Words by Rohan Rindani // Photos by Jack Foley
It’s weird to see a 10th-anniversary concert tour for a band that debuted when you were in middle school. This might be the first time in my life where, in the realm of “indie rock” and the general music blogosphere, I’m genuinely beginning to feel old. As I gear up to leave school ( this is my last article for AROUSE! :’) ), seeing that time gap is a reminder that I’m moving on from being on the bleeding edge of this kind of music. Soon, I’ll start complaining about being out of touch. Thoughts like this have plagued me for a while, but there are few bands more tailor-made to spur these thoughts than Alvvays, a band that’s been chasing nostalgia and a sense of longing for days gone by since they first came out.
Alvvays’ debut record came out around a month before I entered the 7th grade, and through some virtue of being too online, I found it almost instantly – the hazy, dreamy record, produced by my now favorite industry stalwart Chad Vangaalen is almost entirely centered on that previously mentioned nostalgia. Cuts like “Archie, Marry Me,” “Atop a Cake,” and “Dives” are all about wasted youth and looking back on days gone by – from “Too late to go out / too young to stay in” to my personal all-time favorite Alvvays verse: “I’ve been waiting on our lives together / I’ve been patient for a long time / We’ve been hanging out in dives forever / We never get it on the first try”. I couldn’t personally relate to those lyrics at the time, and in another 10 years I’m sure I’ll look back and say that I couldn’t relate to them now, but seeing Alvvays at the Newport this past week reminded me of what I’ve done and seen these last 10 years, especially these last 4 at Ohio State, and how their music has been a throughline for me through all of it.
Taking place on Saturday, 4/20, the crowd was definitely a bit out of their minds – the first “holiday” since legalization in Ohio had people reveling both in and outside of the concert hall, which added to the overall sense of otherworldly and ethereal sounds that the band conjured on stage. The atmosphere of the Newport that night was a welcome change from bigger shows I’ve had the privilege to see – a relaxed, subdued crowd meant that the band really got their time to shine. I also got to try the venue’s special Blue Rev cocktail, named after their career-revitalizing and Grammy-nominated 2022 album.
Promoting their latest record, the band took the opportunity to play every song from it out of order – I was expecting them to play the album front to back, but the shuffled setlist gave their highlights space while letting some deeper cuts have their time to shine – I was blown away by their performances of “Tile by Tile” and my personal favorite off of the record, “Velveteen.” There was a fair mix of earlier songs too – an Alvvays set wouldn’t be complete without a performance of the aforementioned “Archie, Marry Me”, and 2017’s Antisocialites deep cut “Hey” was a welcome addition, along with some other personal favorites like “Not My Baby” and “Ones Who Love You.”
Alvvays are an amazingly tight, studio-faithful live band, and I’ve been waiting to see them for nearly a decade now – over the years I’ve had and missed opportunities many times, so I resolved that I’d plan my entire month around this show when it was first announced to ensure that I’d be there no matter what. Seeing a band this important to me felt like a very full-circle way to wrap up this chapter of my life, and I’m happy that I got to end my AROUSE career with a look back, as well as a great band putting on an equally great show.
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