Tennis at Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis (07 Oct 2014)

Pure Bathing Culture

Pure Bathing Culture opened up the show, playing a forty-minute set of songs like “Dream The Dare” from their debut Moon Tides album, out now on Partisan Records. Their sound is often compared to Cocteau Twins, somewhat ethereal and shoegazing, thanks to singer Sarah Versprille’s vocals, which we previously described as angelic. Making up the rest of the live band, included her co-songwriter/guitarist Daniel Hindman, bassist Zach Tillman, and drummer Brian Wright.



Since this was the band’s first break in a lengthy tour, Versprille said that they were very glad to get a couple of days off at their home… Unfortunately they have to spend fourteen hours driving in the car to get to Portland!



This must be the fourth or fifth time Denver-based Tennis stopped by Minneapolis, but it’s always good to see the band again. The husband/wife duo is focused around singer/keys (and sometime guitar) Alaina Moore, who was feeling a little under the weather. It was bad enough that the band canceled their in-store appearance at Electric Fetus earlier in the day… and you can tell that the band is sorely looking forward to their break… that is until starting their second leg of their tour again in a week.



Moore, as I’ve previously written about, spent most of her time behind the keyboard, only stepping out for one song, “Petition”, and picking up the guitar for her only guitar-written song, “Viv Without the N”. Her husband, Patrick Riley, on the other hand, is usually in the spotlight center, walking to and fro with his guitar (and often with his head hanging down).



During the first half of the show (8 songs in!), Moore eventually asked a fan to stop filming the show, “It’s a little distracting. I want you to enjoy the show, I want to sing to you, specifically.” Hearing that, some of the photogs (who were snapping pictures, even post-three songs) started to wrap up their gear and took off… Believe me, it is not only distracting to the performers, but also the audience in attendance, so Moore is not in the wrong.

Setlist

Most of their set was taken from their latest Communion album Ritual In Repeat, with only a few songs from their previous albums. Hearing them talk on stage, it seemed like they’ve been writing a lot of songs on the road. One of the new songs on Ritual In Repeat called “I’m Callin'” had quite an interesting story. Moore said that the song took over a year to write, as she started trying to write a Carole King-type song, but just could not get it right. Then one night, she had a dream, where all the lyrics and notes were revealed to her! Then she apologized if the lyrics didn’t make any sense, as they were from a dream.



After the standard going off stage and coming back for the encore, Moore joked, “We took a bunch of drugs!” Then Riley clarified, it was NyQuil Cold Medicine. With that, they played “Bad Girls” and “Marathon”, the latter was a fitting song, since they felt like they ran a marathon – a long road finally ending in Minneapolis.



Tennis’ Ritual In Repeat is out now on Communion Records. Catch Tennis with Pure Bathing Culture on this fall 2014 tour.