Adelaide (Big Day Out), February 1, 2002

By Gavin

Set List:
Emotion Sickness
Without you
Paint Pastel Princess
Israel's Son
One Way Mule
Miss you Love
Ana's Song
World Upon Your Shoulders
The Greatest View
Slave
The Door
Anthem for the Year 2000
Freak

As a regular to the Big Day Out I knew it was going to be a great day, but this one was extra special because Silverchair were one of the main acts performing and also I hadn't seen them since the Falls Festival 2000.

After an enjoyable day of rocking to the likes of Magic Dirt, Something For Kate and Grinspoon the time for the 'chair to grace our presence was approaching. I took my position during the Garbage set and watched them set up the attractive chair equipment (rainbow colour scheme for the amps and drums!). Seemed like a very long hour while waiting, Garbage weren't too bad but I just kept checking my watch waiting for the 'chair to come on.

Anyway, finally the Darth Vader-Star Wars music started playing and out came Ben, Chris and Daniel to the cheers of the crowd and immediately launched into 'Emotion Sickness' one of my favourite songs live, and once again it was another breathtaking performance. Next up, the new song 'Without You' which I enjoyed followed by 'Paint Pastel Princess'.

After a softer more melodious start, the crowd was now eager to rock when the guys ripped into 'Israel's Son' one of the crowd favourites. Another new song followed, the reworked 'One Way Mule' that was much appreciated with some heavy moshing.

It was then time to cool it down right when the crowd was just getting warmed up, but that didn't matter, because they performed two lovely versions of 'Miss You Love' and 'Ana's Song', Daniel's vocals amazing of course!

Daniel wasn't very talkative during the set and he seemed a little subdued, he said 'Thanks Adelaide' after some of the songs and mentioned a couple times something like 'sorry I'm not saying much, I just can't think of anything to say, so I'm just gonna play ok'. That was fine with me as their performance during the show far made up for Daniel's temporary lack of speech.

Next was the roller coaster ride 'World Upon Your Shoulders', I thought this was amazing live, Daniel reaches new heights with his vocals in this one! The current single 'The Greatest View' followed and that was also warmly received by the crowd.

Then it was time to rock hard for the last few songs. Ben pounding the drums and Chris rocking on the bass as they went through 'Slave', 'The Door' (again sounding fresh with some heavy improvising), 'Anthem for the Year 2000', and the crowd pleaser 'Freak' which resulted in the biggest mosh of the day.

Once again another enthralling and brilliant performance by Silverchair. It seemed generally a somewhat more mellow, less hard rock show than usual, but they are moving in new musical directions and this show displayed their tremendous versatility as a band. My only complaint was that it didn't seem like an hour it went all to quick.

By Alissa

The crowd was pretty much packed for Silverchair's set which (I think?) was the same as the previous Big Day Outs. The boys received a warm welcome from the Adelaide crowd and ripped straight into Emotion Sickness. This was a really good live version of the song and gave the many Silverchair fans packing out the moshpit a good workout. Next was a newie, Without You which was very catchy followed by Paint Pastel Princess and Israel's Son which got the crowd absolutely pumping.

One Way Mule, Miss You Love and Ana's Song were incredible, Daniel showing us the versatility of his amazing voice with some soothing and quite beautiful melodies. World Upon Your Shoulders and The Greatest View were up next and although the crowd were a little subdued for these 2, these were both fantastic live versions with some more exquisite vocals from the Johnster.

The boys worked their arses off with Slave, The Door and Anthem with some heavy pounding by Ben on the drums and rockin bass lines from Chris. Freak was an absolute blinder. The crowd went nuts with stax of moshing while the boys were going totally insane on stage. This was by far their best song, a pity it was their last as the audience were practically about to explode just as the boys were leaving the stage. Oh well.

The boys played incredibly well all night and mixed in with Daniel's ripsnorter comments, made for one friggin' unbelievable night of pure aussie rock bliss. These comments are the one's I can remember:

"This isn't meant to offend anyone but I have absolutely nothing to say. Nothing. There's nothing in my head."
Followed a few songs later by "I still have nothing to say." (Good one Johnsy)
"Adelaide rocks. What a frontman! How's that for fucking working the crowd?"
"The last one was a new song. This one's not."
"If anyone falls down… save 'em because we don't need the negative publicity."

Overall, it was an absolute stunner by the boys with an excellent blend of new and old tunes and a pretty good lighting show as well. The Newie boys certainly left everyone pretty much blown away by their exquisite performance, I'm sure everyone is counting down the days until Diorama is released.