Soccer Mommy give darkly satisfying performance at First Avenue
October 31, 2022
The eve of Halloween was a suitable night for Soccer Mommy, led by the Nashville singer/songwriter Sophie Allison, to infuse the First Avenue mainroom with a haunting, but ethereal ambiance.
Allison laid out Sunday night’s plan by saying, “We’re going to play music.” The band, featuring a few Star Trek costumes, experimented in pop-adjacent and gothic sounds under inflatable, rainbow-illuminated clouds above stage.
Before Soccer Mommy began, a group of musicians accompanied by a mummy, dinosaur, and third-eyed vocalist — who are known as Lightning Bug — opened the show. The band’s sonically intimate shoegaze melodies with Audrey Kang’s peaceful vocals sounded like a soothing lullaby. They covered the Cranberries’ “Dreams,” and people whistled for the beloved early-‘90s dream pop tune.
If Lightning Bug’s lullabies were soothing, Soccer Mommy’s were spooky at times — in an exciting way. The release of Sometimes, Forever in June came with the unexpected news that every song was produced by Daniel Lopatin, who releases experimental electronic music as Oneohtrix Point Never has produced extensively with the Weeknd.
How did this new production style translate into Allison’s live performance? It turned out that the darker elements of Sometimes, Forever cast a ghostly aura in the room. “Unholy Affliction,” backed by chaotically clashing drums and a staticky embrace, manifested some of the most hard-hitting sounds of the evening. The words, “I’m barely a person,” left Allison’s mouth slyly. The creeping, low bass riffs on “Darkness Forever” dragged listeners down slowly. And in between songs, there were no moments of silence as hypnotizing, eerie backing noise rang. Sounds of echoing giggles, howling wind, and loud, hazy synths continually played as the musicians tuned guitars and adjusted foot pedals.
One instrumental glitch was Rollum Haas’ ear-pounding drums that sometimes overshadowed vocals and all other instruments. Songs needed support from his thundering beats, but at a volume that enveloped the music, toning the percussion down may have been beneficial.
Anyway, Allison left behind most of the music from her first three albums, which made for a cohesive set, but fans may have missed a few of their early favorites. Many of those songs were stories of her teenage self, who probably feels like a stranger now. A small peephole into the past was “Scorpio Rising” from Clean, of course, dedicated to the current astrological Scorpio season. The band also threw new glitchy punches into the throwback “Your Dog” for the encore. “I want a love that lets me breathe / I've been choking on your leash,” she fiercely sang.
In her songwriting, Allison takes turns hiding and revealing herself. On the opening track of the evening, “Bones,” she covers a melancholy narrative beneath a light, breezy chorus. Yet on “circle the drain,” she shares the explicitly heartbreaking lyrics: “Hey, I've been falling apart these days / Split open, watching my heart go round and around / Round and around / Circle the drain / I'm going down.” It’s interesting to think about how the singer’s level of transparency shapes each story she shares.
Near the end of the set, band members exited the stage to give Allison complete autonomy for a song: “Still Clean” from Clean. “Still” from Sometimes, Forever followed — the former describing the nonexistence of emotion between apathy and despair, and the latter about coming to terms with rejection despite occasional snippets of hope popping up. The juxtaposition of the songs’ production eras demonstrated that no matter who produces Allison’s music, her incisive analysis remains.
Soccer Mommy’s hour on the stage could be summarized as a celestial experience, including moments just as serene as they were dense. Allison appeared to be intentionally present — playing guitar while sitting with heavy emotion. The performance was a fulfilling way to close out Halloweekend.
P.S. It would be negligent to not mention that crowd members included rabbits, angels, devils, cowboys, and skeletons.
Setlist
Bones
With U
circle the drain
Shotgun
crawling in my skin
Unholy Affliction
Darkness Forever
lucy
Feel It All The Time
Scorpio Rising
Still Clean
Still
newdemo
yellow is the color of her eyes
Encore
Don’t Ask Me
Your Dog