An infectiously joyful energy spread through the crowd as soon as Canadian indie-pop group Valley stepped on Scala’s stage. Their excitement to be back on tour after last year’s release of Water the Flowers, Pray for a Garden was clear as the band immediately took control of the auditorium, opening with the new album’s titular track – a seamless blend of garage-rock and indie pop.
Water the Flowers is, thematically, a breakup album – but not the sort you might expect. The band has spoken openly of the devastation they faced after lead guitarist Mickey Brandolino’s departure last year. With one member down, their fifth album easily could have faltered and fallen apart. Instead, it soars triumphantly, emboldened by a fresh lease of life and the seemingly unshakeable bond between lead singer Rob Laska, drummer Karah James and bassist Alex Dimauro.
A couple of harmless pop hits from 2023 album Lost in Translation got the fans dancing, but it was only once ‘A Little More’ started to play that the band truly came alive. Laska and Dimauro leapt across the stage in a display of such effervescent joy it was impossible not to get swept up in the exhilaration.
The following track ‘Growing (Apart)’ took this energy and multiplied it tenfold – the show’s first glimpse of the emotional depths contained within Water the Flowers. While the recorded version constitutes an instrumentally compelling garage-rock-inspired breakup song, Valley amplify this for the live show. With James slamming on the drums, the outro erupted out of a masterfully crafted climactic rise, giving way to a pounding, head-banging anthem as Laska fervently sang: “Tell me what am I supposed to do when / All of me was half of you, and / What am I with a broken heart?”
It was the first of many moments in the show where the emotional significance of their new music brimmed up and spilled over into their performance, infusing the band with an endearingly vulnerable authenticity and purpose. While the energy was high throughout, their new songs were played with such vigour and urgency that there was tangible sense of how emotionally resonant this record is to the trio.
After running through an assortment of older releases, the band got right back to it with ‘Mosquito’ and ‘Let It Rain’. Offering an overt reflection on Brandolino’s departure, the latter’s lyrics denote a philosophical observation on the inevitability of change, as Laska sings “Mickey plays guitar / thumbing through the good parts […] let it rain, let it rain, let it rain”. A persevering yet mournful track, the live version culminated in an electric moment where all three band members crouched together at the front of the stage, each slamming on a guitar during a poignant yet empowering instrumental. A display of both unity and grief, the moment acknowledged the scarring pain change inflicts, alongside the freedom of acceptance and the life-changing growth it makes way for.
Aside from Brandolino, the past few years have been musically turbulent for Valley. Despite their original debut The Room Is White veering towards the alternative side of indie pop, the band’s performance of viral hit ‘Like 1999’ was a nod to a time when they found commercial success in lyrically lightweight teen-pop tracks.
In a brief moment of solemnity, Laska alludes to this, likening the creative freedom of making their first album to children playing in sand. Almost a decade later, it is only with the production of Water the Flowers, an album they poured their “hearts and souls into”, that they finally feel “back in the sandpit”. Touchingly honest, the sentiment was beautifully apparent throughout the show, with the new album displaying a brazen openness, lyrical depth and self-assuredness that is absent from previous records.
The pace picked up again with ‘Crawlspace’ and ‘Life Goes on Without Me’, both perfectly balancing themes of abandonment and grief with a startlingly resolute determination. Perhaps the angriest song on the album, Laska gave his everything for the gripping closer ‘When You Know Someone’. As he bitterly called out “too proud to say so / I’m not what you want”, the song became a blaring, anthemic rush of energy, giving way to raucous applause.
Their original hit ‘There’s Still a Light in the House’ initiated the encore, followed by a dramatic sprint off stage by Laska. He reappeared seconds later in the middle of the audience, clutching his microphone and guitar, encircled by fans who couldn’t believe their luck. As he serenaded the crowd with the soothingly gentle ‘Bop Ba’, one girl was moved to tears by the endearingly sincere intimacy of it all.
A sweeping show of strength, growth and resilience, Valley‘s enrapturing performance felt like a celebration of their survival after a shattering loss. Each song brought with it a sense of catharsis, a relief at making it through to the other side. As the band takes this liberating step forward into their next chapter, let’s hope they realise the garden is in full bloom, and it’s rather beautiful, too.
Words by Elise Barry
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