Silverchair

16-02-2007

Kool Haus - Toronto, Canada

The Kool Haus, Feb 16th 2007
Mandy Jelsma

When I first heard that Silverchair was coming to the T.O for the G'Day Fest I wrote down the date tickets went for sale and set my alarm clock. I have been a fan of theirs for over 10 years, starting from the formative years of a teen and going into my early 20's. Needless to say seeing them live was well over due. Unfortunatly the event was selling tickets through a website that couldn't handle the traffic of the event, and after spending 6 hours on the site (and getting through only to have lost the tickets a number of times), I was totally bummed not to get tickets.

But, fear not, this was not the end of my quest! I got a message from the mailing list about another concert and after successfully getting tickets I was suitably amped. I have been to many concerts over the years but I have to say that this one was one of the bests. It has nothing to do with the fact that Silverchair has been one of my favourite bands since puberty, it was just a really great live show. So great in fact that I channelled the giddiness of my 12 year old self for all of about 10 seconds when they played 'Freak' until I composed myself to reflect my cool composed 22 year old maturity. Hah!

There was clearly a mixture of people at the Kool Haus that night, some who had followed the band from A to Z, some who were fans during the Freakshow era and some who were fans that had just been turned on to their stuff.  The guys soon came on after the opening band, they seemed really into it and charmed by how hardcore us Torontians are. They played a smattering of old with new, with concentration on selections from Neon Ballroom, Diorama and Young Modern. Freak and Ana's Song were clearly fan favourites but the band was clearly in the zone that night and totally rocked songs like Emotion Sickness, Across the Night, Tuna in the Brine and If you Keep Losing Sleep.

Like I previously mentioned I don't necessarily count how awesome a concert is by how much I like a band. I have been seriously disappointed in the past just by banking on that. But Silverchair became one of my favourite concerts that night for a number of reasons. They play amazingly live, probably to do with the bond the boys share after working together for so long and being so in love with what they do. Secondly they played a great variety of songs from their repitoire. And lastly they added that personal touch to their live show, not just verbal interaction between songs, but overall connectiveness that comes from loving what you do and feeding off the audience.

All in all, I can't wait to see them again in August.