From the Event Guide, May 2008
Suffering Jukebox
By Aoife Barry
American alternative rock outfit Silver Jews, fronted by the enigmatic David Berman, began as a musical project back in 1989, when David hooked up with friends Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement) and Bob Nastanovich. The band were famed for the fact that they never played a live show, something which earned Berman a reputation as a reclusive rock star. But that all changed in 2006, when Berman brought the band on their first ever tour, which took in the US, Europe and Israel, the latter having huge importance to Berman who, after a struggle with addiction and a suicide attempt, found salvation in his Jewish religion.
However, although the Nashville-based band are now set to embark on their second ever tour, in support of new (sixth) album ‘Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea’, it seems that Berman still has his concerns about life on the road, and performing live. “I really didn’t know whether I was gonna like touring, you know, on the first time in 2006, and I guess I did like it, because I look forward to it [this time],” he says, sounding surprised at himself. “I know what to expect and I was concentrating so much on just getting through it last time that I didn’t have a chance to move around or talk to anybody; I really had to sort of hermetically seal myself off.”
So with such a fear about touring, did making that leap back in 2006 help him prove anything to himself? “I proved something to myself,” he agrees, “but I also feel like maybe the people who came to the shows proved something to me that I needed to see. I could never have imagined…there was no way to imagine how many people were interested in the band. I was just really gratified you know, and people came from such far distances to the shows.”
