After last year’s release of Traces of You, a brand-new record based around abandoned song fragments from their archives, the thought of Ivy playing live in 2026 seemed too fanciful to ever consider. The band had reservations about performing without their late bassist Adam Schlesinger, who died in 2020, but the positive response to Traces of You helped the band reconsider—albeit with one major concession, addressed by lead singer Dominique Durand early in the show.
“You notice we don’t have a bass player?” she asked the crowd. Rather than bringing in a hired gun to replace Schlesinger, the band used his bass tracks to accompany their live performance. It was just one of the ways they paid tribute to him. They also dedicated “I Think of You” to the pop maestro and showcased playful videos of him during “Worry About You,” which Durand and guitarist Andy Chase singled out as their favorite song Schlesinger composed for the band in a conversation with Third Coast Review.
The show took on a decidedly casual, low-key atmosphere, with the disarmingly endearing Durand often interacting with the audience, which included a surprisingly large non-Illinois contingent—one attendee claimed to have driven 13 hours to get to the show, since this was the only Midwest stop on this very brief tour. It was also the band’s first Chicago show since 2006.
The set spanned the entirety of Ivy’s career, with a track from their debut album along with four Traces of You cuts. Chase and fellow guitarist Bruce Driscoll offered backing vocals, with a trumpet player popping in for two songs. The best-received song was, unsurprisingly, “I've Got a Feeling” from their 1997 album Apartment Life.
While the future of Ivy in concert is uncertain—though I hope it doesn’t take another 20 years before they return to Chicago—fans should expect another album later this year, which Durand promises will be more upbeat than Traces of You.
