^{Cover image: Silversun Pickups perform at the Astor Theatre. Image by De Williams.}

Silversun Pickups

Astor Theatre

21 July, 2026

Silversun Pickups are a beast of a band live. Turn the LA band up to 11 and the embrace of grunge and shoegaze that long set them apart from mid-noughties contemporaries is wildly apparent. Perth got a taste of their sledgehammer sweetness in person last Tuesday night.

A near-capacity Astor Theatre was already humming as Kiwi outfit Coast Arcade took the stage. With a similarly 90s alt-rock aesthetic, the Auckland youngsters featured some wicked guitar interplay from jazz shredder Arlo Birss and singer Bella Bavin, and there was serious star factor on show. Perfectly setting the scene for the sonic assault to come, a cover of Veronicas’ Untouched (featuring a fun finger tapping solo from Birss) alongside their own soon-to-be-classics Acetone and Baited were proof these kids are alright.

Silversun Pickups copped a bit of flack early in their history for being Smashing Pumpkins wannabes, but in truth they’ve got more in common with the soaring guitars of Slowdive and emo intensity of Placebo.

Kicking off with a powerhouse vocal performance from Brian Aubert on New Wave, which also opens this year’s Butch Vig-produced Tenterhooks LP, it wasn’t long before Nikki Monninger’s throbbing bass kicked in on The Wreckage. The heartbeat of the band’s sound, her pounding, distorted rhythms were a highlight all night, as was her infectious smile.

First major standout and perhaps the night’s best tune full stop came next with 2006’s Well Thought Out Twinkles, which matched a memorable intro with sublime verse melodies. Two tracks later and Panic Switch lifted the tempo again, this one featuring an unaccompanied guitar workout from Aubert ahead of a stupidly awesome crescendo to end the song. It’s amazing the power just one guitar can produce.

From there it was a matter of maintaining momentum through to the night’s peak, with more guitar heroics on the likes of The Royal We and debut single Kissing Families. Long Gone saw a brief interpolation into Alice in Chains classic Nutshell for the intro proving they’re more than just Pumpkins enthusiasts.

Even the drunkard yobbos in the crowd yelling about how Albo was ruining the country (along with their gross jokes about so-called “quokka soccer”) couldn’t ruin the joyful vibe of Circadian Rhythm, Aubert touching on our current troubled times and noting, “Sanity is a form of rebellion; Decency is punk as f***,” to much applause.

Neatly, each of their eight key releases was marked by at least one track, Tenterhooks and debut album Carnavas serving up the most with four tracks each. The propulsive bass of an anthemic Dots and Dashes closed the main set in style, before an encore of colossal tunes sent the night out with a bang. It was an inspired decision to leave three of their finest till last, with Little Lover’s So Polite and a fantastic Growing Old Is Getting Old storming home relentlessly.

Finally, the moment we’d been waiting for: Lazy Eye has long been Silversun’s signature song and an obvious closer, but it’s also an apt finale with its refrain “I’ve been waiting for this moment/ All my life.” A euphoric sentiment to end the night on, Silversun Pickups’ victorious return went out on wave of soaring post-rock guitars, and the epic ending was as fully sick as it was a long time coming.