I’ve always liked Tennis, but their show at Red 7 on Saturday night convinced me that they’re receiving significantly less credit than they deserve. Built around the creative forces of husband and wife Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, the band creates vocally driven indie-pop with melodies that hang around in your brain for days. All previous Tennis shows I’ve seen consisted of Riley and Moore as well as a drummer, but the current incarnation of the band adds a bassist. The band has always accessed bass range by way of Riley’s baritone guitar, but the addition of a true bassist lends Tennis greater tonal range and depth in a live setting.
Before Tennis took the stage, tourmates Pure Bathing Culture played a set of excellent and hazy synth pop. The band is something like a hybrid of Fleetwood Mac and Beach House. Yes, it’s as good as that sounds. They’ve yet to reach the audience that I think they ultimately will, but every time I see a crowd respond to them, I know that their popularity will continue to rise. It’s why we asked them to play our SXSW showcase last year. No kidding, keep your ear out for them.
Tennis’ performance Red 7 was entirely convincing, easily the best set I’ve seen them play. The set consisted of mostly new songs with a good number of tracks from Young and Old included in the selections, namely “My Better Self” and “It All Feels the Same.” Onstage, Patrick Riley hunches over his guitar as he noodles through riffs. He hangs out around the bassist and drummer, isolating Moore on the opposite side of the stage. The effect elevates Moore’s role and makes her seem like something of a vocal pop artist with a backing band. Brief interplay between Moore and Riley is charming and engaging.
I’m theorizing here, but I think Tennis would be even more lauded than are, except for the fact that their last two records have seen them shifting their musical approach, landing them in some nebulous regions in terms of fan appeal. Following Cape Dory, the group delved into more complex arrangements and moodier grooves, evidenced by Young and Old single “Origins.” This trend only became more true with the release of Ritual in Repeat. The songs are fuller, more accomplished, and more challenging. Thus, the band has the difficult task of retaining listeners who fell in love with their breezy, simple pop songs while convincing would-be listeners that they are no longer that band.
In essence, they’re trying to hit a moving target. And they’ll need to work out this dilemma to grow to the level of their potential. In set-closer hit “Marathon” from the band’s debut album Cape Dory, written largely about the couple’s multi-month sailing trip in the Atlantic, Moore sings, “Coconut Grove is a very small cove / Separated from the sea by a shifting shore / We didn’t realize that we had arrived / At high tide, high tide, barely made it out alive.” Whether or not Tennis can find that shifting shore, run aground on dry land, and make it out alive, or whether they’ll be lost at sea, remains to be determined. Surely their truest fans will acts as stars in the sky to guide the vessel. However, they’ll need more than that. The more hands on deck they have to help man the ship, the better off they’ll be. I’m definitely aboard.
All photographs © Bryan C. Parker & Pop Press International. Click any image to open set in slideshow viewer.
