Music News of the World
By Jaan Uhelszki and Alex Jackson
February 10, 1996
Silverchair are back in the U.S. opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which
they did last night at Madison Square Garden. Kennedy made
a fool of herself, as usual, while interviewing the young
lads last night on guess what combo music video, tits & ass
and soap opera channel?
But last weekend, before the Peppers tour began, they headlined
the L.A. Palladium, and it was quite the momentous occasion.
As they pulled into sound check, they were greeted by a throng
of 150 screaming teenage girls, in a scene right out of A
Hard Day's Night.
Unbeknownst to the girls, the band had just come from the hospital where the drummer, Ben Gillies had just been taken, complaining of "side pains." He was seen and released, but advised to come back after the show for more tests. After that things could only get better.
But no, the underage Aussies managed to blow out their sound system not once but twice, once during Madman and again during their last song Israel's Son.
Things did begin to pick up a little, when someone threw a pair of the itsiest, bitsiest pair of scarlet bikini underwear at Daniel Johns' feet. Their obliging roadie wasted no time in scooping them up, and putting them on, the only problem is he wore them on his head. Johns barely noticed as he worked his way through the band's 60-minute set, spiced up with some new songs, and a couple of punk covers -- a nice change from their usual grunge redux.
After it was all over, young Gillies returned to the hospital at 2 a.m., where he spent the rest of the night under observation for what was feared to be an acute appendicitis, but turned out to be a bad case of indigestion.
In addition to the Peppers tour, silverchair will play two dates with their label mates and hot new Australian trio Ammonia: singer/guitarist Dave Johnstone, bassist Simon Hensworth and drummer Allan Balmont.
Ammonia hail from the isolated city of Perth, Western Australia, and released their debut album Mint 400 late last year. It was produced by Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, who also took production credits on silverchair's hugely successful frogstomp debut.
Atlanta radio station 99X, a strong supporter of silverchair, has already thrown its support behind Ammonia's single Drugs, but other stand out tracks on the album include the current Australian single Ken Carter, In A Box and Sleepwalking (previously released as EPs in October 1994 and March 1995 respectively).
Ammonia played their first U.S. show at the Dragonfly in Los Angeles this past Thursday (Feb. 8); they team up with silverchair at the International Ballroom in Atlanta on Sunday (Feb. 10) and for a show in Chicago on Feb. 17. Ammonia also play at Brownies in New York on Tuesday Feb. 13.
Next up for silverchair is the UK and Europe, starting on Tuesday Feb. 20 in Manchester with a show with Everclear. Ammonia return to Australia later this month to play a Sony conference but they are expected back in the U. S. for a full tour in March or April.
