Momma's Welcome to My Blue Sky Tour Brought Ethereal Grunge to Chicago's Thalia Hall: A Concert Review
- Abby Anderson
- May 25
- 3 min read
"This is the biggest headlining show we've ever sold out," Allegra Weingarten quips, pushing aside her leopard-print guitar and soaking in the cheers from the house-light illuminated crowd at Chicago's Thalia Hall. Alongside partner-in-crime Etta Freidman, the duo formed indie-rock band Momma in Los Angeles as teenagers before relocating to Brooklyn and enlisting drummer Preston Fulks and bassist Aron Kobayashi Ritch. Since, Momma has toured alongside Death Cab for Cutie and Weezer, but following the release of their latest studio album earlier this spring, Welcome to My Blue Sky, the band is hitting their stride as a headlining act. Alongside shoegazy, alternative-rock band Wishy, Momma emblazoned a rainy Tuesday night with their ethereal-grunge Welcome to My Blue Sky Tour for that milestone crowd in one of Chicago's most revered venues.
Intertwined pinky promising hands unfurled on the curtain at the back of the stage, dreamily understating the anticipated arrival of the foursome bathed in blue light and smoky haze. Opening their set parallel to the tracklisting of the Welcome to My Blue Sky album with the duo of "Sincerely" and "I Want You (Fever)," Momma entranced the crowd with dreamy, 90s-nostalgia rock-style reverb and highly-addictive chorusing of "Pick up and leave her/ I want you, fever," singing into their chainlink and heart-charm adorned microphones. Allegra and Etta themselves balanced between effortlessly cool rockstars and friends just hanging out with 900 of their other friends, all of whom rocked varying styles of leather, band tees, leopard print, and menswear as they chorused every word of the band's set.
Hitting most of their latest project and standouts from their previous album, Household Name, the band drove through their discography under hypnotic technicolor lights, further creating a fresh take on old school rock and breathing life into the inherent edge of the ornate opera-house style of the room of Thalia Hall. Powering through rockers like "Bang Bang," "Biohazard," and "Ohio All The TIme" frenzied the crowd, but Momma remained ever in control, pulling back to moments intimate enough that they seem as if they would fit in to a best friend secret-spilling session in an attic decked out in J-14 posters and lava lamps. Joking about their last visit to Chicago, which included some bad tequila shots and a crowd a fraction of the size of this one, Allegra and Etta allowed their friendship and musical chops to steal the show, perfectly balancing sentimentality and rocker chic.
In pure nostalgia-rock fashion, Momma closed their standard set with "My Old Street," which reflects on how far the band has come in chasing their dreams. Between silky guitar runs, the room echoed with a therapeutic thrumming of, "Just bury me / It's so hard to leave it / I miss it but I've moved on." But true rockstars don't leave their audiences with anything but a last chance to let go, so following an on-stage paper-cup toast with openers Wishy, Momma closed out the Welcome to My Blue Sky Tour set with groovy, riffy "Speeding 72." Before Allegra climbed to the front of the stage to give a lucky fan her setlist, Momma let the music speak for them, reminding the crowd that they can always fall back into creating a moment of rock nostalgia along with them: "Maybe there's a show there / Meet me on a Sunday, filling up the ashtray / Always in a new place, you can catch us around."
Welcome to My Blue Sky Tour Dates
4/23 – Louisville, KY – Big Four Lawn Waterfront Park
4/25 – Columbus, OH – Skully’s Music Diner
4/26 – Durham, NC – Motorco Music Hall
4/28 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
4/29 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
4/30 – Memphis, TN – Growlers
5/02 – Houston, TX – Last Concert Cafe
05/03 – Fort Worth, TX – Tulips
5/04 – Austin, TX – Mohawk
5/06 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
5/09 – Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
5/10 – San Francisco, CA – August Hall
5/12 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
5/13 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
5/14 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
5/16 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party
5/16 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge (KBP After Party)
5/17 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
5/19 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line
5/20 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
5/22 – Toronto, ON – Axis
5/23 – Ottawa, ON – Club SAW
5/24 – Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount
5/28 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
5/29 – Washington, DC – The Atlantis
5/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
5/31 – New York, NY – Warsaw
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