By EMER

What an awesome night. These guys still totally ROCK.

First there was Magic Dirt, who are a shit '80s rock sounding band that just don't have it in my book. The lead singer chick crapped on about suicide for a while, and I thought, "Ooohhh, get on with it". We were all pretty stoked when they left the stage.

On came Ammonia, a well-known band originally from Perth that pumped out many a hit, such as Drugs and Sleepwalking from their Mint 400 CD as well as some of their new stuff, which is pretty cool.

Then there was the standard 40-minute wait for the great three-piece band. We heard on the P.A. the standard AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath routine.

Then the trio entered. There was a spotlight on Chris as he hit the intro to Israel's Son. Daniel then came in with Slave, totally getting the place rockin'.

Roses followed, then Daniel said, "We're gonna bring out Bailey here to play this one, he's our lead guitar guy, he's the lead man." So, of course, they played Abuse Me. Instead of singing "come on, abuse me more, I like it," he sang "come on, suck my dick, I like it," which put many females in a frenzy!

Pure Massacre was next, after which Daniel said, "I'm gonna sing the next one by myself." He started Cemetery with just a touch of distortion on his red Paul Reed Smith -- to me it spelled GOIN' OFF!

Suicidal Dream was next and it rocked, with Daniel mentioning something about the Triple J appeal held earlier this year. Daniel introduced the next song by saying "this one is for my prostitute. They're great whenever you want 'em for sex." This of course got the chicks yelling and screaming. Then they played Pop Song For Us Rejects, one of my favourites. Faultline was next, then the Triple J-friendly song The Door. No Association followed and it absolutely thumped. Chris and Daniel were going off! Israel's Son was next. They did their extended live version of the song.

They then walked off but soon came back and played Freak. This was about the most amazing part of the night. Firstly, they had the heaters in the back, just like the film clip, then guys in astronaut suits came out to collect sweat off the boys, once again just like the film clip. A lot of fun was had with this, and the astronauts started tackling the boys. Quite a laugh.

Daniel walked off next, and soon came back wearing a dress, and what looked to be tinsel wrapped around his neck. They played Lie To Me and then Spawn, from the movie of the same name.

Then came the final song, the Freak remix. The drums were set up, and Daniel jumped, ran and climbed anything he could. The boys were going off. The the Magic Dirt chick ran out and rammed her head up the back of Daniel's dress and tackled him to the stage floor. She somehow managed to rip off his dress and Daniel was left to sing the rest of the song in his little grey undies which sent the chicks wild. The boys then said thanks to the crowd and walked off.

Daniel had said earlier what an important show it had been, being their last one for the year, and for another six months. And important did the show feel to all who saw the silverchair spectacle.

Set List:
Slave (with Israel's Son intro)
Roses
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
Cemetery
Suicidal Dream
Nobody Came
Pop Song For Us Rejects
Faultline
The Door
No Association
Israel's Son

Encore:

Freak
Lie To Me
Spawn
Freak remix

My mate Richard and I arrived at the parking area at around 4:30 p.m. and after getting out the car, a white van drove past us and guess who it was... not hard is it? 'Twas silverchair and Daniel was looking straight at us.

So we grabbed a parking ticket and walked over to where silverchair parked. They nicked off before we could get there which was lucky because there was a pile of young girls sticking their chests out, running after the van screaming. Two minutes later, the same girls were harassing the security guard.

We waited around for a bit then went to McDonald's for a bit of pre-dinner eating before the concert. When we returned, there was a crowd starting to form so we jumped in line. It took frigging ages and we had to wait forever. One band said to apologise for taking so long (I think that was Magic Dirt seeing as they opened the concert) and another band asked for no drink bottles to be brought into the venue.

We got inside and went to the mosh area because what kind of silverchair concert would it be if you didn't have lounge tickets? (Some girls behind us thought "lounge" meant reclining chairs and they really did believe it!)

By the time silverchair got on stage the crowd was swelling and there were people being pushed over left and right. As soon as they came on stage, everyone started yelling and screaming and it was heaps cool. They started off with a small intro to Israel's Son but then played Slave, which totally rocked. Roses followed that, along with hard moshing up the front.

At every chance he got, Daniel gave the crowd a middle finger, showing how much he appreciated their support. He also changed the lyrics to the songs as much as he could. "But I can't remember, sorry!"

At one point, Chris' bass wasn't working and Daniel said something along the lines of "it's always Chris, trust Chris to not have his fucking equipment working."

Some dickheads kept throwing shit at Daniel and his microphone stand and during No Association, a jumper hit and knocked over the stand, thoroughly pissing Daniel off. He stood there for a minute just playing and when Bailey came and stood it up, Daniel punched the microphone. Later in the song, Daniel went over and stood near Chris about where the jumper came from and gave everyone a pissed-off look.

The fuckheads who come to the concert to get pissed and throw shit should just stay at home and do whatever coz it screws up silverchair from doing a heaps kick arse concert and the fans having a rocking time.

I have read other reviews and seen how people have not liked Daniel for pulling finger signs and getting pissed off easily. I just have to say that this added to the performance and I totally loved every minute of the gig.

I can't remember much, and that is usually a sign of an excellent show, because you don't have time to think about the previous song because the next one is coming right at you.

To my moshing enjoyment, silverchair played Freak, Pop Song For Us Rejects, No Association, The Door... well, all the songs, but those are some of my favourites.

The version of Cemetery was one of the best ever. Daniel's vocals were totally excellent and during the "need a change" bit halfway through the song, he sang it heaps high and it was incredible.

Daniel dedicated No Association to all the people that think he is gay and a heroin user and other stuff, basically saying fuck off. During one of the songs, Daniel was singing something about Israel's Son being dead.

Daniel also told the crowd to "jump and fucking rock as the people in Perth do."

During Freak, the heaters were on and they also had the scientists (who I think were some people from Sony dressed in space suits) that took sweat samples from silverchair. It looked really cool. This was probably the highlight of the concert for me. At one point, one of the scientists was tackled by a member of Magic Dirt and the person fell over unplugging the guitar lead. Bailey came out and walked around a bit, and Daniel basically stopped doing everything. As Bailey walked off, Daniel said, "Bailey, get back here, nothing's fucking working!" So Bailey came back and plugged the guitar lead in. Some may say this kind of stuff is unprofessional but I say it kicks arse and makes the live set just that bit better.

Last was the Freak techno remix version thingy, which was completely freaky and excellent. Daniel came out wearing a grey dress, a white scarf, a pink scarf, and a tonne of makeup. Ben looked like he was having the time of his life whacking the shit out of the special techno Freak drum kit. Daniel did the speaker stack climb thing, which was cool, and he stayed up there for a while. He was screaming and making heaps of chattering sounds which made everyone mosh more. While Ben was hitting the shit out of the drums, the singer from Magic Dirt snuck up on him and tried to depants (dack) him. This did not work, so she and another guy (the bass player from MD, I think) moved onto Chris, who was ready for them. He starting dodging and weaving around the stage in order to keep his shorts on. He did this successfully, so the next victim was Daniel, who was tackled and lost his dress.

Unfortunately -- or luckily for some -- Daniel decided not to wear boxers under his dress and therefore was running around singing the Freak remix in his scarves, undies (briefs) and a whole pile of make-up. I think the scarves may have been a boa or something. When he was just in the boa, the way he was moving around and holding the microphone, he reminded me of a cabaret singer!

For the fans who are really interested. Daniel's briefs were like white with blue squares. There ya go.

You could tell Ben was having a great time, and it is good to see that they can have a break now after doing hard tours and crappy school exams.

All in all, this was the best gig I have seen and silverchair can only get better.

Well, the silverchair gig was the best I've seen. The only thing that really let the gig down was Magic Dirt. Adalita was obviously stoned out of her mind, and no one could make any sense of the shit that she was dribbling. After Magic Dirt finished Ammonia played their set, which went off.

Finally, after much waiting and complaining, silverchair came on stage. I was there with three of my friends, and as soon as Daniel walked onto the stage all you could hear was everyone screaming. They began the set with Slave, which was awesome. Daniel didn't really talk all that much at the start.

All these dickheads kept throwing shoes onto the stage and I think the band were getting a bit pissed off. About halfway through the set the bass stuffed up and so Daniel was just talking to the crowd. He then spat out to the crowd and it was really funny when they all spat back at him. The bass started working again so they started to play. When Daniel dedicated Nobody Came to his sexy prostitute, all these girls just started screaming, and when he said that the sex with her was perfect, someone yelled, they all just yell, but I can do it better!!!

They played Spawn really well, except I think a few people didn't recognize it because the reception wasn't as good as some of the other songs. The real highlight of the night, though, was when they played the Freak remix. Daniel came out on stage in a dress with feather boas wrapped around his neck. He was running around all over the stage and climbing all the speaker stacks.

During the song, Magic Dirt ran out on stage and started jumping all over the band members. Adalita managed to rip Daniel's dress off him so he finished the song by running around the stage in his underwear.

All in all I'd say that they played well, considering they'd been touring for a month, and it was one of the best live shows I've ever seen, apart from Magic Dirt's set. Thanks to the bands, crew members, etc. for a great show.