[ATTENDED: April 7, 2015] Alvvays
Canadian band Alvvays opened for The Decemberists last night. I really like their debut album and I was pretty excited to see them. Alvvays play a perfect update of female -fronted-90s-alt-rock that I really like (and which few bands do anymore). There are plenty of touchstones for the kind of music they play (Letters to Cleo, Lush), and they do it perfectly–super catchy choruses, nice harmonies and simple ringing guitars.
In hindsight (after watching the headliners) it must be tough for a small band to play when the headliners have so much going on. So the five members of Alvvays looked a little cramped on stage in their small area. They didn’t say a lot and they barely moved around. But they brought their A-game and ripped through their entire album (I think).
I remember thinking that their album is only about 35 minutes, so their set couldn’t be much longer than that. It was about 30 minutes. And, since I like the album but don’t really know song names yet, I’m not sure what they played or didn’t play (and setlist.com is no help at all). I certainly recognized a few songs, but have no idea what order they were in.
I also had to wonder…if you are an up and coming band with a single that’s getting airplay (“Marry Me, Archie”), do you play it first and get the audience psyched to hear more, or do you save it for the end when more people have arrived. Which they did. And it was nice to see the crowd (who was responsive but not exactly rocking) nodding along to the song.
I enjoyed their set a lot. I thought their sound wasn’t great, but again, with hindsight I noticed that The Decemberists were hooked up to the Academy’s sound system, but I think Alvvays were just playing out of their amps. Having said that, singer and guitarist Molly Rankin’s voice sounded great. And her guitar work played very well off of lead guitarist Alec O’Hanley. (They both had the same color guitar). I liked how much diversity of sound they brought to their playing, alternating with noisy chords, very clear solos and washes of sound. Keyboardist Kerri MacLellan had great harmonies (perhaps underutilized) and occasional keyboards that were never overpowering. I’m also intrigued by the contrasting “looks” that Molly and Kerri bring to the band. Bassist Brian Murphy kept the beat solid. But it was drummer Phil MacIsaac who I kept my eyes on during the show. Although Sarah thought he looked huge in his tiny set, he kept doing simple but detailed drumming tricks to keep the rhythm tight. I was also intrigued by the one song that used a drum machine and he did really nothing. Until the very end when he hit some cymbals.
During intermission, I went out to look at merch and Molly and Kerri were at the booth selling their stuff. I liked their shirts, but decided to get a blue vinyl release of their album instead (yes, I already have the disc, but whatevs). They were super nice and friendly and they both signed it, too. Sweet.
Setlist was added April 24, 2015
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