The 2010 DIY Street Fair in Ferndale came to an end with a fantastic performance from The Silent Years Sunday night. This was an exciting night for the Detroit band as earlier in the day, Josh Epstein announced on their Twitter feed the long awaited (and delayed) new album "Spider Season" may have finally found a home. That great news, coupled with closing an already incredible weekend of music, made this a much anticipated set and the band did not disappoint.
They opened, as they have most of their recent shows, with a re-worked version of "Pay It Back" from their last full length release, 2008's "The Globe". Ryan Clancy is joined on drums by bassist Michael Majewski during this performance, and the band was once again augmented with two horn players (forgive me for not knowing their names but they also joined TSY at their Fucking Awesome Fest performance in August). "On Our Way Home", another highlight from "The Globe", followed before they went into a trio of songs from last year's EP, "Let Go".
"Madame Shocking" started the run of "Let Go" tracks before a scintillating version of "Forest Fire". This is still one of the best songs the band has recorded to date and the live performance is always a highlight of a TSY show, especially the ending with Epstein going wild on guitar and screaming into his telephone microphone. The horn laden "Vampires Bite The Hands Feed Them" closed out the tracks played from the EP, another high energy performance.
At this point, Josh Epstein announced from the stage what he had posted earlier in the day on the band's Twitter page. It appears The Silent Years have found a record label that will put out their much anticipated third full length album "Spider Season". Originally slated to come out in the spring, the album has been tied up in red tape as the band tried to get out of a deal with their previous label. But the search for a new label to release the album seems over, although no release date has been made official yet.
Technical problems prevented a planned performance of a few songs from "Spider Season", so Epstein kicked into "Someone To Keep Us Warm" from their self titled debut full length. A surprise cover was next as Epstein wanted to close out the festival with everyone singing along, and they did, to the 4 Non Blondes classic "What's Up". Keyboardist Cassandra Verras and guitarist Fabian Halabou climbed down into the crowd to help lead the sing-along, while Epstein stood center stage on guitar belting out the song. It was a memorable moment and a great way to close out an amazing weekend in Ferndale.
The band returned to their self-titled release for the fan favorite "Someday", before ending the set with what has become their standard set closer, and what a great one it is, "Open Up Our Eyes". Ending with the crowd clapping in unison, while singing "Open up our eyes wide so we can see more" before the band bursts into a grand instrumental finale, this song never ceases to give me goosebumps no matter how many times I see it performed. Hopefully, with the release of "Spider Season" now seeming to be a sure thing, I'll have plenty more opportunities for just that.
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