Phoebe Bridgers & Soccer Mommy @ Aisle 5

The day after Valentine’s Day brought a completely sold out show at Atlanta’s Aisle 5 in Little Five Points. On the agenda that had a long line waitng out front before doors opened were two of the most buzzworthy female fronted acts of the last year in Phoebe Bridgers and Soccer Mommy. The current tour is the perfect opportunity to catch two quickly rising, young singer-songwriters that are powerful, intimate, and confessional, even if their approaches are different. Atlanta sure came out, one of the most packed shows I’ve personally seen at this venue, with a strong, exciting energy flowing through the air.

Phoebe Bridgers and Soccer Mommy proved to be a perfect pairing. While they provided different shows, the two can meet in the middle at say a Julien Baker, where simple guitar strumming paired with vocals and their brutally honest and evocative lyrics will cut deep to the core. From there the two artists drift in different directions. Phoebe Bridgers goes down towards the more roots music of Americana, while Soccer Mommy moves into more rock ‘n’ roll territory. If you were just listening to the two different artists, you would probably guess that Phoebe Bridgers is the one from Nashville, Tennessee, but that’s Soccer Mommy, while Bridgers was raised in Los Angeles.

Soccer Mommy is twenty-year old Nashville native Sophie Allison. The project started when Sophie started writing her own work the summer before she left for college at New York University and releasing it on Bandcamp as Soccer Mommy. As the buzz began to grow behind her recordings, Allison eventually quit school and returned to Nashville to work on music full time and releasing the 8 song Collection last year, a compilation of Sophie’s best from Bandcamp. Now Soccer Mommy is a full 4-piece guitar rock band with piercing lyrics and ready to release their official debut album, Clean via Fat Possum on March 2nd.

With Soccer Mommy prepping for the release of their new album, the band played plenty from the upcoming album including the rousing “Your Dog” and breezy “Cool”. As a full band, Soccer Mommy played a set of DIY type rock ‘n’ roll that has been sweeping across the Southeast, Brooklyn and more. Led by guitarist Julian Powell’s ricocheting bridges with Sophie holding the song together tightly on the second guitar, the band hits pieces of everything from grunge to art rock. At the core of Soccer Mommy will always be Sophie’s empathetic vocals and vulnerable lyrics over her own pop sensibilities. There is an intimacy to Soccer Mommy’s music that is extremely relatable, yet entirely complex. Never was that more evident than when the band left Sophie on stage alone to perform the latest single “Still Clean”, the opening track of the new album. A quite hush fell over the Aisle 5 crowd as Allison sang from deep in her soul with just some slight reverb from her guitar strumming. Though simplistic musically, the song proves what Soccer Mommy is capable of as a songwriter, and why this an empowering voice we will be hearing for years to come.

For Phoebe Bridgers, it’s been a whirlwind couple of years. With Ryan Adams catching wind of Phoebe, producing and releasing her debut 7″ Killer on his Pax AM Records, then releasing her debut album Stranger in the Alps last September via Dead Oceans, with international praise and landing on almost everyone’s year end list, and now a headlining tour that has been pretty much sold out, it’s been full steam ahead for Phoebe Bridgers.

The sold out crowd in Atlanta was there to catch what the buzz was all about, or they were already just completely in love and enamored with Phoebe Bridgers ahead of the show. Either way, for music that is overall generally somber and unsettling, there was an energetic joy in the room as the crowd waited for Bridgers and her band to take the stage. When Phoebe finally trotted out on stage flashing her comforting smile in an all black outfit with long sleeves and dress down to her shoes, almost like a nun, the crowd was ready to burst in her emotional songs. And that’s the thing about Phoebe Bridgers and her music, while the themes are often depressing, her incredible vocals are soothing even at their saddest moments, there’s an uplifting quality to her music as you work through emotions with Bridgers.

Phoebe Bridgers started off the night with a quite number, “Smoke Signals”, serving notice of how the softest moments on this night will be some of the best. Next up was “Funeral”, which had the crowd lost in the lyrics and lap steel guitar. Before Phoebe went into her third song, she told the Atlanta crowd that her first love was from Georgia, before being interrupted by an adorning fan yelling out “it’s me!”. She didn’t seem amused. She carried on, explaining that the next song “Georgia” was about that first love. The song was an absolute monster that saw Bridgers hit a big long note towards the end with the crowd completely engulfed in the song. Next up was “Would You Rather” in which she duets with Connor Oberst on the studio version. For the live version she enlisted guitarist Harrison Whitford, who didn’t miss a beat even without Oberst’s distinct vocals. Other highlights included the jaw-dropping “Killer”, the upbeat “Motion Sickness” which had the crowd yelling and dancing, and ending the set with an epic version of “Scott Street”. For the encore, Phoebe Bridgers ended her set as she ends her album, with a Mark Kozelek cover of “You Missed My Heart”, live with an extended version of the studio recording that ended with Bridgers sitting on the stage floor as she channeled every inner emotion she has to the audience. It was absolutely stunning.

The only sad and disappointing thing about this night was the crowd in the very back of the room who thought the quietest and tenderest moments of the night, including during “You Missed My Heart”, was the best time to catch up with their friends. For a completely packed and sold out crowd that was mostly very attentive and in tune with the artists on stage, those few people talking in the very back of the room can derail a moment on stage. Please consider the others in attendance who have paid for tickets, and the artists on staging giving their hearts and soul. Go outside or something. I mean at the minimum during the quieter songs, at least give being respectful a shot…but alas, there was nothing that could derail the forces that took the stage at Aisle 5, Soccer Mommy and Phoebe Bridgers were incredible performers, and two songwriters we are going to be hearing about for years to come.

Check out Mike Gerry‘s photos from the show:

iPhone Video Proof that it actually happened:

Upcoming Phoebe Bridgers & Soccer Mommy Tour Dates:

2/20/18 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel *SOLD OUT*
2/21/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Upstairs
2/22/18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *SOLD OUT*
2/23/18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg *SOLD OUT*
2/24/18 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott *SOLD OUT*

More Phoebe Bridgers Tour Dates:

02/25/18 Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
02/27/18 Montreal, QC – Belmont w/ Loic April
02/28/18 Toronto, ON – The Velvet Underground
03/01/18 Pontiac, MI – Pike Room w/ Shortly
03/04/18 London, UK – with Bon Iver
03/05/18 London, UK – with Bon Iver
04/04/18 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
04/06/18 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
04/07/18 Omaha, NE – O’Leaver’s Pub
04/09/18 Kansas City, MO – recordBar
04/10/18 St. Louis, MO – Blueberry Hill – Duck Room
04/11/18 Louisville, KY – Zanzabar
04/13/18 Columbus, OH – The Basement
04/14/18 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern
04/15/18 Bloomington, IN – The Bishop
04/17/18 Grand Rapids, MI – Calvin College: Ladies Literary Club
04/18/18 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
04/19/18 Madison, WI – The Frequency
04/20/18 Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
04/24/18 Vancouver, BC – The Cobalt
04/25/18 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
04/27/18 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill

Upcoming Soccer Mommy Tour Dates:

3/3/18 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
3/4/18 – Manchester, UK @ The Castle Hotel *SOLD OUT*
3/6/18 – London, UK @ Moth Club
3/7/18 – Brighton, UK @ The Hope
3/8/18 – Paris, FR @ Supersonic
3/9/18 – Amsterdam, NL @ Sugar Factory
3/12-18/18 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/23/18 – Nashville, TN @ The East Room
3/27/18 – Lexington, KY @ The Burl *
3/28/18 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop *
3/29/18 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern *
3/30/18 – Davenport, IA @ The Raccoon Motel *
3/31/18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater *
4/3/18 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett *
4/4/18 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza *
4/5/18 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge *
4/7/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Botton Of The Hill
4/10/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
4/11/18 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar *
5/4/18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade