New York (USA), Feb. 13, 2007

By Nate Lichtman

New York, NY--Silverchair lead singer Daniel Johns came dressed for a job interview at Tuesday night's Webster Hall gig and if the crowd reaction was any indicator, he'll be signing up for his 401(k) plan by week's end. At the second of two soldout shows (Monday's show was at the Bowery Ballroom), Johns and company commandeered the cavernous club with a tight set that drew heavily upon material from the latter stages of the band's career. They also tossed in a few new songs to tease the crowd for the band's fifth studio album, Young Modern, which hits stores in Australia on March 31 and will hit stateside in the summer.

Taking the stage to a pulsing thump that sounded like a heavy heartbeat, Johns took a bow, grabbed his black Gibson and the band launched into "Without You," one of the highlights off of 2002's Diorama. By the time he reached the song's blazing finale, the band was firing on all cylinders and made a seamless transition into "Emotion Sickness" from 1999's Neon Ballroom.

The proggish epic vacillated between time changes and rhythms as the crowd sung along. By the time the track built to its climax, a frenetic solo absent from the recorded version, it was safe to say the band hadn't lost a step since the last time they toured. Bassist Chris Joannou and drummer Ben Gillies have been bulletproof for over a decade and they gave no indication that they're slowing down anytime soon. The rhythm section of Silverchair were spot on all evening, especially Joannou whose bass gave all the songs an added thump not always felt on their studio counterparts.

Of the new songs, "Young Modern Station," was a delight. The tune's desperate pace, catchy hook and distorted edginess sounded dirtier and darker than the new single, "Straight Lines," but that's not meant to be a slight. "Straight Lines" is probably one of the most pop leaning tracks the band has recorded, but sounds bright and brilliant live.

For the heavier portion of the evening, Johns broke out his octave pedal and tuned down for an incredibly heavy version of "Freak" from 1997's Freak Show and set closer "Lever," from Diorama.

By the time the crowd left Webster Hall, a snowstorm was in the making but for those in attendance, they'd already weathered a musical storm--no scarves or mittens necessary.

By Jesse Duesler

Hello everyone. Well after 10 years of Silverchair being my favorite band I finally got to catch them live! Thanks to the chairpage for posting the new york shows. Lets just say nothing short of awesome and worth the trip back in the three feet of snow we got that night. I had to travel 4 hours to get their, the show ended at around 11am, took me a good 6 hours to get home because of the snow! Ok enough babbling. After waiting for the opening band The Whigs(beatles+nirvana+emo=The Whigs), not that they were bad, but when your flipping to see Silverchair, you dont really want to wait for a band to get over with.

Finally Silverchair come out, you hear the usual girls flip out while their boyfriends stare jealous at the band(even i got the fuzzies). Paul Mac was on keyboards which was something I wasn't ready for. I'll go song by song.

Without You-one of my favorite songs, so it was nice to hear them open up with it. Daniels singing was on key tonight for all the songs except the door, but it was still awesome.
Emotion Sickness-sounded great, sang some parts different, which is funny to hear the crowd try to keep up with his different pitching

Greatest View-sounded great again(cant repeat that enough can I?)

World Upon Your Shoulders- wasn't expecting this song. But played it great and it sounded really good.

Across The Night- one of my favorite songs to sing along with off Diorama. Great to hear the crowd sing along with Daniel.

Young Modern- ahh finally a new song. Lets say this new cd is going to be great. It was very hard to understand the lyrics to the song, so I cant wait for them to release the cd.

Ana's Song- Caught me off guard with this one too. Girls were all over this one.

Straight Lines- It was nice to know the lyrics to this song. Surprisingly a lot of people did. I knew them more though(sticks tongue out)

Tuna In The Brine- I love this song, changes so much during the song. I was interested to see how it sounded live, and here it comes, it sounded great. Having Paul Mac on keyboards is definitely key for these guys to go on tour and sound anything like the album. Daniel said the song was about fish, at first their names were "Nemo, and the "other one" then Paul Mac said Emo.

Luv Your Life- sounded great

The Door-here's where I knew the concert was going to start picking up. I always loved how they played this song live. So I knew where a lot of it was going to rock and he was going to change the singing a little bit, needless to say the song really got the crowd to start moving around more instead of just singing. Daniels voice was cracking a little bit on here, but he pulled it together and finished it awesome

Don't Wanna Be The One- wow, rock out x2. Saw they did this on the Aria's. This got people moving big time. They rocked it hard.

Mind reader- This is my new favorite song by them!. This song rocks hard, makes you want to dance, and good lyrics. When the new cd comes out, listen to this first, I promise you'll love it

Freak- yes yes yes! As soon as he Daniel was letting the strings vibrate and then I saw his hand go to the 2nd fret of the guitar I knew it was time. I flipped out and my neck hurts today because of it. He sings it crazy like he does in all the live shows. I'm sure the band is sick of playing this song by now, which would explain why its played different all the time.
-------band leaves, crowd cheers Silverchair, Silverchair returns, lovins fills the air

If You Keep Losing Sleep- get the new cd. All of the new songs make you move. You want to dance using your hips and shoulders, but throw in a head bang so you dont look stupid in front of the guys.

Lever- well from all the other live set list I've seen, I knew this was the end. Broke my heart because it went so fast even though they played 16 songs!

All in all. Well worth the wait, the anxiety, and the awful traveling in the snow. I brought four friends, who went along for the experience and they loved it! One of my friends loves hardcore punk music, so I figured he wasn't going to like it one bit,  but he said he loved the concert, he couldn't believe how good they really were. Daniel was funny as usual, a lot of stuff I couldn't understand what he was saying because of the accent and how loud people were. Ben, Chris, and Paul just stayed quiet while drinking their beers and having a good time. Cant wait for the next show!

Silverchair rocks!