Ballarat,
Dec. 17, 1997
By HAYLEE
KRUSE
I was
in a huge rush to get back from the city, running home to
make it back by four o’clock. I just made it. I went
to Jess’ house, and I was greeted with excellent news:
her dad had arranged backstage passes for us!! The trip to
Ballarat took about an hour, and nothing outstanding happened
on the way up.
Jess’
mum went and picked up the passes for us, and he gladly put
them on, walking to the Civic Centre. We knew we were showing
off, but we couldn’t resist. As we walked past people,
we heard things like, “Ask her if she knows the band”,
and, “How did they get passes?”
We went
to the front door, flashed our passes, and we were in. We
ended up not even using our actual tickets. Everyone was really
nice, and no one gave us shit for hanging around backstage.
We were
told to ask for John Watson, but he and the band hadn’t
arrived yet, so a man (who’s name I don’t know,
but he had long hair, so, I’ll just call him the long
haired dude), yeah, he said that the band will be arriving
at 8:30, he’ll come and get us at quarter past. We then
asked the mixing desk guy if we could watch the show from
the side of the stage this evening, and he said that was cool.
I don’t
know what it is with rockin’ kids and silverchair, but
there were heaps here tonight, one kid left even before silverchair
came on because it was too loud.
We went
to the other side of the stage, and found Daniel’s guitars.
A photo was taken, and we just sat there for a bit. We met
one of the roadie’s daughters, and she was pretty nice,
she’d been to three shows out of the whole tour.
Nothing
much was happening, so we went outside for a bit. Jess’
mum was supposed to arrive with the camera, so we were kinda
waiting for her. It was really messy outside, and I hate litter,
so I decided to pick it all up. Jess just looked on as if
I was a dickhead, and I have looked like one, but litter is
not good. With my good deed done for the day, I sat down,
and we continued to wait. Jess’ mum finally arrived
with the camera and her brother.
There
was a bit of a fight about why Ed (Jess’ bro) can’t
come in, but he did, and in the end, he wasn’t any trouble.
We went backstage, and looked around, I was thirsty, so we
went into Magic Dirt’s dressing room and got some water.
Naughty. There were two levels to the backstage area, and
as we were coming down from the second, all the boys were
going up. Ben saw us, and realised that he met us in Melbourne,
a confused look, then a happy smile. Daniel went straight
to the dressing room, which had lots of fruit that I wanted,
Chris hung around, and Ben went out to the side of the stage
to see Magic Dirt.
There
was a kid about two years old, who I think, knew Magic Dirt,
he was dancing and grooving, and then he decided to go onto
the stage, he nearly got there, but his mum caught him.
We went
backstage, we were introduced to Chris, we managed to release
the word’s “Hi, how are you?”, he was extremely
polite, and cool we just sat there for a while. John Watson
came up to us and said, “You’re (insert Jess’
dad’s name) kid’s right?” We said yep, and
then we were told that the guys are warming up, so before
they go on, we can do something. We asked if we could get
a photo, and he said, “I wouldn’t usually do this,
but since you’re wearing that badge, I will. Good call”.
I was wearing my “No Animal Eating” badge, and
obviously, it was a hit.
while
we were waiting for the guys to come down, we could hear Daniel
warming up his voice, with lots of “La, la, la...”,
and what have you. Daniel went to the toilet, but didn’t
close the door. Cool. Some weird noises being made by Ben
were coming from the dressing room, and all this was incredibly
funny and surreal.
John started
to talk to this women, who, at first, I thought was Julie
Johns, but I figured it couldn’t have been. He was telling
her a story about how Daniel’s mum kept asking him not
to say fuck on stage, Johns was saying something like, “
‘Why can’t I say fuck, mum? It’s not like
it’s a rude word or something, fuck. You know what Mum,
FUCK YOU!!’ And then he went on with this whole rave
about censorship, and it was really funny.” Just then,
Daniel came down the stairs, stretching and stuff. He’d
put Tiger Balm or something like that on, “This stuff
hurts more than the injury.”
The kid
that nearly ran on during Magic Dirt’s set, came in
and Daniel smiled at him. He was complete with his oversized
tour top and all. It was just about time to go on, and the
guys came down to get a photo taken. Ben stood next to me,
Chris on the other side of Ed, and Daniel sat on the floor.
John took the photo, and they were off. As we were waiting
to go out, I was looking at Ben’s muscles (he had no
shirt on). Shit! Drumming really does give you a work out.
Daniel was getting really hyped, and I think he was a bit
nervous. He had his hands over his face, and it looked like
he was having trouble breathing.
OK, I’ll
tell you what they were wearing. Daniel was wearing a black
t-shirt, his white pants, and Cons that had “FUK”
written on one shoe, “YOU” on the other. There
was no C. Chris wore some t-shirt with those funny little
aliens, black shorts, and I can’t remember what shoes.
Ben was just wearing black shorts, and Airwalks.
The guys
walked on stage, and we took our positions. The music was
so loud, that the walls were crumbling. I’ve still got
shit in my hair.
They played a set of 15 songs:
Freak
Roses
Slave
----------------
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
----------------
Cemetery
Suicidal Dream
Pop Song For Us Rejects
---------------
The Door
The Closing
No Association
Learn To Hate
Spawn
Israel’s Son
---------------
Nobody Came
Remix For Us Rejects
A roadie
gave me a set list, and one of Ben’s used sticks that
says “Ben’s Wood”. They’re funny.
During Cemetery, Ben just sat behind his drum kit with his
leg’s crossed, he looked pretty silly. I’m not
sure where Chris went. I must say, tonight wasn’t the
best performance I’ve seen of their’s, but the
crowd wasn’t the greatest one either. But, it’s
like everyone says: even on a bad night, they’re great.
Daniel
didn’t talk to the audience as much this evening, he
dedicated a song to his mum, ‘cos it was her birthday.
I think the funniest thing he said was, “We’re
going to see who can dance the best, the top or the bottom.
I’m going to keep tags on who’s the best. The
winner gets to have sex with Ben Gillies, including males.
He’s experimented on me, and it’s not bad.”
He also said something about loving your pets, I didn’t
hear it all though.
We got
some pretty good photos from the side of the stage, waiting
for developing. “We’re Nirvana”, and Daniel
started to play Come As You Are. I always love sarcasm.
Once again,
Ben amazed me with his stamina, and skill. One time, when
he broke a stick, he didn’t even miss a beat when he
went to grab the next one.
And Daniel
is certainly fond of his rude finger and the word fuck. And
he has incredible stage presence. During Remix, he was screaming,
and he said, “Body and soul, suck my big fuckin’...woops!”
He also jumped between the mosh and the barrier, dancing around.
I can’t
really remember much else, I guess Daniel would have used
the same guitars for each song as the Melbourne gig.
Watching
from the side of the stage is a whole heap better than anywhere
else, everyone was really nice to us too.
That’s
about it for me, there’s nothing much else to say except
that everyone was super nice (I know I just said it), John
and the dude with the long hair especially. I wish silverchair
heaps of luck with the last two shows of the tour, and next
year with their break and the new album. |
