Soccer Mommy Concert Review: Yearning, Acceptance, and Everything In Between
Soccer Mommy balances the spectrum of love and loss immaculately in her music, and her performance was no different.When Soccer Mommy took the stage at Paradise Rock Club in Boston, a palpable energy shot through the crowd. As an artist who captures the specificity of love with a remarkable eye for its universality, her performance hit across the spread of human emotion and only rarely missed a beat.
Sophie Allison’s indie rock project drew a wide ranging audience — faces young and old, new listeners and die-hard fans — but it took less than half of her opening song “circle the drain” for the crowd to collectively give way to the music.
Though the singer-songwriter’s sound is generally best described in terms that approximate warmth and fuzziness, it was the moments of sheer sonic catharsis that exemplified the power and emotional resonance of her lyricism and storytelling, providing real highlights in an already overwhelmingly strong set.
The latter half of Allison’s set featured some of her more straightforwardly sharp tracks, with “crawling in my skin” and “Your Dog” capping off the night before an encore of “Scorpio Rising,” a song which maintains a distinct story about relinquishing love and knowing it’s your fault.
The live performance gave a punch to the intermediate beats as the drummer punctuated what could be heartbeats in the second verse. The song was heightened by a mix that let the live drums hit over wonderfully subtle synths. The final, resounding guitar solo was completely heartbreaking, a magical conclusion to the night as the house lights went up.
However, despite the final songs in the set providing some of the most energized moments for the crowd, it was in the moments of calm, silent solitude that Allison created a feeling that reverberated beyond the walls of the venue.
Soccer Mommy’s discography stretches back over just under 10 years and there’s a wealth of quiet reflective tracks from which to draw, but the back to back performances of “Lost” from her latest album “Evergreen” and “Still Clean” from her 2018 LP “Clean” were transcendent.
The mix of the synth from Allison’s bandmate left the tone just hidden enough to be haunting, hammering home the themes of grappling with the loss of a loved one so immediately present in the lyrics of the former song.
The following solo performance of “Still Clean” made it feel as if the stage existed only for Allison. The lights shone around her like a halo — as she stood there, a lone figure in a sea of darkness — singing about the realization that she was only what her lover wanted “for a little while.”
Allison’s guitar-centered ballad was an intensely emotional moment in the course of the performance, a turning point in the evening towards emotional resolution and away from unrequited longing.
Earlier in the evening, Allison drew from her first full-length LP, “for young hearts” to play “henry,” a song about loving a man who is not emotionally available. The track holds a nostalgic essence. As the first arpeggiated chords began to play, it felt like the audience was transported back to an older time where love could be naïve and flawed and still remain alright.
Not every track felt quite so resonant, though. “Shotgun” off of 2022’s “Sometimes, Forever” seemed to peter out in its final moments despite an excellent start, leaving the emotional arc of the song sonically unresolved.
The undercurrent of angst ran throughout the performance. Even in songs like “Abigail,” which revolves around the eponymous romanceable non-player character in the videogame Stardew Valley, Allison maintained yearning as a central emotional theme for the night.
Soccer Mommy balances the spectrum of love and loss immaculately in her music, and her performance was no different, tugging at the heart strings of the audience while simultaneously providing substantial emotional release.
Maybe it’s just like she said in her encore — it was “just because I love Boston so much.” In reality, it’s the talent of an experienced songwriter and performer that allowed Allison to carry the audience through this emotional journey.
—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.