Concert Review: Aly & AJ Promises Tour

By Robin Royal 6.9.18.

Photo by Yising Kao. View more at www.yisingkao.com

This past Monday, on June 4th, 2018, I went to go see Aly & Aj in concert at their Promises Tour. This is the first time they have been on tour in ten years and I’m so happy they are back and making new music. In case you need a little refresher on who Aly & Aj are, they are an iconic sister duo that got their start on Disney Channel in the early 2000’s. They were and continue to be on many different television series and movies, and are also successful pop rock musicians.

I saw them perform a few months ago when they were promoting their new EP ‘Ten Years’, but this was my first time seeing a full concert of theirs and seeing them performing their older songs. I saw them at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA and this was the second show of their tour. The opening act was Rainsford. I had never heard of her before, however she was incredible. Her voice is beautiful and I would describe her music to be very eccentric and indie pop.

Aly & Aj now went on stage and it is was so incredibly exciting in there to know that we were all about to re-experience our childhoods by seeing them perform some older songs, while also seeing them perform new songs they have been releasing. They started their set with the song Closure from their ‘Insomniatic’ album. They said they used to start their concerts back in the day with this song, so it’s cool that they did the same for this tour. It was a great song to start the concert with. They went on to sing a couple of songs from their new EP and also one of their newest songs that they haven’t released, but will be released this month. This new song is called Good Love and they dedicated this song to the LGBT community and pride month by releasing a

black shirt with “good love” written in rainbow. This made me so incredibly happy as someone who identifies as gay.

The other older songs that they performed from their Disney Channel days includes Flattery , Chemicals React , Rush , and Potential Breakup Song . Aly actually mentioned that the song Flattery was about Joe Jonas. I loved that she brought that up cause it’s so interesting looking back and remembering that they dated. They then also played Chemicals React. This is such a good song and it made me so happy to hear them play that song live after it being such a big part of my childhood. After these couple of songs from their ‘Insomniatic’ album, they played a couple of their songs that they recorded back in the day when they changed briefly changed their music group name to 78Violet. I truly enjoyed those songs. Aly & Aj also surprised us with an amazing cover of Love Song by The Cure. This cover was so unexpected, but so well

appreciated and loved.

The concert was now nearing towards the end and they left the stage and we all cheered for them to come out and do an encore. We knew the concert couldn’t be over because they still hadn’t played some of their most popular and new music. They came back and they played one of my absolute favorite songs, which happens to be one of their most popular and older songs. This song is called Rush and is from their first album called ‘Into The Rush’. It was so beautifully sung and performed and made my heart so happy and I know that everyone in the crowd was feeling the music. They then played Potential Breakup Song which is undoubtedly their most popular song. Earlier in the concert they joked with us and started to play it and then stopped and moved on to a newer song. The whole crowd was so happy to finally hear them play this song and Aly & Aj were happy to perform the song with us even though they didn’t seem to want to play many of their older songs. For their last songs, they performed one of their newest songs that hasn’t been released yet and then they closed out the show with Take Me, a song from their new EP ‘Ten Years’.

This concert was so incredible. Aly & Aj are so talented. Their voices are amazing, and

their music is just so fun and inspiring to listen to. They are also amazing activists because they so generously brought two different organizations with them on tour to spread awareness. They brought “Project Heal” an organization dedicated to help heal those suffering with eating disorders. They also brought the organization that helps people register to vote and they encouraged those who weren’t registered to vote go register and vote because it’s very important to do. They didn’t play as many older songs as I had hoped or thought they would, but I still really enjoyed the concert. The sound and the lighting was so good and Aly & Aj just have such beautiful souls and it’s so nice seeing how close they are as sisters and how successful they have been in their careers.