by LE Francis
You may see me going to shows, writing about music, having opinions about pretty much everything involved with live music, & doing my best to promote bands making the music I like — especially the indie musicians & fledgling young bands newly signed to bigger labels — but it’s hard to find a specific musician I will lose my shit over & cry if ever I meet them. But she does exist, & her name is Nikki Monninger & she’s the bassist of Silversun Pickups.
I have been around long enough to know better than to hero worship any musician because inevitably someone does something horrifically greasy that makes you wonder if humanity in general is a net good. But this is the closest I’ll get. & I guess I’m willing to be fucked up over Nikki someday. As a musician, she’s everything I wish I was — an amazing bassist & songwriter with an instantly recognizable & heartbreakingly sweet vocal tone, & her personal sense of style is unmatched (the sparkly dress she wore in Spokane was a 10/10 look). When I decided to start playing bass properly last spring (prior to that I’d just occasionally played a U-Bass to accompany my stupid ukulele jingles) I ended up picking up “Panic Switch” & was immediately floored by her dexterity & strength & at that point I started to sink deep into my favorites of Silversun’s discography with an ear specifically on the basslines.
So, when I saw the tour announcement last winter, I immediately decided to buy tickets for the Feb. 18 show at The Knitting Factory in Spokane even though I high-key hate the 3 hour slog across the scrub desert to the far-flung city that sits against Washington’s border with Idaho.
I’d been to The Knitting Factory before but it’d been years. Usually, I’ll opt for Seattle or even Portland before a Spokane show but the mountain passes are unreliable in February & ultimately I’m stuck in the eastern half of the state during the snowy months of the year. But the Knitting Factory is a reasonably accessible venue in the downtown core area of the city.
I will say for all the Sinclair-run local news propaganda stations harping about how dangerous Seattle & Portland can be (& arguably they can be in certain areas if you are not careful), walking back to where I parked after this show was the most unnerved I felt in a “big” city in the Pacific Northwest. I would say if you’re a woman going to a show on your own, park as close as possible.
The venue itself is laid out nicely & has some seating in the upper bar. But I stopped at the merch line & ended up settling for leaning against the rail in the lower bar. Nothing will ever beat The Neptune Theater in Seattle for having an entire balcony full of seating, but that’s coming from someone who has shameless old man energy & will gladly sit until the specific song I want to hear.
Hello Mary
Hello Mary is a three-piece band with a sound that bounces between ‘90s alternative & a more updated dreamy shoegaze sound. If I was to set this band against others I’ve seen in the last year, I’d put them somewhere between the angsty, dark melodic sensibility of A.A. Williams & the dreary, fuzzy hardened edge of Holy Fawn.
I tend to tune into the bass when I listen to something new & definitely appreciate the basslines in the songs in their set, the rhythm in general was really tightly wound & gives a substantial backbone to the bleary, soft melodic side of the band. Another impressive aspect was that the drummer was singing backup with her kit laid front & center of the stage. Both the set & stage banter seemed to bounce equally between the guitarist/vocalist & the drummer, which gave them an interesting dynamic.
There’s a side of this band — the fuzzy, experimental dreaminess — that feels very in step with Silversun & I think they were a fantastic pick for a young band that would be of interest to fans of Silversun Pickups.
Silversun Pickups
For it being the “Physical Thrills” tour they only played four songs from the album: “Sticks and Stones,” “Scared Together,” “Alone on a Hill,” & “Empty Nest.” But as much as I’d love to hear “Stay Down (Way Down)” or “Hidden Moon,” this is a band with a discography full of bangers. Every time I listen to a Silversun album I inevitably get pulled into it, little pieces of sound digging into me — it’s not always a vocal line or even something distinguishable as a certain instrument, sometimes it’s a pause, a synth run, or some unwieldy impression of several instruments. I couldn’t be mad at a scattered set.
As far as their live performance went, it was exactly as expected based on the vibe of the music and clips of shows & acoustic performances I was able to find online. They all seem very chill & relaxed for the composition of the music being so tightly put-together. Brian Aubert is an unbelievably talented guitarist & vocalist with command of a massive amount of nuance & dynamic in his vocal tone. & while he has all the presence & charisma of a frontman, I really don’t feel like the brunt of the audience’s attention was focused on him. Of course, Nikki is practically beaming stage left, her inventive basslines popping through & pulling you deeper into the music. & she has such a graceful way of dealing with the crowd, even in moments where I’d personally lean toward getting mouthy if I was in her shoes. Their drummer, Christopher Guanlao, is on a riser in the back drawing eyes with his incredibly animated style — he even had a cymbal at what appeared to be an irritatingly high level from where I stood as if just to catch your eye when he swooped up to hit it. & so much goes through Joe Lester’s station, especially with the songs from “Physical Thrills” & “Widows Weeds.” But he’s just chilling, leaning back in his chair, dressed like he’s going on a late night grocery store run with his striped gym socks popping out of his sneakers.
Ultimately, the performance feels like these are four of your favorite musicians playing your favorite songs & in that every moment feels special — even the songs or parts of songs that you don’t like as much. Though I’ve been aware of this band for awhile & even listened to a song or two here or there over the years, I didn’t really dive in to the full discography until recently. But this show felt like a Mars Volta show or a Protest the Hero show for me, like the songs belonged to all of us & revisiting them with the band was such a goddamn privilege.
At the very baseline, Silversun is considered an alternative rock band & that’s fine when you’re looking to encompass the greater arc of their catalog. But perhaps the most beautiful moments of their albums come when they dip deep into something really spacey or strange & just grow there, building this massive undeniable presence. I think the electronic pop, dream pop, & shoegaze elements are maybe the most satisfying and unique part of their sound because they never fail to have this really infectious indie rock sensibility that pops through & pulls it all together.
In the months leading up to this show I was digging into albums I’d not listened to a lot before. I had predominantly stuck to “Swoon” & “Widow’s Weeds” prior to realizing I’d have a chance to see them live. But the more I listened, the more I was floored by the strength of the bridge in their songwriting, especially the way the vocal line interacted with the instruments. That was inevitably what got stuck in my head, the sparkling guitar twinkles dancing around “Once again with feeling, once again with a little more love” or the dream-like swell of fuzzy bass driving the sweet softness of “Would it be best to forget? Give a promise, keep a secret.” & they’ve been doing this since early on, often there’s a delicate shift in tone & the warm press of Nikki’s backing vocals there as in “Little Lover’s So Polite” from “Carnavas.” & it’s not simply that the bridge is such a well-written, hook-filled piece of song but that it fits so beautifully with the rest, often giving the listener another angle to consider the way the various melodies are rooted together into the overall theme of the song. It’s like flipping over a piece of embroidery & glimpsing a distorted version of the design for a moment & suddenly understanding there’s a bigger structure underneath & it’s all so beautiful.
Before I end this, I need to shout out to the lady next to me who endured my shit the whole night. I was dancing around & throwing my hair everywhere & while I try to be conscientious I know it was crowded. But she leaned in at one point & encouraged me to go even crazier, telling me she’d have my back in the encore during “Lazy Eye.” I appreciate her & hope she had a wonderful night.
I definitely had the time of my life but must admit that I suffered later because I was trying to stay very compact & mostly just jumped straight up and down, my boots just bouncing off the little piece of ground I occupied. I had charley horses in my calves for days. Still, I regret nothing.
Verses on Verses is a biweekly music column from the perspective of a poet. Inquiries can be directed to LE Francis, lefrancis@sagecigarettes.com.
LE Francis (she/her) is the managing editor of Sage Cigarettes Magazine; a columnist & staff artist for Cream Scene Carnival Magazine; co-host & staff editor of A Ghost in the Magazine & The Annegirls Podcast; & the author of THIS SPELL OF SONG & STAR available through Bottlecap Press. She is a writer, musician, & visual artist living in the rainshadow of the Washington Cascades. Find her online at nocturnical.com.
