Keep An Eye Out For Silverstein Being Tourists In Your City

Despite having played over 2,000 shows in 45 different countries over the last two decades, Silverstein guitarist Josh Bradford is proud to say that his Canadian hardcore quintet rarely forget where they are.

"I actually think we do a pretty good job of keeping it all straight in our heads," he says. "We're pretty involved guys, we're not the type of people who sleep all day and get up and walk straight onto the stage. I think we have a better idea of where we're at from having been out enjoying the city each day.

"We all really love travelling. It's not just about playing the show for us, it's always a pleasure to get to see the world."

Unfortunately, the city they're playing in is often the only place a travelling musician gets to experience as they jet across the globe. Even though Bradford believes his band have toured Australia up to ten times over the years, he says they haven't managed to see many of the amazing sights that our island continent has to offer. But he intends for that to change. 

"I am personally going to come back to Australia for a couple of weeks once the tour is over," he reveals. "We're doing a couple of shows in New Zealand and then I'm gonna come back for a vacation. Some friends are going to come and meet me and we're going to travel around, so hopefully I'm going to get to do some more in-depth tourist stuff.

"The most we've ever done as a band is this place in the north of Brisbane called the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where you can hold a koala and have your picture taken with it, and they have an area with a bunch of free-range kangaroos and you can feed them out of your hand. That's probably the most authentic Australian experience we've ever had."

The upcoming Aussie tour is actually a double-bill that is certain to warm the hearts and ignite rock, punk and hardcore enthusiasts nationwide with Silverstein bringing a band over with them from North America. "We are so excited to be coming back with Comeback Kid," he enthuses. "We have toured together before, but not for quite some time. They're good friends of ours and they're such an incredible band. I know they are going to bring a crazy amount of extra energy and we're going to have to be on our game to keep up with them."

Bradford is thoroughly gobsmacked that he is here, almost 20 years after his band's formation. When asked how he would have reacted if someone had told him and his buddies this would be the case back in 2000 when they were playing knock-up shows in basements around Toronto's suburbs, he admits, "I would not have believed them, I would have called them a complete phoney. It would have just seemed so far-fetched. But now, here we are. It's been just completely surreal."

He tells us that the extent of Silverstein's legacy and the love from their fans was especially felt recently when the band did a special one-off hometown concert. "We did this show in Toronto in February," he recalls. "It was a huge turnout, we played our second record in its entirety in addition to our full set, so [we] played two sets. We had people flying in from all over to see us do that, we had people from Europe and from China and from all over America, and, again, it was just kinda surreal."