On tour for the release of his new album “Melchor Lullaby Hotline Vol. 1,” Adam Melchor performed for an enthusiastic crowd at the Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City on Oct. 20.

Melchor’s Hotline

The album’s title comes from a project Melchor started where he produces content weekly — demos, podcasts, Twitch streams, covers and collabs — for his audience through a texting list.

The exercise of generating a new tune weekly through the pandemic resulted in the album’s release in March 2021, and subsequent North American headline tour with a full band, featuring bassist Matt Olsson and drummer Mano Ruiz.

Opening the night at the Urban Lounge was Lexi Jayde, a rising voice in the bedroom-pop genre among the likes of Ella Jane and Gracie Abrams. While a visible tour novice with a little hesitation in leading the crowd, she settled into a rhythm when singing her rep and found moments of relatability and in emotional performance. Songs like “Cheap Flowers” and “Newbury Park” came alive with guitar and harmonies from co-author Danny Spadaro.

On Tour

From the moment Melchor took to the stage, the set was a powerful ride, opening with fan favorite “Last Time” before heading into “I Choose You” and new release “What a Damn Shame,” both songs elevated by the flexibility and drive of performing live.

Melchor is a natural performer. As if his mastery of his voice and guitar weren’t enough, in concert he weaves the stories behind the songs into the one-of-a-kind performances.

He revealed details behind the song “Jewel,” drawn from the homophonic nickname for his sister Julie. Other songs like “30 Minutes” and “Love Flew Away” hold autobiographical ties that audiences are now privy to. “Start Forgetting Death” is another, written for a crowd who would attend every one of Melchor’s Sunday night shows in Jersey City that dubbed themselves Melchor’s “Sunday Family Dinner.”

Playing with the initialism “SFD,” the song details feeling fully alive around a group of people. His performance of the song at Urban Lounge was breathtaking, the crowd sitting with him in the weight of the song, slowly swaying and singing together.

The gems of the show, in my opinion, were the performances of unreleased songs, one co-written with Charlie Puth, jokingly called the “saddest song” the pop artist has penned and called “Let Me Know When,” and the other titled “Asshole.”

Still, the audience ate up Melchor’s more famous tracks. “Real Estate” is Melchor’s most streamed song, with nearly 29 million streams on Spotify, and the artist commented on Salt Lake’s passionate response to the acoustic performance, saying the crowd had, “the best harmonies of the tour so far.” Other favorites to round out the final section of the set included “Moon in the Morning,” “Light Year,” “Joyride” and a rousing encore of “Begin Again.”

There are few performers whose live performances stand against the familiarity and power of a studio-produced track, but Melchor surpassed all expectations. Where many of his tracks feel ethereal and folksy, he delivered a rock power and presence in-person.

The concert setting elevated his already insane vocal power to new heights, his falsetto ringing to a finale before stopping to drink water and amusingly blaming the altitude for his heart rate and breathlessness.

Melchor is a charismatic stage presence, and the blurry snippets of video I took on my smartphone don’t do the energy of the evening justice.

In Salt Lake

This wasn’t Melchor’s first visit to Salt Lake — he opened for Dodie Clark in 2019 — but as one of the later stops on his first headline tour, the night was memorable. After the concert ended, Melchor posted an image to his Instagram story with the text, “salt lake city… wowowowow… i love you so dang much… that was insane.”

Melchor also took time to meet with fans of all ages before the concert, hosting a pop-up show and Q&A at Roots Cafe. I spoke to two concertgoers who were at the café about their individual experience with the artist.

“He seemed so chill — just like a down to earth and genuine person, and like [he] wanted to connect with us,” Kailee Gooch said.

“He only played a couple of songs, and then took time to talk to everyone,” Hannah Dover said. “He said that it was the highlight of his tour, doing things like this.”

If, or rather when, Melchor returns to SLC, I’m sure he will be met with the same enthusiasm and heart from the crowd of folks gathered for him this week. You can find Adam Melchor’s music on all streaming platforms or sign up for the Lullaby Hotline messages by texting 973-264-4172.

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@keating_hm