Perth, Mar. 27, 1997

By EMMER (meagerca@cygnus.uwa.edu.au)

Six friends and I arrived at McGillivary Oval at the University of Western Australia at 5 p.m., which was extremely early as the thing didn't even start until 6 and silverchair, as we found out later, weren't due until 9. So we lined ourselves near the front to bear the four-hour wait.

Four other bands were playing as well. Martian Radio was first, they were pretty cool, the bass guy had wicked hair, but were nothing special. Beaverloop were up next and they rocked! Funny kinda hip-hop stuff which was really good. We also got mooned twice, much to everyone's delight. They also did this weird "metal" bit where we all had to scream some shit out.

Next was Frenzal Rhomb and at this stage we were all pretty tired so we sat most of this one out and got water ($2 a bottle!) Magic Dirt came on and then silverchair were next, but not before half an hour of impatient pushing and shoving in the crowd and a constant chant of "sil-ver-chair!"

When they finally came on, my friend started crying, I started screaming, and we all started jumping. I forget the order but here's a list of the songs they played:

Slave
Roses
Freak
The Door
The Closing
Abuse Me
Cemetery
Madman
Suicidal Dream
Findaway
Faultline
Pure Massacre
Lie To Me
No Association
Some 80's song that Daniel reckoned "rocked"
Israel's Son

They were absolutely INCREDIBLE! Some interesting facts about the performance -- Daniel said the following:

"Is anyone tired?" (We all say "yes.") "Is anyone drunk?" ("Yes.") "Yeah, sure, I think you're lying!"

"Sorry we're playing pretty fucked tonight, we're tired though, that's our excuse."

"OK, we've only come back on again so you don't get... angry. You have a choice, what do ya wanna hear? We've got our 'grunge song,' a song called 'Lie To Me,' another one called 'Pure Massacre' and one called 'Pick The Scab Off Your Fucking Head,' which one? 'Lie To Me?' OK."