Silvertide formed in January 2001 in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a working-class neighborhood the band's early biographies compared to Queens and Brooklyn relative to New York City. Originally called Vertigo, the group had four members at first: lead singer Walt Lafty, lead guitarist Nick Perri, rhythm guitarist Mark Melchiorre, and drummer Kevin Frank. When bassist Brian Weaver was added to the lineup, Silvertide officially had five members. Most of the band members were still teenagers, and their sound stood apart from their peers because while other northeast Philly teens were listening to Korn, Limp Bizkit, Eminem, and Jay-Z, Silvertide's members were admiring the Rolling Stones, the Who, Peter Frampton, Jimi Hendrix, and the Faces. That throwback, blues-drenched hard rock style quickly set them apart on the local scene.
The band's breakthrough came fast: by the time 2001 ended, Silvertide was creating a healthy buzz on the city's rock scene, and the buzz was so strong that Silvertide ended up opening for Aerosmith when Steven Tyler and friends played in Philly during a national tour. That local buzz led to a deal with veteran music industry mogul Clive Davis' J Records, which signed the band and released its debut EP, American Excess, in 2002. Their full-length debut, "Show and Tell," followed in 2004, produced by David Ivory, and became the definitive statement of their raw, riff-driven sound, spawning tracks like "Ain't Comin' Home" and "Mary Jayne." Silvertide was also featured on a film soundtrack with their covers of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" and "It Ain't Me, Babe". The band's momentum was disrupted by lineup instability. Silvertide continued to play shows after the temporary departure of lead guitarist and founding member Nick Perri, who hit the road with Perry Farrell, Shinedown, and Matt Sorum, and guitarist "Evil Rob," a long-time friend of the band from the Philadelphia-based band Pepper's Ghost, was called to fill in for Perri on numerous occasions. As their major-label prospects dimmed, news of a follow-up album slowed to a halt, and members began pursuing other projects, including Walt Lafty and Brian Weaver's band Automatic Fire and Walt and Nick Perri's band SINAI. By 2008 the original band had gone quiet, and in 2011 J Records was dissolved into RCA Records, at which point Silvertide was no longer listed on the label's roster. Silvertide's story did not end there. In late 2012 the band announced that all five original members would reunite to write, record, and play, and in February 2013 Perri and Weaver flew back to Philadelphia from Los Angeles to begin work with the group, playing their first show in six years at the TLA on South Street in March 2013. That sold-out reunion show was attended by fans who flew in from across the country to witness the band's return. The group has continued to surface periodically since, with a booking deal announced years later signaling ongoing interest in live performances, and members like Nick Perri have remained active in music through other projects. Despite never achieving lasting mainstream stardom, Silvertide retained a devoted following and a reputation as one of the more promising, hard-charging rock acts to emerge from Philadelphia's early-2000s scene.
It's fitting that this archive holds such a deep record of the band's rise, since Wayne Dennon photographed Silvertide across 11 shows between 2003 and 2005, capturing the group right at the height of their major-label breakthrough. Those performances, spanning six different cities in two states, resulted in 374 photographs that have since been viewed by archive visitors 290,620 times, a testament to the enduring fascination with a band whose story still resonates with rock fans who remember exactly what it felt like to see them live.
