Review: Alvvays, SWX – ‘A fuzzy, dream-pop delight’

Toronto’s Alvvays returned to Bristol in June, continuing a tour in support of Blue Rev – an album that reached the top ten in nearly every list that matters, hit Stereogum’s number-one spot and went on to win Alternative Album of the Year at Canada’s 2023 JUNO Awards.

It’s a record that desires – requires, even – multiple listens. The jangly guitars call up easy comparisons to The Smiths, but closer listens reveal hints of chamber pop, new wave, electro and shoegaze, all delivered with a campus novel-style elegance that meanders between yearning, anxiety and worries for what could or should have been.

Alvvays have sold out tonight’s SWX, an impressive feat as the quintet were last year’s Dot to Dot headliners. You’d think Bristol had had their fill, but they are hungry for Alvvays’ return.

Before that, we get to hear from Girl Scout.

Much of the crowd are either aware of this band already or caught their recent performance at Dot to Dot festival because the venue is rammed for a support act – and the Swedish four-piece show us very quickly what all the fuss is about.

Intense sludge rock blends into melodic pop bangers with all four members, including drummer, singing simultaneously at times. Frontwoman Emma Jansson thrashes out both her guitar and her hair while the rest of the band layer up a superstructure of grooves and solid rock ’n’ roll.

This band puts everything into their performance. Luckily, they’re coming back to Bristol in February, so make sure you grab tickets far in advance.

The crowd, now entirely squeezed inside SWX, is amped for Alvvays, hooting and hollering to show their love. The band arrive, guitarist/lead singer Molly Rankin strides to the mic and they immediately get to it.

They’re slick, controlled and focused. This is what talent-plus-practice looks like. They play a lot from the latest album: Easy On Your Own is a fuzzy, melodic tune that muses on relationships and disaffected adulthood while Bored in Bristol (Rankin notes that tonight it would be impossible to come here and not play it) is a dream-pop delight on which Rankin gets to showcase her ethereal vocals.

Behind the band stands a tall projector screen on which their VDJ, tucked to one side, is playing music-video images and stock scenes from those simulators at old theme parks.

Little webcams stand on poles in front of each band member, whose faces are streamed in real time over the top of each passing scene: a dirt track viewed from inside the car, bluebells whipping in the wind, the mechanics within a clock, bright-coloured streaks (a la Saved By The Bell) wiggling across static.

The band’s floating, projected faces get skewed with psychedelic colours and, at times, are reproduced in monochrome or with a sepia tint that makes them seem wistful as if appearing on the opening credits of Lassie.

In an interview, Rankin mentioned short story master Alice Munro as one of her influences. You can hear this in tracks like Belinda Says, which they play tonight.

Named after Belinda Carlisle, the song dwells on an unexpected pregnancy and agonises over what the future holds, all soundtracked by an addictive and bittersweet power-pop hook.

This quiet literary root perhaps feeds into Alvvays’ performance style. They don’t say too much. Rankin and the band finish their set with Lottery Noises and exit in silence.

The crowd, giving opposing, white-hot energy, restart their hooting and hollering and the band soon complies, beginning an encore with Pharmacist, a shoegaze tune with a positive bent that allows guitarist Alec O’Hanley spotlight to hammer out some lovely fretwork.

Granted, not everyone wants to fill their shows with anecdotes or banter, but the live environment is an opportunity for fans to see, hear and feel what we don’t get to experience on the record. It ties together what would otherwise be just a string of very good songs.

There’s no doubt that these five musicians are talented: they play live with perfection. In fact, that might be it. Between the VDJ screen, the webcams and Rankin sometimes kneeling down, out of view, to manage a pedal or loop on the floor, you can imagine these people to be gear nerds, sound geeks, who fret over every cable and link.

Maybe that’s who they are, those true personas you don’t get to experience on the record. They’ve needled away to within an inch of perfection, a journey that requires supreme focus with minimal mincing of words.

And, to be fair to them, this voyage of quality excavated one of the best albums of the 2020s so far. If we need to negate some little wisecrack asides to get to songs this good, it’s all worth it.

All photos: Rich Kemp

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