FEBRUARY 16TH, 2024
SILVERSUN PICKUPS
Review by Metallic Barbie
Photos by Peter Ruttan

Drinks were flowing and the room was full for Silversun Pickups’ first trip to Vancouver in 7 years.  Out promoting their latest album released in 2022, Physical Thrills, the quartet relied heavily on the back-catalogue to keep fans engaged and reminiscent of the early 2000s. After New York opener Hello Mary, the vibe in the room was low key.  You would think Brian Aubert (lead vocals, guitar), Nikki Monninger (bass, backing vocals), Chris Guanlao (drums, backing vocals), and Joe Lester (keys, backing vocals) would have a hard time picking it up, but the audience was ripe for riling. 

Hardly breaking through a 19-song setlist, Aubert crooned in his androgynously unique voice, lashing out on his strings when given the chance, while Monninger dropped the anchoring, groovy foundations throughout.  Guanlao’s undervalued, animated drumming had me mesmerised as Lester discretely rounded out the band’s sound on his keys.

While the set as a whole was slow to start, Silversun Pickups crescendoed, slipped into second, then rocketed on the final encore and their most widely known tune, “Lazy Eye”. Often compared to The Smashing Pumpkins in their earlier years, the quad has evolved and are definitely tweaking their genre-bending alternative rock sound.  Having never seen them live and being a fan of the Pikul and Carnavas era, I enjoyed the throwbacks but was super ambivalent about the new.  I don’t think I was alone given a mass exodus after the end of the regular set.

Regardless, the band gels and delivers on stage as only musicians can after two and a half decades together; and with time they say must come growth and change.  Well, must is a strong word: I could for surely go for more Aubert screams of the days of yore, but maybe that just means there’s more to come…