APRIL 25th, 2023
SILVERSTEIN

Review by Metallic Barbie
Photos by Peter Ruttan

What do you get when you cross kids reviving the 90s, trans politics, feelings, and metalcore?  Well, you clearly get the lineup of One Step Closer, SeeYouSpaceCowboy (SYSC), Dayseeker and Silverstein that hit The Commodore Ballroom on Wednesday April 26.

One Step Closer, a hardcore band out of Pennsylvania that dropped their first album in 2021, kicked off the night, followed by hardcore/sasscore band SYSC.  While the most niche band on the bill, SYSC brought the highest level of energy and lead vocalist Connie Sgarbossa had the crowd eating out of her hand as she pranced and screamed through the set.  Her younger brother Ethan attacked the skins while bassist/clean vocalist Taylor Allen and guitarist Timmy Moreno wretched their strings and slam danced the crowd into a frenzy.

Things came to a hard stop when Dayseeker took the stage and changed the face of the atmosphere with their mainly melodic, post-hardcore ballads.  The band was recently able to break through the saturated metalcore market with support from stations like SiriusXM’s Octane.  Formed back in 2012, Rory Rodriguez (lead vocals), Gino Sgambelluri (guitar), Ramone Valerio (bass), and Mike Karle (drums), Dayseeker had 5 albums to pull from to formulate their setlist, which included “Sleeptalk”, “Homesick”, and “Without Me”, among others.  A diet-Papa-Roach-type sound, Rodriguez thrives in the clean melodic but stops short on most dirty opportunities.

Closing the night for the Misery Made Me Tour, Sliverstein turned the volume up to 11 and hit hard with opener “Ultraviolet”.  Comparably they could be called Canada’s answer to Beartooth, if Beartooth had the depth of the 23 years vocalist Shane Told, lead guitarist Paul Marc Rousseau, rhythm guitarist Josh Bradford, bassist Billy Hamilton, and drummer Paul Koehler have as an ensemble.  Peeling the layers from their now eleven records, Silverstein graciously delivered the heavy, the light, and the classic as they ripped through “Giving Up”, “California”, and a cover of Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer”.  Closing with a number from their newest album released May 2022, “Misery” ended the madness and sent the audience scrambling to the merch tables.

The gateway band to metalcore, Silverstein offered the crowd a little bit of everything seen on stage this night, but undoubtedly solidified themselves as the steadfast Canadian metal jewel that they are.