Silverchair - Reports from the Road

Dallas, June 6, 1999

Report and photos by JACK WHITE

After arriving in Deep Ellum around 4:30 p.m. or so, we found that we had not missed soundcheck. My pal Jarod was able to watch the soundcheck from inside, but all of us common folk were left to listen from the hot Dallas outdoors. You could hear pretty well from the back of the place (which is very small, 999 maximum capacity). There was a sliding metal door right behind the stage, so the sound outside was not too shabby. They played the usual stuff, Spawn Again instrumental, jammed a little, then played the full Emotion Sickness, and jammed a bit more. After that, I guess the band and crew were happy with the sound.

Deep Ellum Live is in the same complex as the Bomb Factory (where the 'chair's past two Dallas shows took place), which was closed down about a year or so ago (a tear rolls down). I miss the Bomb Factory -- not really sure why it was closed down.

Anyway, we had to hang around outside for quite a while. Every now and then one of the band members would zoom past the people in line (the tour bus was the backstage, so to get inside the venue, the band had to wander through some crazed fans). Wheneven Ben would come out, he'd stay for a while, wearing his "Bedroom Security" shirt.

I watched the opening band Jibe for a little while but wasn't too impressed with them. I won't say anything else because I know I couldn't do better myself.

Around 10 p.m. or so, silverchair's intro music was finally being played through the PA and it was time!

Emotion Sickness -- a great opener. Everything sounded great except for quite a bit of bass in the mix.

Israel's Son -- no spotlight on Chris during the intro, that was sort of strange. They were using all house lights for this tour, so I guess Deep Ellum Live doesn't have spotlights. A lot of "hands in the air," which showed that the crowd was really into it.

Slave -- Bailey handed Daniel the black "Fugazi" PRS, and it was time to rock. Apparently the green PRS is acting up once again -- I think it is kind of funny that the first three songs are the initial tracks on the three records. Slave is always good, no question. I think the pit was really going off at this point (even though I'm not man enough to be down there myself).

Abuse Me

Pure Massacre

Daniel: "Thanks, everyone. Hey, could I get a drink, is that all right? Sorry, I thought that was Sam, that's Bailey, he's the guitar tech, he's very technical with guitars. All right, we're not really this unprofessional, but it's fucking hot, really hot. Dallas, the hottest place in America, yeah. Thanks for all coming on a Sunday night. I'm sure 60 Minutes had some good stories on and you chose silverchair over 60 Minutes, so thank you.

Ana's Song -- the new single (which was being added on radio the next day) sounded great and got a welcome response.

Suicidal Dream

Daniel: "Thanks Dallas, yeah, yeah. Man, this is fucking hot. Is this hotter than an Australian show? Yeah. It's up there with our hottest ever shows, yeah, yeah, you've contributed to the heat, you should be proud, you should be very proud. You are the high pressure system, is it high pressure that causes heat? I think it is, high heat... OK, um, this is off our latest album as well. If you don't like our latest album, you might be disappointed tonight. You might like the earlier stuff 'cause now they play quiet songs and it's not cool. OK, ready?"

Point Of View

Daniel: "Thank you very much. All right, this is off our new album as well. If you want to take your clothes off that's cool, we don't mind. If you wanna do it, there's not stopping you. In fact, if you take your clothes off, feel free to make your way to the stage and you can parade around and we'll give you $10 each."

Paint Pastel Princess -- one of my favorites from the new record and played well in C# tuning.

Madman

Daniel: "Thanks. OK, um, don't worry, I forget, I was going to say something pretty cool, but I forgot. Sorry, sorry, everyone just talk amongst yourselves, I'm just going to have a drink if that's all right, thanks. It's water, uh, yeah, you're all very quiet, but I understand, heat, exhaustion, you don't feel like yelling."

Tomorrow -- The solo version grows on me more and more. I think Dan makes it different every time, which is always good.

Miss You Love

Daniel: "Yeah, rock, rock n' roll. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's me being enthusiastic -- yeah, yeah, yeah! Whoever made a sign today, uhhh, thank you for going to all the trouble and making a sign. I forgot what I was going to say again. All right, H20, that's the scientific name for water, in case you didn't know. Does anyone have any entertainment that they want to share with the crowd? Does anyone have any songs? Party tricks, et cetera? Yeah, seriously, if you've got one, you're allowed to come up and demonstrate because my head's gone a bit black. Yeah, does anyone have one? Who? You? What do you have? All right, come up, get that guy, get that guy who's got his song. If you touch me, I swear to God, I'll combust. Yeah, security's got him, don't you worry, you're gonna get your money's worth here, 'cause I can tell, this is gonna be beautiful. Go, sing your song. What song, what song is it? Yeah, he's going to do a song he wrote. Go, sing with that microphone. That's your mic, you've been allocated that microphone. Yeah, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna do? Do you know the words to The Door? Yeah. You better know, don't let us down, I hope you're a fan. Oh, he's not, he's not a fan. We're gonna play this song, I'm gonna sing, and you can just join in whenever the fuck you feel like it. Hey, we need movement, OK? 'Cause I've decided that I'm not gonna move because I've decided I'm a Statue of Liberty. You're gonna have to parade the stage like a rock god or goddess, whatever you want. Stand on the PA, go crazy... if you're good, I swear to God, any band you want, we've got connections. We know everyone. If you want to sing with Pantera, you're there. You wanna sing with... who else, who else is fucking big? Aerosmith? Best friends. Ready? All right, we don't usually do this, but this guy looks good."

The Door -- The guy on stage was actually pretty good. He knew the words, and he was totally into the music, jumping around and banging his head. But, about halfway through the song, he decided to jump off the stage -- that was kind of dumb (I would have stayed up there until they kicked me off myself). It seems like The Door is always unusual in Dallas -- last time at the Bomb Factory show, Dan's guitar went out and they did some improvisation for half the song!

Freak

Anthem For The Year 2000 -- What a great Anthem crowd, probably the best I've ever seen and heard. This is how the song was meant to be played, with a great audience. "We are the youth!"

Spawn Again -- Having the set list right in front me, I expected to hear Dearest Helpless (which I was really looking forward to) and No Association. But, after a very long break after Anthem, the guys finally returned. I was very surprised to hear the first notes of Spawn Again. Sam's keyboard was giving him problems throughout all of the song (except for the glass shattering at the end). It made for an old school sounding Spawn! Nevertheless, it made for a great closer for an excellent, HOT show.

[Special thanks to the Weevil Toad.]

Set list:

Emotion Sickness
Israel's Son
Slave
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
Ana's Song
Suicidal Dream
Point of View
Paint Pastel Princess
Madman
Tomorrow
Miss You Love
The Door
Freak
Anthem for the Year 2000
Spawn Again

By KINGB15@aol.com

My cousin and I and a couple of friends got to Deep Ellum Live at about 7:00. We waited about an hour and then they finally started letting people through. When we got into the small area (the floor), we just stood and waited for the music to begin. The first band up was Jibe. We thought they were terrible, they sucked so bad. The crowd was not into them. They kept saying, "Are you here to have fun?" The guy strutted around like Freddie Mercury and kept touching himself. He also dove off of the stage and wasn't caught very well. Apparently he thought he was some kind of fucking rock god.

After their sad excuse for a show was over, they left the stage. We were all glad to see them go. Ten minutes went by and this music started playing and the lights went down. We all cheered for silverchair. We had been waiting all year to see them. It was very hot and crowded. After a couple of songs the crowd was drenched in sweat. Daniel commented on it and said "Sorry about this but it's really fuckin' hot here, Dallas is the hottest place in America. This is probably our hottest show ever."

Later he also said "Thanks for coming tonight, on a Sunday night. 60 Minutes is on and there are probably some good stories you're missing. Thanks for choosing silverchair over 60 Minutes."

The whole concert was amazing. When they played The Door, or just before it, Daniel asked if there was anyone in the crowd who could provide entertainment. Of course a lot of people raised their hands. He picked out a guy who said he would sing a song. Daniel told the bouncers to let him up on stage and he said, "If you touch me, I swear to God, I'll combust," because he was so hot. The guy didn't really sing his song but Daniel got him to sing The Door with them. The guy got wild and eventually jumped off the stage.

After Anthem for the Year 2000, they left the stage and it got dark. We started cheering and clapping and they came out and played another song. I knew it was going to be Spawn Again, it was great. Overall we had a good time seeing them and can't wait 'till we can see them again.

By Danny H. and Suzanne S.

On a hot summer day in June, we arrived at Deep Ellum live at 3pm to try and get a chance at meeting the band outside the venue. So we sat outside their bus and waited for them when finally Daniel and Ben showed up... immediately there was 10-15 people crowded around trying to get an opportunity to talk to the guys. We tried talking to Daniel, but after he came out of the side door he went straight to the bus only taking 1 picture with a fan before going onto the bus. So we talked to Ben for a good while, and by the way he is a really nice guy, he answers every question people ask him, I would consider him the spokesman of the band. So after Ben got done signing autographs and talking to people he went inside to start soundcheck We hurried around the back to were there was a thin metal garage door on the back of the venue (which was were Ben drums were setup) and we heard them play Spawn Again, Emotion Sickness and some unknown song that we've never heard. It sounded really great and we knew we were in for a good show that night. Afterwards the band poured out the building into the many fans that had gathered up to hear the soundcheck. Daniel went straight to the bus again avoiding everyone, my only guess is that he had a long trip from Atlanta to Dallas the night before and he was still tired from being on the road.

Ben found his way to us once again and I asked him about the unknown song that he had just played inside and he said it was just a jam, but we thought it could be something for an upcoming project. After Ben went into the bus, Chris found his way out and we grabbed him for a few pics and then he had to run back inside. By the way he was wearing socks that said "beef" on them. So at that time it was getting late, and the doors were about to open, so we got in line and got stamped with X's on each of our hands and went into the venue.

So the first band came on and really disappointed us, but there was some cool parts where people were diving into the mosh pit from the balcony! So about 10 o'clock the lights went dim and silverchair's intro music came on... We knew it was time to rock, Daniel and Ben came out on stage, and Ben followed them with no shirt on.

They opened their first visit back to Dallas in 2 years with Emotion Sickness which had a really good deep sound to it. The next song they did was Israel's Son, and that was the point where the mosh pit started to go crazy! The only thing that was hard to deal with that night was the heat, it was at least 100 degrees in that club, there was no A/C to that place at all, Daniel made a few comments about it during the night.

The highlights of the night was when Daniel did Tomorrow (solo) it was a very interesting version of Tomorrow, I only wish they would release it on a single or live album. Next was when Daniel pulled a dude out of the audience and had him sing The Door with him, but the guy must have forgotten some of the words cause half way through the song he stage dove back into the pit. Also they did a very cool version of Anthem For The Year 2000 that night. It just seemed to rock so much more than on the CD or radio. That was the point were I went into the mosh pit and begin crowd surfing. So around this time the music stopped and silverchair left the stage, and I was still being tossed around above the crowd, when the most amazing thing happened… they came back out on stage.

The opening to Spawn Again rang out and the pit went WILD, and then I got dropped, but people picked me right back up and I began moshing with the crowd. All in all I think this Dallas show was one of the most amazing concerts we've ever been to. silverchair put on an amazing show that night and If they ever see this page, we thank you guys :)

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