We tried to be
at the venue as early as possible, and ended up arriving a
few hours before hand. Thankfully this was enough to reward
us with first in line. I knew it was going to be a very "teenie
bopper" night - but tried to ignore that and have a rocking
good night.
Gerling kicked
off the show at about 8:15 (45 minutes late) with the only
song i knew 'death to the apple girls' - then played some
synth stuff aswell. It turned out the guitarist went to my
school. Anyway, chair finally graced the stage at approx.
9:30pm... I may be wrong though cuz I didn't have a watch
on. The Neon piping around the amps and rum kit "added"
to the almot ritualistic "theme" effect silverchair
are renound for having on tours (Freak Show had the circus
music and backdrop, etc). Once the neon lit up, the crowd
got a sudden burst of energy and were pumping until the backing
tape played and the strobe behind Ben's kit flickered.
I was a little
suprised at the set list. They kicked off with Emotion Sickness
- which went down very well (they were rehearsing before the
gig), although you could see how nervous Daniel was (it's
okay Daniel, I understand;). After Emotion Sickness finished,
my first suprise of the night was Israel's Son beind played
second. It was played abit "slower" than they would
have previously played it live, and with a little less distortion
I felt, it still went down very well. I'm putting down the
tempo reduction to "suiting" the new album genre.
I'm a bit vague
on the exact set list (the girl next to me got it), but the
folowing songs included Abuse Me, Anas Song (Open Fire), Miss
You Love and Paint Pastel Princess, Madman, Suicidal Dream,
Pure Massacre and Freak. Forgive me if I have missed some.
I feel the new songs went down really well, not many people
knew all the words (although I certainly did;) - but the crowd
still got into it well.
Daniel played the
first half of the set quite mellow - which was cool, bands
need to evolve as silverchair have done. They made up for
it in the second half, after giving a very powerful announcement
to the crowd that from now on it will just be ROCK, and nothing
else. Then they belted out The Door - which was another surprise
to me, I thought they may have left this one out. Daniel played
Tomorrow solo, which is what I expected as he had played it
solo previously. The song came across really well, alot better
than I thought (but as die-hard chair fans would know, you
can never underestimate silverchair). I was slightly disappointed
that No Association never made the set list, but it was a
small price for such an awesome night.
The crowd were
pumping when the tell tale "feed back" sound kicked
in, we knew what we were about to hear. Daniel repeated "We
are the youth!" quite a few times at the beginning of
the song, this may be him acting out his dream about the P.A.
system blowing up. I think this was the theme song for the
night, the crowed really wanted this song. Chair then finished
the set up with Spawn Again - which I would have to say, rocked
very hard. Enough said.
We hung around
the back of the theatre after wards to see if they would come
out the back way. Daniel eventually came out but was quickly
ushered away by John Watson (and some other people in the
car). Again, if it wasn't for the screaming 14/15 year old
girls, we may have had a chance to actually say 'hi.' They
didn't even have any respect for the elderly lady in the car
(Daniel's grandmother?).
Anyway, this is
about the best I can remember for now, I apologise if the
set list is wrong or I've left some songs out (I don't think
I have though). Now I sit and await the next gig to come around,
this was just the appetizer ;)
I
sensed this day was going to be different for me very early.
I live in Newcastle and had to commute to Sydney. As there
was a group of us, a bus was hired with a driver. Leaving
home to connect with the bus there were huge electrical storms
rolling in which soon engulfed me in a huge down pour. 
We
arrived at the bus departure point and commenced transport
to Sydney soon after 5 p.m. Halfway there the "professional"
driver enquired "does anyone know how to get to the Enmore
Theatre?"...... great.... We ended up doing a huge loop
of Sydney's western suburbs while the passengers correctly
suggested directions to the driver that were mostly ignored.....
Oh well we got there alive so who's complaining...... hehe
What a nightmare! It took over 3 hours to get to the gig.
(less than 100 miles) 
Reading
back on a previous gig review by Pete Walton (New York, Feb.
16, 1999) he said "During the band's show at New York's
cozy Bowery Ballroom, silverchair did the unexpected, and
did something that many bands today seem reluctant to do:
they rocked." That very well sums up the "new"
silverchair. Not that they haven't rocked in the past, simply
put their performances now are incredibly tight, well orchestrated,
passionate rock explosions. I have seen no band like them.
The talent silverchair has is awesome and it comes beaming
through with their incredible new album Neon Ballroom. 
The
new songs were separated by most of the favourites off previous
albums including Daniel performing "Tomorrow" solo.
I missed that on the Sonic.net live Internet transmission
of the New York gig so the performance was another of the
many highlights for me. silverchair topped off their amazing
rock explosion with an encore of "Spawn" that left
this reviewer shaking his head in awe. After a while the lights
came on and the appreciative crowd quickly dispersed into
the very hot and humid night. 
Set
list: 
