A promotional group photograph by Vanessa Holt showing the band cardinal bloom. Captured in a medium shot against a building exterior, four band members pose together arranged in two rows: standing in the back left, a member wearing a light graphic t-shirt reading "APRÈS SKI"; standing in the back right, a bearded member with long brown hair wearing a mustard-yellow beanie cap, a black graphic t-shirt, and dark pants; seated in the front left, a smiling member with reddish hair and glasses wearing a rust-colored t-shirt; and seated in the front right, a smiling member with long brown hair wearing a dark vertical-striped button-up shirt under flash photography lighting.
Cardinal Bloom Credit: Vanessa Holt / Mint Talent Group

Salt Lake City is easily one of the greatest music cities in America, and one of its finest exports lately is on the road supporting its 2024 debut full-length (The Only Place I’ve Ever Known) that’ll please fans of early-aughts indie that sounded like it was recorded in a garage. (Oftentimes, like with The Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes, it wasn’t, but Cardinal Bloom says it self-produces its music).

Yes, the band kind of blew up on TikTok (“She’s Just a Friend”), but it looks poised to stay around for a long time. Jacksonville songwriter and FSU alum Jackson Alter opens.

Tickets to see Cardinal Bloom and Jackson Alter at Music Hall at New World Tampa in Tampa on Sunday, Oct. 18 are still available and start at $23.


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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...