Ottawa
(Edgefest), July 3, 1999
 Set
list:
Slave
Pure Massacre
Abuse Me
Emotion Sickness
Israel' Son
Ana's Song (Open Fire)
Tomorrow
Satin Sheets
The Door
Freak
Anthem For The Year 2000
Review
by MARCEL DUPUPET
Photos by chairpage crew
I had
just flown in from Halifax, some 2000km away, into Ottawa
for two reasons, one, to meet my friends that were going to
the Edgefest rock festival with me and the other, to see silverchair!
It was
a clear sunny day and perfect outdoor conditions to rock!!
After a lengthy 3 hour wait to get in the venue some 30,000
people crowded the mainstage. Canadian hip-hop act the Rascalz,
Wide Mouth Mason, solo up-and-comming artist Edwin, and the
famed Canadian act the Matthew Good Band warmed up the crowd
for what was to be a powerful performance by silverchair.
 Upon
the completion of the Matt Good Band's set, silverchair's
drum kit with their logo covering the bass drum took the stage
and the capacity crowd cheered at the mere sight of it. I
was directly front row centre and noticed that the mainstage
area was double the occupancy at this time than for any other
performer so far.
From there
I noticed even sidestage acts like Serial Joe the 14 year
old alterna-band dubbed "Canada's answer to silverchair"
and Edwin were watching from the side of the mainstage eager
to appreciate the upcomming performance along with the rest
of the audience.
Alas the
Boys hit the stage Chris, in his patented overwhelming orange
pants, Ben, his usual shirtless self, Sam with his Ben-like
spiked hair do, and finally Daniel wearing all black, ripped
into the opener, Slave, The crowd went excstatic! Crowd surfers
galore reeked havoc all over the place, if it weren't for
the numerous security guards on hand to pull them off, there
would sure have been some serious injuries. I was surrounded
at the front by a mass of young teen girls who just stood
in awe the whole time starring at the band and singing along
to every word Daniel sang.
 Next
was Pure Massacre which more-than-equally sent the crowd completely
off...Abuse Me followed and a group of 5 or 6 drugged up wacko's
made their way to the front and sang every word of this song
with their eyes tightly closed and at the top of their lungs,
so annoying and taking away from the performance were they
that security told each of them to either shut up or get out,
after lengthy exchanges of obsenities they were escorted out
much to the pleasure of the crowd at the front, I don't even
think the band noticed 'cause they just kept on pounding out
the music.
Emotion
Sickness was very tightly and well played, Sam was adding
great effects to this already magnificient song on the keyboards.
At this point Daniel seemed to feel more comftorble with the
receptive crowd and wandered around the large stage looking
energized yet bummed out in his face at the same time if you
could at all picture this description, making everyone "motherfucking
ROCK!" He was plain awesome up there with emmence stage
presence
 Daniel
Informed the crowd that there was a storm warning in effect
and that, "if anyone wanted to leave, now is your chance,
GO! head for the hills folks and save yourselves while the
rest of us continue to fucking rock!"
Israel's
Son infused everyone again, someone threw something that I
think was a shoe right at Daniel's guitar, I don't think he
(Daniel) knew who it was but he knew from which direction
it came from and that whole area got the big one eyed bird...it
was awesome! During the, "Put your hands in the air"
part everyone shot those hands up as if they were being held
at gunpoint! A great moment was hearing Chris go at that bass
like there was no "Tomorrow" really giving the song
it's hard edged depth that makes it so driving.
Speaking
of Tomorrow, the first verse was played and everyone without
exception was singing along to it when all of a sudden the
power chords to Satin Sheets kicked in, it was amazing how
everyone seemed to change gears almost as fast as the song
did and went ape-wild in reaction to the tune. A cool rendition
of Freak was played and Daniel allowed the crowd to sing the
"body and soul..I'm a freak..." part on our own
and without hesitation, we all did.
Everyone
was exhausted at this point, and when I mean exhausted I don't
mean less energized or tired but more on the dehydrated, thirsty
side, chants of WATER! WATER! WATER! caught Daniel off guard,
he was like..."What?" and finally made sence out
of what everyone was saying and goes, "Ohhhhhhh h2o!!"
just as a giant hose poured a strong stream of water all over
the crowd, everyone roared in pleasure just as Daniel said,
"Give it up for the man with the big hose, round of applause
for the event ssstaff (long strain on the "s") yeah
event ssstaff!!" it was hillarious.
 Fully
hydrated now and soaked to the bone Daniel did his usual rendition
of, "who here believes in Jesus Christ?" a slew
of Boo's and moans greeted this question but then when "hands
up for whoever believes in Satan!" was asked, the place
erupted, "Satan wins hands down here in Ottawa folks"
The Door
lit up the crowd again, the masses of crowd surfers were being
plucked by the buckets by the big muscled up guards on hand,
some even attempted to get onstage, unsuccessfully I might
add. One poor girl suffered an asthma attack and myself along
with my new found mosh pit pals helped her to safety.
Madman
pitted Ben's strongman drumming at it's very best, it's a
sight to see this guy live cause his arms just lay the abuse
on that kit!
The highlight
of the set (and the whole day for that matter) for me was
Ana's Song (Open Fire), it was sung so elegantly and emotion-full
by Daniel, it captivated the crowd in a way unlike any other
song that day and really had everyone gazing at him as if
they could relate to it's meaning or at least it's melodic
rhythm somehow. Ana's Song is on it's way of overshadowing
the success of their "Tommorow" single and is drawing
alot of heat and airplay here in Canada which I'm really glad
is happening for them because it's such a beautiful song to
prove they're so much more (for those who don't already know
it) than just a one hit wonder band, and exhibits their evolvement
from being rumored as so.
 Nearing
the end of their set, silverchair delivered one last punch
to their already-absolute knock out of a show with, "Anthem
For The Year 2000." Ben started it up and Daniel and
Chris along with Sam drove through it with him, but not before
Daniel got the crowd to chant "we are the youth"
8 to 10 times before the verse was smacked in which had him
flashing his middle fingers while singing, "the politicians
are so sure" getting loud applause from us all.
And then,
just like that, they left the stage as they had taken it at
the beginning of the show, to a loud roaring applause for
the effort they put in to being one of the last bands out
there who truly know how to rock out and leave a lasting impression
behind. I don't think the crowd got any bigger that day even
when Courtney Love's Band Hole took the stage as many left
after the chair's performance. Thanks, silverchair, for giving
me great memories to take home with.
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