Soccer Mommy’s living stage blossomed at Truman

March 17, 2025

Whitney Young, Alex Agueros,

Soccer Mommy. // photo by Whitney Young

Soccer Mommy has grown quite the garden. With flowers decorating the stage, Soccer Mommy delivered an arrangement of cuts from their newest album, Evergreen, complemented by picks from her colorful discography Wednesday. March 12, at the Truman.

Across a decade of full-length releases, Soccer Mommy, the moniker for indie rocker Sophie Allison, has cultivated a land populated with memorable characters, “Wildflowers,” pickup trucks, and her favorite video games. Evergreen, released last October, sheds light on emotional themes Soccer Mommy fans might expect, but through a lens of maturity and technical experience developed since the project’s start in 2015.

Soccer Mommy’s evolution is especially apparent in the studio, where she has sharpened command of her sound with every album since her studio debut in 2018. On Wednesday, Allison’s refined creative proficiency translated more delicately.

Subtle tweaks freshened Soccer Mommy classics as “Circle the Drain” bubbled to the surface and “Cool” warbled melodically between beats. Powerful drums on “Bones” and “Shotgun” revealed the experimental twist on 2022’s Sometimes, Forever, while arena-worthy volume on “Thinking of You,” and the final encore, “Don’t Ask Me,” gave Allison a chance to step back and let it rip.

Soccer Mommy. // photo by Whitney Young

“Still Clean,” performed solo, sounded as raw and confessional as an open wound. There was an added nostalgic pang given the seven-year space between Wednesday’s show and the first time I hit play on her breakout album, Clean. The full band returned with a dazzling meteor shower of an arrangement for “Crawling in My Skin,” and the back-to-back performances served as highlights of the night.

Allison has long offered glimpses at her aspirations with covers via artist collaborations, compilations, and live performances. Lo-fi remakes of Elliott Smith, distortion-drenched versions of “Soak Up the Sun,” and reverent odes Bruce Springsteen and Slowdive, which punctuated setlists upon recent visits to Lawrence, illustrated the poetic songwriting and alternative fuzz that characterize the Soccer Mommy sound.

Without an easily-recognized cover or dramatic crescendos found on earlier Soccer Mommy releases, celebrating Evergreen resulted a couple sleepy moments (“Some Sunny Day,” “Changes”), delivered instant favorites (“M,” “Salt in Wound”) and most importantly, marked an excellent addition to an increasingly essential catalog. Tending to her own songs with the quiet expertise of a master gardener, Allison’s live performance Wednesday demonstrated that the Soccer Mommy project not only has a lush collection to share, but will continue to nurture room to grow.

Hana Vu. // photo by Whitney Young

Hana Vu delivered an opening set of booming, melodic indie rock that showcased the strength of her newest album, Romanticism, released last May. Leaning toward the dreamier side of alternative rock, her band generated a massive lift for a crowd still trickling into the venue.

Her chorus of, “I’m just getting old/ I’m just twenty-two,” seemed an especially appropriate sentiment for a Soccer Mommy show, as both artists were teens when they shared their first recordings. Hana Vu’s ambitious compositions and captivating energy suggest the two may continue to share similar, successful career trajectories, and I hope to see them live again very soon.

All photos by Whitney Young

Soccer Mommy