Nearly a year after releasing her sophomore LP “My Soft Machine,” rising singer-songwriter Arlo Parks headlined an all-ages show at First Avenue’s Mainroom for the first time on Friday.
After opening for Clairo and Billie Eilish in 2022 and collaborating with Phoebe Bridgers on a track for Parks’ last album, Parks continues to prove that she is a force to be reckoned with as an artist.
With a backdrop of a studio-sized tape recorder and three vibrant backing musicians, Parks’ live set-up aimed to create the feeling of listening to a great band live in the studio.
On the studio recordings, many of Parks’ songs trend towards a more down-tempo, soft musical style with Parks casually singing eloquent, poetic lyrics over them. However, at her show at First Avenue, she and her band livened up much of the material to a surprising degree, somehow making the songs even more groovy in a concert setting.
A track that is catchy and upbeat on its own, “Weightless,” established a synergy between Parks and her band towards the beginning of the show with their live rendition living up to the studio version.
Later came “Caroline,” one of her most popular songs from her stellar 2021 debut album “Collapsed in Sunbeams.” The track opens with musical verses that conjure a dreary feeling of sentimentality, before launching into one of her most anthemic choruses: “Caroline / I swear to god I tried / I swear to god I tried.”
The crowd singing along loudly to “Caroline” was one of the most energetic moments of the Friday night show. With an added drum breakdown toward the end of the song, the band showed they could add those little moments to Parks’ live show that made all the difference.
While Parks brought energy to the stage the entire night — roaming all over the Mainroom’s stage, dancing along to the music — the crowd at First Avenue was surprisingly low energy in contrast to the performers, especially considering the vigor Parks and her band were displaying on stage.
“Eugene,” Parks’ most-streamed song on Spotify, echoes the guitarwork of Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood on their 2007 classic “In Rainbows” with its quiet, gentle instrumental. The band remarkably added a guitar solo towards the end of the song, yet another instance of the band adding little parts to each song that make the track more engaging live.
Another song Parks performed live that features an anthemic chorus is “Hope,” also off “Collapsed in Sunbeams.” Parks and her band did not reinvent the wheel with this live rendition but rather stayed true to the song’s trip-hop aesthetic that is present on the album. While Parks and her band had many moments on Friday night where they made little additions to songs, with “Hope,” they kept it simple and it worked just as well.
The show’s energy climaxed for the last two songs of the main set, “Sophie” and “Devotion,” for which Parks strapped on an electric guitar for the first time that night. Closing out the main set with “Devotion,” Parks and her band were as energetic as ever while performing the rockiest song of the night. Parks energetically strummed her guitar as the three band members gave it their all before the encore.
With even more live material to pull from this time around, Parks’ show at First Avenue’s Mainroom was much more memorable than her show at the 7th Street Entry next door in 2021. With a tight-sounding live band that brought a considerable amount of energy into Parks’ songs, possibly teasing a more energetic third album from her, the future looks very bright for Arlo Parks.
