Paris (France), June 3, 2003

By PASCAL

Photos by LAURE and FRED

The opening band "Something for Kate" was really good. I arrived in the theatre to listen to the last songs, and it was some really nice pop with beautiful vocals. A nice female bass player added a pinch of charm. They were well welcome by the audience and I think they deserved it.

They left the stage for the roadies to change the backline for Silverchair. Time for a beer.

When Daniel came on stage and sat on his piano for an opening soft song, the crowd was screaming tremendously loud. Something I hadn't heard for years. Daniel said later the Parisian audience were the best they had since the beginning of the tour.

The fist part of the show was dedicated to the latest albums. The Diorama songs sounded really good. I wondered how they were going to sound like, regarding the great strings and horns arrangements in the studio album. But the two guys on the keyboards did a great job.
Daniel was dressed in a white tunic, a bit like a musical guru. His vocal range, as I read in previous posts, as increase. He's able to catch beautiful really high notes. And at the same time, he can sing with his famous "dark metal" voice.

The interpretation has therefore gain some more emotion, and it reminded me of the best Jeff BUCKLEY period. Crazy to have come to such a perfection at age 24.

Second part of the show was devoted to more ancient and motherf******er stuff, like Israel's son and Ana's Song.

The show finished in some really loud rock n' roll gimmicks and jams and lights and everyone was happy, and I was happy and everyone was sweating, really cool to have come to see such a great band.

By the FRENCHSTICK

What an amazing night, a pure moment of rock my friends. It was so good to be at a silverchair concert again, to see the same faces, from the young to the older fan everyone with this bizarre smile that says “i can’t wait to hear /see / feel silverchair” and you know the show is going to blow your mind away. Applause when one crew member uncovered the drum kit, when one roadie played some guitar and when another one brought on stage the bling bling bass….

The setlist was the same as in Amsterdam so i won’t bother repeating it. How weird was it that Daniel began with ‘After All These Years’ ? just weird but pretty nice , the entire crowd was yelling, cheering and moshing already and Daniel just goes on with the soft ballad, alone, proving us that the show will not be an usual silverchair gig.

We didn’t get the soft part/ hard part like in Australia. Lots of ‘Diorama’ songs to begin with and Daniel behaving like some sort of rock guru (yeah the white dress outfit helped a lot) guiding us into his little world of melodies and lyrics. I was really into it and forgot the rest, the crowd and the public transports strike outside… there was only music and so i understood what was ‘Diorama’ about.

Then the band played some ‘Neon Ballroom’ era tunes including a long and magical version of ‘Emotion Sickness’ thank you for that one boys ! and then they gave us our dose of old chair rock with ‘The Doors’ and ‘Israel’s Son’.

Good moments of the night: those 5 talented musicians on stage jamming together transforming a 3 minute song into a long musical improvisation, Daniel’s speeches i’ll get back on that in the next paragraph, the setlist which was perfect, and the crowd because we rocked.

About Daniel’s speeches….i didn’t really get everything but sure he was inspired . He told a story about how they were forced to come to Paris through parallel roads cause they could not land at the airport (good ol’ strikes) and that they brought some kryptonite with them from Amsterdam (the thing that kills Superman yes we know but from Amsterdam ?… me suspects something much better than kryptonite !) , the most strange and yet psychedelic part was when he talked about Chris and the dark side of Chris in the dark lights of Paris… ah inspiration when you come !

I spent a perfect evening and it ended with the soft ‘Asylum’ and a long version of ‘The Lever’ extremely well performed so again 5 talented musicians is all we need to be happy !

By ANONYMOUS

I've been waiting for this for so long....and i haven't been disappointed!

The opening band was ok but maybe a little bit too mellow...anyway i was so excited about silverchair that nothing could stop me! I knew they usually begin their show with after all these years so when Daniel appeared and sat on his piano i wasn't really surprised. He played it very slowly, in such a beautiful way i was completely under the spell. Then Ben and Chris came on stage and they played world upon your shoulders.

And then began one of the greatest moment of my life, silverchair in front of me was playing emotion sickness, one of my favourite song of all times. No words could really express what i felt but i lost myself, i was, you know...

Suddenly i realised they were doing without you which was, of course, great. Daniel then took an acoustic guitar and began the magic triplet from Diorama, tuna in the brine,luv your life and across the night, and they were really magical, i felt like in i was another world. Daniel annouced "the new favourite song of all the motherfuckers" ( or something like that ) and played the greatest view, which was for me a bit spoiled because of the bitches in front of me who were singing with an awful french accent!!

Daniel asked us to be quiet for the next song and softly began on his own ana's song but after the first chorus, the band joined him to play the song as we all know it, it was perfect just as miss you love played right after. Then Daniel, just like Billy Corgan in the final Pumpkins tour, took off his kinda vestry, and began topless the second part of the gig, which was much heavier.the door began and Daniel was asking for us to jump.

It was incredible, a pure rock show with a lot of improvisation, Dan played guitar with his teeth, screamed, jumped, it was really cool. They did anthem for the year 2000 with the help of the crowd screaming as loud as possible the couplet, then israel's son was the perfect conclusion before the encore.

Daniel came and played asylum and they close the show with the lever, dedicated to our girlfriends...

It was a magical evening, i was so impressed by Daniel's voice, a great rock evening! rock on!

By JOHANN

here is the set list:

1.after all these years
2.world upon your shoulders
3.emotion sickness
4.without you
5.tuna in the brine
6.luv your life
7.across the night
8.the greatest view
9.ana's song
10.miss you love
11.the door
12.anthem for the year 2000
13.israel's son

encore:
14.asylum
15.the lever/jam

so what can i say??? it was the best show of my life, it was really great to see them back in france since 1999! the band was really incredible ant the crowd absolutely crazy!!! thank you guys we love you!!!

SILVERCHAIR KICKS ASS!!!