Alvvays Plays Sold-out Show at The Underground Charlotte

Dan Russell-Pinson – May 6, 2024

Alvvays graced the stage of The Underground Saturday night for the Charlotte stop of their 2024 US tour which was announced in December of last year.

Formed in 2011, Alvvays consists of founding members Molly Rankin (vocals, rhythm guitar), Kerri MacLellan (keyboards, backing vocals) and Alec O’Hanley (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals). Sheridan Riley (drums) has been with the band since 2017, and newcomer Lukas Cheung (bass) has just joined the band this year.

Molly Rankin, lead singer, performing at The Underground (Photo by Dan Russell-Pinson)

The band currently has three studio albums – Alvvays (2014), Antisocialites (2017) and their most recent Blue Rev (2022) – and has seen their popularity grow with each new release. Their sound could be described as dreamy indie/alternative with touches of shoegaze and jangle pop thrown into the mix and is defined by Rankin’s clear, melodic vocals combined with MacLellan’s vintage synth sounds and O’Hanley’s edgy guitar style. Alvvays is sometimes compared to Camera Obscura given a similarity in both vocal delivery and overall sound.

After taking the stage, Alvvays launched straight into their more recent song – “Easy on Your Own” – which works well as an opener with its noisy and chaotic intro followed by Rankin’s sparse vocal ad-libs and eventually launching into the first verse. After an enthusiastic response from the audience, the band brought the excitement up a notch with “After the Earthquake”, an upbeat song from their Blue Rev album.

Kerri MacLellan, keyboardist, performing at The Underground (Photo by Dan Russell-Pinson)

Rankin then engaged the crowd, “Charlotte, what’s up out there? I wanna know what’s new.” Rankin generally kept her comments to the audience brief, choosing instead to let the music do the talking and to make time for their packed setlist of 22 songs including 3 encores. Before playing “Many Mirrors” Rankin said, “This song is for all the Stardew Valley fans out there” – a reference to the fact that Eric Barone, the designer of the game Stardew Valley, created the music video for the song.

Guitarist Alec O’Hanley (Photo by Dan Russell-Pinson)

The band performed like a well-oiled machine, and the overall sound was excellent throughout the show. Most noticeable was the way Rankin’s clean vocals cut through the mix and were perfectly in pitch. She didn’t hit a single off note the whole night even on the high notes of songs like “Hey”, “Belinda Says” and “Lottery Noises”. Riley’s tight drumming and punchy kick drum combined with new-member Cheung’s bass expertise created an exciting foundation for MacLellan’s unique, atmospheric keyboards. O’Hanley’s guitar playing runs the gamut from more restrained rhythm guitar to loud, angular guitar solos and everything in between.

Drummer Sheridan Riley (Photo by Dan Russell-Pinson)

The crowd was very responsive throughout the night but made noticeably more noise for their classic “Archie, Marry Me” and their more recent song “Belinda Says” which Alvvays performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and for which they received their first Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Performance. After the band said goodnight and left the stage, the crowd cheered and chanted for almost 2 minutes prompting Alvvays to return to close out the night with 3 encores – “Pharmacist”, “Ones Who Love You” and “Next of Kin”.

Alvvays will remain in the states until May 17th at which point they travel across the Atlantic to play some European shows in June and July.