Wollongong, Aug. 6, 1999

Set List:

Emotion Sickness
Israel's Son
Slave
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
Ana's Song
Suicidal Dream
Point Of View
Paint Pastel Princess
Madman
Miss You Love
The Door
Faultline
Freak
Anthem For The Year 2000
Kick Out the Jams
Spawn Again

By ANTHONY CALVERT

Wollongong had obviously been waiting a long time for this silverchair concert. From the first chords of Emotion Sickness the crowd were jumping in time to music, but I don't think any one of them could have known what an amazing show they would see tonight.

Some friends and I had a few drinks and listened to Placebo from just outside the entrance. After their set we went inside and saw the venue for the first time. The Wollongong Entertainment Centre is extremely similar to the Sydney Entertainment Centre. A large floor area, surrounded by an even bigger horseshoe shaped seating area, extending way up. The show was not sold out, but the floor was packed and the best seats were all taken (and then some). There was also a huge curtain hiding silverchair's awesome stage set-up.

As with every other show so far on this tour, Emotion Sickness opened the set. You can tell from watching Daniel play that he puts a great amount of feeling into this song. He curses and makes faces whenever something isn't perfect (not that I or people in the crowd could tell when that was). Israel's Son was next, followed by Slave. During this period, Daniel and Chris would jump in time to Ben's drums, and the people on the floor would do the same. The mosh was quite friendly, and after the first few rows it wasn't tightly packed. This meant there was plenty of room to jump around, and less danger of copping a crowd surfer in the back of the head.

Abuse Me was next, and then I was surprised to hear Pure Massacre. They had played this song much later the night before in Canberra, and it was the first unexpected event of the evening.

After a great version of Pure Massacre, Daniel thanked the crowd.

"Thank you Wollongong. You guys fucking rock. Thanks for all dressing up for the occasion as well. We appreciate it."

The crowd were already cheering but they went crazy when Daniel began Ana's Song. Once again there was a high sing-a-long factor as it has been played heaps on radio all over Australia.

Suicidal Dream was next, followed by an intense version of Point Of View. I love this song and it is so powerful live. The recorded versions of songs on Neon Ballroom are awesome, but they all seem to take on another dimension live. Daniel pouring his heart out in front of you, Chris bent over his bass, Ben pounding the hell out of his drums, and Sam putting on the finishing touches.

"Thanks a lot everyone. We appreciate you coming to our show tonight, and we want to thank Pre_Shrunk and Placebo for playing as well. [Big cheer from the crowd.] So if you want to thank them, you fucking scream and you do what you have to do to let them know that you appreciate their music. [Even bigger scream from the crowd.] Yes, that's good. OK, they know they're appreciated, don't get too loud or they'll be appreciated more than us."

Another great version of a new song -- Paint Pastel Princess -- followed. Next was an awesome version of Madman. As with the Canberra show, this song totally blew me away with its new live power.

"Thanks a lot everyone, this is our next single." Miss You Love got another huge reaction from the crowd, and is sure to get even more popular as it gets more airplay on radio around the country.

"All right, does anyone here believe in Mortal Kombat? Does anyone here believe in fighting 'til the fucking death? [Cheering from the crowd.] All right, that's a good start. We don't believe in that. [Laughter.] The Dalai Lama doesn't believe in that. Any Buddhist monk would not believe in that. Any Tibetan person would not believe in that."

At this point Daniel seemed to lose track of what he was going to say, so he went back to the regular "Hallelujah" routine.

"Ummm, sorry, um, does anyone here believe in Jesus?! [Cheering.] If you believe in Jesus praise the lord as you would praise any rock 'n' roll star. Does anyone here believe in Satan?! [More cheering.] Satan always wins no matter where the fuck we go. If we're in Germany, Satan is the majority. Believe me, Germans love Satan. When we're in any other place in Europe, Satan gets the big fucking cheer. I don't know what Satan's big fucking go is. No one knows what he looks like, no one knows if it's even a fucking guy, but everyone cheers because Satan is the cool fucking rock 'n' roll person to like. Fuck Satan. I'm not saying I believe in Jesus 'cos I don't. Actually I believe in Jesus, but I don't believe in that god, I believe in another god. I believe we are all gods, now I am right. Can I get a hallelujah?! All right, that was REALLY fucked. [Laughter.]

"Now, I know when you're a 'front man' you're supposed to say 'aw yeah, Wollongong, you guys fucking rock, you guys are far better than Canberra' [cheering], but to be honest, wait -- don't cheer yet 'cos I'm just about to put you all down. To be honest, Canberra did it waaaaay better. [Booing]. Haha, I was just joking, c'mon you guys are great. You guys have steelworks, and we have steelworks in Newcastle [nearly the loudest cheer I have ever heard], and we're all mutants, we're all polluted mutants, yeah! Yeah yeah yeah, let's breathe the pollutants down, let's suffer the consequences later on, yeah. All right, can I get a hallelujah, beat fucking Canberra!! Can I get a halle-fucking-lujah?!? Can I get a hallelujah?!?' [Repeated about five times!!] And with that, the band started playing The Door.

Now, you may be wondering what Chris, Ben and Sam were doing during all that time on stage. Well, they weren't listening to Daniel. I saw Chris with something in his hand, which he then threw at Sam. Then I saw Sam throw something at Ben! Apparently, Chris had got hold of some food (half a carrot), and the rest of the band were throwing it around!!

After The Door there was another surprise, I heard the intro to Faultline. Perhaps this is the song that replaced Tomorrow/Satin Sheets in the set list!! I'm not sure, but I was just happy to hear Faultline live again!! This is an awesome song, and never fails to get the crowd jumping. They even played the extended version, where the final riff just keeps going and going.

The band then launched straight into Freak, which once again got the mosh jumping. Afterwards, Daniel started calling people on stage for the "choir" in Anthem For The Year 2000.

"All right, who the fuck wants to come up and sing? All right, we're gonna pick you. We're gonna pick you one by one... Whoever points at me gets to come on stage, yeah, all point at me... Get that girl there too, get that girl, pick any girl who you think is good looking, you can get her up. OK, now we need guys as well 'cos we need testosterone. Yeah, we need that guy on the shoulders 'cos he has enough balls to get up on someone's shoulders like girls do. Okay, we need another guy... yeah, the guy with no shirt 'cos he looks hot... you can tell you go to the gym. OK, we need more guys... oh, here comes a guy in a leather jacket, [sarcastically] yeah leather, man."

At this point, Daniel did something that I don't think he has ever done before. A young boy walked across the stage to stand with the others, but Daniel told him to stop and pulled him over.

"Stay! Come here! Come here! You wanna stay here? [By this point the crowd has seen what's happening and are cheering.] You stay here and be cool, OK? You stay here, you jump around the stage, you be 'rock,' OK? You'll remember this for the rest of your life, OK? When I move you move, when I stay still, you stay still. If you do it, I'll give you a hundred dollars. Twenty, twenty dollars. Put the shirt on man, and look cool because your parents will love you. [All the people that come up on stage receive a T-shirt with "We are the youth" written on it.] OK, is everyone ready to rock?! Is everyone ready for a fucking youth anthem?! [The crowd goes wild.] Is everyone ready to fucking rock?!?" To the people on the side of the stage, he said, "I hope you fucking know the words. All right, let's get the fuck up. Sam, let's get the fuck UP!!!

The band launched into Anthem while the kid stood a metre or two to the side of Daniel. Before the song started both Daniel and a roadie told him something. He seemed a bit nervous at first, but by the end of the song he was getting into it with the band.

After Anthem silverchair left the stage, taking the kid with them. They soon returned and shocked me with what came next.

"All right, all right. This is the first time we have ever played this song. We did it once at sound check today, we fucked it up. So if we fuck it up for you we're sorry, but we've gotta record it. And um, yeah we only heard this song a week ago, so just be cool and pretend we're punk."

Then before I could fully realise what was going on, Daniel screamed, "KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!" and launched into a song they have never played live before. The song is called Kick Out The Jams and was originally recorded by MC5. silverchair have not played a cover song in a looooooooong time, so this was totally unexpected! It was a great version, and they didn't stuff it up. Sam has added some cool keyboards. I was totally blown away by this song!! It is extremely fast, and extremely punk, and the band played it extremely well, especially seeing that they had only learnt it recently.

The final surprise of the evening was Spawn Again. I was hoping for this because the band had a night off tomorrow (so Daniel could rest his voice), but I didn't really expect to hear it. According to some people this was the best version of the song EVER, and I would agree. Daniel was probably the most intense I have ever seen him. He screamed into the mike like a man possessed, totally lost in the song. Spawn Again obviously means a lot to him, as he was breathing heavily and screaming even when he was away from the microphone. I also saw him look intensely at Ben halfway through the song but I'm not sure why. After an extreme few minutes the song crashed to a halt and the band walked off without another word.

Emotion Sickness is the perfect way to start the show, and Spawn Again is the ultimate way to end it. Both songs are so intense, and mean so much, that it's impossible not to get caught up in the atmosphere. This was one of the best silverchair concerts in a long time. There were so many little surprises which continued throughout the concert. Not to mention the fact that we heard a song that the band have never played live before! I hope they can top this show during the rest of the tour, but it's not going to be easy.