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By SARAH and KRISTEN
We
heard that Ben would be making a world exclusive appearance
to promote Pearl Drums at Easdens Music. It was rumored that
it was for drummers only, and it was also invitation only.
But we went anyway. We didn’t know what time Ben would
be there, so we ended up waiting 3 and a half hours shitting
our pants. Every time a car passed we’d look up hoping
that it would be him.
When we
were about to give up hope, and head back to the Schweppes
Centre to catch the soundcheck it we were lucky, a crowd of
people were beginning to accumulate nearby. We knew that he
would be there soon. We waited another 15 minutes and then
there was a huge surge forward. HE WAS HERE!!!!
He looked
very relaxed, and stood behind a classroom table. He posed
for various photos, stuck his tongue out and was friendly
to everyone. He took his time signing autographs, indicating
how comfortable and relaxed he was. Often he ran his hand
through his newly cut mohawk, proud of the "new do".
After taking heaps of pics (half of which didn’t work)
I finally approached him shy but excited. He autographed my
ticket and The Door single. I asked him if he was looking
forward to the Bendigo gig that night. He looked up, smiled
and said "Nah". I asked him "Why", and
he replied "Nah, nah, I was only joking. It’ll
be cool." I heaved a huge sigh of relief, worried that
because Bendigo is a smaller town than others on the tour,
that the gig would be empty and maybe they weren’t too
hyped about a "smaller gig". We posed for a photo
together. He handed back my newly autographed stuff, gave
me a huge grin and said "Bye". We were on a high
for the rest of the afternoon.
After
posing and autographing stuff for about 100 people, a huge
crowd considering that the appearance was "secret"
and on invitation only, my friends and I left as he entered
the store and the doors were locked behind him. We started
walking away, had a look in a nearby shop and on the way out
the door I heard screams. I looked up, and there was Ben and
his bodyguard walking at full speed straight towards me. I
had a hernia! I grabbed my camera and must have looked like
a total geek. As I looked up, still fumbling for my camera,
Ben was laughing at me. They kept walking down one of main
streets of Bendigo, fans in tow, cars passing by, honking
their horns. They rounded the corner and jumped into one of
their snazzy white Tarago vans. As they drove off, Ben gave
the ridgy didge signal followed by the bird, fans waving and
returning his signals. We all watched as the Tarago (front
hubcap missing by the way), was out of sight.
Time was
getting late, my friends and I ran for the next bus to the
Schweppes Centre. We arrived at around 4:45pm, silverchair
noises emerging from the centre. We paced the whole outside
looking for a way in. A girl came out of one of the side doors,
puffing and saying how hot it was in there. We didn’t
care, thanks to her we had found a way inside. Around 10 other
fans followed our lead. We hid behind the chairs hoping that
no one would see us and kick us out. The girl was not joking.
It was like a sauna in there. Then we saw them. Daniel was
kneeling down on the stage, strumming his guitar and strains
of Abuse Me were filling the auditorium. We stayed there watching
for 10 to 15 minutes until we were caught and told that if
we sneaked back in we wouldn’t be allowed back into
the concert later that night. We didn’t care. We left,
satisfied with getting a glimpse of the ‘chair’s
"check"! Other warm up songs played were Cemetery,
Shade and another loud thrashy song that we didn’t recognize.
By this
stage it was just past 5pm. Crowds were getting bigger and
bigger, people already lining up at the doors. We tried to
get backstage. And failed. This time we were told that our
photos had been taken and people at the door were told not
to let us in. We weren’t worried. As if!!
We entered
the gates around 7:30 after which Magic Dirt were just beginning
to warm up, and near the end they were fantastic. The pit
was really getting into them. Adalita spoke after almost every
song, cracked jokes and told the Bendigo mosh pit that we
were "beautiful". We were happy to hear this ‘cos
we knew the pit would be going off even more when the ‘chair
were on.
Near the
end of the ‘Dirt’s set we decided to enter the
mosh pit. This was not a good idea as everyone else had the
same idea. All the people sitting in the seats saving themselves
for the silverchair mosh, raced down to the pit all at once.
Once we were in, no one would let no one through. Bouncers
were handing out cups full of water. It was hot, it was sweaty
and it stunk! Everyone was squashed. It was more of a push
pit than a mosh pit near the front but near the back the mosh
was going off. Everyone wanted to get near the front and it
was aggressive as hell.
As roadies
moved around to set up the stage, strains of ???? (we’re
not sure if it was AC/DC, Zeppelin or Sabbath - we knew at
the time) escaped from the speakers.
The crowd
was hyped. Everyone was chanting "silverchair, silverchair,
silverchair!" The lights dimmed and finally out they
came!! Israel’s son was the opening intro which then
turned into a roaring version of Slave. Their stage presence
was really powerful, with a lot more movement - especially
from Daniel who threw himself all over the stage. One stray
dread stuck out of his head like an antennae. Ben pounded
the drums like there was no tomorrow, his tongue sticking
out from the bottom right corner of his mouth - his sign of
concentration. Chris hunched over his bass, seeming to enjoy
himself a lot more on stage. A more relaxed feel has developed
in his playing.
Abuse
me was the second song, with and extra guitarist coming on
stage for the extra sound. Daniel "We are joined here
on stage by Martin Luther King" He said something before
that, but screams coming from the crowd were too loud for
us to hear. Daniel’s vocals were particularly piercing
in this song.
We think
Pure Massacre was the third song followed by Faultline. Before
which Daniel said, "If spit lands on you, you’re
allowed to come up on stage and dance naked (everybody screams),
but only naked. Hey, I don’t care if anything lands
on me (puts out arms), here, take a shot, I really don’t
give a fuck…just not while I’m playing though
because it puts me off." During the song Daniel sang,
"Every mother fucker JUMP!!!!" The mosh pit went
psycho!! Heads were popping up and down everywhere.
Cemetery
was next. "This is where the guys leave the stage, I’m
gonna play this by myself."
Dan played
by himself, staring into space with sweat dripping everywhere.
Cemetery was really intense lyrically, sung with heaps of
emotion and pain. Because of the sweat, mascara was creating
pools of black under his eyes. Two big lumps of audience slag
sat on his t-shirt the whole song, but Dan was happy, at least
it didn’t land on him while he was playing! He changed
his pitch often, his vocals a few octaves higher than normal
which sounded fantastic. During the song he threw one of his
pics out into the pit and there were screams as a pile of
girls fought over it.
Ben and
Chris came straight out after the song for Suicidal Dream.
The mosh pit pumped in the final few bars as he screamed "suicidal,
suicidal, suicidal dream". At the end of the song, he
placed the end of the microphone into his mouth and literally
got on with it.
We think
Roses was next. "Put your hands up if you’re a
prostitute! Put your hands up if you’re a homosexual!
Put your hands up if you’re a lesbian! Put your hands
up if you’ve had sex!!!!!! (everybody puts up their
hands and yells YEAH)….with an endangered species of
tiger, ‘cos Ben used to have sex with his pet white
tiger, but then we found out from the animal liberationists
that it wasn’t cool. So then we invested in a cat, and
we only kiss cats ‘cos cats are cute. You’re a
pretty politically correct audience."
Next was
The Door in which Daniel dedicated to Ben. "Ben’s
got new shoes because he’s not as naturally beautiful
as me. (Everybody screams) This song is dedicated to Ben ‘cos
I feel sorry him." The Door is awesome live and the mosh
thrived.
After
almost every song a slag was sent flying into the pit. Daniel
was having a good time letting loose his greenies and Ben
did his fair share of slagging up near his drum kit aswell.
Minor
Threat was next, followed by an awesome version of No Association
(our favourite ‘chair song). Bits of his newly acquired
exorcist voice was coming through in this song. "Fugazi!!
If it means thank you I didn’t mean it ‘cos we
don’t thank people. I think it’s Spanish or something."
Spawn
followed which was really energetic. The crowd was singing
along, drowning out Dan’s screaming main lyrics ‘who’s
the bad guy, who’s the bad guy.’ "Thank you,
thank you, thank you to you over there (to left hand side
ofaudience), and thank you to you over there as well (to right
hand sideof audience, crossing arms over), thanks, thanks,
thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, thank you, thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you,thank you (looking at mosh pit).
We’re going now ‘cos I can’t singanymore,
I’ve been yelling too much." (Everybody yells stay
as theyleave the stage, Daniel taking a quick swig of a full
water bottle before throwing it into the mosh.)
ENCORE
(Everybody
chants "we want more, we want more") Daniel comes
out 5 to 10 minutes later and everybody stops chanting. "Awww
why’d you stop? I liked that!!"
The other
guys came back out and they launched into a mad version of
Freak. Either 5 or 6 of the heaters that were used in the
Freak video were turned on for the first time, the crowd cheering.
Throughout the song Daniel yelled "as cool as fucking
all of you" and stuck up his fingers at us. We all stuck
up our fingers back.
When Freak
was finished the spotlight came up on Chris and out came the
opening bars of Israel’s Son. The crowd went ballistic.
During the song Daniel moved his mic stand to the middle of
the stage, sung there for a while, took the mic out and moved
back to his side of the stage. He managed to change some of
the words. "Suck my, suck my, suck my dick, Israel’s
dick I’ll suck! Put your hands up your ass, put your
hands up your ass! YEAH!"
Then came
Nobody Came with Dan rubbing his guitar over the speakers
to create a real grinding noise. He climbed a small stack
just behind him which was unsteady so he got down quick and
rolled around on the floor producing massive feedback, while
literally humping his guitar. He played while Chris and Ben
had a bit of a rest, Chris puffing on the speaker stack behind
him looking over at Daniel rolling on the floor and smiling
at him.
Then out
came Ben’s awesome gong bass and combo drums, ready
for the Freak Remix, Dan was still rolling on the floor and
Ben ran out from behind his drums to the new ones. His sexy
little legs rocked in time to the music. The heaters came
on once again. Daniel once again sung with his exorcist voice
for most of the song. He climbed the left (stage right) speaker
stack, crawled around on his knees and sung into the blinding
white lights. Ice from the crowd was flying everywhere towards
him. He walked along to the far left side of the speakers,
sung into the audience on that side and jumped on the way
back. He then sat down and started swinging his legs, us noticing
for the first time that night his plum red, bitten down, chipped
nail polish. He jumped off the stack, ran frantically around
the stage, then climbed the right (stage left) speaker stack.
He lay down and rolled around, his head arched back looking
upside down at the crowd, dreads sticking out everywhere.
Sharp spasms and orgasmic groans were let loose. Climbing
back down, screaming, "SUCK MY FUCKING DICK" and
throwing his guitar down, he left the stage followed by Ben,
Chris being the last to leave the stage. Parts of the techno
version was still playing after they left for another minute
or two, leaving the guys enough time to make a quick get away.
The lights then came back on and it was all over.
Highlights
of the gig were definitely the Freak Remix with Dan climbing
the stacks and Ben going for it out the front. We also loved
Spawn as well as No Association and the big ending of Nobody
Came. We were disappointed that they didn’t play Learn
to Hate, but Dan’s vocal chords were probably too stuffed
to cope with the screaming chorus. The entire set went for
1 hour and 15 minutes. It went too quick we wish they could
have played for longer.
All we
can say is THAT THE CHAIR ABSOLUTELY ROCKED! The crowd loved
every minute of it. (We need more of this stuff in Bendigo!)
We can’t wait till the ‘chair come back with their
new album. They certainly have the energy, promise, experience,
attitude and great stage presence for an awesome future!!!
GOOD LUCK GUYS!! YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!! |
