Melbourne, Apr. 8, 2003

By GREG

Photo by ANONYMOUS

What a night...

It all started with Daniel alone on the piano playing after all these years his voice was magic..then chris and ben came out and they started belting out world upon your shoulders after that..daniel put on the acoustic and played tuna in the brine it was so beautiful then followed other experimental tunes from diorama...when petrol and chlorine played out it sounded so crisp and ana's song was a bit different but still a very good song. The 1st set ended with steam will rise with a bit of ben's own little drum solo really kicked off the 1st with a band..

The 2nd set started off with long version of emotion sickness with a good solo from ben and daniel..The highlight for me had to be slave it got the crowd pumping and then when the door came on everyone started to stand up and dance along near the end of the door daniel started playing the guitar with his teeth and doen his little dance and wiggling his bum...Everyone was yelling "play freak" then the 3 screens at the back lit up with the neon sign from the start of the freak video clip and the crowd started screaming it was so loud and daniel yelled out "fuck intamacy mode lets fucking rock"...Everyone jumped up and started moshing...Anthem was next with the crowd pumped and a very interesting war on iraq theme from the 3 screens...Set 2 ended with one way mule and at the end daniel ripped open his shirt and started feelin himself..Once that was over the band left the stage and the piano came back on...Daniel came back on not long after and played Asylum it brought a tear to my eye his voice just echo'd through my head it was magical...After that the band came back on and played the lever and at the end of the lever was about a 5 minute instrumental which sounded great and got daniel pumping stroking his guitar, humping the amps and rolling around on the ground...daniel put his guitar on the ground and the band left the stage with the sound of the guitar still ringing for about 30 seconds everyone cheer "Silverchair Silverchair Silverchair"

It was a night i will never forget!

By ANDREW

Photos by LIZ

To say there was a collective buzz floating around Vodophone Arena last night is a definite understatement. We walked into the arena just as silverchair were coming out. After a mad rush to seats (which we later found out wern't ours), we were settled and ready.

Set 1:

Daniel came out and belted out 'After All These Years' which enormous gusto. This was followed by 'World Upon Your Shoulders'. Following this came 'Tuna in the Brine', a song most would have been anxious to hear. After a brief pause, with acoustic in hand, Daniel began. The song hit new peaks, with Daniel absolutely straining every vocal chord, yet still seeming effortless in pitch perfect notes. 'Luv your Life' proved to big hugely popular with the crowd, especially the 'do do do do do do do' chorus. Next came 'Petrol and Chlorine.' I personally think that this was one of the best songs from Freak Show and was a sign of things to come with Daniels writing. The live version sounded very big with guitar splashed with sitar effects from the keyboard. Other songs in set 1 included 'Paint Pastel Princess', 'Ana's Song', 'Miss you Love' and 'Steam Will Rise.' 'Across the Night' proved to be the highlight of the set, perhaps even the night. Halfway through the next, pre- "So let us get married...", Daniel ditch the guitar. His moved ranged from crooning, to outlandish gestures, to traditional two hand on mic rock stance Bernard Fanning style. Overall, a killer set 1.

Set 2:

This set was the heavier of the two, which extend the Johns vocal talents further. This was clearly evident in 'Emotion Sicknes', 'Greatest View' and 'Freak.' Other songs include 'Without You', 'Slave', 'Black Tangled Heart', 'Do you Feel the Same?', 'The Door', 'Anthem', and closed with One Way Mule. Daniel gave glimpses of animal roars and falsetto in Freak to great effect.

Encore:

Asylum. This song is so powerful. It was my highlight of the gig and had people talking outside afterwards. If nothing else, it showed the appeal of a harpsicord outside a silent movie. They ended with The Lever with a funky ending, no doubt through the badgering of Ben's obsession with James Brown. The boys pulled of a 2 and half hour onslaught of huge sounding music. Probably the best gig I have seen. God bless 'em.

By LIZ

I was so excited to be finally seeing silverchair, I saw Daniel come out on stage as soon as he started to play "After all these years" The tears started rolling .. i quickly stopped myself so my vision would no longer be blurred. He was so fantastic and his voice was so perfect. Then Ben and Chris came out on stage it was all so exciting. Next came "world upon your shoulders" and "tuna in the brine" i was so happy i totally love that song. "petrol and chlorine" well what can i say they know how to get a show rocking :) " ana's song" and to end Act 1, "steam will rise" ben's solo was unreal! 'Paint Pastel Princess', 'Miss you Love' and 'Across the Night' were also spectacular.

Act 2. Started with an extended version of emotion sickness , im not sure what order the songs came but "Slave" and "the door" totally got the crowd pumping every one was starting to stand up and either moshing or just dancing, Even Daniel got his Bum wiggling :) that was fantastic. But what got the crowd fully excited was when the 3 screens in the background started to glow like in the "freak " video clip, everyone went insane, everyone was singing , The war theme on the screens with Anthem' was really interesting. other songs played were "Greatest View", "Without You", "Slave", "Black Tangled Heart","Do you Feel the Same?" and closed with "One Way Mule" then everything went dark and the piano was bought back on stage and Daniel started to Play "Asylum" it was magical. although there was a few people around me looking at each other asking "whats this song?" then the other guys came back on stage and played "the lever" and it had a pretty cool extended long ending, but after the totally amazing 2 and a half hour show i still wanted more :).

By ERIN

Last night was the third and final night that the ‘chair would be playing in Melbourne. I went to their first Melbourne show on the Saturday night at the Palais and I would have to say the atmosphere at the Palais was a lot better, it was a beautiful setting and perfect for the new album, but last night was just as good with or without any fancy ceilings.

We got to our seats just as the lights were dimmed and the thousands and thousands of people already seated started screaming. The red velvet curtains were pulled apart to reveal Daniel sitting alone in the spotlight at a piano. The set started with ‘After All These Years’, and Daniel played the song alone, and at the end Ben, Chris and the 2 extra keyboardists took to the stage and got straight into ‘World Upon Your Shoulders’. As soon as that song was over Daniel grabbed his acoustic guitar and played the beautiful ‘Tuna in the Brine’. The stage set-up was much the same as all their other shows, with each amp painted a different colour, the same circles covered with lights from their Falls Festival show, and thin strips of multi-coloured lights standing upright at the back of the stage, which were lit up a few songs into the set and sent the crowd wild. The 2 keyboardists were seated at the right of Ben, on their own little platform and they played samples of the orchestra from the album. There was incense burning on the stage and smoke machines running all night giving the stage its own special atmosphere.

Next was ‘Luv Your Life’, the 3 video screens behind the band were showing colours and patterns and created a great back drop on the stage. There was very little witty banter from Daniel for the first few songs; he chose to go straight from song to song stopping only to change his guitars. Most of the songs were introduced with extended intros, and Daniel displayed his amazing guitar playing skills by playing mini solos before most of the songs. After ‘Paint Pastel Princess’, the next song, also introduced with an extended intro, was ‘Petrol and Chlorine’. I'm not sure if the band have played this song on other tours but it is a gem of a song from Freakshow that hasn’t gotten enough recognition until now. This song was my personal favourite from both shows, it sounded amazing with Daniel playing the sitar parts from the record on his guitar.

The song that was received with the most enthusiasm was the current single ‘Across The Night’. The film clip was played across the 3 screens in the background, and the song sounded incredible live, the clip playing behind the band made the song even more fun to listen to, because you could watch the clip while they played. When ‘Act 2’ was displayed across the screen in the clip Daniel got rid of his guitar and just stood at the mic singing the song without playing.

3 more songs from Neon Ballroom followed, ‘Ana’s Song’, ‘Miss You Love’, and the first set ended with ‘Steam Will Rise’. At the end of the song the band walked off stage with one keyboardist remaining, playing the sounds from the end of the song while the lights dimmed and the curtains closed. During the break there were a few James Brown songs played, including ‘Sex Machine’, no doubt this music was Ben’s choice!

The intermission lasted for about 10 minutes, when the band returned to the stage and belted out ‘Emotion Sickness’. Daniel said a few words between songs, and they passed around a mysterious glass bottle that looked like vodka. He introduced the extra band members as his ‘new best friends’ and continued to rip through the set by playing a lot of oldies, ‘Without You’ and ‘Greatest View’ being the only songs played from Diorama in the second set. During the intermission the band had changed the amps, Ben’s drum kit was different, and a piano had been brought onto the stage so that one of the extra members could play that during the songs while the second extra member stayed at his keyboard. Ben had taken off his hat along with his shirt, and was wearing what looked like footy shorts only tighter and smaller…

Daniel instructed us to ‘get the fuck up’ during ‘The Door’, but by this time everyone was already standing. ‘Freak’ was next up but everyone knew that song was next when the heater coils from the film clip was displayed on the screens. During songs Daniel asked for the lights to be turned on the crowd so he could see us, and told all the people right up the back to stand so he could see them as well. Daniel got the crowd to sing the first verse of ‘Anthem’ and during the song there were some political messages and visuals playing on the screens. I'm not sure which song it was but I remember Daniel getting a bit excited and ripping open his shirt, rubbing his chest and tugging at what looked like a nipple ring… Highly entertaining.

The second set or ‘Act 2’ ended with a gutsy version of ‘One Way Mule’, and the band all walked off the stage. The same piano from the start of the show was wheeled out and it only took a few minutes of screaming and cheering before the boys re-appeared to play an encore.

Daniel came out and sat at the piano once again, with the spotlight on him and he played ‘Asylum’. This was probably the most beautiful song of the set apart from ‘Petrol and Chlorine’. After this song, they ended the show with ‘The Lever’. It was an extended version of the song, the band rocked out during the solo and at the end they jammed for several minutes, Daniel attempted to jump on the speaker stack, hit Ben’s cymbals with his guitar then after a big rock ending, the boys bowed and curtseyed and left the stage. The last time I saw them was in 1999, and it was great to see Daniel smiling his way through the whole show. An amazing show and sadly, it might have been the last we’ll ever see.