For all the flack that Denver duo Tennis has been getting for their live show, I found myself quite enjoying them during their set at the Paste/Sennheiser day party on Wednesday afternoon. Tennis, if you recall, is husband and wife duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley whose simply constructed twee-esque music evokes memories of 70’s summer time and innocence. They have released two albums in a bit over two years, both of which have been quite successful. Their live show has been written about as a bit lackadaisical, which appears to be a black mark on an otherwise remarkable start for the band.
With the diminutive Alaina Moore manning the keyboard, Tennis played a set that consisted primarily of new material from the record Young and Old. I think they are a band that has chosen to play a live show that doesn’t stray far from the recorded material and given the bands live setup, it doesn’t really have much room for deviation. I don’t expect Tennis to go into an extended guitar solo halfway through the track Petition and I don’t think the casual fan should either. I guess you can say that Tennis shows are always at an even level, which is good but never really reaches that life reaffirming/defining next level. That type of show comes with time and if this group keeps on releasing projects with the quality of the first two releases, they’ll have plenty of time to work that out.