Denver, June 20, 1999

Set list:

Israel's Son
Emotion Sickness
Slave
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
Ana's Song
Tomorrow
Point of View
The Door
Freak
Anthem for the Year 2000
Spawn Again

By TARA THOMAS and HEATHER RAMMAGE

The day started out early as Lynne, Heather, Annette and I headed to Fiddler's Green for KTCL's Big Adventure (a huge event set up by the radio station KTCL), after being reunited since Lynne and I first met the girls at silverchair's Las Vegas performance.

The day was hot, and the humidity didn't help. There were 2 stages, one being quite small and didn't require tickets to see the band up close whereas, the other was HUGE and had seating so you had to be special (like we were) and have tickets to get up close. silverchair was to play on the 2nd(big) stage which was good because it was shielded from the hot sun! Some of the other bands there were Fuel, V.A.S.T., Lo Fidelity Allstars, Cake, 2 Skinnee J's, The Flys, and a ton more.

When the 'chair came out onstage the heat couldn't stop us from goin' crazy in the front row. We weren't able to get in the pit, due to the fact that you had to have a pit pass, and you only got them by winning them earlier. Fair enough, because we were the next closest.

They started with a hardcore version of Isreal's Son, which the crowd loved! I was impressed by the HUGE crowd's reaction to the band, and I think silverchair was too. I could definitely sense more energy from them, and Daniel smiled a lot more than I've seen him do.

Next was Emotion Sickness. Sam's keyboarding was really great on this. You could hear David Helfgott's contributions to the song in Sam's playing, which I don't remember hearing at the Vegas show.

As Daniel began Slave, the crowd's response was still strong, which made silverchair's energy strong, and ours go through the roof! We were jumpin' and playing air guitar and air drums throughout the song. Ben definitely noticed our energy and gave us a huge smile. He had his head turned our way the whole time.

They played Abuse Me and after that Daniel went off on how according to the press, the 'chair is just a plain rock band. They used to be called grunge, but now their just rock... according to the press. As he said that Annette and I shouted "No, you're SILVERCHAIR!!!" Ben and Chris just looked over at us laughing and smiling (AWWW!). I'm not sure if Daniel even heard though Freak kicked ass as usual, and my neck wasn't even sore yet! We had fun jumping along with Daniel.

Daniel decided to play his "be quiet and we'll give you $200" game with us. Of course there had to be that one section that couldn't do it, but instead of Daniel trying again with us, he threw his arm out and screamed "Ah, no, now you guys just FUCKED it all up for everyone! You could've had 200 dollars but American's just don't care about money! Austrailians will do ANYTHING for money! Money is good, it buys-SsssTUFF." He then changed his mind and told us that Aussies would've done something "stupid" and ruined it too. Then, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "CAN I GET A HALLEUJAH?" He only had to scream it 3 times because I'm sure he was satisfied with the audience's participation (I must admit, this crowd was pretty good at humoring Daniel's remarks). The Door followed his remarks, which absolutely ROCKED!

They played Tomorrow as a band this time around, and I could see hundreds of people singing along to it! It was like they were all there to see silverchair!

Daniel impressed the crowd with his vocal skills during Pure Massacre as he held out all notes as long as possible. Ana's Song was introduced as "off our new album," which surprised me because I thought he would mention something about it being a new single.

We jammed along with Point Of View, banging our heads along with Ben and Chris as they watched us…Daniel seemed to be having a lot of fun way over on the right side of the stage too!

In the beginning of Anthem, Daniel got on top of the drum stage and jumped off as he played the first cord like he does in the video. But somehow in the process of doing that his guitar strap broke and he was playing the intro kneeling with his guitar on his lap, and kept us chanting "WE ARE THE YOUTH, SING IT!" until someone had fixed it. It was all pretty funny and he played it off REAL well.

They ended with a really heavy Spawn Again, which we were very happy to hear, then left the stage immediately. We grabbed all of our stuff, and ran out of the amphitheater. They were scheduled to do a signing near all of the merchandise booths, which unfortunately was canceled due to a plane they had to catch. Oh well, the show definitely made our day and silverchair still never lets us down.

When I found out that silverchair would be playing at KTCL's Big Adventure this year, I got so excited. It had been over 2 years since the last time I saw them, and another visit to Denver by silverchair was long overdue. The tickets had been on sale for a while, and I figured that there weren't many good seats left in the 19,000 capacity amphitheater. So anyway, I immediately called a scalper to find out how to get tickets as close as possible to the stage. As it turned out, one place had 2nd row tix for the bargain price of only $95. Yeah, a little pricey, but to be able to be that close to the stage, it would be worth it. So without hesitation I ordered 2 tickets (one for my cousin Carey).

When it finally came time to go to the show, I was so excited I could barely contain myself. Even though silverchair would probably not play for a very long time because so many bands are at the Big Adventure, I couldn't wait.

When we got to the amphitheater, a security guard directed us to our seats. To my shock and jubilation, we were actually seated in the pit. This insured me a front row seat.

A local band that I can't stand opened the show. But Carey and I sat patiently through the set and before we knew it, they were gone. Next were The Flys, who weren't too bad, but still not who I wanted to see... Surprisingly, they didn't play for very long. During the Flys' set, I managed to sneak a peek at silverchair's set list, and saw that they only had 9 songs planned. Kinda disappointing, but not too surprising.

FINALLY it was time for silverchair. They took the stage, Ben shirtless, Chris in his hazard-cone orange pants and matching shoes, and Daniel in all black except for the silver tie and kickin' red & blue shoes. They opened with Israel's Son, which was amazing. I loved it when they dropped all the instruments for a few seconds and Daniel was just singing. At this point it occurred to me that they weren't going to be sticking to the set list that I had seen, because that list said that they were going to open with Emotion Sickness. Next was Emotion Sickness. It was great to hear it live, and it was fun to see how they would interpret the song through the keyboards. The vocals were incredible, and it was during this song that I realized just how much more talented Chris, Ben, and Daniel had become. Then they played Slave. I think this song got the attention of all the people there who didn't know who silverchair were. It was a great version.

Next was Abuse Me. By now the crowd was into the band, and I think it was pumping the guys up a bit to see almost 19,000 people cheering for them. The only complaint that I had at this point was that Daniel's mic was a little quiet. It was kind of hard to hear him.

From Abuse Me they lead directly into Pure Massacre, which most of the people knew, so they sang along. I have to say, they kicked major ass on this song.

Daniel then invited all of the people sitting far away to come into the pit, but I don't think that many of them understood what he said.

Next was Ana's Song, which was beautiful. I think they played it better live than they did on the album. Daniel did things with his voice that was amazing.

From Ana's Song, they faded into Tomorrow without skipping a beat. I think this was the only song most of the people knew, which was a little disappointing. Still, they did a great version of the song.

After Tomorrow, Daniel paused for a second and then said, "Thanks, that's our only hit. That's when we were an Australian teenage grunge sensation. Those were the good ol' days. Now we play rock. Now we're just a rock band. No specific genre. According to the press, we're rock." He took a pause and then added with a smile and a laugh, "But we still consider ourselves a teenage grunge sensation from Australia."

Next they did Point Of View. At this point Daniel was singing louder than he was at the start of the show, which made me very happy. By this time in the show, Ben and Chris were having a great time, and Chris spent a lot of time talking and laughing with Ben. I didn't see Ben very much through the show because Daniel was standing right in front of him, but from what I saw he was really enjoying himself.

After Point Of View, Daniel paused to ask where they were. When people responded by yelling "Denver," he nodded and said "Denver, that's it, hello Denver. Denver Broncos, football, yeah woo," very unenthusiastically I might add. He continued in a very monotone voice (I think he was making fun of Americans) and said, "My dad watches American football. He's very American. He eats hamburgers from McDonald's and does other American things." He then turned to Chris and asked him if his dad does American things, but Chris seemed to be taken by surprise and just laughed. Daniel just kept on going though, and said something about how Chris' dad eats tobasco sauce, and then debated whether tobasco is American or Mexican.

The then started saying how it was "Fucking hot", and I think he was amused by how the people were responding to him. He just kept going on and on.

Then he changed subjects again. "I've got a game. Just everyone be totally silent for 5 seconds after the count of three, and if everyone does it, we're coming out, and we're giving everyone $200 cash in hand if everyone does it. If one person fucks it up, then we're not doing it. Because we're very rich, Ready?" He counts us off, and of course people scream during the 'silence'. He then gets this very disappointed look on his face, and says, "See, you just fucked up the chance for everyone. Whoever just opened their fucking mouth just blew the opportunity at $200. Oh fuck." He then covers his face with his hands. Meanwhile, Chris and Ben are rolling with laughter, and the crowd is going crazy.

He continues, "Back in Australia, we'd do anything for $200, but you Americans don't seem to care. It's money and it buys stuff." Then he does an impression of an American, and suddenly yells, "Can I get a hallelujah?" The crowd yells back, and he says again, "Can I get a hallelujah?" and we all yell again, and he says, "Can I get a halle-fuckin-lujah?" The crowd yells it back and they start to play The Door.

Next was Freak. They really rocked. Once again I loved it when they dropped the music and it was just vocals for a few seconds.

Then they played Anthem For The Year 2000. I was really excited to hear this song because it is so intense. When they started to play it, Daniel climbed up Ben's drum riser for the intro. Halfway through the intro, he jumped down and when he landed, his guitar strap broke. He knelt on the stage and finished the intro, and as soon as he finished that part, a very freaked out crew member came and ripped it out of his hands. Instead of grabbing a new guitar or stopping the song, Daniel stood in front of the mic, and while Ben played, he chanted "We are the youth!" With his hands in the air. He even go the audience to sing along. Nonchalantly, he received his guitar with a new strap and continued the song. He really handled that problem very well. All in all, Anthem might have been the most exciting part of the whole show.

I thought they would finish with Anthem, but they played Spawn Again last. It was a great way to end the show.

The only major disappointment of the day was that silverchair didn't join most of the other bands in signing autographs after their set.

I would also like at this point to thank Eve 6 for canceling at the last minute and probably giving silverchair more stage time. Thanks!

So overall, this was probably one of the best shows I have ever seen. It was well worth the money, and I would pay twice that to see them again. People who haven't seen silverchair live don't know what they're missing.