In the heat of late Thursday evening, the outdoor stage of Rose Bowl Tavern was ready to be rocked by the band Momma.
Momma started as the passion project of lead singers and guitarists Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman. The duo quickly became a four-person band after their move from Los Angeles to New York, where they met producer and bassist Aron Kobayashi Ritch and drummer Preston Fulks.
Since Weingarten and Friedman released their debut album in 2018, their sound has only gotten bigger and better. Opening for artists of the likes of Weezer and Modest Mouse, the band is trailblazing to be a “Household Name” — as its 2022 album foresees.
Momma’s latest record, “Welcome to My Blue Sky,” was released in April. It sees the band at its most polished, while keeping its rebellious sound.
The band is currently on tour for this record, making a stop at PYGMALION.
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PYGMALION is a local musical festival that highlights all genres of art. The festival is held across music venues in the Champaign-Urbana area, where local artists, as well as out-of-town acts, come together for a jam-packed, three-day festival.
Karen Hoffman, employee of the Virginia Theatre in Champaign, finds herself yet again at another year of PYGMALION.
“I really like how many different kinds of things there are, like comedy shows, readings, rock shows or hip hop,” Hoffman said. “I love the diversity of the program.”
Thursday night, the crowd gathered for a night of vibrant rock music.
At 7:00 p.m., Rose Bowl welcomed the opening band Lawn. Originally from New Orleans, frontmen Rui DeMagalhaes and Mac Folger made the stage their home and amped up the crowd for the upcoming show.
Lawn’s 30-minute set was filled with unreleased songs off its new record, which it announced comes out Friday. The band created excitement and wonderfully encapsulated the vibe and energy that Momma fans fed off of.
As the set came to an end, Momma fans eagerly gathered at the front of the stage.
Kyle McCafferty, librarian at the University, describes Momma’s sound as “jumping around music,” which perfectly foreshadowed the show ahead.
The musicians of Momma took their spots on stage and opened with the bright and perfectly upbeat, “Ohio All the Time.” Off the bat, Weingarten and Freidman showcased their vocal chops. The crowd received the band fully, nodding their heads and moving along to the addictive drumming of Fulks.
“I Want You (Fever)” followed and was a perfect transition from the band’s opening song. The guitars were having a call-and-response conversation on stage that listeners were begging to be let in on. The sudden switch to a guitar synthesizer during the chorus made the crowd giddy for the rest of what the band had in store.
After two songs from its latest record, the band played “Tall Home” off of “Household Name.” The slower guitar picking of this song, along with the conversational way Friedman performs this song, allows the song to build up.
“I could be your everything,” Friedman sang, while passionately shredding on the guitar as people danced and jumped along with her.
Throughout the show, the chemistry between Weingarten and Friedman was electric. They sang in turn, right on beat and in perfect harmony. They were so in sync with each other that it was hard to tell who was taking the reins of a song.
“Bottle Blonde” led the crowd back to songs off its new record. The easy tempo of the song allowed listeners to catch their breath after a vibrant first couple of songs, while “Callin Me” got the crowd moving again.
The band was charming in its lyric delivery as Weingarten and Friedman took turns singing, “Callin’ me, callin’ me.” If they gave out a phone number to call, the audience would be calling it.
At the end of this adrenaline-filled song, there was a lull in Momma’s set that allowed Weingarten to greet the audience and ask how they were doing.
Fans cheered in response and yelled, “We love you!”
“We love you, we really do,” Friedman replied from the stage.
“New Friend” and “How to Breathe” are sequential on Momma’s record and in its performance, and perfectly transition into each other. Friendman sang, “She taught my body how to breathe,” with a smile on her face as if she was letting the crowd in on a secret.
“Cheers!” Weingarten said as she took a swig of her beer. Members of the audience did the same with whatever beverage they had in hand. The sip of the drink is necessary, as they chug along to “Medicine.” The glittering and purposeful squeals of the guitars got people jumping more than any song of the night.
“One shot/ I never really ask a lot,” Friedman sang as she jolted backwards along with the high energy of the track.
At the end of the song, Weingarten yelled, “You guys are so sick!”
Almost like a reward for being a good audience, Momma played “Apollo,” not originally on the set list, but requested by someone from the front row.
“We practiced this song yesterday, we got this!” Friedman said.
If there was any hesitancy in performing this song, it was undetectable in its perfect performance.
Momma’s set ended with “Speeding 72,” its highest-streamed track on Spotify.
Despite its popularity, the band offered the idea of putting phones away and not recording during this song.
“What if no one knows this happened?” Weingarten said, inviting the audience to stay present. “Let it live in your mind.”
People complied as they bounced along, even pumping their fists while singing the lyrics to each other and the band.
As Momma thanked the audience for a great night, the crowd yelled, “Encore!” but to no avail.
A highlight of the show was the energy of the crowd and how welcoming and invigorating it was. Adriana Ortiz-Erickson, a visitor from California, noted how special the energy felt from the audience.
“I’m in my late thirties, so to look out and see so many different people … You know, there’s some gray hairs here,” Ortiz-Erickson said. “But, there’s also some young people. That’s huge! It’s a Thursday night, people from all ages are coming out to see live music — it’s just not common. That’s something special.”
