“I think headlining shows are, above all, most fun. You can fuck up and you kind of laugh along with your fans,” says Momma’s Allegra Weingarten, before Etta Friedman – Momma’s other co-founder, singer, songwriter, and guitarist – adds, “I think that those moments are very endearing. We never want to create a stock experience… With a headlining show, we’re really curating an experience for somebody.” I’m speaking with Weingarten and Friedman via Google Chat the day after the first date behind their fourth full-length, Welcome to My Blue Sky, which dropped April 4th and is, fittingly, their sunniest release yet (“Sonically, it’s different from anything we’ve ever done,” says Weingarten.) Although Allegra clarifies that the first date wasn’t quite their show: “We played a free radio show on a lawn.” Etta goes on to tell me that they’re still excited to get to see and hear reactions to the album from Momma’s own fans.
The Brooklyn-based indie rockers are currently about a month into their headlining tour (which technically began with a sold-out show in Columbus the day after I chatted with them), and they will be bringing The Welcome to My Blue Sky Tour to our very own Union Transfer next Friday, May 30th. The last time that Momma headlined the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection was in October of 2022, when they sold-out Johnny Brenda’s (which our very own Morgan Kelley captured). However, they have made a handful of appearances in the 215 since then, opening UT for Surf Curse in November of 2022 and opening two nights at The Met for girl in red last April. And while the band admit that those were great experiences, Etta also confesses that she does prefer headlining: “When we’re trying to win people over, it feels so much more like a job.”
However, when I ask about some of the band’s highlights since 2022, when they were touring their breakthrough third LP Household Name, they do cite some massive supporting gigs as some of their most inspirational experiences. “2023 was the Alex G tour, Modest Mouse, Coachella, and Weezer in a six-month span!” Allegra tells me, going on to say that getting to meet and befriend Modest Mouse has been one of the biggest highlights of recent years. “Opening for Modest Mouse and Weezer was insane,” says Etta, who admits to being a little intimidated to be on the road with acts of that status, but says they actually turned out to be super cool: “There was kind of an immediate mutual respect!”
The inspiration behind the 12 tracks of Welcome to My Blue Sky, however, dates back to a little bit before 2023. They were actually inspired by the summer of 2022, when Household Name was first beginning to break, after its February release. Weingarten and Friedman have come to characterize the summer as a period of “parallel chaos,” where they experienced the band’s biggest success yet in the wake of existential traumas relating to infidelity, loneliness, heavy drinking, and new romance, which Allegra tells me is reflected in the making of the record, when the two became closer than ever: “There was a bit more care put into everything. It’s a more personal record… On the last one, we wrote as a full band, but for this one, Etta and I wrote mostly on our own, with an acoustic guitar.” And when I ask what can be expected of The Welcome to My Blue Sky Tour, she says, “Expect a lot of different guitars, and mostly Blue Sky songs, and some fun stage design… And make sure you get there early for Wishy, who open! They may be better than us!”
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