions of some of his old indie bedroom recording songs were more polished, they didn’t lose their rawness or emotion at all. In fact, the live setting reinforced the rawness and emotion that I felt.

Photo by me

When it comes to the overall sound of the concert, I was very impressed with the live audio mix. At many concerts I have been to, sometimes not all instruments are easily heard for every song, and I know that is difficult for outdoor concerts. However, I was very impressed with the live audio mix for this concert, as every instrument cut through clearly and was evenly balanced, including special moments when Alex G brought out the accordion and mandolin for “June Guitar” and “Afterlife”.

Photo by me

The stage and lighting for this concert also surprised me. I definitely noticed that the lighting for all songs from his new album, Headlights, was blue or cool-toned, reflecting the blue vibe from the album cover art. For other songs, the lighting color was all other sorts of blue, red, and green, but I think I did notice some other specific themes, like green when he played “After Ur Gone” reflecting the album DSU, and red when he played some songs from God Save The Animals. The stage was pretty cool, as there were two large rafters on each side. I thought to myself, what song does Alex G have where he could possibly be going up there? He ended up using it for his song “Blessing,” and it was super fun.

Alex G’s fan interaction during the concert was minimal, but it was funny when it did happen. At every single concert, he comes back for the encore, saying he will take requests, but always plays “Far and Wide” first, even though no one asked for it, which is funny. When you’re a big artist, you definitely get to play the songs you want to play, and it was lighthearted the way he was being sarcastic on stage. I was a little afraid about the audience behavior before the concert, because I had heard online that fans have been immature at concerts in the past, but I really didn’t have a big problem with this one. There was normal screaming, like there would be at every other concert, and the audience wasn’t rowdy when they shouldn’t have been, except for once during a quiet song when a fan was yelling, but when Alex G shut them up, the crowd respected it, and the audience was the quietest I heard them the whole night. On top of that, the audience had fun, and they weren’t statues.

Overall, it was awesome hearing the nostalgic songs I cherished as a teenager in a new light now as an adult. I’ve listened to these songs on repeat hundreds of times before, yet this concert felt like listening to them for the first time again.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Caleb G / Industry Insider