Silversun Pickups @ Birmingham Academy 2 – June 30th 2009
It was a bloody hot evening, and when Silversun Pickups came onstage in the small Academy 2 bar the temperature went up just a fraction more. I think that LA bands really sound like heat and concrete, so they were the perfect soundtrack to the two-day sweltering British summer.
Touring on the back of latest release, ‘Swoon’, they opened with Growing Old Is Getting Old. I don’t know too may tracks from Swoon but I do love this one – however I was a little disappointed as it sounded really muffled — but then the guitar riff kicked in it sounded crisper and clearer and I settled down into the gig. The Pickups know how to work a crowd, building up the pace even more with Well Thought Out Twinkles (awesome bass line) and then There’s No Secrets This Year, with its proper dance beat and catchy chorus. Actually, this song reminds me of a Ned’s Atomic Dustbin track!
The most fascinating thing about the Silversun Pickups is Aubert’s vocal delivery. I love how his voice can be so soft and almost feminine and then just tip over the edge into a growl and a scream — yet all the time convey the emotion of the lyric. Nikki Monninger’s lovely vocal really shone on tracks such as It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone and Sort Of but I didn’t think she was loud enough in the mix most of the time — her voice haunts on record and I was hoping that she’d have more of a vocal presence live — that said, her bass lines were amazing.
The Royal We was the first real crowd pleaser of the evening, however — this song is an epic and everyone really got behind it, clapping on cue and actually starting to move in the heat. It doesn’t stand out for me on the album but after this live performance I am definitely going to give it another listen. The Pickups didn’t seem to feel that comfortable playing in what they described as an ‘awkwardly shaped’ room — and to be honest they aren’t wrong. From my vantage point near the bar it was clear that the majority of the audience were on the other side of the stage, out into the foyer area and obscured from view by the semi-permanent ‘wall of death’.
Towards the last few tracks of the set, the crowd started to pick up a bit — getting more into the music and not letting the heat subdue them. Kissing Families went down really well, as did Panic Switch (dedicated to someone from Kerrang! Radio who was in the audience) but there was no doubt — for me at least- that the highlight of the night was the awesome Lazy Eye. This is the first Pickups song I ever heard, not so very long ago on BBC 6 Music. I loved it straight away and I bought Carnavas as soon as I could. There’s something about this track that I can’t put my finger on — but whatever it was it was there in spades because Silversun Pickups took it home. It sounded fantastic — much better than on record and for this song alone the gig was worth attending.
Of course the crowd wanted more — and a short but sweet encore followed featuring Catch & Release, Rusted Wheel (which caused a bit of a lull to be honest) and then Common Reactor to finish off the evening in style, awesome drumming from Chris Guanlao , another amazing guitar riff and yet some more clapping action from the crowd.
As we milled out onto the streets of Birmingham, I realised that there was no other band that would have fitted the still summer evening quite so perfectly. I could almost fool myself into thinking I was in LA after all!
Set list
Growing Old Is Getting Old
Well Thought Out Twinkles
There’s No Secrets This Year
The Royal We
Little Lover’s So Polite
It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone
Future Foe Scenarios
Sort Of
Kissing Families
Panic Switch
Lazy Eye
Encore
Catch & Release
Rusted Wheel
Common Reactor
Review – Angela Slater
Photos – Steve Gerrard