First in a three-part series of articles that will follow The Silent Comedy’s visit to Boston.
Having just completed a whirlwind tour of the UK with neo-soul kings The Heavy, San Diego-based revival tent rockers The Silent Comedy are returning stateside for their 2013 tour of North America. On this trek, the band will support The Heavy, ZZ Ward, and also headline their own shows. In anticipation of their new EP, Friends Divide, set to be released today, June 10th, I was able to (again) use the mystical wonders of the Internet to talk to the guys before their show in Boston, where they will bring their whiskey-soaked revivalist energy to the Paradise.
AP: What do you guys like most about performing in Boston?
The Silent Comedy: The thing we have enjoyed most about performing in Boston is the energy of the crowds. Every town is different, and the crowds in Boston have given us great enthusiasm. We feed off that energy from the crowd to fuel our show, so it really works well when we are both giving it all we’ve got.
AP: The last time you were in town you played with the Heavy at Brighton Music Hall just down the street; what are you looking forward to most about playing the Paradise?
TSC: It’s always nice to play in different rooms in the same town. It keeps you from getting too comfortable in one space. We’ve played at Brighton twice now, so it will be nice to check out Paradise and get a feel for the stage and the feel of the room. It also holds more people, and bigger crowds are always more fun!
AP: For people familiar with you guys and for people who may not know you too well, is there anything special to expect from your live show that may be different from the records you have out?
TSC: We are releasing a new project called Friends Divide on June 10th. It’s our first new collection of music in several years, and we will be playing a good chunk of new songs on this tour. We also have our good friend Elijah Ford joining us on electric guitar this time around. He adds an awesome extra dynamic to our show, and he also makes music on his own that we all love. It’s really cool for us to bring another musician into the mix and expand the sound. That will be something fun for people that have seen us as a four-piece over the past few years.
AP: Your first single from Friends Divide, “God Neon,” seems a little more dance-oriented and uptempo than some of your previous releases; were there any records that you guys were listening to when writing new material that was particularly influential in the writing/recording of this new EP?
TSC: Strangely enough, I originally wrote the chorus for God Neon to have kind of a country-twang feel. Over time, it grew into an upbeat rocker. That evolution just happened naturally. I don’t think it was inspired by any particular record that I was listening to at the time. That song just really developed over time from its original form. Our show is much more rock n roll than a lot of our recordings, so we are trying to capture a bit more of that feeling in the new material. We have been listening a lot to old Rolling Stones records during the writing and recording of this stuff, but I don’t know how much it has influenced the finished product. We probably just swish our hips more when we walk now.
AP: You guys clearly have a great relationship with The Heavy; how does it feel to be back for such an extensive North American tour supporting them on some of those dates? You’re also headlining a good amount of shows on this tour; how different is it playing in Boston from your hometown of San Diego?
TSC: We are very fortunate to have such a good relationship with The Heavy. When you tour, you see the same people every day, often in high-pressure situations. Because of that environment, you really want to find people that you enjoy to travel with. As soon as we met those guys, we just clicked as people. You combine that with how much we love their music, and how much they kill a live show, and we just want to play together all the time! This will be our third tour together, and we are so happy to meet back up with them. We’ll give another band a chance to experience their awesomeness after this, but we’ve been extremely happy to have so many great tour memories with them.
We are also headlining a lot of the shows this summer, and that is another form of fun as well. We play different material when we headline, and kind of get to let our hair down. For fans of ours, those are really special shows to come out to because we have more freedom. It’s a great challenge to switch between supporting and headlining on a tour. It keeps us on our toes.
Boston is pretty different from playing in our hometown of San Diego. People in San Diego have seen us play so many times that often the whole club is singing all the words. That rarely happens in towns on the east coast because we don’t have the presence out here that we have in the west. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because part of the joy of performing is winning over new fans. We don’t get a chance to do that in the west as much because people are more familiar with the band. It’s refreshing to get to some places where we are still meeting a lot of new people.
Get your tickets to see The Silent Comedy in support of The Heavy at the ‘Dise now. Incentive? Yours truly will be there interviewing the Brothers Zimmerman, Josh and Jeremiah, as well as the rest of The Silent Comedy. You will never find nicer guys in rock and roll. Check out the first single from their new EP, “God Neon,” and grab Friends Divide when you get to the Paradise.
-Adam Parshall