Snapshots: Silversun Pickups @ ACL
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
