SUMMER IN THE CITY POWERED BY PNC

Fresh, fun and full of energy our Summer in the City series bands bring the PNC Bank stage to life with exciting live performances. With the spirit of our newest exhibit, Forever Warped: 25 Years of Vans Warped Tour, in mind, these artists bring their unique sounds to our summer stage. For five weeks starting July 17 through August 14, head to the Rock Hall plaza on Wednesday nights to see the bands you need to hear right now.

SOCCER MOMMY
Soccer Mommy is the project of twenty-two-year-old Sophie Allison, a Nashville native. She cut her teeth in her local DIY scene, going to shows and hanging out with other musicians, though she kept her own songwriting secret. “I’ve played music since I was six,” says Allison, “and I always wrote songs just for myself. I did it for fun, posting songs on Tumblr, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud. I didn’t think anyone would notice.”

All that changed the summer before Allison left for college. She bought a Tascam digital recorder and began to experiment with production, pushing the quality and craft of her songs to new heights. A buzz began to grow around her Bandcamp recordings, leading to live shows and eventually a record deal, with 2017’s critically acclaimed bedroom-recorded compilation Collection. “I realized that I could do this full-time,” says Allison. “It was either quit school now and do it, or stop growing as an artist. It was now or never.”

So Allison took the plunge. She quit school, moved back home to Nashville, shifting all her focus to music. She toured with Mitski, Jay Som, Slowdive, and others, and was featured in the New York Times article “Rock’s Not Dead, It’s Ruled By Women.” The bedroom project of Sophie Allison is now a full-time band with a new studio-album debut, Clean. Produced by Gabe Wax (War On Drugs, Deerhunter, Beirut) and mixed by Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, PJ Harvey), Clean is Allison’s journey out of the bedroom and into the studio.

HEAVENLY CREATURES
Heavenly Creatures started as the bedroom recording project of Amy Shoff (guitar, vocals) and became a live band featuring Thomas De Cardenas (bass) and Eric Sandt (drums). They released the “This Summer Will Kill Us All” EP on Jigsaw Records in 2017 and this year they self-released a cassingle with the songs “If You Survive, We’ll Give You a Name” and “The Cheerleaders’ Table.” Heavenly Creatures have performed throughout the Cleveland/Akron area, including WRUW’s Studio-a-Rama, Ingenuity Fest, and the Waterloo Arts Fest, and in 2017, they traveled to Georgia for Athens PopFest. They are absolutely thrilled to be performing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and are proud to be part of the indie music scene in Cleveland.