THE ALBUM

Silvertide lyricist Walt Lafty recently discussed the songs on Show & Tell, the band's debut full-length album. Produced by Oliver Leiber, the disc releases September 28, 2004.

iAinit Coming Homei: Thatis about being out partying, having a real good time, and not wanting the night to end. You worked hard all week long and itis Friday night and you donit want to come home.

iDevilis Daughteri: I was using a girl here as a metaphor for how I was feeling about the music industry. When you start out in a band, things seem to look the way they are. But as you really get involved, you start to see that about 90 percent of it is marketing. Itis bullshit; itis just not cool. The song goes: iI went to bed with an angel/ At least thatis what she said/ But as she tore off her dress/ Lord I must confess/ Iive got the devilis daughter in my bed.i Itis about waking up and realizing, I walked into this thinking it was one thing, and itis not. A lot of people get into relationships really quickly and a week later, this person they thought loved them isnit even returning their calls.

iSFCi: People try to tell you how you should do things, how you should dress, how you should act, how you should be. Iim saying to all those people: How dare you? Iill never turn my soul in; Iill never see things the way someone else wants me to see them, because itis not the truth. People want your individuality, your freedom, and no price is worth that.

iCalifornia Raini: I wrote that about being in California and missing my girl. A phone is no replacement for a hand touching your face. I really wanted to show the loneliness and desperation I was feeling.

iBlue Jeansi: This is more or less a fantasy. Itis about things I wish Iid done and things I have done but wish I hadnit, things I regret. But itis fun. It has a killer beat and thatis what I like about it. iMary Janei: This is a double entendre. I try to go for that a lot with my lyrics, where something has more than one meaning. People will take things in a certain way and who am I to tell them theyire wrong? At first this was about smoking weed, but then it became about a relationship. Not everyone smokes weed, but everyone n I donit care if youire a recluse living in the woods n everyone has been involved in some sort of relationship. Itis what we compulsively do as human beings.

iHeartstrongi: In some ways, this is an extension of iCalifornia Rain,i but itis more of a breakup song. Itis about someone breaking up with you, going away, then coming back. Thereis a lot of pain and anger and confusion when something like that happens.

iTo See Where I Hidei: This is about addiction, about being addicted to anything, whether itis a substance or negative behavior or whatever. It says, iIim running circles/ With hopes held up so high/ My skeletonis got faster legs than me/ So he always looks behind/ To see where I hide.i We were living in the band house, before we made the record, and I was just doing the same things over and over. I finally stepped outside myself and said, Alright, Iim going to stop. Iid had this angry realization, mixed with depression, that Iid always been a pretty happy person, but this stuff I was doing was not making me happy. It would make me happy for a little bit, but then Iid get so pissed off because Iid need it to be happy. I thought, why should I rely on something like that when I have myself? And beyond yourself, the only truths are change and death. You can bitch and moan about it, or you can have a happy life and be free.

iYou Want It Alli: Itis catchy. She wants more and more and more and more. Doesnit that say it all?

iNothing Staysi: This was written after our first show. Our first real show was at this place in Philadelphia called The Hollywood Bistro. The cops raided the place because everyone was underage. Half my friends got locked up. They had to go to court. It was a real big mess. We had practice, like, two days later. I hadnit showed up to work the day before so Iid been fired from this job Iid had a long time. I was miserable. The song was written about what we thought was a really shitty show. That feeling of romance, of possibility, the one you have at the beginning of a relationship n and a band is like a marriage n was just gone. Itis that moment where youire looking at each other and just going, fuck. I was reading Robert Frost at the time, so thereis a line in there that references his poem iNothing Gold Can Stay.i

iFoxhole Jesus Christi: Right after September 11th, a buddy of mine went into the Marines. This song is basically a letter to him saying, iDonit act like a fucking hero; donit be stupid.i One of my best friends is in the Marines and one is in the Army. My uncle was in Vietnam, my grandfather was in World War II, and my older uncles were in the Korean War. Iim not anti-military; Iim just anti-stupidity.

THE HISTORY

Ain,Aeot turning back / It,Aeos my time to fly Too many decisions and not enough time But I always did like the thrill of living in the unknown So pucker up mama ,Aeocause I ain,Aeot comin,Aeo home ,Aei ,AeuAin,Aeot Comin,Aeo Home,Aeu

,AeuWhen I was 16, I was writing songs with this guy,,Aeu remembers Silvertide frontman Walt Lafty. ,AeuWe were in the basement of his house jamming, and this kid walks in right after we finished a song. He looks at me and says, ,AeoI,Aeom gonna be in a band with you someday.,Aeo It was weird.,Aeu

The kid was Nick Perri, Silvertide,Aeos lead guitarist. This initial encounter was pretty well buried in their respective subconsciouses by the time Walt and Nick met for real. But for Walt, there was nonetheless something elementary about the moment Silvertide,Aeos two halves came together: ,AeuMark and I ,Aei a rhythm guitar player and a singer ,Aei were doing this open-mic night. Nick and Kevin were there, too ,Aei a lead guitar player and a drummer. We saw them and they saw us, and it was just putting two and two together.,Aeu

What joined these musical factions was an unspoken reverence for rock and roll. ,AeuWalt and Mark were into exactly what Kevin and I thought was cool musically,,Aeu Nick confirms. Says Walt, still a bit incredulous, ,AeuThose guys were into Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck. Most of the kids in Northeast Philly have never even heard of Jeff Beck.,Aeu

In fact, the band,Aeos obvious admiration for Jeff Beck ,Aei not to mention The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Aerosmith and Jimi Hendrix, among other titans of rock ,Aei made them odd men out in the heavily Catholic, working-class section of Philadelphia they call home. ,AeuWhatever was popular never seemed to be my thing,,Aeu Kevin points out.

Echoes Nick: ,AeuI respect whatever anyone else wants to listen to, but I grew up on something different; I,Aeove always just been into rock and roll and the blues. I looked completely different from everyone else. I was made fun of and I felt like an outcast and I didn,Aeot care. It just fueled my desire to play rock music. It was the same with Walt and Mark and Kevin [bassist Brian Weaver was called in a bit later]. We opened for Aerosmith six months after we got together because, I swear, we were one of the only bands playing that kind of original rock and roll in Philadelphia. We were the only band testifying.,Aeu

Testifying. Rock is indeed a religion with Silvertide, whose debut album, Show and Tell (J Records), released September 28, 2004. Perhaps it,Aeos no coincidence, then, that Walt found his true calling in a church basement.

,AeuI was at this CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] meeting, ,Aeuhe explains. ,AeuI was 13 and just hanging out. I,Aeod been playing drums for a couple of years and a lot of the kids there were in bands. This one guy was playing a Zeppelin riff, and I just started singing. I hit every note, so this other guy said, ,AeuScrew covers ,Aei we should write some originals.,Aeu So he and I started writing songs. That,Aeos when I went downhill in school. All I wanted to do was work on songs, and school seemed like the perfect free time to do that. Then I stopped going altogether. I only wanted to practice.,Aeu

And even though Walt,Aeos father played music and his mom was a Stones fanatic, the senior Laftys were not happy with their boy,Aeos truancy. ,AeuI got kicked out of school. My parents threw me out of the house ,AeP multiple times,,Aeu says the singer, 23. ,AeuA couple times I lived at my grandma,Aeos, but then my best friend had a house and I rented a room off him. When I finally moved back home, I said, ,AeoI started up a band and I think we,Aeore gonna do pretty good. I need to quit my job as a janitor and do this full time.,Aeo,Aeu

Another pivotal juncture came when Walt met Mark Melchiorre, Jr. ,AeuHe had a Volkswagen hippy bus, like an ,Aeo81 Westphalia camper,,Aeu Walt notes. ,AeuThat was really different.,Aeu

,AeuI,Aeod noticed Walt at school,,Aeu informs Mark, 22. ,AeuI knew he was into music because I,Aeod seen him singing. We met junior year. I,Aeod been playing guitar since I was eight or nine, and we started playing and writing together pretty quick.,Aeu

,AeuMy dad plays bass,,Aeu Mark continues. ,AeuHe was in a band when he was younger with my uncle and a friend. They worked at a garage together and on weekends they,Aeod bring all their gear over there and just play. My dad loved The Beatles, and my uncle was totally into Aerosmith.

Nick Perri and Kevin Frank, both 20, were likewise developing their chops. The former began playing guitar when he was 12, having been converted to rock by his aunt at the age of 10. ,AeuMy mom would listen to Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, the more singer-songwriter stuff,,Aeu Nick notes. ,AeuMy dad is right off the boat from Italy. He listens to Luciano Pavarotti. They were pretty conservative. My aunt would come over, and when my mom wasn,Aeot looking, she,Aeod slip me these records ,Aei AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, old blues stuff like Albert King, Elmore James, T-Bone Walker. They changed my life.,Aeu

,AeuNick and I have been playing together since the first day we met, in freshman year,,Aeu adds Kevin. ,AeuHe really stood out in a high school band situation. No one played as well as he did; there was just more sophistication in what he was doing, even when he was 13. He had a natural passion, and I could really relate to that.,Aeu

Kevin,Aeos percussive passion was born early on. ,AeuI just banged on the pots and pans, everything, all the time, until I completely annoyed everyone in the family,,Aeu he says. ,AeuI finally said to my mom, ,AeoPlease get me a drum set.,Aeo I got this awesome, old ,Aeo70s Rogers kit free from my sister,Aeos friend. I had no clue how to play. I never took lessons; I just taught myself. I play differently from most drummers ,Aei I,Aeom left-handed but right-footed. I didn,Aeot know it was wrong. That,Aeos just how I started playing. It was noise and nonsense for about a year, and then things started to sound like beats. I just listened to whatever was on the radio, but my favorite stuff is from the ,Aeo60s and ,Aeo70s.,Aeu

,AeuWalt has undeniable charisma,,Aeu Nick confides. ,AeuI look back at that open mic night as being an intensely exciting experience because I felt like I was meeting the Bon Scott of Philadelphia. He has this volatile, loose-cannon thing ,Aei you never know what he,Aeos gonna do next. No matter how close you get, there,Aeos just this mystery. When I met him, he,Aeod already broken out of his conformist home life. I saw this free spirit and it got me thinking. I quit DJ,Aeoing parties [though it had become a lucrative sideline] and everything else I was doing and devoted myself completely to playing guitar.,Aeu

That was before they drafted Brian Weaver, 23 (another bassist had actually played with Nick and Kevin at the open mic). Brian was studying bass at Philadelphia,Aeos University Of The Arts. ,AeuI grew up three houses down from Mark ,Aei we,Aeove known each other since we were three,,Aeu he says. ,AeuOne day he called me up and said, ,AeoI,Aeom doing this band with Walt. I don,Aeot know if the bass player is gonna work out; would you be able to play some gigs?,Aeo

,AeuI,Aeod met Walt at a party where this cover band I was in was playing. I went outside to smoke and Walt was out there singing ,AeoJesus Christ Superstar,,Aeo just having a good time. We were laughing and saying, ,AeoWe should start a band.,Aeo It never happened, but a couple of years later, I get this call from Mark.,Aeu

That call was less about neighborliness and more about Brian,Aeos reputation as an accomplished instrumentalist. He started playing guitar when he was eight, then switched to drums, then picked up the bass. When Mark asked Brian to check out Silvertide, he didn,Aeot know what to expect. ,AeuBut I was impressed,,Aeu he maintains. ,AeuI thought the songs, especially, were really good. And I felt definite chemistry.,Aeu So Brian left school and joined the band. ,AeuAnd,,Aeu Walt deadpans, ,Aeuwe,Aeove been a disgruntled happy family ever since.,Aeu

It wasn,Aeot long before Silvertide landed a weekly gig at Philly,Aeos Abilene Blues Bar. Nick speculates as to why the club would grant a residency to a virtually untested act: ,AeuThe promoter, like any promoter, wanted to make money, and I think he saw there was something different about us, so he took a chance. At first there were two people at the bar, but the next week there were, like, 10 and the week after that 20. Eventually, the club was so fuckin,Aeo packed they had to turn people away.,Aeu

Walt thinks he knows why: ,AeuThe trick is to give people something to see. You can be five virtuosos up there, but if you don,Aeot put on a show, you aren,Aeot gonna create the kind of fans that come back week after week and know every word to every song even though you don,Aeot have a record out. You climb into the crowd, you light yourself on fire, you hang from the ceiling, you smash stuff, you dance on the bar, you get the whole crowd onstage ,Aei whatever you want to do. It becomes a party, a bunch of completely unruly people. That,Aeos what we were looking for; that,Aeos what every single one of us wanted.,Aeu

Once Silvertide was recruited to support Aerosmith at the last minute when the original opener was forced to cancel, all hell broke loose. And where all hell goes, A&R guys follow. James Diener at J Records signed the band and sent them out on the road. They,Aeove since played or toured with Velvet Revolver, Van Halen, Kid Rock, Godsmack, Alice Cooper, Tantric, Shinedown, The Darkness and Alter Bridge, and mounted headlining shows all over the U.S. and in London. The label released a Silvertide EP, American Excess, in 2002, then put the band up in a house so they could nurture their creativity in peace and quiet. Of course, they spent most of that time partying. Still, they did manage to hone their songwriting method.

Though Walt is Silvertide,Aeos lyricist, every member of the band writes with every other member. The making of ,AeuMary Jane,Aeu is revelatory. ,AeuWith that song, Kevin had a lick and Mark had a chorus section and Nick had a bridge and Brian had this cool little run going on,,Aeu Walt elaborates. ,AeuAfter we were done hammering on it, it was this great, uplifting, totally rocking song. At first it was just about pot, smoking a joint and having a good time. But I went back to it later and realized it could also be about a relationship, and I kind of reinforced that meaning. I,Aeove always been a big fan of those kinds of lyrics, where something can be taken a couple of different ways. It makes the experience of listening to the song much more universal; you can see your own situation.,Aeu

When it came time to make Show and Tell, Silvertide headed out to Los Angeles to work at Ocean Studios with Oliver Leiber, who,Aeos collaborated with a panoply of pop and rock artists, from Aretha Franklin to Antigone Rising. Show and Tell is loud, proud, rough and ready. The sound is outsized but organic. ,AeuWe didn,Aeot want it to be overproduced,,Aeu says Kevin. We did a couple of takes here and there, but we tried to keep it as simple and live as possible.,Aeu

Perhaps hometown music scribe Tom Moon said it best when he wrote of Silvertide: ,AeuThey,Aeore disciples of the Church Of The Power Chord in whose songs shopworn classic-rock elements are reborn as signifiers of a wild, feral, renegade life,Aeu (Philadelphia Inquirer).

And though Show and Tell does boast its fair share of sex, drugs and rock and roll, it also charges into complicated, emotionally fraught territory. ,AeuNothing Stays,,Aeu for one, bears a resigned, elegiac sentiment: ,AeuWhen everything seems to go away/ I can hear the silver call my name/ Nothing happens when I pray, no/ Nothing happens when I pray/ No nothing gold ever stays.,Aeu And ,AeuFoxhole J.C.,Aeu is an anguished cry of caution: ,AeuBrothers, sisters, the war is coming so you better stand strong/ Brothers, sisters, if peace was in this war it would have already gunned you down/ I said get down, I said down/ We got one unit lost and the others too proud/ Down, get down, down, I said down.,Aeu

In the end, though, the essence of Silvertide is more in the blood, sweat and tears of its members and fans than in even the most evocative words printed on a page. When asked to distill that elusive spirit, Walt says matter-of-factly, ,AeuWe,Aeore a great live act.,Aeu Then he poses the challenge: ,AeuIf you don,Aeot believe me, spend the 15 bucks on a ticket and come to one of our shows. I could tell you it,Aeos the greatest drug in the world, but you wouldn,Aeot believe it unless you experienced it yourself.,Aeu

For Nick, Walt,Aeos challenge is an invitation to the curious to immerse themselves completely in what he considers the most sacred of rock and roll sacraments: listening. ,AeuI,Aeom still blown away by music,,Aeu he marvels. ,AeuThe more I listen, the more there is to listen to. I get inspired by it every day, and that,Aeos how I want other people to feel.,Aeu