Live Review: Cage The Elephant at Salt Shed • Chicago

Brassneck | August 3, 2025

Cage the Elephant

The Salt Shed

Chicago, IL

Friday, Aug 1, 2025

Review by Jeff Elbel

It’s a good season to be a Cage the Elephant fan in Chicago. On Thursday, the band played a standout set during the golden hour of Lollapalooza’s first day. Next month, the band will return to open for Oasis at Soldier Field. On Friday, the six-piece band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, played a headlining Lollapalooza aftershow event at the Salt Shed. Cage the Elephant’s most zealous fans packed the house for a sold-out show, and the band delivered a generous 23-song set that expanded upon the Lollapalooza selections while piling on good vibes.

During Cage the Elephant’s 2024 appearance at Credit Union 1 Arena, singer Matt Shultz was making the best of a bad situation by popping wheelies and performing other stunts with a mobility scooter and his broken right foot in a medical boot. At the Salt Shed, he was back to his full, irrepressible strength. As brother Brad Shultz leaned over the barrier to commune with the crowd while playing the slashing guitar riff to opening number “Broken Boy,” Matt Shultz leapt and flailed from one side of the stage to the other. The remaining four band members may not have engaged in equally demonstrative showmanship as they got down to business, but their energy never flagged.

All of the band’s half-dozen albums were represented, with 2013 breakthrough Melophobia, 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty, and 2019’s Social Cues being the most heavily represented at five songs apiece. There was no doubting the audience’s dedication to the band, because practically every song was a rafter-raising sing-along. The reactions for “Spiderhead,” the arm-waving “Good Time,” and the psych-pop cry for help “Cold Cold Cold” set the bar early in the set. During “Ready to Let Go,” the room surged, sang, and bounced in unison. The audience aided the falsetto “woo-oo” melody to the twinkling, Weezer-ish“Trouble.”

The show encountered a few technical hitches and gear problems, but those did little to douse anyone’s enthusiasm. Most of the trouble would have gone unnoticed had it not been called out. After the Shultz brothers faced off at center stage for “Mess Around,” Matt Shultz alluded to “technical difficulties in the atmosphere.” “I think we’re starting to find our feet,” he added. The title track to Social Cues followed with Matthan Minster’s slinky synthesizer lead. Brad Shultz then mentioned a hassle for bassist Daniel Tichenor on the opposite side of the stage. “The bass guitar pedalboard isn’t working,” said the elder Shultz while commiserating with his bandmate. “But it’s okay, ‘cause he’s a good guy.”

The bluesy song of dogged persistence, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” was drawn from the band’s 2008 debut as a mid-show highlight. Lead guitarist Nick Bockrath played bristling slide guitar leads that bobbed and weaved with Matt Shultz’s rapid-fire prose. The dapper Brad Shultz switched to acoustic guitar, but ditched his black long-sleeve shirt and a couple of gleaming gold chains to beat the heat.

Matt Shultz dismantled the barriers between the band and its fans in frequent speeches. “I wanna hang out,” he declared. “I wanna make friends. I think we probably have a lot in common.”

The remainder of the set drew the crowd ever closer in participation and camaraderie. “Skin and Bones” brimmed with redemptive power in the face of struggles. “Rainbow” expressed gratitude for a partner’s loving touch. The Salt Shed was illuminated like a starry sky with waving cell phone lights during “Telescope.” The mood turned more urgent while drummer Jared Champion drove the relentless motoring beat of the sinister-sounding “House of Glass.”

The jagged and paranoid “Sabertooth Tiger” peaked with frenetic punk-rock energy that came to a bone-crunching conclusion as Bockrath coaxed caterwauling fury from his guitar and Brad Shultz smashed his hapless instrument. “Maybe a pawn shop will want it or something,” quipped Matt Shultz.

Rather than depart for an encore, Matt Shultz announced that the band wanted to savor the experience and just keep playing more songs. “That’s how much I’m losing myself in this experience,” he said. Following the pressure cooker described in “Back Against the Wall,” Cage the Elephant reprised its Lollapalooza homage to the recently departed Ozzy Osbourne with an emotive cover of Black Sabbath’s tender “Changes.”Shultz connected the song to his thoughts on recently becoming a father. “Ozzy, we love you, we miss you,” he said afterward. “Thank you so much for everything you gave us.”

The show concluded in a euphoric stretch. The audience joined the extended coda of the resilient “Shake Me Down,” singing, “Even on a cloudy day, I’ll keep my eyes fixed on the sun.” Brad Shultz teased the opening chords of “Sweet Home Alabama,” with the band falling in behind him before pivoting to the melancholy backward glance “Cigarette Daydream.” Matt Shultz gave a segment of the song to the audience, who sang the cathartic chorus at fever pitch. The anthemic “Come a Little Closer” provided a final moment of unity before the band members bid fond goodbyes and walked offstage.