Atlanta, Mar. 10, 1999

All photos by MIKE AMBURN

By ERIC HILL

Slave: The 'chair rocked really hard on this one and sent the crowd into a rowdy frenzy which lasted for the rest of the show. Daniel was doing some new weird hand and arm movements which would also occur throughout the night.

Pure Massacre: This one helped keep the intensity up after such a rockin' rendition of Slave. Chris Joannou hit every little lick on bass and Gilles was beating the crap out of his drums as usual.

Abuse Me: Everyone sang along and Daniel commanded everyone to jump during the heavy parts which received a huge response from the crowd. Sam Holloyway even had a little keyboard solo (where the backwards guitar lead is on the album).

Emotion Sickness: Incredible song. The dramatic feel makes it so powerful. A very dynamic piece with original (and weird) guitar chords throughout.

Israel's Son: With everyone still in awe of Emotion Sickness, Chris began the familiar bass line which sent loud cheers of approval throughout the venue. The 'chair hit every note perfectly and the ending went totally insane!

Ana's Song: Introduced by Daniel as "a new song for your listening pleaure." This one has a really strong melody line with plenty of pauses, stops, accents, etc. Overall, a very intricate arrangement compared to previous endeaveors on Frogstomp or Freak Show.

Suicidal Dream: Another crowd pleaser. Daniel seemed to be trying to save his voice on the end, singing in a lower key. The mosh was good anyway.

Paint Pastel Princess: Sam's Keyboard parts were definitely a highlight on this tune. Ben led the others with some pretty amazing patterns on the drums as the time key kept changing. Again, very detailed with excellent transitions from soft to loud and so forth.

Madman: One huge crazy mosh pit during this one. As soon as Daniel started the intro people got ready to complety go wild, and they did.

Tomorrow: Daniel asked the crowd who was ready to rock. Everyone cheered lowdly to which Daniel told them they could go to the toilet or get a drink because he was going to play something really mellow. I really liked the solo version. It was a perfect "break in the action" and Daniel's voice sounded good and strong.

Miss You Love: Another good melody with nice fills from Sam on the keyboard. The crowd seemed to really be enjoying the new material even though most of them had only heard Anthem.

The Door: A good rockin tune during which the band seemed to be really enjoying themselves and the good energy coming from the audience.

Faultline: I didn't really expect them to play this one but I'm glad they did as it is one of my favorite live songs. The ending was extended out and the crowd enjoyed every bit of it.

Freak: Probably the best preformance I have ever heard of this song. During "Body and Soul", the band just stopped and Daniel had the crowd sing it with him several times before breaking back into the song.

Anthem: As soon as Ben started this one off with the pounding drum beat, many people immediately recognized it. Daniel had the crowd chat "we are the youth" for awhile before going into the first verse. The chorus was played very heavily and most everyone sang along.

Satin Sheets: After a short break, the chair came back and started into this punk explosion to which everyone went pyscho. There is one riff during the song that kind of reminded me of Metallica. This song, in general, sounded awesome.

No Association: In an unexpected twist, No Association was the closer instead of Spawn Again. The only reason I could think of for the change was that Daniel may have been trying to save his voice with such a long tour ahead. I certainly didn't mind because they rocked so hard. The light show was in perfect time with the music and everyone wanted more after they were gone.

Daniel's comments were few and far between and even when he did say something I couldn't really understand him. I did hear something about the olympics like "Your olympics sucked. Our's are gonna be so much better!" Then he said something like, "No, I'm just kidding, I didn't even watch your olympics but i'm sure they rocked."

I returned to the Roxy in Atlanta, Ga. where I had first seen my favorite band hit the stage in the U.S. in 1995 for the first time. I remember that night of June 21st 1995 so clearly and never thought my entire body would ever experience being struck with so much awe ever again, but I was wrong. I expected nothing more then to reminisce while listening to my all time favorite band and to chat with some old chairhead friends. What I totally did not anticipate was that I was going to be blown outta my chair (heh actually I was on the floor) and experience so much bliss from the 'chair's performance.

Upon entering the venue I noticed as usual the overwhelming number of little girls dressed to the nines in hopes of meeting their rockstar idol with their parents tagging along behind them, but I have decided that people like that are inevitable, so we just have to deal with it. While the crowd was made up of a lot of young girls, I cannot discount the number of males that were there as well.

Lit opened up for silverchair and started "rocking out" at about 8pm. I did not really like them that much, they just seemed like your typical "alternative rock" band, not that is entirely bad or anything. The crowd was so psyched that you could have put dancing hamster on stage and they still would have gone nuts! Lit played for about 30 mins. and then at about 9pm silverchair took the stage.

The stage dimmed and a deep voice echoed through the theatre that kept saying "are you talking to me?? are you talking to me?". Then Chris, Dan, and Ben came on stage and everyone pretty much freaked out to say the least. Dan was wearing the same silver shirt with black pants (I wonder if he is going to wear the same outfit every show like he did years ago with the white shirt and the tie?), Chris was wearing crazy orange pants, and Ben of course was topless.

The band broke into an amazing rendition of "Slave". Daniel seemed so happy and into the music and so sure of himself. The music was really moving him, which to me was probably one of the neatest things I have ever witnessed! The next song was "Pure Massacre", which was also played with huge amounts of passion and intensity.

I could tell that silverchair was loving being onstage and playing their music! It is really cool is see people enjoying what they do. After these two thrashing songs, silverchair played one of the new songs...it was very mellow. I don't know the names to many of the new songs because I haven't heard most of them until tonight.

Some of the comments Daniel made throughout the show were about how Atlanta rocked. He mentioned playing their first gig in the U.S at the Roxy and Daniel made a funny comment about the Olympics and how the Australian Olympics were going to be better, but he said he was joking....he said he didn't even watch them, but he was sure they were fine. (guess you had to be there) Daniel then went off on how everyone should be "positive, positive!" Daniel also mentioned that he was happy because they were playing the best they ever had in a long time! (I agree!)

Before he played Tomorrow, Daniel told everyone that they would take a break and go to the bathroom or get a drink because the next song was very mellow. That was about it on the between song comments though, the music just seemed to flow like never before. It was awesome!!

I really was surprised silverchair played "faultline" and "no association" because they had no done so at prior shows. They also did not play "cemetery" or "Spawn Again".... I kept waiting for them to play it, but to no avail, "Spawn" was left out....that song would have made a perfect concert even more so! It was also cool during 2000 when Daniel got the crowd to keep repeating "We are the Youth" after him... the way he was waving his arms made him look like Jesus or something, it was pretty funky.

All and all this concert was probably the best silverchair show I have been to. Although I might not love their new songs, I respect them and find their messages kinda cool, and silverchair still do ROCK...what a f-ing awesome show that was!!!

Before the show I also taped silverchair being interviewed on 99x....the guys were being very talkative and being extremely sarcastic!

Before I end this, I must give some advice to some of you who might have lost faith in silverchair, GO TO A SHOW!!

Last night I saw silverchair live for the first time ever. The show was at the Roxy Theater in Atlanta. It was amazing . . . I must admit I'm still a bit awestruck . . .

First of all, you have to know that I've been wanting to see the band live for quite a while, and when I found out that they were going to be in Atlanta, I knew that I would do what ever it took to get there. But not only did I have to find a way to get there (it's approximately a four-hour drive from Knoxville), but a place to stay, and a ticket, along with figuring out a way to make up semester exams- something that's usually not allowed.

I won't bore you with all the details, but after all the obstacles I had to overcome, getting there felt like a dream come true (okay, so maybe it was . . .)

The Roxy Theater would have to be my prime choice of venues to see anyone perform. Imagine a one-screened movie theater with a balcony, now make it a little smaller and rip out all the chairs from the floor - then you've got it. The entire floor was one big mosh pit. Even the outside row would have been a really good view. I moved from about twenty feet from the stage at the farthest to about three or four feet at the closest. Not to mention the local silverchair fans who just rocked . . .

The opening band was Lit who, despite the usual neglect opening acts get, were received very well by the crowd. They really played a good, loud set. The highlight of their performance was when they played their radio single "My Own Worst Enemy." The crowd actually knew that song and really got into it. After the show, they even signed copies of their new CD.

After Lit went off, we all sat there for about twenty minutes, eagerly awaiting silverchair's performance. In those twenty minutes, the pit got unbelievably tight, you couldn't even think of moving. When silverchair finally came out the crowd went wild! They started of with "Slave" (a personal favorite) and went into "Pure Massacre." It was great . . . despite the ongoing mosh, I swear the pit managed to sing/scream every word of all the Frogstomp and Freakshow songs. The crowd was really into it, they surfed even through songs like "Emotion Sickness" and "Miss You Love" while completely entranced the whole time. Daniel seemed to create his own little tune for the beginning of "Ana's Song," but I think I was the only one in the crowd who noticed . . .seeing as no one else seemed to have heard any of the new songs or at least no one else seemed to know the words.

Daniel's in-between-set banter covered such topics as the upcoming Sydney Olympics: "I'm sure your Olympics rocked too . . . I didn't watch them . . . but I'm sure they were good," Clothing: "You don't need to throw us any articles of clothing, we have plenty, see we're wearing them!" and Rocking "Who's here to rock? Are you ready to f@*k!#g rock?" Then after thoroughly working the crowd up, he continued "Well, then you'd better go to the bathroom . . . or get a drink of water" He then continued to play "Tomorrow" as a solo (needless to say the crowd was immediately entranced), then he went straight into "Miss You Love" with the Chris, Ben, and Sam joining him after the intro.

Of course, all the songs rocked. The pit was the best during "Israel's Son" and "Madman," and the crowd definitely was into the whole "Anthem" phenomena. For me the highlight of the show was either "Freak," "Anthem," or when Daniel spit a huge mouthful of water all over the place. All I can say is that the whole night was incredibly surreal. I don't know how I'm gonna wait for them to come someplace close again . . . I'd definitely go through the crap all over again, and then some, for another chance. Also, on a final note, if anyone out there who sees this post and also went to the show, I'd really like to talk to you, and if there's anyone who got pictures I'm definitely interested. You can e-mail me at slivergrrl9@yahoo.com