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By LORI (maggie15@aol.com)
Wearing
my silverchair meditating llama T-shirt and a spring jacket,
I arrived at the Electric Factory at 8 p.m. Inside, to the
left of the door, was a snack bar and to the right was the
T-shirt stand, with silverchair shirts and Fuel shirts. Fuel
was the opening band; I was disappointed that Handsome did
not play as they did on most of the rest of the tour because
I was expecting to hear them.
The floor
was wide open and there was a balcony on the right where alcohol
was served for those over 21. In the middle was the lighting
and sound equipment. To the left were metal bleachers.
 At
8:40 p.m., Fuel took the stage. Their music was good, but
I was sort of annoyed a bit during their set because a couple
on the bleacher below me kept kissing intimately and I just
wanted to scream, "Get a room!"
Fuel left
the stage at 9:25 and silverchair came out about 20 minutes
later. The stage was decorated with banners including the
10,000 volted woman, the talking head without a body, a snake
wrestler, the human pin cushion, and the contortionist. Everyone
stood up at 9:45 when the circus music came on! And of course,
people on the bleachers got the best view. Daniel wore the
Freaks movie shirt and khaki-colored pants Ben was shirtless
(again) and wore had black shorts. Chris wore a navy shirt
and black shorts.
The band
started out with Slave and then ripped into Roses. And if
you like when Daniel points to the crowd in Freak, he also
pointed to the crowd when he sang, "Take your mind with
you!" A shirt was thrown up on stage and Chris kicked
it. Then they went into Findaway, after which Daniel said
"Thanks!" and something like, "This song is
always on the radio."
Bailey
Holloway of the stage crew came on stage and Daniel told the
crowd that he had previously played for Black Sabbath. Then,
with Bailey playing second guitar, the band played Abuse Me.
Next was Freak, and many people were crowdsurfing. Security
guards kept catching people heading towards the front. Instead
of saying, "As cool as you," Daniel said, "As
cool as all of fucking you!"
After
Freak, Ben and Chris disappeared, and Daniel announced, "I'm
gonna play this song by myself. It's called Cemetree."
He used the orange guitar with the No Religion sticker, if
anyone cares. Then came Suicidal Dream and Tomorrow. After
Tomorrow, Daniel said, "Philadelphia fuckin' rocks! I
just said that to make you yell. But you do, you fuckin' rock!"
Then came The Door and Daniel did his "dance," whipping
his hair around.
Then,
silverchair ripped into Faultline, which didn't get much response
back from the crowd. Daniel then played a guitar which looked
new -- it was either navy blue or black with no stickers on
it. "This is a new guitar," he said. "I never
played with this one before. The next song is track five off
the new album. Wait... no it's not!" It turned out to
be Pure Massacre, which got everyone extremely rowdy.
Two boys
jumping on the bleacher made it rock back and forth and I
was on the end of the bleacher, jumping as well. Somehow the
bleacher seats shook a little too much and I fell off. I didn't
get hurt; I was just laughing so hard.
No Association
was next (one of my favorites), then Madman, to which Daniel
did his usual "go wild" routine.
The band
left the stage and the crowd eventually started chanting "sil-ver-chair."!
They came out and played Paranoid, which made me want to jump
again, but I didn't. After Paranoid, Daniel said, "Thanks
for all coming. Philly rocks!" And I knew the end of
the night was near when Israel's Son came on. The speakers
were smoking during Israel's Son. Daniel went crazy by the
guitar speakers at the end, practically making them fall down.
Ben stood up and played his drums from the frontside then
flung his drumsticks out to the crowd. They soon disappeared
and the lights went up.
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Philadelphia,
Feb. 22, 1997