The Nevermore (formerly Rams Head Live) is a room where the distance between performer and audience collapses into the communal; on a humid Monday evening in early May, Silversun Pickups exploited that intimacy.

The Los Angeles quartet, consisting of Brian Aubert on vocals and guitar, Nikki Monninger on bass, Christopher Guanlao on drums, and Joe Lester on keyboards, has spent more than two decades cultivating a sound we could describe as influenced by the Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, and the Velvet Underground, and yet has always kinda been their own thing at the same time (I sometimes call them a tiny bit emo). Their current Tenterhooks tour, in support of their seventh studio album, came to Baltimore awaited by a crowd packed densely across the floor. Aubert especially engaged intimately with the audience, moving to the edge of the stage throughout the whole set, making eye contact with everyone on the rail, smiling with characteristically twinkling eyes (see what I did there?). 

When Silversun Pickups finally came onstage with the opening salvo of “New Wave,” the crowd surged forward reflexively and stayed as tight to the stage as they could all night. The churning guitars of the song (which is also the opener on Tenterhooks) established that they were going to play loud and hard. Aubert has described Tenterhooks as an impatient, apprehensive, and more aggressive record, one that strips things down and goes louder and rawer in response to a world perceived as precipitously unstable, and that disposition permeated the night.

The setlist drew substantially from Tenterhooks (7 songs in total), and the new material came strengthened live, more muscular and powerful than the record can quite capture. The guitar work on “Au Revoir Reservoir” proved hypnotic in a live context, while “The Wreckage” showcased their loud/soft dynamics, and “Hot Wired” slammed home the importance of propulsion to their songs (there are times when Guanlao’s drumming almost knocks down the walls).

Throughout the set, we also got several of the classics, predictably including “Lazy Eye” “Growing Old is Getting Old” during the encore, as well “Well-Thought Out Twinkles” while I was in the pit (a sweet little gift for my past-tense self who discovered Carnavas in college). The setlist functioned as both a focus on the new material and a little bit of a celebration of their hits across the years. It unspooled beautifully. 

Listen to the single “The Wreckage” by Silversun Pickups:

Aubert has said that after twenty-five years, he hopes listeners feel, when engaging with Silversun Pickups, that the band still gives a genuine damn, and on the basis of this Nevermore performance, the sentiment requires no further corroboration. The Tenterhooks material blossomed onstage, and the older material retained every bit of its magic. 

The setlist included:

New Wave
The Wreckage
Well Thought Out Twinkles
It Doesn’t Matter Why
Panic Switch
Au Revoir Reservoir
The Royal We
Witness Mark
Kissing Families
Empty Nest
Hot Wired
Long Gone
Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)
Dots and Dashes (Enough Already)

Check out more photos of Silversun Pickups performing at The Nevermore Hall on May 4th. All photos are copyright Matt Ruppert: