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New
York (Roseland), Dec. 10, 1995
By MILENA
Throughout
the opening sets of Skunk Anasie and Smile, the mosh pit bobbed
and swayed, sputtering with excitement and young energy. Sweaty
teens filled the smokey hall to the gills; most covered in
concert t-shirts from their favorite bands. From the front
of the pit, I could see a serious Ben Gillies, sitting on
a stool behind the stage.
Finally,
silverchair assended the stage and Ben hurdled himself into
the drum set. Daniel Johns and Chris Joannou creeped on to
the stage from opposite sides, each carrying their guitars.
They started their set by launching into a tight version of
Leave Me Out. Daniel played a green Paul Reed Smith guitar
with a Helmet sticker on the back. He and Chris tossed their
hair in unison after the first chorus. The next song was a
new song called Slave and I had never heard it before. It
was a pleasant surprise with hard core parts slightly resembling
Helmet or Tool. The song was tinged with droaning guitars,
heavy distortion, and screaming and the words to the powerful
chorus were “Want to be a soldier, want to be your slave.
Have no pride in myself...”
Findaway
was the next song and it really complimented Daniel's voice.
He sounded great. In between songs, Daniel and Chris looked
a little awkward. Daniel made funny faces at the audience
and displayed his notorious bug-eyed expression. He also bickered
something into the microphone but it was hard to comprehend
over the high pitched screaming from the girls around me.
But he did threaten to spit out the water he was drinking
at the audience. The next song the band did was Acid Rain,
but there were technical difficulties. Daniel switched his
guitar and began playing a red and black Gibson SG with an
SST sticker. The treble on the guitar was too quiet and his
microphone was too low. As a result, the song was shaky and
Daniel had to rely on his voice to get through the song.
At this
point a long-haired blonde girl somehow ran up on to the stage.
A bouncer chased her as she ran past Daniel and stopped next
to Chris. She said something to him and possibly kissed him.
Chris kind of ignored her and stepped back. He looked unsettled.
The bouncer finally caught her and yanked her of the stage,
against her will. Daniel quickly exchanged reassuring glances
with Chris and the two boys giggled to themselves.
The next
two songs were like anthems because everyone was singing along.
Suicidal Dream and Tomorrow were done really well, but the
band was hard to hear over everyone's singing. The solo in
Tomorrow was perfect and Daniel played it facing the amp stacks
to get plenty of reverb.
The mosh
pit was insane. Surfing bodies were flying all over the place.
Daniel, wearing a black Velvet Underground t-shirt, announced
to the audience, "I'm supposed to tell you guys to be
calmer in your moshing but you paid for your ticket. Mosh
as hard as you want. This is the perfect song to do it to."
And silverchair launched into a particularly aggressive version
of Madman.
The next
song was No Association, another new gem. I remember it sounded
hard and heavy with a scale section. Faultline was the best
song of the evening and far superior to the album version.
The 'chair performed it with so much energy and passion. Daniel
sang the high "ohh’s" right on pitch and the
hardcore portion of the song, after the second chorus, was
so fast and tight that I felt I was going to explode. Daniel
and Chris bounced up and down as if they had choreographed
their movements.
Pure Massacre
was the last song before the band left the stage. The whole
crowd sang along, obediently reciting all of the words. At
the end of the song Daniel left his green guitar up against
the amps and the reverb blasted. Quickly the band ran offstage
and the lights went down. The audience howled and screamed,
demanding more from silverchair.
When the
band resumed the stage, Daniel made faces at the audience.
He smiled and then frowned as if he was tricking the spectators.
He waved to some people in the first row. For the encore,
silverchair played two new songs called Nobody Came and New
Race. They were cool songs and New Race had a big punk feel
to it. The last song was the catastrophic Israel’s Son.
The band went crazy at the end. Daniel soloed quite a bit
and got down on his knees to play with all of his pedals.
Ben smashed his snare drums and cymbals. The audience stretched
their hands and other limbs in the air when Daniel chanted,
"I am, I am Israel’s son... Put your hands in the
air." Daniel and Chris left their instruments up against
their amps, to exit the stage in a blanket of sound. The crowd
cheered and opened up. I could finaly breathe again.
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