There’s “No One” quite like Aly & AJ and there’s no performance that gets you “up on your feet” like their shows. On April 21st, they brought their With Love From tour to Boston’s MGM Fenway.
Following an emotional set by Miya Folick who shared her gratitude for her friend, musical inspiration, and mentor, Aly and AJ kicked off the nostalgic night. From the setup to the setlist to their infectious energy, it was clear that these west coast kids were excited to bring their discography back east.
That nostalgia was amplified by the victrola-inspired, warmly-colored lights that illuminated the stage.
Opening their varied set with “Open to Something and That Something is You,” their 24 song set wove through their almost two-decade long music career. Songs like “Blue Dress” and “Way of Nature and Grace” showcased their matured sound, while throwbacks like “Potential Breakup Song” reminded the crowd of simpler times when “all I want[ed] was just my stuff back.”
Other Aly and AJ classics included “Rush,” “Like Whoa,” and “Division,” which Aly noted “brings me back to where we started.”
In addition to their poetic lyrics, Aly and AJ are quite the instrumentalists. When they weren’t at the microphone, they were jamming out on guitars, hitting the keys, or playing tambourine.
In keeping with tradition, Aly and AJ brought and are continuing to bring attention to vital causes. On this tour, they shared the importance of addressing gun safety as survivors of a mass shooting themselves.
“Last year AJ and I, and our band and crew, survived a mass shooting in Sacramento, California and six people that evening died outside of our bus, while we were safe shielded from the bullets. I feel like it’s now our responsibility to talk about gun safety because we have now been victims of gun violence ourselves. I know that this can be a very dividing topic, but I feel like we can all agree that having guns safely locked and stored is a positive.”
Aly went on to encourage the audience to “commit to ask if there is an unlocked gun in the house that you’re living in or the home you’re visiting,” by taking the pledge at pledgetoask.org
“I truly believe that asking this question might save not only your own life, but someone else’s.”
Before closing out the show with a two song encore that included “6 Months of Staring Into the Sun,” AJ shared the band’s gratitude for the crowd spending their “After Hours” with them.
The last decade of Aly & AJ, and its evolutions, have been quite the “the ride,” and with the excited buzz that lingered long after the duo left the stage, fans have no plans to get off anytime soon.
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