Tennis at the Echo on Friday February 4th, 2011: Eerie Incantations -by Alyson Camus

The couple from Denver saved enough money to buy a 30-foot boat in Florida and went sailing for 7 months on the Eastern coast whilst they were writing songs as a ‘sort of a soundtrack for our experiences’ as they put it. So I don’t know exactly why they chose to call themselves Tennis, but the boat and tennis combination made me think about some Ralph Lauren or Izod ad and athletic handsome guys and gals wearing polo and shorts.

And it was not that far from reality. The two were cute and well behaved as Alaina was introducing each one of their songs whereas Patrick, at the opposite side of the stage (which made it difficult to capture them both in the same shot) was playing a steady guitar, moving very little between his wife’s keyboard and their drummer.

Alaina’s sugary vocals were floating like an eerie incarnation of a 50s-60s girl group, though I cannot pinpoint exactly which one,.. the Supremes? The Ronettes? Her oo-oos, and other vocal prowess were less obvious live than on the recording, but you could still hear the sweetness of it, a little buried at times into the wall of sound produced by her organ and her husband’s somewhat darker guitar.

Their poppy songs are for the most part very likable at the first listening, in particular a song like Marathon with its retro sound and sunny optimism all over the track, a little like a mid-western answer to Best Coast,.. with better lyrics. Their music has all the signs of happiness, it’s warm like the sunny seashore they are talking about, breezy like the sea they were sailing, their serotonin-boosting melodies and ‘good vibrations’ making their sound instantaneously accessible.
They did a cover just after ‘Marathon’, the Jackie DeShannon’s tune ‘When you walk in the room’, just to reinforce the nostalgia of their sound, then Alaina introduced ‘Baltimore’ as a song about not getting a job and starting a band instead… a smart move if they continue to write these catchy tunes.