In Case You Missed It [Weekly Roundup]
Los Angeles-based Silversun Pickups wrapped up a series of festival shows and their current tour at the AT&T Stage Sunday afternoon. The band opened with the recognizable single "Well Thought Out Twinkles" and snuck in a couple of unreleased songs during their hour-long set.
In the studio, Silversun Pickups may have the right mix of Pumpkins-era alternative rock and My Bloody Valentine shoegazer fuzz to satisfy fans, but on the stage at ACL, they failed to live up to the hype.
Their debut album Carnavas, which is over two years old now, is long overdue for a follow-up, and like their material, the band felt tired. Lead singer and guitarist Brian Aubert did his best to channel Billy Corgan, but even buried under a sea of reverb, his slurred screams and moans were obviously lacking the punch one would expect from a band playing hours before the final show of the festival. Whether it was from a weekend of too much drinking — Aubert mentioned celebrating excessively the previous night — or just being worn out from months on the road, the band seemed to be trying too hard to no avail. -Eric Pulsifer
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I agree that the SSPU show at ACL wasn't their best. In fact, it's the worst I've seen them. However, I tend to blame the atmosphere and poor sound engineering rather than the band themselves. The sound at the ATT stage during their set was horrible. The mixer was also broken.
I've seen SSPU at least 4 times in small clubs. They are one of the best live bands I've ever seen. However, bad sound, broken mixer, blazing sun in the face, and a mad dust storm usually don't make for a good show setting. Neither does seeing a great live band on a too huge stage with 100,000 or their closest "fans" who only recognize "Lazy Eye" and little else.
I agree with much of EmilyZ's comments. I got there an hour early to get up close and I was very close. I haven't seen the band live before. I thought the sounded pretty good, but I would attribute, heat, hangovers, last show of their tour, sound/tech issues, more heat....it could have been better.
But!!!!! But!!!!! Holy Crap....did you notice their drummer just kicking ass for an hour? He must lose 10 lbs water weight in a show like that. He was the highlight of the show.