A nearly full house of avid fans at The Pageant on Saturday night got their fill of four blazing bands that excel in their genres.
Credit Ontario’s Silverstein for bringing together each act that fully complimented one another during the nearly 4-hour onslaught of post-hardcore, screamo, emo, and nu-gaze.
The night commenced with relative newcomers Split Chain and Arm’s Length each of whom set the tone and energized the already hyped crowd for the remainder of the night.
Bristol’s Split Chain formed in 2023 and are already being touted as the future of nu-metal although they refer to themselvesas “nu-gaze, a term that encapsulates their heavy, distorted sound with elements of shoegaze’s atmospheric textures and grunge’s raw intensity.”
Fans began crowd surfing during Arm’s Length’s 30-minute emo set. The band formed in 2021 in Ontario, and are a bunch of lads all “under the age of 25” as lead singer Allen Steinberg proclaimed during their 30-minute set full of darkly wry coming-of-age songs. He also shared they performed at Off Broadway in 2024.
New Jersey’s Thursday, who have been around a few years longer than Silverstein, donned the stage next. The band, which included Alexisonfire’s Wade MacNeil as touring guitarist, kept the young crowd in a frenzy during their powerful, full-force, melodic hardcore 45-minute set that seamlessly blended older and newer material.
Celebrating 25 years of noise, headliner Silverstein opened with a thoughtful 2-minute retrospective video before captivating and invigorating fans throughout their 90-minute set. Performing at least one track from each of their 11 studio albums including their upcoming release of Antibloom, the five-member outfit showed no signs of slowing down despite a few more years and being nearly finished with this leg of the tour. Fans moshed and crowdsurfed for the duration of Silverstein’s powerhouse performance. A brief highlight of the night included Dan Marsala of St. Louis’ Story of the Year making a guest appearance on stage.
Now, we’re hoping this time around there was no “heartbreak in a St. Louis parking lot” as we’re pretty certain everyone was aglow after the show.
All photos from the night can be found here https://bit.ly/Silverstein25cz
Silverstein’s setlist
Thursday’s setlist
Arm’s Length’s setlist
Split Chain’s setlist
Check out what’s coming up next at The Pageant here.
In my work life, I help nonprofits and small businesses with media and public relations. In my what I love to do life, you can typically find me photographing either wild horses or concerts.
