Review: Soccer Mommy @ Paradise Rock Club 9/19
Photo Credit: Daniel Topete
Review by Kyra Matteo
Every emerging indie artist, inevitably, finds themselves performing at Paradise Rock Club, a cramped, pillar-laden venue in Allston. On Friday, Sophie Allison, better known by her stage name Soccer Mommy, made the experience worth it with a heartfelt performance of songs about loss and isolation.
“Hey, I’ve been falling apart these days / Split open, watching my heart go round and around / Circle the drain, I’m going down,” Allison sang in her opening song. The lyrics from her 2020 single, “Circle the Drain,” echoed the emotions many of us felt when the song was released in the early, lonely days of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet they remain strikingly relevant in today’s world.
A common thread in Allison’s songs is the concept of learning to live with yourself, whether in the wake of global solitude or personal loss. “And I think there’s a mold in my brain / Spreading down all the way / Through my heart and my body,” she continued, reminding listeners of the detrimental effects of too much time spent alone. It’s a feeling made more tolerable to remember in the company of other people at the venue.
After “Circle the Drain,” Allison transitioned quickly into her next song, ”Driver,” from her recent album, “Evergreen.” She swapped her sparkly pink electric guitar for a sleek black one of the same model, signaling both a tonal and sonic shift.
While her 2020 album “Color Theory” handles Allison’s battles with mental health, “Evergreen” explores the grief that comes with losing a loved one. Evergreen feels lighter and more ethereal than Allison’s previous work, focusing on sparse instrumentation and delicate sprinkles of flutes and violin. The album evokes a natural landscape, with many tracks layered with subtle sounds of bird chirps or a soft breeze. In the aftermath of trauma, Allison suggests solace is often found in returning to nature itself.
Born in Switzerland and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Allison began playing guitar at the age of six. As a teenager, she started recording lo-fi bedroom pop in her home and releasing it on Bandcamp, which earned her a small but devoted following. After a brief stint studying music business at NYU, Allison eventually dropped out to pursue music full-time.
“Who here likes Stardew Valley?” Allison asked as she strummed the opening notes to Evergreen’s most upbeat track, “Abigail.” Originally created as a writing exercise inspired by her in-game wife, the song eventually found its place on the album. “Abigail” provides a needed reprieve from the album’s darker subject matter but remains thematically connected. While Allison doesn’t consider herself an avid gamer, she embraces the comfort and escapism it provides. A natural world can provide sanctuary, her album argues, and perhaps so too can an artificial one.
Allison remained reserved on stage, both vocally and physically. She played with a quiet focus, gazing into the crowd with a distant stare and little discernible emotion. Rather than dancing or headbanging, she maintained a serious composure. Her vocals mirrored this restraint, soft and controlled, never reaching a high decibel, even when noisy instrumentation would have warranted it. Despite her subdued stage presence, she came across as warm and approachable between songs. A casual “Thanks, y’all” followed many of her tracks, and she even reminisced about the significance of Boston – the location of her first show as Soccer Mommy.
Allison closed her set with “Your Dog,” a hit from her debut album, “Clean.” The crowd cheered as they heard the first notes of the instantly recognizable guitar hook. With biting vocals, she delivered the song’s raw lyrics about the suffocating reality of being in a toxic relationship: “‘Cause I don’t want to be your f–ing dog / That you drag around / A collar on my neck tied to a pole / Leave me in the freezing cold.” The performance cut through the evening’s more subdued atmosphere, ending the night on a charged note.
However, one of the night’s most powerful moments came from her performance of “M.” The song captures the ache of seeing a lost loved one in everything you do, clinging to the last fragments of their presence. “I feel you even though you’re gone / And I don’t mind talking to hollow walls / ‘Cause I miss you and it never stops,” Allison sang alone with her guitar. Her vocals reverberated through the room, haunting yet tender, as a blue light illuminated the sea of people. What began as a song about grief seemed to shift into something hopeful.