Walt Lafty - Vocals Nick Perri - Guitar Mark Melchiorre - Guitar Brian Weaver - Bass Kevin Frank - Drums
We may be approaching a moment in rock and roll when a band has finally come along to transform the scene and shift what fans want and expect. Their name is SILVERTIDE. Bubbling up from the teenage wasteland of Northeast Philadelphia, SILVERTIDE seem beamed straight off the pages of Cream magazine, sent to revive the live action music show and reintroduce classic rock for their generation.
So agrees anyone who has witnessed SILVERTIDE in all their monstrous rock glory. Philadelphia Inquirer's influential scribe Tom Moon who witnessed the band early on astutely stated that these disciples of the Church of the Power Chord that somehow pick up cultural information that their peers missed where classic-rock elements are reborn as signifiers of a wild, feral, renegade life. A recent show spurred website AroundPhilly.com to write Silvertide's performance was a high dosage of eye candy as concert-goers seemed unable to look away from the band, especially frontman Walt Lafty and lead guitarist Nick Perri, a charismatic tandem like Tyler/Perry, Slash/Rose and perhaps, dare I say, Page/Plant.
The band is composed of spirited lead vocalist Walt Lafty, maniacal whirling dervish guitar god Nick Perry on lead, Mark Melchiorre on rhythm guitar, banjo, sitar and anything else that strums, bass player extraordinaire Brian Weaver, and Keith Moon-inspired Kevin Frank on drums. Together since January 2001, the love of music brought Lafty and Melchiorre together with Perri and Frank (both high schoolers at the time) at a local studio's open mic night. They finalized the lineup a few months later by adding Weaver, who had been playing with Melchiorre since they were 8 years old. From the first practice, Silvertide clicked. They worked every day in Perri's basement, writing songs and developing the killer attitude they would use in their celebrated live shows.
After a few months underground, Silvertide climbed out of the basement. Unknown and without a gig, they ventured into the harsh light of Philadelphia's original music scene by playing local open mic nights.
This initial exposure led to a steady weekly gig at a South Street Club. From there the story I classic rock and roll. Their first shows were for a couple of uninterested drunks at a bar. But, from their sheer will to rock and roll, Silvertide won fans over. The buzz spread. Everyone began talking about this incredible band; in a few months people were lined up each week outside the door trying to get in. Silvertide soon moved on to bigger and better. They opened fro Aerosmith, earned regular mentions in the City Paper and were featured in their first Philadelphia Inquirer feature article.
A record deal soon became a reality. After a spirited courtship, and shortly after the band's one-year anniversary, Silvertide signed a recording agreement with music legend Clive Davis' J Records.
Given that so much has happened so fast, Silvertide really is just getting started. They have finished the recording of an EP and have now entered the studio to record their first album, "Show and Tell".
