Silversun Pickups live!
It became apparent early on in Silversun Pickups‘ Friday night set at the Aragon Ballroom that the band wasn’t holding anything back. The group’s second song, “The Royal We,” was performed with such urgency and passion that it felt like it should have served as the show’s closing encore. Instead, the performance made it clear that every song in the evening’s set was going to count, no matter its place in the setlist.
Atmospheric and bombastic–sometimes at the same time–Friday’s Silversun set was never short on emotion. From the stress of “The Pit,” off this year’s Neck Of The Woods effort, to the comparably hopeful tone of “Little Lover’s So Polite,” the band consistently deployed mood throughout their fuzzed-out modern rock. In fact, feedback and fuzz ruled the night, as evident at the end of the rhythmic “Dots And Dashes (Enough Already).” Elsewhere, guitar showboating from frontman Brian Aubert elevated the already high-energy “Panic Switch.” And a rainbow light show and massive psychedelic finish combined to make “Lazy Eye,” off 2006’s Carnavas, the feel-good hit of the night.
Though Friday’s set was repeatedly marked by sharp and random volume problems, it wasn’t enough to derail the evening’s momentum. By the end of the night, as fake “stars” in the Aragon’s ceiling blinked during closer “Well Thought Out Twinkles,” Silversun Pickups were once again balancing floaty dream rock and heavily impacting grandeur. Though it would be the last time of the evening, it was hardly the first.
— Jaime de’Medici
Category: Featured, Live Reviews, Weekly
