Some concerts feel like a night out on the town. Others feel like a milestone. At Humphrey’s By the Bay on August 18, Tennis gave San Diego the latter, a sendoff wrapped in nostalgia, humor, and the glow of a band that has been quietly soundtracking lives for the past 15 years.

Nearly 1,500 fans packed the sold-out waterfront venue, filling the breezy summer night with the kind of energy that comes from knowing you’re witnessing the end of something special. It wasn’t just another tour stop. It was goodbye.

Cults: A Hometown Return

Opening the evening were Cults, who reminded the crowd that this was, in a way, also a homecoming. “We love you — we live in New York City now, but we’re from San Diego,” lead singer Madeline Follin said, sharing that they’d made a stop at Lolita’s for burritos before the show. The entire set felt like a perfect rendition of all their studio tracks, down to the vocal effects and droning guitars that the venue’s speakers only amplified. 

Follin, impossible to miss in a flowing pink dress, commanded the stage with vocals that moved between sweet and hypnotic. Songs like “Crybaby” shimmered with 80s dance energy, while tracks “Behave” and “Gilded Lily” sent fans into singalong bliss. Later, “Onions” carried its own quirky charm, tied to the band’s tongue-in-cheek collaboration with Grillo’s Pickles.

They closed with “Always Forever,” their biggest hit and a perfect bow on a set that felt lifted straight from the record yet pulsed with the immediacy of live performance.

Tennis: A Farewell Set With Stories

By the time Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley stepped under the soft stage lights, the crowd was ready to sink into Tennis’ world one last time. Alaina’s voice, smooth yet weighty, floated over textured instrumentals, her delivery as effortless as it was intimate.

The setlist was carefully balanced: new material from Face Down in the Garden sat alongside staples like “Weight of Desire” and “In the Morning I’ll Be Better.” Each song carried a heavier resonance, less a tracklist than a scrapbook of memories fans had been compiling since the duo’s earliest days.

Between songs, Alaina’s humor kept the night grounded. She confessed that her loafers kept sticking to the stage carpet, joking, “I haven’t done cardio in seven months, but I’m blaming the carpet for not moving around tonight.” Later, she shared one of the band’s early San Diego memories, their first local gig in a dive bar with 30 people, a broken PA, and a crying promoter hiding in a broom closet. “She thought it was the worst night of her life,” Alaina said with a smile, “but that was the same week we got our record deal. I didn’t get into any law schools, so I guess it worked out.”

The show also had tender moments. Alaina pointed out a couple in the crowd, the Harlows, whom she and Riley had met on a sailing trip years ago. This was their first time seeing Tennis live, a reminder of how deeply the band’s music and personal storylines intertwine.

The main set closed with “Need Your Love” before an encore of “I’ll Haunt You” and “Mean Streets,” songs that felt like parting gifts. With hypnotic visuals casting a retro haze across the stage and Alaina and Patrick’s vintage-tinged styles, the night sometimes felt like time-traveling to another time. But the music always pulled everyone back into the present: a collective goodbye.

A Lasting Glow

By the end of the night, the word Alaina used to describe it all, “bittersweet,” hung in the air. This farewell wasn’t just felt by the fans but by the band itself. Tennis has always been more than a playlist band; they’ve been woven into everyday lives, the in-between moments of growing up, loving, and letting go.As they prepare to close their final tour and release Neutral Poetry: First Recordings, Unreleased Demos 2009–2010, Tennis is leaving on their terms — graceful, grateful, and timeless. San Diego’s sold-out crowd knew it as the last chance to see them here. And like the best kind of goodbyes, it lingered long after the last note.