Perth, September 26, 1996

silverchair and Everclear began their "Tour With a Difference" across Australia with an all-ages show at the Perth Entertainment Centre.

In addition to six songs from their forthcoming new album, silverchair performed Surfin' Bird (their contribution to the Surfrider Foundation's MOM CD) and Black Sabbath's Paranoid, which silverchair and Everclear performed together earlier this year in Europe.

Clare (fuller@elmer.bekkers.com.au) said that "when the doors opened, everyone just ran in screaming. I managed to get to the front, actually the second row in the lounge, and was there for about two hours moshing. I watched Everclear, who were bloody good, then silverchair came on. I was crying (that sounds bad), but I was just so happy. I had mixed feelings. I was getting totally crushed -- wacked on the head by people getting pulled out of the crowd by security guards.

"But it was all worth it as I saw the three boys from Newcastle play the music that makes them famous today. Everyone, get lounge tickets -- it is worth the pain and exercise you get. I sure had the time of my life and I have this t-shirt to remember it."

The Perth show was the first of five with silverchair and Everclear to benefit the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the quality of the world's oceans. The entire proceeds from the Oct. 2nd show at Sydney's Metro were dedicated to the foundation. Surfrider arranged to set up booths at all the silverchair/Everclear shows to provide information, sign up new members and sell merchandise to further benefit its work.

By JENNY BANKS

The Perth Entertainment Centre is a fairly big venue to fill, and on silverchair's fourth visit to Western Australia, they filled it with style!

With a nice introduction by Everclear that they were going to play naked, Ben amused the crowd by playing in nothing but his underwear.

As soon as silverchair stepped on stage they broke into Leave Me Out, then straight into a new song, Slave. Next up was Findaway, introduced by Daniel as "an old song from the '70s."

The crowd was going mental and took the new songs like Freak really well. Being a strong crowd favourite, Suicidal Dream really got the place moving.

Ben and Chris then left the stage for Daniel to do a haunting solo rendition of Cemetery. Then the place was back in full frenzy for Pop Song for Us Rejects and the ever popular Tomorrow.

Next was another new song, Roses, and then Pure Massacre -- which had every set of lungs in the building screaming. The Door was the last of the new songs for the night, and they all went down really well. Faultline and Israel's Son were next, then straight into an explosive version of Madman. Talk about cutting sick on stage!

After a short break the 'chair were back on stage for a quick version of Surfin' Bird, after Daniel pointed out to the crowd how gross it is to shit in the ocean.

They finished the night with a cover of the Black Sabbath song Paranoid. I'm not sure if the as yet untitled rap song for the "homies" is going to be a regular appearance at their gigs, but they did find it very funny that the crowd responded so well.

Afterward, I asked the members of silverchair how they liked the gig and they said it was a choice show. Well, those are exactly my sentiments as well!