The music of Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, is often a reminder that we have to live in the present. There’s much to despair about right now as we witness geopolitics play out like a WWE storyline, but at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre last night, the Nashville artist’s fans were able to come together and take a collective breather, even though a world weariness permeates her music. A song like “Dreaming of Falling” is a potent reminder that even if we feel stuck and hopeless, all we have is the present moment. And at for an hour and a half, fans could be stuck in the moment with Soccer Mommy.

But first, opener Hana Vu won the audience from the start with set opener “Hammer,” a preview of the Los Angeles singer-songwriter’s set to come, that is, largely big rock songs with ripping guitar solos. Often, the songs started as understated strummers, like “Care” and “22.” At other times, the band shifted to songs with a New Wave slant and shades of funk; a chiller selection like “April Fool” even called to mind Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees.”

Allison sometimes sings of going through the motions in a depressive haze. “I’m barely a person/ Mechanically working,” she sings on “Unholy Affliction.” But although she wasn’t disengaged at the Vogue, she and her band played their mid-tempo rock relatively straight up for the first half of their set.

“Circle the Drain” set the evening’s plaintive tone despite its underlying pop sensibility. The alluring “Shotgun” grooved like no other but was counterbalanced by the subtle, droning keys of “Dreaming of Falling.” Soccer Mommy came back up again with “Cool” on which, this time, the keys crackled. “This next song is about my truck,” Allison said introducing “Feel It All the Time.” “It’s sort of bittersweet because it died.” Following that were, coincidentally, more The Bends era Radiohead vibes with “Some Sunny Day.”

Soccer Mommy picked up even more steam from this point on starting with “M”; the performance was captivating enough that it didn’t ever matter that, from my vantage point, it looked like no one was playing the flute part live. The latter half of Soccer Mommy’s set contained some of the best highlights. Atmospheric synths slowly gathered like fog as the band hung back and Allison strummed out “Lost.” All eyes were on her during “Still Clean” as her band took a break, leaving her to finger-pick her electric guitar alone onstage. They rejoined her for “Crawling in My Skin,” its dark grooving riff and flashy climax garnering the loudest audience pop of the night. “If you know this song, I don’t know, sing along, dance, do something,” Allison blithely encouraged before unleashing the barbed rocker “Your Dog.”

Flute returned for Soccer Mommy’s first encore, “Changes,” the closest thing to a pastoral moment during the show. Though Allison likes to end her albums on a slow note, likening it to an outro, a goodbye, she closed out her live set with the chiming, whirring “Don’t Ask Me.” However she chose to say goodbye, her fans were fortunate they got to say hello.

Words and photo by Leslie Ken Chu

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