Silversun Pickups at The Tivoli. Photo credit: Kelsey Doyle (@kjdoyle)

The Tivoli recently played host to the long-awaited return of Silversun Pickups who are currently touring Australia for their new album, Tenterhooks. It’s been an excruciating wait for stalwart fans, with a massive 14-year gap between visits, the last Brisbane show (and actually their first Brisbane show) being Harvest Festival, 2012; an excellent but unfortunately rather short-lived alt music festival held in Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. (Just Google those old lineups and weep, friends.)

Coming off the back of the 90s shoegaze, distortion-laden noise rock era, Brian Aubert and Nikki Monninger formed Silversun Pickups in 2000, introducing a new generation to alt rock, building on the legacy of bands like the Smashing Pumpkins. Silversun Pickups would go on to produce a catalogue of seven studio albums and seven EPs, becoming a mainstay of the alt rock scene of the past two decades.

At the recent sold-out Brisbane show they were supported by New Zealand band, Coast Arcade – an indie-rock four-piece led by singer-guitarist Bella Bavin.

Bavin announces the band’s excitement to play in a venue “like this” – the scale, history and calibre of The Tivoli setting in – but having been handpicked by Silversun Pickups to support this tour, they needn’t be so modest. It’s grungy, but tight; drenched in 90s-inspired polished pop vocals from Bavin.

The start to Silversun Pickups’ set is a slow burn, opening with New Wave from their latest album, Tenterhooks. The vocals swell, eventually erupting into a guitar-driven bass-heavy number.

And again, bass reigns supreme in The Wreckage – another one from the latest album. The chorus is catchy. There’s a comforting familiarity in this tune; perhaps more accessible to mainstream listeners.

Crowd energy amps up as we ease into Well Thought Our Twinkles from the band’s most successful ever album released twenty years ago, Carnavas (2006). The opening is reminiscent of a 70s heavy rock sound, while the vocals transport us to the band’s iconic sound synonymous with 2000s alt rock.

Monninger gets the opportunity to lead the vocals on Tenterhooks track, Au Revoir Reservoir. The softer feminine vocals are a really nice change, but the song feels hamstrung by the predictable mid-tempo pace.

Fan favourite, The Royal We (Swoon, 2009), layers dramatic ethereal tones over noise rock and distortion. The crowd of Gen X and elder millennials fist-pump their way through the set, with only a very occasional phone whipped out to secure a brief landscape-oriented recording for posterity.

Aubert periodically hypes up the crowd in a way that’s commendably understated. He commands attention earnestly; a gentle sincerity in his words.

“Everything is crazy out there, but not in here!”

We collectively close our eyes and attempt some mental time travel as Aubert momentarily monologues about 2005.

“You’ve got your magazine, your Walkman, you just got a new burned CD, and you kind of like that one song…”

He briefly sidetracks to again subtly acknowledge the current state of the world – “And we thought it was bad then!” – before the band breaks into Kissing Families from their 2005 EP, Pikul. It’s a raw sound; emotional. You can almost feel a quiet shock in the air as the crowd attempts to reconcile just how much time has passed since this song’s release.

When did we all get so old?

They change up the pace with Empty Nest (Physical Thrills, 2022) which combines both Aubert and Monninger’s vocals for a more modern pop tone. An 80s drum machine inspired beat and melodic guitar sound is dotted with alternative tempo changes to keep things interesting.

The manic opening of Mean Spirits (Neck of the Woods, 2012) quickly transforms into a dependable driving rhythm that invites plenty of movement from the crowd.

The evening’s energy begins to wind down a little with Hot Wired (Tenterhooks, 2026), while the spaghetti-western-inspired acoustic strumming in Long Gone provides a splash of colour to the overall live experience of Tenterhooks.

We end on Dots and Dashes (Enough Already) (Neck of the Woods, 2012) before transitioning into one of the longer encore waits I’ve experienced in recent years. The sense of anticipation is only prolonged as they return with the slower paced Running Out of Sounds (Tenterhooks, 2026), but my (im)patience is rewarded as Growing Old is Getting Old (Swoon, 2009) eventually crescendos, building excitement for their magnum opus: Lazy Eye (Carnavas, 2006), which rounds out the night.

Here’s hoping they manage another antipodean journey before 2040.

Photo gallery below by Kelsey Doyle (@kjdoyle)