Photo Report: Pianos Become The Teeth, Silver Snakes & New Native @ Winston Kingdom, 23 January 2015

2014 saw the release of Pianos Become The Teeth’s beautiful, yet very different third album Keep You. A departure from their post-rock/screamo hybrid into more emo-ish territory, completely leaving screams behind in favor of clean vocals. Pianos are on their first European headline tour since 2012, and the sudden style change raises questions like if they will still play old fan favorites of albums like The Lack Long After.

Well, they did, but before this happened two solid supports played the stage of the nearly sold-out Winston Kingdom in Amsterdam. First up: Austria’s New Native, who have only released one EP but played a great set full of indie pop influenced emo songs. Complete with twinkly guitars and Placebo-like teenage angst, personally I can’t wait for a full length of this fresh-faced young band!

Silver Snakes released their excellent Bridge Nine Records debut Year of the Snake last year, and took it to the stage next. The mixture of punk rock, sludge and rock ’n roll may seem a bit out of place on a tour like this, but the crowd seemed to like it. Silver Snakes played a more than excellent set and warmed up the venue just fine for this evening’s headliner.

Pianos Become The Teeth played a one hour plus set which almost completely covered Keep You and even beared some older songs. From the opening with the beautiful ‘Ripple Water Shine’, which is also the first track on the new album, Pianos got you by the guts. The voice of singer Kyle Durfey even sounds more amazing live than it does recorded, whether he uses it to sing emotionally on new songs like ‘Traces’ or screams his lungs out on oldies ‘I’ll Be Damned’ and ‘Good Times’. Past and present blended perfectly in this set, which shows that Pianos can accomplish so much more than they actually do on their albums.

It was good to see so many young kids scream along to ‘Filial’, the opener on their (already six year old!) debut Old Pride and the band even played ‘Hiding’, in my opinion one of the best songs they have ever put out. This was also the closer of their regular set and after a short break Pianos started their encore, ‘Say Nothing’, yet another highlight in a already great show. Hopefully Pianos Become The Teeth won’t wait another three years before releasing a new album, and hit European shores again later this year.