Stories of the Road

Back in 2004, the Silversun Pickups came to Vegas (they didn't have a hit song yet) to perform at a bar (not the Double Down), but then they saw the marquee at the Double Down promising that the Silversun Pickups would be rocking there, that night.

"We were driving by the Double Down, and the (sign) had our name. We were like, 'Whoa, we're not even playing there!' " says singer-guitarist Brian Aubert.

So at 2 in the morning, the band pulled up to the Double Down and hung out.

"I was like, 'Why is our name on the marquee?' And the guy was like, 'Oh man, you guys didn't show up. You were supposed to play tonight. We have a contract!'

"I was like, 'No, we don't. I haven't even heard of this place before!' "

Aubert finds this whole situation pretty funny. Even at the time, he suggested a solution.

"I said, 'You know what? We're here right now. We'll play!' " Aubert says, laughing at his "nutty" story. "I was like, 'We're here! It's weird but it sounds fun.' "

But he says somebody at the Double Down said, "No, no, no, you can't do that."

I asked Double Down owner P Moss about this. Seeming unfamiliar with the story, he said maybe the band was booked through one of its "people" who didn't call to cancel. But no matter who was at fault, it would have been an honest mistake, Moss thinks.

Besides, there's no bad blood between Moss and the Los Angeles band (which blew up on the alternative music scene last year with the hit, "Panic Switch").

Moss says Aubert's story reminds him of the time when record execs spread a rumor the Double Down had David Bowie playing.

"The more I told them it wasn't true, the quicker the rumor spread," Moss says. "I had a line of limos and people lined up around the block."

And Aubert says there's more to his story.

"I lost my phone in the Double Down that night," Aubert says. "We came back at 6 in the morning to get it. And, man, there's a reason bars close.

"It looked like everyone was waiting for something really wrong," he says. "At 2 in the morning, that place is awesome. Six in the morning -- no."

Brian Aubert and 3 Questions

■ ON THE NEXT ALBUM: "I'm gonna write an album on the didgeridoo. No, I'm gonna write a record with those World Cup horns. It'll go like, 'Ehhhhhhhhh. Ehhhhhh.' It's pretty easy. With those horns, it's all about the stops and starts."

■ ON SONGWRITING: "I don't even write on an acoustic guitar. I work on an electric guitar, not plugged in. It's kind of weird, but I love the way electric guitars sound when they're not plugged in."

■ ON THE PROLIFERATION OF FREE MUSIC AND GOODS: "People are getting (stuff) for free everywhere. When everything is free, what happens? ... Everything seems to be getting amazing and easy -- but where is the thing that money goes? Where are the jobs? (He laughs.) We're gonna have to thin out the population or something."

ON TOURING

The stereotype is true that it's a challenge for musicians, when they tour, to keep up with loved ones back home, says Aubert.

But touring is even more of a hardship on people who work for musicians, he says.

"The crews -- who are always out with one band, then the next band -- you see them Skype-ing their children. And you go, 'Oh man, that's rough,' " Aubert says.

He says his tour manager uses Skype video to keep up with his family, which sometimes sees him more on video-phone than in person.

"Our tour manager has a cute little kid, and he said his kid finally knows now that he's not just a face on TV."

Aubert himself Skypes with his wife while on tour. He just got married to Twilight Sleep singer-keyboardist Tracy Marcellino in Italy.

"We Skype all the time," he says.

"She usually comes out every three weeks" to Silversun's tour stops. "She'll fly out and visit me, if she's not busy.

If musicians don't stay grounded in the reality of their back-home, he says, they return home and feel like an alien.

"It was really difficult at the beginning of our relationship to get used to the crazy world we live in. Now, we've just gotten really, really good at it," he says. "It's really important to keep watering our relationships while we're gone."

Their wedding was great, partly because he and Marcellino got a whole month together, he says.

Plus, it was funny, listening to dinner toasts that described his wife.

"After a while I was like, 'Man, I married a badass! I had no idea she was so cool!' "

Doug Elfman's column appears Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. E-mail him at delfman@ reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.