Alvvays and Moon King rallied the crowd at The Brass Taps on Sun. Oct. 4 with an astral performance. With a packed house scream-singing “hey, hey, marry me Archie,” it might have been the loudest show of the year.
This is the third time Alvvays has graced the University of Guelph with their presence. Previously, Alvvays performed at the university, opening for Hollerado and Said the Whale. This is the first time they were the feature act on campus. This paradigm did not seem to faze the suave indie act. Onstage group leader, Molly Rankin, spoke in familial tones about her experience traveling around Europe with Moon King, and now Guelph.
The beauty of listening to Alvvays is that all of a sudden you can close your eyes and you’re on a beach in October. Alvvays has managed to make dream music; even in the darkest of moments you could only drag your feet in a dream with this score. The soothing melodies and driving drums that prevailed through the entire set will inspire you to sway, dance, and bop until your feet give out or the music stops. Perhaps the inspiration for the coastal sound comes from the fact that all of the band members are from islands on the East Coast of Canada. Cape Breton and PEI are not exactly as warm and surreal as California sand, but undoubtedly inspirational in their own way.
“I was just really impressed and it was a lot of fun, high energy,” said Maggie Prince a history student at the University of Guelph.
Alvvays played 12 songs off their first album of the same name and two new songs that were unnamed. According to an interview by New Musical Express (NME), wherein the band was interviewing themselves, a new album is in the works. NME reports that this album will be more aggressive and is set to be released in the late fall.
It makes so much sense that Moon Kings opened for Alvvays. Within their genre the bands are similar, but different enough that they complement each other. The airiness guaranteed when you listen to an Alvvays song is not always a sure deal when you dive into Moon King.
This is the first time Moon King has included Guelph in their tour.
“We actually haven’t played around Ontario very much, but when I was a kid I use to come here all the time,” said Daniel Benjamin of Moon King. “I think I’ve been to like nine Hillsides or something like that.”
Where things get a little darker with Moon King is when you begin to analyze their first and only record so far, Secret Life.
“The idea behind the Secret Life songs was very much, like, to go as low as you can go until you hit bottom emotionally, and singing about hopelessness and being frustrated, and things like that, and finding catharsis through that, pushing through it,” said Benjamin. “Once you’re there I’m like ‘okay what’s next?’ I guess that’s what the next record will be all about.”
Benjamin said that the next album is not in production yet, but will possibly be recorded and produced in the city of Detroit.
“We’re back at the end [of] November and recording the first week of December,” said Benjamin. “I might do a lot of it in Detroit because I’ll be living there in the winter.”
Benjamin expressed how he wants to turn the next album on its head to create more of a positive vibe. In the near future we will see if Moon Kings is able to find some of the stardust that made Detroit a once great city, and inject it into their music.