Tennis For Two: A Sold-out Show at Union Transfer

Tickets were bought months in advance. Still, the two of us continued to refer to the night’s famous headlining band as boy and girl. Even while we pulled up to Union Transfer’s sold-out show, Brandon and I would ask aloud to no one in particular, “Are you excited to see boy and girl?” In part because the oversimplification of the indie pop sensation Tennis was a dry and dismissive attempt at hiding how terrifyingly excited we truly were.  And also, because I don’t think either of us knew the actual names of the duo. 

At the time, we couldn’t really have known who was behind Tennis. Our interest in and subsequent knowledge of the indie darlings came from the albums alone. We knew Tennis consisted of a man and woman, we knew they were in love. Our shared devotion stemmed from the visual aesthetics and audible pleasures of a musical discography romanticized by unconditional companionship. Uncoincidentally, our impression-based obsession blossomed into the wonderful delusion that Brandon and I were joined together in a commitment parallel to the marriage shared by the musical leads of Tennis. 

We first met Tennis’s Alaina Moore and Pat Riley on the cover of their fifth studio album, Swimmer. Obviously, the first thing noticed was Moore’s retro crown of curls. Then came the music. Let me clarify - then came the obsession: the endless Tennis playlists, the swapping of old songs as if we discovered them ourselves, and the shared admiration whose only limitation was the debilitating shyness of over-the-top infatuation. So, we bought tickets for Union Transfer in Philly and listened to Swimmer, asking ourselves: what exactly is it one does at a Tennis concert? 

Read my review of Tennis's sold out show at Union Transfer here