Alvvays Shows Off Dream Pop Power at Agora Show in Cleveland

If there’s one thing Canadian band Alvvays is, it’s consistent.

Both on record and at its concerts, as evidenced Thursday by its show at the Agora, the band never strays far from its washed out, poppy, dreamy indie rock sound. It’s a good sound, and the quintet knows how to pull it off, so why bother messing with a formula that works?

Stopping in Cleveland first as part of its spring tour (and, according to setlist.fm, for its first show in the city in a decade), the concert was a testament to the consistently good music the band has released over three albums in the past decade. Those albums have also led the band to amass quite a following. The Agora, if not sold out, was pretty packed.

Starting out with a squall of feedback after taking the stage, the band launched into “Easy on Your Own?” from 2022’s Blue Rev. From there they were off, speeding through 22 songs in 80 minutes, with the occasional comment thrown in by lead singer and guitarist Molly Rankin.

Rankin even recounted an early gig at Grog Shop where she and the band received drink tickets, and said that the city appeared “so hospitable.”

“It’s good to have low expectations,” she joked. “You just soar above them.”

Highlights included “Belinda Says,” complete with a scream by Rankin as guitarist Alec O’Hanley soloed to the end of the song, as well as the band’s best-known tune, “Archie, Marry Me.” The live show also brought out influences that aren’t as noticeable on record, like the 1980s power ballad energy of “Dreams Tonite” and the jangle pop of show closer “Atop a Cake.”

Even though it was the first show of the tour, neither the band’s music nor its presentation were rusty. And while the group’s music may not appear to lend itself to being played at a large venue, the band was more than up to the task. The members aren’t the showiest performers, but years of touring has taught them how to command larger stages and fill rooms with a sound that isn’t aggressive, but is rarely timid.

Opener SPLLIT spent its 30 minutes giving the crowd a taste of its herky-jerky music that sometimes sounded like the soundtrack to a video game. The New Orleans band was loud and robotic, blasting through one quick song after another with wonky guitars and indecipherable vocals.

It made for interesting music but a mismatched bill, as the aesthetic couldn’t have been farther away from the dream pop of Alvvays (the way the band spells its name also made me wonder if the headliner chose its opener because, well, both have names with incorrectly-spelled words).

Setlist (courtesy of setlist.fm and my own recollection):
1. Easy on Your Own?
2. After the Earthquake
3. In Undertow
4. Many Mirrors
5. Very Online Guy
6. Adult Diversion
7. Bored in Bristol
8. Not My Baby
9. Hey
10. Tom Verlaine
11. Belinda Says
12. Tile by Tile
13. Velveteen
14. Pressed
15. Dreams Tonite
16. Fourth Figure
17. Archie, Marry Me
18. Pomeranian Spinster
19. Lottery Noises
Encore:
20. Pharmacist
21. Ones Who Love You
22. Atop a Cake

Eric Heisig is a freelance writer in Cleveland. He can be reached at [email protected].

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed