JACKSON, Wyo. — Prepare your earplugs and your inner angst from 2006. Los Angeles-based quartet Silversun Pickups are descending upon Jackson with a wall of sound that feels like a warm, fuzz-drenched embrace. Fresh off the release of their seventh studio album, Tenterhooks, the quartet is currently tearing through a North American tour that proves they haven’t lost an ounce of their signature “quiet-loud” volatility. They’ll be joined by distortion-laced band Pure Hex this Friday at the Center Theater.
Moody indie-rock of the aughts evokes MySpace, cracked-voice vulnerability and that drama of “feeling everything deeply is the only honest way to live.” But this isn’t just a nostalgia lap for the middle-aged Silversun Pickups. While they are arguably mining the same sounds they have for two decades, the band’s new material leans more rhythmically adventurous and somehow, darker. Live, the recent tracks appear to stretch and mutate. Frontman Brian Aubert’s androgynous, haunting vocals are washed into blissed-out guitars and driven by a rhythm section that knows when to pummel and when to let the songs breathe.
Born in San Francisco’s DIY music scene, Pure Hex is a five-piece band that brings the industrial pulse of alt-rock, adorned with atmospheric textures and ’90s grunge energy.
The Center Presents Silversun Pickups with Pure Hex, 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, at the Center Theater. $53-$173. JHCenterfortheArts.org.
