Posted: by The Editor
It’s weekend 2 of Coachella and I’m wondering how long it’s going to take to get from Los Angeles to Riverside on a Friday afternoon. I expected people that were heading out to the desert for the festival to take the same route I was about to hop on. One of the hottest tours of the year didn’t hit my city and I knew I couldn’t miss Canadian post-hardcore band, Silverstein. After being on the road for 2+ hours, I was ready to rock.
Silverstein headlined Riverside Municipal Auditorium with direct support from post-hardcore quartet, Dayseeker, plus hardcore bands, SeeYouSpaceCowboy and One Step Closer. Although One Step Closer was the opening act, it seemed like they were no strangers to some of the fans in the crowd. This said, the band did not hesitate to deliver one hell of a performance and engage with the already established fans in the crowd. The energy started to get in full swing. Following the Wilkes-Barre-based quartet was Southern California’s very own SeeYouSpaceCowboy. The band was not new to the crowd because seeing as how they were just a couple of hours away from their hometown, SYSC fans in attendance already knew what to expect. When it comes to calling Southern California home, SeeYouSpaceCowboy is not alone. Orange County-based band, Dayseeker were in Riverside for what they said was their second time in the band’s history. Throughout the set, they even recalled the crowd size they performed in front of the first time around. If you’re the guys in Dayseeker, 30 to 40 people is small when you look at the fact that you’re playing a SOLD OUT show at Riverside Municipal Auditorium. This said, Dayseeker and their fans were ready to jam when the band started their set with “Dreamstate”, “Crooked Soul”, and “Burial Plot”. Other fan favorites that they squeezed into their set were “Crying While You’re Dancing”, “Sleeptalk”, and “Neon Grave”. Lastly, to end the night was Silverstein.
I’ve lost track over the years of how many times I’ve seen Silverstein, but every time I see them, it’s always better than the last! In the 20+ years that the band has been around, they admitted during their set that they had never played in Riverside before. Since the tour did not make a stop in Los Angeles or Orange County, the band thanked L.A. and O.C. fans that drove out to Riverside to catch the show.
Even before the band took the stage, fans up against the barricade had their phones out to capture those first moments of the set. The first three songs consisted of “Ultraviolet”, “Retrograde”, and “Burn It Down”. With all the music a band can write in the course of two decades, one would think that it would get harder to come up with a setlist. Somehow Silverstein managed to deliver as they didn’t miss with their older songs such as “Giving Up” off When Broken Is Easily Fixed (2003) and “The Ides of March” and “My Heroine” off Discovering The Waterfront (2005). By the way, kudos to fans for singing during “My Heroine” because if you’ve seen Silverstein before, YOU KNOW it gets loud during this song. One other song that the crowd sang every word to was Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer” as Silverstein covered it. It was pretty damn awesome! Other fan favorites we got to hear were “California”, “American Dream”, “Infinite”, “and “The Afterglow”. As fans anticipate a lot of times at shows, we were treated to an encore with the band playing “Smile In Your Sleep” and “The Altar/Mary”.
Was the show worth being in traffic for 2+ hours the same weekend Coachella was happening? ABSOLUTELY. And I’d do it again.
Silverstein, Dayseeker, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and One Step Closer are still on the road and will wrap up the tour on Sunday, May 7th at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Photos by Jazmin Lemus
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