HERRIMAN, Utah, July 10, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — If you are looking for a band as fun as its name and a concert to blast you from your dreary work week into a full-on festive weekend, Redemption Bar & Grill has you covered.
The Herriman hotspot is hosting Monkey Friday, a 7-member cover band out of Utah County, which focuses on funky pop/rock songs members all agree they and their listeners will enjoy. And, as fate would have it, Monkey Friday is playing Friday, July 11, at 9 p.m.
“I think that our song selection process is probably a thing that really stands out to us,” said Ray Wenham, a vocalist and percussionist. All the songs go through a vetting process with multiple rounds of voting.
In other bands the members have been in, a band leader decides on the songs, or the numbers “just kind of filter in from previous bands, like, ‘Oh, I know how to play this one, so let’s throw that one in there.'”
In Monkey Friday, “all of our songs go through a three-step selection process,” Wenham said.
Band members offer suggestions, which go into a pool, “then those are voted on as to how we think they’re appropriate for our band. So every song gets filtered through seven people’s perspective and not just one person’s, and then they have to score 4 out of 5 or higher to even make it to the final selection list.”
Each band member gets to choose one new song in rounds of voting, “so by that time, they’ve gone through the three steps of filtering. So we feel like what comes out on top is seven musicians’ experience of crowds and knowledge, and what they feel would work for an audience. Those are the ones that come to the top.”
Selected songs then must be musically arranged to take advantage of each musician’s strength, expertise and specific gifts. Read about the diverse band members and their influences here.
“It’s an art to get seven people to sound good together,” Wenham said. “It takes a little more effort and arrangement to get a part for everyone that works and to make it all sound good together. The thing that’s particularly enjoyable for me is it’s working on the vocal harmonies, and I feel so grateful to work with Nelly, who’s just a great singer.
“Sometimes, each musician will have to pare back their piece a little bit to not overpower all the other instruments, but we’re definitely high-energy and a full sound that’s very present, in your face.”
One recent cover song debuted by Monkey Friday was “Mr. Brightside,” by The Killers.
“The whole crowd jumped up and started dancing to that, which was a little surprise to me,” Wenham said.
“We range from that to Stevie Wonder to the Foo Fighters. It’s a lot of different artists. Not the typical kind of classic rock cover songs that you often hear, maybe some that have a bit more of the things I look for in song selection, like a catchy hook that people can sing along to, that has a good groove, that’s danceable. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill generic cover band, kind of, ‘Oh, everyone knows that.'”
Monkey Friday actually came together when musicians from several bands determined they wanted to do music they enjoyed, and to work with creative musicians who they enjoyed spending time with, who shared mutual respect, and who drew joy from the music-making process.
Wenham said his motivation “is being able to move and affect someone else in that way, and see people’s enjoyment or appreciation of what we’re doing. That’s probably a lot of my motivation.”
One more question, but it’s a big one: How did the band choose its playful simian name, Monkey Friday?
Wenham laughed out loud.
“So my keyboard player’s daughters, when they were growing up, had always said, ‘If we had a band, we would call it ‘Monkey Friday,’ and it was kind of a joke to him,” Wenham said.
“But as we started throwing out band names, we went through hundreds, and we have a voting system, and it’s as they all filtered down that one kind of bubbled to the surface.”
They also liked the monkey symbol, he said, for “being easy to recognize and something that was catchy and different that would stand out in the marketplace a little bit, and also invite questions, you know, ‘What’s with the monkey?'”
OK, so that worked on at least one reporter, who shall remain unnamed.
“It’s just that monkeys are kind of known for monkeying around, you know, and it just adds as an element of fun for us that’s not so serious and that we enjoy, and how we like to present ourselves on stage.”
Monkey Friday plays at Redemption Bar & Grill, a 21-and-older bar and entertainment venue at 3517 W. Maradona Drive, Herriman. Buy tickets for the show here. The music starts at 9 p.m. Friday, but head over early if you want to sample the bar’s drinks and full menu at a more leisurely, pre-show pace. You can also check out Redemption’s daily food specials and weekly entertainment highlights and special performances at its website.
Redemption Bar & Grill is a proud sponsor of Gephardt Daily and supporter of independent local journalism in Utah.
