In the land of the rising Soccer Mommy
Towards the end of a two-week vacation in Japan, the stars align perfectly to take in both dates of Soccer Mommy’s first official “tour” of this beautiful country. According to setlist.fm, a 2019 show in Tokyo has been her only visit to date. How cool is that?!
Live House ANIMA, Osaka, 02 December 2025
Night 1 is in a small basement venue close to the ritzy Dotonbori district of Osaka that holds around 200–300 people; Sala Rossa is probably the best comparable locally. A lot smaller than Theatre Beanfield, where Soccer Mommy played in February of this year; result! The Japanese crowds are quiet and polite, with almost no chatter in the room while waiting for the band to arrive. And shows can feel more like an appointment than an all-evening event; doors at 6 pm, headliner at 7 pm, and all finished by 8:30 pm. Still, after a long day of exploring the city, I’m kinda grateful for the early night!
The room is pretty packed by the time the band arrive on stage, suggesting Osaka has been waiting a long time for this! After a smattering of polite cheers, circle the drain kicks off proceedings, and culminates with Sophie acknowledging, “Hi Osaka, nice to be here for the first time!” Driver gets huge cheers as it starts, as does Abigail, introduced as “a song about a girl who likes video games.” Perfect subject matter for Japan!
The stage illuminates brightly on Bones, eliciting huge cheers at the breakdown, with a slick hi-hat transition into the classic Shotgun, which sounds immense, and looks immense too, swirling spotlights from the back of the stage illuminating a sea of grinning faces. The dominant bassline of bloodstream sounds particularly good tonight too.
The five-piece truncates to a three-piece on the mellow Lost, with just Sophie, guitarist Julian, and keyboardist Rodrigo, and the line-up shrinks further to just Sophie and her guitar on old song Still Clean, which sounds spectacular and goosebump-inducing. She updates the set on the fly with the addition of royal screw up, before the main set wraps up with the grunge-tinged Salt in Wound and the timeless Your Dog.
Polite claps summon Sophie and co. back to the stage (no “ole ole ole’s” here!), and Sophie is happy to accept the invitation: “you don’t have to ask me twice!” crawling in my skin is a great conclusion to the night, its intricate guitar interplay and huge synth outro setting up a big Sophie solo to wrap up the night after 80 minutes. I am already excited for Night 2!
Osaka setlist
- circle the drain
- Driver
- Abigail
- Bones
- Shotgun
- Dreaming of Falling
- Cool
- bloodstream
- Thinking of You
- Feel It All the Time
- M
- Lost
- Still Clean
- royal screw up
- Salt in Wound
- Your Dog
Encore
- crawling in my skin
LIQUIDROOM, Tokyo, 03 December 2025
Night 2 in Tokyo is a much classier affair. The venue is around three times bigger, with multiple raised levels around the sides, and there’s even a support too, Japanese artist Mei Ehara, who warms things up nicely with 25 minutes of her brand of ultra-smooth lounge jazz. When they finish, a curtain draws across the stage to conceal it during setup for the headliner, pure theatre!
The set differs a little from the previous night, with lucy and Scorpio Rising coming into the set, and bloodstream, Feel It All the Time, and crawling in my skin making way. The crowd is a lot louder, cheering loudly right from the first notes of circle the drain, and even louder at the opening riffs of Driver. The sound is better too, the bass sounding dirtier (in a good way) on Driver, the filthy intro of Shotgun sounding enormous, and Julian’s outro solo in Cool absolutely slaps too.
The lighting is notably better tonight as well. There are a set of lights resembling stadium floodlights running across the top of the stage that alternate in different crisp colours, the blue and yellow mix on Bones looking especially high-end. Honestly, the lighting is so good that even my zoomed iPhone photos seem to look pretty good, though I suppose you, dear reader, will be the judge of that!
The two new additions to the set are fully justified; both sound immense, and I kinda feel bad for Osaka for not getting them! The perfectly synchronized guitar intro of lucy from Sophie and Julian sounds magical, absolutely perfect in the complementarity, while the classic Scorpio Rising, which constitutes the encore song, builds from delicate strums to a huge conclusion. Julian and Rodrigo lay down the outro while Sophie and the rest of the band leave the stage, before they leave as well to close out the night. Poor Osaka… oh well, they got an extra song compared to Tokyo, so they did pretty well too!
Tokyo setlist
- circle the drain
- Driver
- Abigail
- Bones
- Shotgun
- Dreaming of Falling
- Cool
- lucy
- Thinking of You
- M
- Lost
- Still Clean
- royal screw up
- Salt in Wound
- Your Dog
Encore
- Scorpio Rising
All in all, it’s a great experience across the two nights, being able to enjoy Sophie’s catalogue in two very different rooms, with two very different crowds. The packed rooms on both nights show how much her music resonates on the other side of the world, and definitely proves that the land of the rising sun is indeed the land of the rising Soccer Mommy!
Review & photos – Simon Williams
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