Tennis: Stripped Down at The Chapel

Tennis, Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, just got back from opening for Father John Misty‘s tour just to get to start a new one, Solo In Stereo. They got inspired by a Father John Misty show where he stripped his songs down for an intimate set. Tennis is doing the same on their Solo In Stereo Tour. In these close and personal performances at smaller venues, the songs are played by their writers without any other accompaniment. It is the first time that Moore and Riley truly perform as a two-piece. During the show, Moore explained that on this tour, Tennis is playing the songs closest to the way in which they were first conceived. With this unique idea came a unique concert experience on Tuesday night at The Chapel in San Francisco.

Even though there was no dedicated drummer or additional guitar players, the night was high energy and filled with surprises. Moore graced her fans with her class and wit. “I would like to apologize to everyone for how sexy I am” were her first words as she slowly made her way to the stage in an all silver-sequined dress. Throughout the night, Moore mainly switched between piano and keyboard, while Riley played a new guitar with each new song. Moore treated the crowd with her guitar-playing, and Riley got on the drums as they experimented with different instruments live for the first time. Moore frequently spoke to the audience about the inspirations behind her songs which gave the night a special sense of intimacy. She told of how she wrote “Timothy” about a Washington Post article that gave one of her albums a bad review and how Timothy, the writer, went out of his way to write it. Not only did the crowd get an inside peek into her inspirations, her personality and confidence was on full display throughout the night. Tennis treated us to a special concert with their sound stripped-down, personal anecdotes and refreshing realness.

Tennis is on their tour, Solo In Stereo. Tickets can be found here.