Silkworm played Crystal Ballroom – 5/12
Reunited cult-favorite indie rockers Silkworm made their Boston-area return joined by local legends Come.
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If I were to compile a list of beloved bands I figured I’d never see play, Silkworm would’ve been close to the top until quite recently. Consisting at the time of drummer Michael Dahlquist, guitarist Andy Cohen and bassist Tim Midyett, the off-kilter indie rockers disbanded in 2005 following the tragic death of Dahlquist (a story relayed in all its heartbreaking detail in a 2013 documentary on the band, Couldn’t You Wait?). Cohen and Midyett went on to form Bottomless Pit together and have stayed active in various other musical pursuits (Midyett had a memorable stint as an auxiliary Sunn O))) hooded figure some years back), but Silkworm seemed destined to lay dormant.
It would take nearly two decades, but in 2024 Cohen, Midyett and early days member Joel RL Phelps reconvened for a handful of songs on the occasion of another unexpected loss: the sudden death of friend and longtime Silkworm producer Steve Albini. The reunion seemed to stick, and this spring has found the trio – plus Songs: Ohia drummer Jeff Panall in Dahlquist’s place – playing shows to rapturous crowds of the midwest and east coast (with a run out west planned for late summer). As Cohen put it, the lineup functions as a sort of “alternate history” for the band, wherein Phelps’ songs from the early records coexist with material from their 1996 opus Firewater and beyond in a new four-piece configuration. I’d heard amazing things about the end result from friends who traveled to the initial run of shows in Illinois (Silkworm may not have been a band with broad commercial success; they are absolutely the type of band people will fly across the country for), but words couldn’t do justice to seeing and hearing in person at the Ballroom earlier this month.
Loud, raw and passionate, Silkworm’s return was everything that longtime fans catching phase two and those of us who assumed we’d never have the chance could want. A couple of hits (insofar as Silkworm had hits) opened the set – “Couldn’t You Wait,” which gives the aforementioned documentary its title, and Lifestyle‘s rousing “Treat the New Guy Right” – and from there the band dug deep into their ten-record run of noisy, incisive and singular songs. I was thrilled to hear “Plain” in particular, the song that tipped me off to this band when John Darnielle was covering it on tour with The Mountain Goats back in 2011, but even the selections I didn’t know nearly as well (they dug deep) sounded absolutely vital.
Simultaneously, the fact that a thread of loss and mortality ran through the band’s reunion and current status felt front of mind for both those on stage and in the crowd. Encore closer “The Bones” and its “you’re gonna live a long time before you go” refrain had all four members visibly emotional by its conclusion, and it got me in the chest too. It was clearly no easy thing for Silkworm to come back and be back, and these performances really mean something to the band. Not unexpectedly I guess, it was one of the more moving rock shows I’ve seen in a good long while.
Aiding in making the night a memorable one was an opening set from Come, the intermittently-active ’90s noise rockers who are low-key one of Boston’s all-time great bands. Guitarists Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw are practically omnipresent in the local scene still, with various configurations of their solo bands and collaborations like Zedek’s post-punk trio E and Brokaw’s new medieval music project with Tanya Donnelly playing regularly around town, but it’s still a thrill to see them link up with the Come rhythm section of drummer Arthur Johnson and bassist Sean O’Brien to crank up the volume on some old favorites. Bluesy, ferocious and powerful as ever.
Scroll below for a gallery from both bands.
