Silverstein’s “Misery Made Me” tour at BBLV!

On Wednesday April 19, 2023 Silverstein brought their Misery Made Me tour to the Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas located on the strip inside the Linq Promenade. I had very much anticipated when I would be able to see these guys perform again, even though I’ve seen them more times than I can count.

On this run, the openers gave me a little more of a true hardcore feel. One Step Closer and SeeYouSpaceCowboy definitely made it worth it to come out early. (I originally wasn’t sure if I would make it on time for them, but I did and I am way glad that it worked out that way.) From the second that One Step Closer hit the stage you could feel a crazy amount of energy in the crowd and from the band. Their set was filled with high kicks and jumps and they’re honestly one of the most fun bands of their kind that I’ve seen on this stage. Towards the end of their set we see a mass amount of crowdsurfer encouragement, so for much of the evening fans could be seen making their way to the front of the stage. I always love seeing and capturing these kinds of moments!

SeeYouSpaceCowboy embodied a different kind of energy, but it was still high and positive. I could see a possible inspiration from Iggy Pop in the singers overall demeanor, mixed with something more intense, like the kind of energy I felt when we saw Refused at PRB a few years back. They’re definitely a blend of numerous genres and styles, but the energy screams hardcore. I felt it was a really bold and smart move on Silverstein’s end to bring some real hardcore sounds on this tour. Both bands had incredible reception from the crowd!

Dayseeker were up next, and they evened out the night with a more calm sound, but they were absolutely a crowd favorite. They had spoken about how grateful they were to be up on the Brooklyn Bowl stage after years of playing smaller venues, such as Eagle Aerie Hall. (Eagle Aerie Hall has about a 200 people cap, where as BBLV clearly has over 2500, so this is quite an achievement on Dayseeker’s end!) While these guys weren’t exactly my cup of tea, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again in the future on other similar bills.

And our final band for the evening, Silverstein. Opening up their set with “Ultraviolet” from Misery Made Me, “Retrograde” from 2017’s Dead Reflection, and “Burn it Down” from 2020’s “A Beautiful Place to Drown”; the crowd was riding of highs from earlier in the night and continuing to regenerate that excitement for the rest of the evening. Crowd surfers started coming over the barricade pretty early on in this set as well, and as mentioned before- this continued all evening.

Silverstein played a generally well mixed set this time, but didn’t forget to add in those fan favorites such as “My Heroine” and “Smile in Your Sleep” though. The guys also threw in a special cover of Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer”, which I felt extra nostalgic over!

There was generally minimal talking to the crowd, but Shane Told couldn’t go without telling us all how he now lives in Vegas and how this felt like a homecoming show, he also shows an immense amount of gratitude to the fans- since without us, a lot of this just would not be possible at all. I always think it’s important to remember things like that, and it’s probably one of the reasons Silverstein packs whatever venue they perform in, on any given night here. And lets be honest, that’s a hard fucking thing to do in this city sometimes.

At any rate, I left feeling elated and pleased. I look forward to seeing these guys rip up more stages in the future!

Check out “Misery Made Me” below!

All photos by Courtney Ware for ZrockR Magazine 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.