Silversun Pickups Brings the "Physical Thrills" Tour to Nashville

Nashville, tn - April 27th, 2024

Photo via Silversun Pickups

For their Physical Thrills tour, Silversun Pickups couldn’t have chosen a better venue than Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, which is less of an event space and more of an event itself. Rainbow-drenched neon decor welcomes thrill-seekers who disperse to the rooftop bar, the bowling alley flanking the event space, or the stage where disco ball incandescence dances across the gathered crowd. 

I chat to the SSPU fan in front of me, who’s been listening to the band since their 2005 debut album Pikul. He says he and his mom would listen to SSPU in the car together during his childhood and that being here, in our little corner to the left of the stage barrier where he finally gets to see them live, is incredibly nostalgic for him. I’m a newer fan, introduced to the band through their long standing crowd favorite song “Lazy Eye” just before they released Physical Thrills, but I understand the appeal of what can only be described as SSPU’s lore: seven albums dating across the two decades that the band has been one of the coolest mainstays of alternative rock with a cult following.

“Cool” really is the best word to describe the band. Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix directed the “Little Lover’s So Polite” music video, and SSPU recently collaborated with their Physical Thrills producer Butch Vig underneath the moniker SSVU to release two synth-heavy odes to director David Lynch and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. Like I said—cool.

Pins fall like applause during the opening act of Hello Mary, a Brooklyn-based rock trio of drummer and vocalist Stella Wave, bassist Mikaela Oppenheimer, and vocalist and guitarist Helena Straight. For fellow Scooby-Doo fans, Hello Mary feels like The Hex Girls come to life if they played shoegaze. This is Hello Mary’s second time as opening guests for SSPU after joining the Physical Thrills tour in February and March. Now, they’re reunited on the tour until June.
LED light bars soak the room in red as guitarist and frontman Brian Aubert, bassist and vocalist Nikki Monninger, drummer Christopher Guanlao, and keyboardist Joe Lester join the stage. They launch into “Growing Old is Getting Old” (Swoon, 2009), “Sticks and Stones” (Physical Thrills, 2022), and “Well Thought Out Twinkles” (Carnavas, 2006), which Aubert opens with Marty McFly-level shredding.
Their setlist highlights both the best of Physical Thrills and fan-favorites across all seven records of their repertoire. Aubert seamlessly rotates between three guitars. Guanlao plays with a frenzied fierceness emphasized by his translucent purple drum kit with a wolf on the bass drum head. Monninger’s shadow sways with her bass against a Lynchian red-curtained backdrop. Lester nods his head to the beat as he holds down the synth.

If you look in the dictionary underneath the entry “consummate professional,” you’ll find SSPU. Their years of stage experience and their connection to the crowd defines their performance. Every aspect of the show, from shredding to interacting with the audience, has a sense of ease and exhilaration. I have a suspicion that in a past life Aubert was a troubadour because of how jubilant and comfortable his stage presence is, like each song is a homecoming.

There are a few hard tone shifts between songs, especially when it comes to the more introspective, synth-droning songs of Physical Thrills, but SSPU’s energy and confidence for each song, both old and new, creates a cohesive performance. 

“It Doesn’t Matter Why” jolts into the adrenaline rush of “Panic Switch,” and afterwards Aubert makes the crowd take two much-needed deep breaths. On the last exhale, he drops into the opening instrumental roar of “Scared Together.” Forget lowering our collective blood pressure. After another crowd favorite, “Little Lover’s So Polite,” the spotlight moves to Monninger for the wistful and reserved “Alone on a Hill” led by her clear and sweet vocals. 

Aubert introduces “Kissing Families” by taking us back to 2005, “a year a lot like now, but fucked up in a different way.” True, but at least we still have this song. Then it’s “audience participation time,” Aubert echoing the phrase in a whisper as the crowd buzzes. We’re instructed to snap along with Monninger to “Don’t Know Yet” and given the directive to do better than the crowd at Boise for the sake of our collective souls. I honestly can’t tell if Music City’s snapping was less soul-sucking than Boise because I was so close to the speakers, but I did my duty nonetheless. 

Selections from Neck of the Woods, Better Nature, and Swoon round out the end of the setlist. The thrumming bassline of “Mean Spirits” transitions into the reedy, resonant effects of “Circadian Rhythm” and “Dots and Dashes,” both characterized by danceable synth whines reminiscent of 80s pop. “Substitution” throws us nearer into the present with its jaunty, textured riffs circa 2009.

In the last song “Nightlight,” the audience joins the chants of, “We want it!” As the show draws to a close, it’s clear what exactly we want—more SSPU. Aubert bids the crowd goodnight, telling us to “go make a cup of tea . . . or a cup of something naughty.”

Over the roar of the audience refusing to draw their attention from the stage, the fan in front of me turns to me and says, “No way they’re leaving us without ‘Lazy Eye.’” I agree, and it feels like we’re all in on the game: the coy farewell, the audience’s demand that the night isn’t over yet. 

SSPU doesn’t disappoint. When they return for the encore, I look behind me during “Three Seed” to see phone flashlights swaying like lightning bugs in the dark. The energy shifts intensity with the hard-hitting “Cannibal” and its unflinching beat accentuated by blood-red stage lights. A lighter tone calms things down as Physical Thrills makes its final resurgence with “Empty Nest.” 

Then, a surprise: Aubert on stage alone, playing a stripped-down unknown and likely unreleased song. The repeated lyrics “replace you” reverb in the deep blue light. A pause. The crowd waits . . . then the familiar chords of “Lazy Eye” ring out, met by excited cheers. I wouldn’t fault SSPU for approaching their crowd-favorite song with a hint of fatigue, even resentment, after performing it for 18 years. Instead, it’s their most energetic and euphoric performance of the night. “Lazy Eye” has become a crux within the evolution of their sound and an anthem among longstanding and new SSPU fans alike, and they embrace the song with as much joy as the singing crowd. 

As SSPU takes their final bows, Monninger holds her guitar aloft in triumphant gratitude. Guanlao throws his drumsticks into the crowd. They arch and hang suspended in midair, backlit by Brooklyn Bowl’s red and white bauble lights strung underneath the balcony, before dropping into the silhouettes of reaching hands already eager for more after the last note has faded. 
To experience why SSPU is a fan-favorite act for yourself, catch the rest of the Physical Thrills tour here.