One could be overwhelmed by the buzz and sight of abnormally proportioned, sexually
confused guys and their shrieking fifteen-year-old girlfriends who swarmed by the front
door. Some of them were with mom. Some of them puffed away on Marlboro lights. Some
were not old enough to smoke while others still too young to know what the D.A.R.E. program
even was. The show wasn’t scheduled to start for another two hours at the very least. That would be
only if they open the doors on time, something the State Theatre is never fantastic about doing. How many people would be here?
Last time Aidan played with Silverstein at Saint Petersburg’s Jannus Landing the crowd size was monstrous. But on this evening,
only around one hundred and fifty fans filled the hall leaving the venue feeling uncomfortably empty.
Aiden started with Will Francis, the bands vocalist, climbing onstage alone, a cigarette lit, pouring his heart into the mic. He wore a
black button down shirt and black slacks. After his opening bit, the rest of the band jumped onto the stage and began the set. Leaping
and kicking, Nick Wiggins, guitarist, almost smashed the headstock of his guitar into Francis’s skull on a number of occasions, but
Francis came out unscathed swinging the chord of his mic like a meteor hammer. What was impressive was the amount of
interaction the band attempted with their fans. Francis tried to invoke both a colliding wall pit and sitting-to-jump pit, but the crowd
was not interested in moshing. At
some point, a girl in the front of the crowd tore a chunk of Francis’s hair out as he leaned in to sing. Francis seemed unfazed. Before
the bands encore, Francis came out for a solo acoustic number. They closed by pulling members of the audience on to the stage,
which after the hair incident seemed a little hazardous.
Nothing seemed original, however. The band’s performance seemed like a collage of different shows over the past couple years
from various artists. Although the uniqueness wasn’t striking, the amount of energy they brought to the stage and maintained was.
They kept the audience going and even worked hard to try and get every person to participate.
All in all, I would say this was an average show, keeping the audience on their feet, but not enough to where the show could be
considered memorable.
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