Toronto indie band Alvvays (pronounced Always) took their dreamy indie-pop music to Glasgow’s O2 Academy and even though it was a Monday night the crowd were well up for it as they excitedly waited to hear the band play all fourteen tracks from 2022 release Blue Rev. Alvvays had played at SWG3 in Glasgow during the summer of 2023 but this was a bigger venue with the crowd tonight numbering around the 2000 mark.
To open proceedings we had Girl Scout, a band from Stockholm, Sweden who were probably an unknown artist for most of the fans in tonight, but not for us as we always (Alvvays?) do our research before attending gigs. Girl Scout had a successful tour with Coach Party in 2023, this tour was on a much larger scale though, the band took to the stage at 8pm, Run Me Over was the perfect start to the set as vocalist Emma Jansson grabs hold of the crowd from the first minute and doesn’t let go until the end of the half hour set. Jansson spent years performing as a jazz singer back in Sweden, a very different experience from fronting a rock band. They released two EPs during 2023, firstly Real Life, Human Garbage in February then Granny Music in September, this tour will no doubt help put them on the music map. Guitarist Viktor Spasov caught the eye with his unique playing style and explosive energy, the best of the seven track set were Mothers & Fathers and Do You Remember Sally Moore? There was a good mixture of music styles ranging from indie-pop to punk, latest song I Just Needed You To Know was played perfectly, we hope to hear more new music from Girl Scout before they come back to the UK for a headline tour in February 2025, they definitely made a lot of new fans tonight and we have our ticket for Broadcast already! 9/10
The standing area was now filled to capacity as we moved upstairs to get a better view, the visuals for the show are rumoured to be interesting. The line-up for Alvvays has changed a little since their formation in 2011, the band consists of original members and childhood friends Molly Rankin (vocals & guitar), Kerri MacLellan (keyboards & vocals) and Alec O’Hanley (lead guitar & vocals) and have now been joined by bass player Abbey Blackwell and drummer Sheridan Riley. We find the Alvvays style of music very unique, pulling you in different directions with the haunting vocals from Rankin blending perfectly with MacLellan’s dreamy keyboards, the only band we can think of in comparison would be 1990s dream indie band Saint Etienne. There would have been more then a few ‘Euros hangovers’ at tonight’s gig as Scotland lived up to their reputation with more glorious failure the previous night but that would soon be forgotten about as Rankin et al took to the stage to provide eighty minutes of joyous feel-good music kicking off with Easy On Your Own? The first of fourteen from Blue Rev, we love the experience of hearing a band play a full album live, not that many bands can pull this off. Next up After The Earthquake shakes the building to it’s core and is one of the best of the set, some of the lighting on the stage was a bit much for the eyes, well it was either that or we were welling up. From upstairs the stage backdrop looked amazing as the shadows of all five band members were projected on to the screens below various video of the band members, on stage the band were very static, only vocalist Rankin moving back and forward and the crowd were pretty much the same as they took in the breath-taking performance. Very Online Guy is very synth based with no guitars being played during this one as Molly fiddles with the buttons on her sound box and guitarist Alec O’Hanley joins MacLellan on keyboards while Not My Baby excels as the large screen shows MacLellan’s skills on the keys, its one of four tracks from the 2017 album Antisocialites.
Belinda Says is a tribute to the Go-Go’s Belinda Carlisle, a song about finding freedom in music, and yes Carlisle herself likes this one, the band crowd connection resonates here as it does for Tile By Tile, the keys once again from O’Hanley and MacLellan are a standout. Molly Rankin excels with vocals during Dreams Tonight, one of the best of the twenty-two track set. We then have the excellent Archie, Marry Me the bands most streamed song with over 108 million streams on Spotify alone (Dreams Tonight isn’t far behind), the crowd gets moving for this one and we even spotted a small mosh pit down the front. The main set closed with Pomeranian Spinster and Lottery Noises, the band leaving to a massive roar, we would have two songs for an encore tonight, firstly Pharmacist wakens the crowd again before the final track which was the icing on the cake: Atop A Cake. A great end to the night. As we write this review Alvvays are just about to take to the Woodsies stage at the Glastonbury Festival, they will go down a storm! The band have a busy end to the year, after the UK tour its on to Europe before heading back across the pond for a North American tour later in the year. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
