Alvvays played the Rescue Rooms
A year after the release of their debut album, Alvvays mark the end of the festival season with a swing through the UK before returning to their home country of Canada later in the month. It has surely been a year to remember for the band; their record has steadily won plaudits and fans all over, including Death Can For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard who covered Archie, Marry Me.
They open with Your Type, a short and snappy blast of jangle-pop which is all chiming hooks and bubble-gum melodies and showcases everything that makes Alvvays great. They’re a band in the ‘classic indie pop’ mould of putting together ringing guitars with bitter-sweet lyrics, and no doubt grew up with The Smiths and Echo and The Bunny Men on their walls and in their record collections.
Much like when they played The Bodega at the start of the year in January, and as to be expected with a band with only one record, it’s a relatively short set with a heavy focus on their one and only album to date, but it means there’s very little filler. The 45 minutes or so that they play for whizzes by and perfectly captures the band’s natural songwriting abilities.
There are a couple of new songs thrown in to mix things up. One of them, Hey, comes on like The Go-Go’s playing 1960s garage rock, and makes me hope for that that second album won’t be too long coming. The other newies played tonight (the opening Your Type and New Haircut) hint at a less hazy sound than what’s on their debut and a more driving new-wave approach. B-side Underneath Us is heavy on the shoegaze with hints of early My Bloody Valentine, giving us a glimpse of a different side to the band’s sound.
Rescue Rooms setlist - Photo @_iyesha
Molly Rankin is talkative between songs and at one point fondly remembers their previous visit to Nottingham where they played the ‘ringing the bull’ game at the Trip To Jerusalem.
The final run of songs is a fizzy and exuberant race to the finish. The yearning Atop A Cake gives way to the woozy wonderment of Dives, which leads to in to Party Police, a song that elicits the first real sing-a-long from the audience to much smiles from the band. New Haircut, a newish song that’s been in the band’s set for a while demonstrates Molly Rankin’s ear for a memorable hook, before we are hit with the sublime Archie, Marry Me - a slice of pop-perfection proving that without a doubt that Molly Rankin Alvvays is a songwriter of some quality and depth.
After a short break, the band return to the Rescue Rooms stage with a rambunctious run through Kirstie MacColl’s He’s On The Beach, connecting the dots between that classic 1980s British jangly indie sound and Alvvays' modern reinterpretation. One of the few bands to be able to back up their blogged-up hype with genuine ability and talent.
Alvvays played at the Rescue Rooms on Thursday 3 September 2015.
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