Credit: Photo by Sandy Carson

Tennis

Red 7, Wednesday, March 14

There’s not much to Tennis. Ostensibly just the married duo of Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, it’s grown into a full-fledged fourpiece for the purposes of playing live. And from opener “Petition,” it was hard to tell whether the band was not yet particularly tight, lacking some dynamism, or just the victim of a shitty mix. By the time they got a couple of songs into the set with “It All Feels the Same,” the answer was apparently: Eh, a little of all three. There were standout moments. OK, moment. “My Better Self,” maybe the purest pop track on new sophomore effort Young & Old came off with the effortlessness of the studio version, but that was about it. And that’s also because it was about a five-song, 15-minute set. How much can you fix or figure out in that time? Maybe on another night, they might be fighting each other and the soundboard a little less.

This article appears in March 16 • 2012.

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