Aly & AJ
The reunion of onetime ‘tween pop star sisters Aly & AJ, touring in support of their Ten Years (Deluxe) EP, would at first seem unlikely, given how many years it’s been since they were all the rage with the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon crowd. Alyson Michalka (Aly) was originally the best known of the two, thanks to a co-starring role on Disney’s early 2000s sci-fi comedy Phil of the Future, a sort of cross between 3rd Rock From the Sun and My Favorite Martian. After that show went off the air in 2006, her career seemed to go sideways, with thankless roles like a bitchy cheerleader in CW’s series Hellcats and a bitchy lesbian in the final last-gasp episodes of Two and a Half Men, after the show lost one and a half of its men.
Meanwhile, Amanda “AJ” Michalka started turning up as the World’s Oldest High School Student in The Goldbergs, where the fact that she looked like she might have actually been a teen in the 1980s era when the show takes place sometimes made her romance with an emotionally and mentally stunted high school boy seem more alarming than funny. In 2017, the sisters reunited to record a new EP, with songs that were heard in Aly’s newest TV series iZombie (AJ remains on TV, with her own recently launched Goldbergs spinoff).
Despite the lack of much new music since their reunion EP, Observatory North Park must have confidence that fans will turn out in big enough numbers on June 25 to support the $150 to $250 being asked for tickets to this stop on the Sanctuary Tour. A “Soundcheck/Listening Party Experience” includes a meet and greet with the duo, an onstage selfie, “specially designed lyric shoelaces,” and a “custom Take Me popsocket” for mobile phones.