[ATTENDED: September 29, 2026] Silversun Pickups
I had been wanting to see Silversun Pickups for a pretty long time and finally managed to see them (after missing easily a half dozen shows in our area over the course of a year or so) in 2024. And they were great. I really wanted to see them again, but once again, their headlining show fell during a vacation.
So, at last here they were again, this time opening for Weezer.
Initially, my wife said she didn’t want to go to this show, but upon hearing that The Shins were opening, she changed her mind. I wound up getting cool seats in the club section (which includes a personal food and drink and bathroom area) and we fought the traffic (why would you AC/DC playing at the football field next door at the EXACT SAME TIME as this show?
We arrives in time, found our cool seats and even ordered food (which we never do) because we hadn’t had time for a pre meal dinner. Hint: go for the kid’s meal, it’s a decent sized portion for half the price).
We were on the left side of the stage. Almost parallel to the stage but not quite and really rather close. Great seats. And even if you couldn’t see the screens behind them straight on, they were done really well and were easily viewed from where we were.
The Silversun Pickups came out and Nikki Monninger’s bass rumbled the opening notes of Well Thought Out Twinkles. The sounded great. The venue’s sound quality isn’t perfect or anything, but they sounded really good–that bass was so clean. It’s always fun to watch drummer Chris Guanlao, going crazy pack there–hair flying, sticks smashing things. He shows you how fun being a drummer can be.
I assumed they were going to play a lot of new songs, but the only new song was The Wreckage, which had more great bass intro. Brian Aubert was having a lot of fun on stage, walking to the edge of the stage and soloing excessively. Of course, there’s also Joe Lester on keys keeping things from getting too spare.
The rest of the set was their more popular songs. Starting with Dots and Dashes (which ended with a wall of feedback and Brian playing with the noise), he went to the front of the stage and played the riff to Megadeth’s Holy Wars before Nikki started the phenomenal bass line of Panic Switch.
They ended with Lazy Eye and the crowd, which was small, but very much into it, went nuts. When the song explodes at the end, the crowd went berserk and it was so much fun to watch everyone from our vantage point.
It was a little sad that they only played five songs, but they clearly had a lot of fun and got to jam out a bit. I was happy that they definitely didn’t play it safe as an opening band and I was really pleased to see so many people there to see them. My wife left as a fan as well!
| 2026 [Weezer] | 2024 (Wellmont) |
| Well Thought Out Twinkles ¢ | Growing Old Is Getting Old § |
| The Wreckage ζ | Sticks and Stones ¶ |
| Dots and Dashes (Enough Already) ♣ | Well Thought Out Twinkles ¢ |
| Panic Switch § | It Doesn’t Matter Why ψ |
| Lazy Eye ¢ | Panic Switch § |
| Scared Together ¶ | |
| Little Lover’s So Polite ¢ | |
| Alone on a Hill ¶ | |
| Kissing Families Ø | |
| Don’t Know Yet ψ | |
| Mean Spirits ♣ | |
| Substitution § | |
| Nightlight ♦ | |
| Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance) ♦ | |
| Dots and Dashes (Enough Already) ♣ | |
| encore | |
| Three Seed ¢ | |
| Cannibal ∞ | |
| Empty Nest ¶ | |
| New Wave ζ | |
| Lazy Eye ¢ | |
¶ Physical Thrills (2022)
ψ Widow’s Weeds (2019)
∞ The Singles Collection (2014)
♣ Neck of the Woods (2012)
§ Swoon (2009)
¢ Carnavas (2006)
Ø Pikul EP (2005)
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