Who says you can’t raise hell on a Monday night? Yes it’s the return to the work week and people have to endure the hard transition to that. But the weekend fun doesn’t have to end. On Monday night of April 9, Soccer Mommy with touring support from Madeline Kenney played rock music to soothe our weeknight blues. The show interestingly enough was originally set to be at the all ages venue, the Che Café, but most likely due to construction, it had moved to the Soda Bar.
With that being said, the audience was really quite noteworthy due to its wide range in age diversity. I can see fresh faced 21 year olds to people who were as old as 50. This is a testament to how diverse Sophie Allison’s band, Soccer Mommy’s fan base truly is. She seemed surprised by it too.
The Nashville native donned the stage at ten o’ clock on a Monday night to a full crowd. With her checkerboard strap, she literally wears her influences as she and the rest of the band open with “Last Girl.” It was a really strong opener and shows the vibrancy of the band. The band is really professional and concise; it’s worth noting all of their names as well. Julian, who plays the lead guitar, was really an instrumental (heh) part of the show as well as the recordings. On bass was Gram, who was the band’s anchor and Gabe on drums too.
They played their hits, “Your Dog” and “Flaw” which harkened back to the overdriven guitar sounds of 2000s alternative rock. I always think that “Your Dog” is the answer to the proto punk, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” for obvious reasons. There is a great banter between Sophie Allison and the audience all throughout the night. It could have been easily a sleepy audience, ready to go to work early in the morning, but the audience were such willing participants of the show. Sophie is a naturally funny person and it’s easy to understand how her songwriting reflects that as well. Someone in the crowd shouts that they couldn’t wait to see them open for Liz Phair in Boston.
She seemed both modest and confused about how dedicated her fans really were. The night was full of surprises as the band steps down for her to do her some solo songs. The first song was a Bruce Springsteen cover, “I’m on Fire,” which got a humorous reaction from the audience. As she announces the Bruce Springsteen song, everyone was cheered for it but someone booed.
“Did someone just booed for Bruce Springsteen?” she asked.
One audience member jokingly says, “No, they were saying Boo-ruce.”
With only guitar and vocals, she carried the song quite beautifully. The strip down sound was showed full range of her talents as she could have done the whole set this way and the audience would still be pleased. For her last song, she asked the band to come back for “Scorpio Rising” to finish the set. There is an appreciation to how climatic she builds her song list set with rise and fall like the plot to a Hollywood movie. After the song, the audience calls for an encore with much enthusiasm she obliged. She plays one more solo song, this time her transformation is complete as she is slowly turns into Avril Lavinge with her cheetah print top and the checkerboard strap on her guitar to complete the look.
All in all a strong Monday night show from the Soda Bar. The opener, Madeline Kenney, really set the mood. They will be back again in the summer to open for Wye Oak at the Soda Bar. I really appreciate the female fronted lineup that reinforces the notion that women have rocked and have been rocking since its conception. Monday night shows are not a bad idea, it’s nice to have time to listen to music and reflect about the day as one listens to music. Who says you can’t raise hell on a Monday night?
Written by: Joseph Hoang
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