Silverstein takes Tokyo
Canuck screamo-rockers head overseas
February 1, 2008
by Christine Leonard
‘We enjoy immersing ourselves in
foreign cultures, but these guys were on a mission to destroy us’ —
Canadian post-hardcore rockers Silverstein find conspiracies everywhere
they travel
They
say that once you’ve made it in Japan, the rest of the world will fall
in line. Even if it doesn’t, hey, you’ll always be big in Japan. Flexing
their screamo-rock muscle and swooping down on the metropolis of Tokyo
with Mothra-like fury, post-hardcore pundits Silverstein were all-too
eager to bring their bold Canadian tidings to the land of the rising
sun.“It was awesome,” says drummer Paul Koehler of the band’s recent whirlwind nine-day tour of Nihon. “This is the second time we’ve been to Japan, which is incredible. Now that we’re kinda familiar with the place, we have friends to visit, specific things we want to do and places we want to visit. The more you go back, the more you get out of the experience. Especially when you’re in a place that’s so culturally different. The more different the better.”
Kicking back and taking in the scenery was just one highlight of Silverstein’s return voyage. Reconnecting with some of their favourite tour mates, the group performed before massively enthusiastic crowds who knew every word of their infectiously defiant lyrics. Along with vocalist Shane Told, guitarists Josh Bradford and Neil Boshart and bassist Bill Hamilton, Koehler confirms that playing live and connecting with audiences face-to-face has been the single most rewarding aspect of their careers to date.
“We just wrapped up a two-and-a-half-week run in Australia before we landed in Japan,” Koehler reports. “It’s been crazy, but fun. The kids are so energetic. The fans in Japan are unlike those anywhere else on Earth. So respectful and not totally hung up on images and gimmicks.”
Shrugging off their long-running trademark of being the sole Canadian band at any given multi-act hardcore concert series, Silverstein has steadily worked to build on the ironclad foundations they’ve laid out for themselves with their previous full-length albums, When Broken is Easily Fixed and Discovering the Waterfront. Striking while the iron was hot, they released the aptly titled Arrivals and Departures in July of last year. Their third turn on Victory Records debuted at No. 25 on the Billboard 200, commanding attention with its stark fusion of angst, anger and intelligence, and eventually topping the indie charts. According to Koehler, Arrivals and Departures represents a new outlook for a road-hardened Silverstein and a more mature approach to their collective craft.
“We’ve been through some pretty drastic and dramatic events over the past two years,” he explains.
“[Arrivals] references the changes and stops we’ve been through in our own personal relationships, people entering and leaving our lives. We touch on some negativity, but we try to stay level-headed. We’re all pretty happy in our lives and realize that we have some young and impressionable fans out there. It’s great that we have this opportunity to try to share our music as a source of escapism, but we also want to use images and emotions to better ourselves and improve the lives of others. We really want to be a force for positivity and overcoming hardships.”
Holding their heads high and keeping up the good fight, Silverstein are prepared to embark on a full-scale North American tour, a comfortable home-coming for a quintet that bravely rose to meet a challenge of another sort when they recently found themselves at the mercy of Japanese-style hospitality.
“One night in Tokyo, our hosts, the local Japanese promoters, invited all of us out to an authentic restaurant,” a teetotalling Koehler recalls.
“It was a beautiful dinner, and they just kept piling on the food and drink. These guys are considered very respectable in the music industry, and they can really put it away. They dropped quite a few sake bombs on us over the course of the evening. We enjoy immersing ourselves in foreign cultures, but these guys were on a mission to destroy us!”
Silverstein with Protest the Hero, Ill Scarlett & Devil Wears Prada at MacEwan Hall
No comments:
Post a Comment