[ATTENDED: October 6, 2017] Alvvays
Sarah and I were really excited to see Alvvays.
But holy cow were we surprised that they sold out! (And good for them).
I had no idea that people even knew that much about them. But the sold out crowd were huge fans as people were singing along left and right.
I joked with Sarah that between their two albums, they had a total of 60 minutes of music, so their set couldn’t be all that long. I had imagined that they would play all nineteen of their released songs, but that was not to be (they left out one slow song from the new album and three songs from their debut).
I was also pretty excited that Nap Eyes fans seemed to be quite short. But by the time Alvvays came on, some of the taller fans pushed forward. This didn’t hinder us too much, but it was still a little disappointing to have to weave around them.
We were pretty close to guitarist Alec O’Hanley and reasonably close to singer Molly Rankin. I never really saw bassist Brian Murphy at all, except the few times he crept forward a bit (and the one time he played Kerri MacLellan’s keyboard).
Keyboardist Kerri MacLellan was off to the side, but prominently up front which was nice And we were all introduced to new drummer Sheridan, who totally kicked ass. I noticed in my post from the last show that I really liked their previous drummer a lot. But Sheridan totally kicked ass.
I had also noticed that they had a projector set up for behind the band. I wasn’t sure if there were going to be interesting graphics behind them. But instead, they mostly played around with lightning and repeated effects. Sometimes there were visual echoes of the band projected on screen. Sometimes there were just some trippy-looking effects back there.
They opened with a new song and then followed the right up with “Adult Diversion” which had the crowd going nuts. And then they played their new single “In Undertow,” which we all knew very well and were happy to sing along to.
I realized that I don’t know the titles of most of their songs, so trying to remember that this wonderfully catchy song is called “Atop a Cake” is quite a challenge.
Even though all eyes were on Rankin, it was always neat to see what O’Hanley was doing during various songs, like the guitar riff in “Your Type.”
I was surprised that they didn’t end their set with “Archie, Marry Me” which I assumed was their biggest hit, but nope, it was a perfect fit right in the middle.
I genuinely couldn’t decide what they’d play for an encore, but when Alec started that guitar for “Next of Kin“, I knew it was a great choice.
Rankin told us that she first learned about “Trying to be Kind” the cover of the song by The Motorcycle Boy “here.” Whether she meant Union Transfer or Philly I’m not sure. I didn’t know the song, but i did know the next song. Molly said it was Alec’s birthday. They brought out a carrot cake and then they sang a note-perfect version of Altered Images’ Happy Birthday.
It was such a fun set, such a good time. And even if the show wasn’t very long we all left very happy. And no we didn’t get home quickly because there was a huge roadblock of construction on 95. Jerks.
SETLIST
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Saved By A Waif **
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Adult Diversion *
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In Undertow **
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Plimsoll Punks **
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Lollipop (Ode to Jim) **
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Not My Baby **
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Hey **
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Atop a Cake *
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Forget About Life **
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Your Type **
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Ones Who Love You *
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Archie, Marry Me *
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Dreams Tonite **
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Party Police *
- Encore:
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Next of Kin *
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Trying to be Kind (The Motorcycle Boy cover)
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Happy Birthday (Altered Images cover) (played in honor of Alec’s birthday)
*from the debut
**from Antisocialites
Of their 19 songs, they did not play these four:
Already Gone**
The Agency Group*
Dives*
Red Planet*
When we saw them in 2015, this was their setlist:
I Just Read About That... 
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