Smoke filled the air as the mixed crowd of rockers, young black-lipped girlies, and hardcore mosh-pit infused fans filled the Culture Room in Ft. Laudy. From the open-air room to the pulsating five-foot tall stage inside, bands Spitalfield and Silverstein made their presence felt both on stage and off. However, juxtaposed to their completely enthralling concert performances, the boys of each band are slack in person.
Shane Told, lead singer of Canadian hardcore band Silverstein answers a few questions from inside the white touring van…
EDGE: What’s one thing you have to have on tour?
Told: My earplugs, and not for on stage, I wear them when I sleep because Neil and Josh come in late with things such as that…[pointing to a picture of two girls tonguing]
EDGE: How did you come up with the name, it’s rumored to have connections to Shel Silverstein.
Told: When the band started in the basement we had no lyrics so I would just grab whatever was on the bookshelf and start singing, most of the books were of Shel Silverstein- when it came to naming the band it was there.
EDGE: Classic question, musical influences?
Told: [ Grumbling ] Everything! Metallica, Beatles, Mineral, Promise Ring, Grade
EDGE: What the hell is with the tour?
Told: Yeah right, what is with the tour, but its basically a big support tour, no one was giving us a chance, so this was to get some response.
Told claimed vegetarian, who says “Olive Garden is wicked” after eating at the popular restaurant for the first time was quite the person to kick it with. Check out the CD review and show the Canadian band some backing.
And not to be set aside, Chicago-based band Spitalfield made an ear-shattering impact as well. Haggling the audience for the questions and even offering to do math problems while on stage by query of a rather sarcastic fan, Spitalfield’s show was all about getting the audience involved.
That said, Bassist TJ and guitarist Dan sat and spilled on the asphalt:
EDGE: How did you come up with the name?
Dan: About five years ago the band had a nerd factor and it was in some video games and it is the place where Jack the Ripper killed.
EDGE: What is your favorite song on the album?
TJ: Kill the Drama [Track 2] because we don’t perform it a lot and I can dance around the stage.
EDGE: How has touring been?
Dan/TJ: We’ve been on tour since the day after the album came out, mainly the east coast. The weather here is nice- WARM!
EDGE: Do you always ask the audience questions?
Dan: Getting heckled is fun, there is this artist at home and people would pay money not to watch his show but just to heckle him, just getting the crowd involved.
EDGE: Your video is hysterical [find time to watch it, rockers in animals costumes], where did you come up with it?
Dan: All we wanted was to take money that our record label gave us and spend it on animal costumes. Darren Doane was actually the director and he appears in the beginning of the video.
EDGE: Do you find it hard to fit into a category which seems to be so overdone or over-labeled?
TJ: Its impossible to be original!
EDGE: Any lasting comments?
TJ: Don’t call us emo or pop punk, we’re just a band.
As for categorizing Spitalfield, it remains to be unsaid. Respect to the band for realizing that singing about relationships is overdone and being able to rock it anyway.
Joanna Davila can be contacted at j.davila1@umiami.edu