Photos of Silversun Pickups at HISTORY in Toronto, ON, Canada on March 5th, 2024
Photos of Silversun Pickups at Roxian Theatre in McKees Rock, PA on February 23rd, 2023
Photos of Silversun Pickups at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY on March 6th, 2020
Photos of Silversun Pickups at 2019 Riptide Festival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Photos of Silversun Pickups at 2013 Osheaga Music Festival in Montreal, PQ, Canada
Photos of Silversun Pickups at Terminal 5 in New York, NY on October 15th, 2012
QRO’s review of Silversun Pickups at Hoyt Sherman Place in Des Moines, IA on September 18th, 2012
Photos of Silversun Pickups at 2012 Sasquatch! Festival in George, WA
Photos of Silversun Pickups at Sunset Cove in Miami, FL on June 16th, 2010
Photos of Silversun Pickups at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY on March 5th, 2010
On 2019’s Widow’s Weeds (QRO review), Silver Lake’s Silversun Pickups shifted from their aughts alt-rock originals into something decidedly harder and more electronic, and largely pulled it off. On latest release Physical Thrills, they attempt to put the two styles together, sometimes in a single song.
Thrills has Silversun Pickups’ fuzzy expanse, such as with “Hereafter (The Way After)” and the brighter “Stay Down (Way Down)” that once upon a time earned them comparisons to fellow SP band, Smashing Pumpkins. But there’s also the darker electronics of the more recent years in “Scared Together” and “System Error”. And there are pieces that have rather jarring sonic shifts between the two sounds, like “Hidden moon” and “Empty Nest” (where you might think a record skipped or your download was faulty).
One will naturally prefer one of the two styles that Silversun Pickups do on Physical Thrills, and hopefully not be to thrown by the jumps in between, but such is the straddle.
