Pollen 2023 Tour

Tennis

Sam Evian
Mon Oct 16
Doors: 7:00 PM /  Show: 8:00 PM

All Ages*
Main Room

$25 ADV / $30 DOS

Presales begin 6/13 at 12pm. General onsale begins 6/16 at 10am.

Doors at 7:00pm
Main Room
$25 Advance/$30 Day of Show
$35 Balcony Reserved
$45 Pitside East Reserved
$45 Pitside West Reserved

Facebook RSVP

All ages show. Check entry requirements at http://theslowdown.com/All-Ages and https://www.theslowdown.com/covid-19/

Pitside and Balcony are seated with first come, first pick within the section. See the seating map here.

About Tennis
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Tennis is Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley. The two met in the philosophy department at the University of Colorado in 2008 after dropping out of their respective music programs. In the years after graduating, they got involved in Denver’s DIY music scene. Through house shows, they were connected with Underwater Peoples, and Firetalk. Tennis’ first singles “South Carolina,” “Baltimore,” and “Marathon” were released in 2010. The band went blog-viral nearly overnight, landing them a record deal with Fat Possum.

Cape Dory, (2011 on Fat Possum), documents Moore and Riley’s time spent living aboard a small sailboat on the Atlantic coast. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseeker chart, transitioning Tennis from house-shows to stages such as Lollapalooza.

Tennis recorded their sophomore effort Young & Old (2012) with Patrick Carney of the Black Keys. They made their television debut on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, and Conan.

In 2014 they signed with Communion. The resulting release, Ritual in Repeat was the culmination of separate recording sessions with Richard Swift, Jim Eno and Patrick Carney. Moore and Riley were greatly influenced by Richard Swift’s approach to recording and engineering, prompting Riley’s decision to take over as engineer on their future releases.

With shifting labels and new interests, Tennis chose an alternate path for their band and career. In 2016, Moore and Riley formed the label Mutually Detrimental and began self-releasing. Their newfound freedom allowed them to return to their sailboat to write their next full-length, this time in the Sea of Cortez. Yours Conditionally, released in 2017, became their most commercially successful album–charting at #4 on Billboard’s Independent list and in the top 100 highest selling vinyl releases that year. They played Coachella and opened for artists like The National, Father John Misty and The Shins–proving their DIY roots as a cornerstone to their sound and narrative.

Their follow up Swimmer (2020), was recorded in their home studio with Moore and Riley producing and engineering. The pair brought their long-time touring member Steve Voss in for the second time to drum on record. The singles, Need Your Love and Runner, were Tennis’ most successful releases to date. With nearly every show on tour sold-out (including two consecutive nights at Brooklyn Steel) the album’s campaign was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pollen, Tennis’ sixth studio album released on February 10, 2023 (Mutually Detrimental)

About Sam Evian
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Sam Evian knew he wanted to leave New York City almost as soon as he arrived, more than a decade ago. An upstart songwriter and producer, he, of course, loved its creative wellspring—the ideas, the instrumentalists, the energy. But he’d grown up in the woods of upstate New York and, later, along the coast on the rather empty eastern end of North Carolina. The city was expensive, anxious, and unsettling, however inspiring it could be.

So in the Summer of 2017, he and his band decamped to a rented house upstate to cut his second album, the magnetic You, Forever. He then realized he could no longer resist the urge; two years ago, Sam and his partner, Hannah Cohen, split from the city, building their refuge in the quiet of a Catskills town. That reflective, relaxing environment inexorably shaped Time to Melt, his third LP and debut for Fat Possum. A glowing set of soulfully psychedelic pop gems, Time to Melt is a testimonial to the life and wisdom to be found when you give yourself the mercy of space.

At home now near the Ashokan Reservoir with their new rescue dog, Jan, Sam and Hannah mostly listen to music while they cook dinner. That’s the kind of record Sam wanted to make—an album of sounds so pleasant and compelling that you put it on and follow the slipstream. He succeeded; Time to Melt is a waking dream, its intoxicating rhythms and timbral webs as settling, even seductive as an evening glass of wine. But making dinner, or whatever your ritual at day’s end may be, isn’t some idle exercise. It’s a place to unpack the pain and wonder, the suffering and promise of the moment, to reflect on where you have been and what might come next. In 40 striking minutes, or the time it may take you to make that meal, Time to Melt sorts through a year of a life spent in rage and hope, lockdown and love.