There’s no love like a New Love, and I found myself head-over-heels for Allison Weiss and the acts brought together on her album release tour. Bringing along a full band and family of inspired performers, Allison stitched together the most gorgeous, intimate evening that I’ve experienced at New World Brewery.
That’s the atmosphere she wanted to create: one of closeness, in spite of the waves of tragedy crashing throughout the world in the wake of Paris and Garrissa University College in Kenya. Her performance was a comfort, the voice we all needed to hear. Allison is the sweet, goofy friend that you wish was your best friend, to share your stories with.
Through social media, Allison pointed out that it’s obvious that she’s happy and in a relationship (or rather, ecstatically engaged). With that happiness, there’s still an honesty about her, at times, sad-girl music: the self-quoted “girl who never lets go of anything.”
Call it what it is: an unimaginable superpower, a talent that allows her creativity to span any point in her life and turn it into a reflection. Allison has the gift to mature and contemplate on her experiences in relationships, and her art shows for it. Speaking and singing with such a raw, meditated perspective doesn’t work for every artist, because not everyone is so truthful. Allison is impressive for every ounce of talent and consideration she places in her work.
Backed by a full-band, Allison blasted through top tracks off her new album, including heart-bursting ballad, “Golden Coast,” and catchy “The Sound.” The recording of New Love is incredible; the live rendition of tracks is breathtaking.
For longtime fans of Allison, it was the translations of “Say What You Mean” and “I Was an Island” that made her performance a wrenching, golden experience. Her long-favored cover of “Call Your Girlfriend” by Robyn was as enchanting as ever; she takes a Swedish synth-pop princess’s track and melds it into the mournful, soulful ache that is her own.
Matching the sentiment was the incredible Mal Blum. Mal can rock with the most gorgeous energy with “Better Go,” but can also bring the stomping angst in “Baltimore.” Forget indie stompers like Moldy Peaches; Mal transcends the genre’s blues-y quirk with a twisting, imagery-rooted performance.
Mal’s performance is stringy, rollicking with presence that brings seismic alt waves. It would be a crime to overlook the alto-soul New Yorker, who captured every swoon on the patio space.
If this Winter was the only set of chills I was to experience for the entire season, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest.
Dream pop wavers Winter brought a hazy, gorgeous trance. The Los Angeles band chilled the space with their ethereal presence. Fuzzy indie switched to bouncing new wave pop with “Someone Like You,” and the band’s ability to handle such a metamorphosis in sound is a talent in itself.
New York’s Kid in the Attic blends a flurry of sounds: indie pop, folk, electronic … The list of fusions packed into this cataclysmic act are countless.
A special note: NPR, if you see this, you should have had this talent on Tiny Desk yesterday.
Maia McDonald has formed a collective of sound and talented performers, and it’s this that will lift the band into a pivotal scene status. Feel the chiming trance in “Locomote,” and be swept into a otherworldly space of sound.
Transforming a space into one of unity and familiar fellowship takes a rare kind of power. Clambering on stage for Allison’s encore, “I Was an Island,” was the tour family itself, who wrapped arms, sang into shared microphones, and swayed in time to her rocking ballad. No longer is Allison a lone island, apart from the pack. She has her crafted, talented family.
Allison Weiss Live Review and Photos by Amanda Starling, edited by Matthew Weller.
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▼ SHOWS TO GO TO ▼
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- The Commission Beer Chamber
- Kingfish Records (Clearwater)
- Nora's Sugar Shack!
- Park Ave CDs
- Montgomery Drive Presents
- RT-Art Printing
- The Mary Jane 'High-Quality' Art Gallery
- The Owl's Attic Vintage Shop
- Broken Strings Brewery
- American Combat Club
- Lazy Moon Pizza
- Ten10 Brewing
- Leguminati
- Mutiny Ocala
- The Tipsy Skipper
- Conrad's Beer Shanty
- AKT Shirt Printing
- Smartpunk Records & Shop
- No Clubs Presents
- DaddyKool Records
- Galactic G Skateshop
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