LIVE REVIEW + PHOTO: Silverstein, Thursday, Arm’s Length, Split Chain in Boston, MA (01.11.25)

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LIVE REVIEW + PHOTO: Silverstein, Thursday, Arm’s Length, Split Chain in Boston, MA (01.11.25)

Saturday night, in easily the earliest show of the 2025 touring season in Boston, we were treated to perfected performances from two of punk rock’s biggest legends. Burlington, Ontario’s Silverstein curated a headlining run just on its second show of the tour Saturday night in Boston. In tow, the main support was New Jersey classic Thursday and great support from a recent visitor to Boston, fellow Canadians Arm’s Length, and a UK band on their first tour ever of the States. This being Bristol UK’s Split Chain! It was a packed show that was promised to bring more production than we’ve ever seen for Silverstein, and the performance they put on couldn’t be questioned. 

Despite being a very cold night in January and particularly early for shows to start making their way to Boston, it was truly one for the books. Silverstein has never been a stranger to bringing out new and upcoming acts, but clearly, Thursday was the outlier of that group. While Silverstein was celebrating 25 years as a band, Thursday has been around for just as long, even entering the scene a few years before the beginning of Silverstein. Thursday dates back to 1997, and Silverstein dates back to 2000. During Thursday’s set, vocalist Geoff Rickly spoke about how when both bands were on the infamous Victory Records simultaneously, they were kind of pitted against each other by the bigwigs at the label. At one point, the bands didn’t even speak to each other until the day when Silverstein’s Shane Told gave Geoff a call himself. 

And thank the graces for that because the pairing of these two acts provided an evening of punk-rock perfection that was a much-needed escape for those in attendance in our current political climate and all the going ons of the world. Fittingly enough, the last time Silverstein played the iconic House of Blues in Boston was right before the world shut down on Super Tuesday in March of 2020. 

But before I get ahead of myself, I’ll start from the beginning with the first band to take the stage last night, Split Chain. Fresh off their first show in America the night before, the band took the stage with poise and grace. Despite dealing with a pretty small space parameter to perform, considering there were three bands to come after them, the Bristol unit made it clear why they were here. Stand-out moments came in the form of “Fade” and plenty of interaction with the crowd, quickly winning those in attendance over. The band served as the perfect warm-up for what was to come for the evening and surely won over some new fans. They could also be seen later on in the night as well as members of Arm’s Length, watching the acts they were clearly pumped to be on tour with in Thursday and Silverstein. 

Next up was Arm’s Length, a fellow Canadian band, who were here most recently with Real Friends just this past November. And the fact that it had only been two months since their last show here was evident. Fans were ferociously singing the words throughout, and the band definitely brought some younger attendees to the audience. The band has steadily returned to Boston, now around five times since 2023 alone, and the support was clear from those in attendance. Opening the set with “In Loving Memory,” the set flowed on with standout moments like “Formative Age” and “Funny Face.” The latter was prefaced by vocalist Allen Steinberg, saying, “If the dancers are in the building tonight, it’s your time to shine.” 

It’s no secret that the Ontario music scene has produced long-standing bands and several current punk rock favorites, from Bearings to Rarity to Arm’s Length, and it shows no signs of slowing down and not being a game-winning formula. It’s only fitting that on Silverstein’s 25-year tour, a fellow Ontario band would be invited into the fold. Silverstein’s vocalist, Shane Told, later talked about how they were easily that band when they first started so many times. The duo of openers was a perfect way to allow the music to flow that night in a cohesive way and one that formed perfectly for the energy in the room that night. I’m sure a lot of cross-over fan action happened Saturday night, as it should. 

While each opening band played swift but brief thirty or so-minute sets, it allowed New Jersey’s Thursday to perform still what felt like a perfectly blended hits parade as the main support for this run. As Rickly commented later in their set, it’s also a venue where they’ve spent a good chunk of time, like Silverstein.  Rickly spoke about how seven years ago, the first show back for the band when they came off hiatus, went down in this same room, according to Rickly, the first Thursday show he played sober, and said that it was incredibly special to him to be back in that room due to that. 

And the support was clear throughout for Thursday. The second their logo showed up on the screen on the stage, the crowd started cheering as all the members in Thursday slowly took the stage, with Rickly being the last, jumping up to the center mic, of course. From then on, kicking off the set with a swift medley, “The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out,” the band performed a perfectly perfected veteran rock performance. From the love for each other on stage to Rickly’s iconic vocals, the band propelled and destroyed a ten-song main support set. Just a few songs in, Rickly introduced the band that needs no introduction by saying, “This is Thursday. We’re from Jersey.” 

Soaring right into “Cross Out the Eyes,” the band continued to cascade through their set with ease, confidence, and grace, which was clearly warranted considering their longtime success. Rickly spoke about how it was convenient that they were sandwiched between two Canadian bands since their newest member, Wade MacNeil (current vocalist of Gallows and of Alexisonfire), was performing just his second show ever with the band. Considering how easily he performed with his new bandmates, it was hard to believe. Even having him lead them out on the next song. The set continued to include a song Rickly said the band hadn’t played in two years, with “The Lovesong Writer.” 

From the second the song started to take form, it was easily the height of crowd surfers propelling themselves over the crowd to this point in the show. It was an all-ages affair, but easily the sweetest moments were two pre-pubescent adolescents individually making their way atop the heads of the crowd. They took on the task easily, with wide grins as security helped them into the pit. Of course, it was followed up by, I’m assuming, their dad making sure they made it back to their original spot in the crowd. It was clear that generation has some pretty rock and roll parents, and we’re here for it. Later that night in Silverstein’s set, there was a little guy beside me with his mom, himself clad in a Silverstein shirt that practically went over his ankles and many a little guy on their dad’s shoulders bopping out. 

Rickly and his crew closed out the set with the legendary “Understanding In A Car Crash,’” and the set closer, “War All The Time.” Rickly prefaced the former perfectly with, “Even if you’ve never seen Thursday, you probably know this song.” The band was the perfect way to lead into a long-time fellow touring act in Silverstein and was a true underplay and a real gift for those in attendance. 

To close out the night was, of course, Burlington, Ontario’s Silverstein. No strangers to House of Blues over the years and Mass in general, this unit has been touring Boston practically since day one. It has remained a unit since 2000 with rare exceptions, with long-time guitarist Paul Marc Rousseau joining the lineup in 2012, which is wildly impressive since that was thirteen years ago. The band finds themselves less than two months away from their latest album to add to the catalog, Antibloom, and even tracks off that album made their way to their setlist for this run with recently released single, “Skin & Bones,” kicking the night off. 

But before the band jumped into their electric performance that evening, it was prefaced by Silverstein showing up on the background screens with twenty-five tally marks and a quick reminder of the glory of AOL Instant Messenger. A handful of minutes later, the crowd was treated to a recorded monologue by frontman Shane Told of their beginnings and the past twenty-five years. Highlights from this special moment included Told saying, “Twenty-five years ago, we were just five dudes from Canada,” to “For us, it was about making noise, doing what we love, and something amazing happened, you all showed up.” 

The monologue was the perfect pre-cursor for the long act to take the stage for easily one of the most electric performances I’ve seen this band put on. And we go far back, my first interview with Silverstein dating back to an insane to think about 2009. While a lot of the tours of the last few years for Silverstein have been a lot of album anniversary tours, this set, in particular, was straight bangers from the new to the old. This was alluded to by Told a few songs in by saying, “We started with the new stuff, and we’re continuing to get older,  if you haven’t noticed.” The band’s energy pulsated throughout the performance. The former half of the set was packed with moments like “The Afterglow,” “Bad Habits,” and “Infinite,” the three packed into a three-song package early on in the set. The band did as promised, including all the hits like “The End”, “Smile in Your Sleep”, of course a “Massachussetts” moment. And in a beautiful way, an acoustic moment for easily the band’s biggest track to date, “My Heroine.” 

Every album was represented last night, including their debut EP, and  while Shane Told provided much of the clean singing/screaming because, of course, Rousseau and fellow guitarist Billy Hamilton had plenty of both solo vocal moments at the forefront of the stage as well as together in harmony with Told. Our crowd placement ended up having us stage left in the area that Rousseau tended to stick to, and he could be sweetly seen grinning and singing the words despite not being anywhere near his microphone at several moments. 

It was a wild ride and one of the best Silverstein performances I’ve been in attendance for. With a quick return to the stage for an encore of “Smashed into Pieces” and “Bleed No More” and an explosion of confetti with the latter of two, it’s clear why Silverstein is still here. And with an incredibly dedicated following. With a fresh album on the horizon, it’s sure not to be too long before we see Silverstein back in Boston. If it’s something you haven’t had the chance to experience before, don’t miss out, and keep your ears peeled for the incredible talent coming out of their stomping grounds these days. The band is still very early in the tour, Boston being just the second show of the run, so keep your eye out for those remaining dates!


Photos – Silverstein, Thursday, Arm’s Length, Split Chain at House of Blues in Boston, MA on January 11th: (all photos by John Hutchings)

 

About Author

Colleen

Colleen has been writing about music since 2009. Interviewing bands since the glory days of Warped and has continued to do so for now over fourteen years. As well as doing freelance for other publications, the love for everything rock continues today.