Press
01-05-2007
Metro Nightclub - Melbourne, Australia
I know it's been far too long in stormy weather
A review of Silverchair at Metro, Tuesday the 1st of May 2007
Shayna Jones
I arrived at 7pm at Metro to find a line snaking around the corner of Bourke St. well into Spring St., but was happy to see my queue [pre-paid ticket pick-up] consisted of only three others. I was ushered inside almost immediately, and could barely contain my oversize, stupid grin the whole time. The lady at the counter who took my details couldn't help but laugh with me.
I bought a t-shirt as soon as I got in [you gotta' be quick when you want an XS in any band merchandise!] so I now have three Silverchair fan-shirts. ;]
There was already quite a big group of people down the front milling around, so I did my thing and squeezed through until I was as close as I was going to get. A lot of them would no doubt have been dark on me as I burrowed through saying, "Excuse me.. sorry, I have friends up here.." and ended up just plonking myself around two from the front, obviously no friends in sight.
I made three new mosh-pit friends. Two of them were from Mitcham studying music in Box Hill, and another was a country boy from Wagga with a massive blonde mo-hawk.
I already knew the support band Dappled Cities Fly from JJJ, and was actually quite excited to see them.
I was really impressed, as was everyone else. They have such original music, and all of the members have a real stage presence despite being a relatively new and undiscovered act from NSW. The rhythm guitarist was WAY HOT, which helped as well. =D
I found them to be tight, professional and very very talented. They altered the versions I'd heard into something absolutely beautiful and very gripping. They held the whole crowds attention for their entire set, which was a rare site for a support band for sure!
Silverchair didn't come on until 9:45pm, but they were rocking from the get-go. They opened with Young Modern Station and whipped the crowd into an absolute frenzy. Daniel looked a picture of health with muscles taughtly bulging from under his tank top and a huge white scarf around his head, Paul Mac taking stage left on a massive keyboard.
They drove straight into The Man Who Knew Too Much which continued the unrelentingly rock opening theme, before slowing it down with the first of many guitar swaps [this time to acoustic for Daniel] for Tuna In The Brine.
The next song was the most emotional point of the whole concert. Daniel burst into tears when the crowd serenaded him with an impromptu impassioned chorus from Luv Your Life which in turn caused my throat to tighten and tears to slowly well in my eyes as I sang along. He fought back tears and tried to control the raw emotion in his voice as he choked through the rest of the lyrics, the crowd absolutely amazed and taken with his open expression. He explained afterwards he was feeling very emotional for this, their come-back tour, and thanked the crowd for making the night so special for the boys.
All the while Paul Mac is looking on with admiration and the widest grin I've seen in a long time. He danced around the keyboard the whole time, bopping and jumping around in his seat and singing each song as they played.
English Garden was played next, followed by the slightly older Greatest View.
As Daniel strummed the lead chords to Those Thieving Birds the crowd became subdued and introspective. A swaying mass, the lyrics were sung with passion by both Daniel and the entire room - just as they would for every song played that night.
Emotion Sickness followed, fostering the current mood of contemplation. Daniel poured his entire being into every song, not least this stirring rendition with extended guitar solos and impassioned vocals.
Next was Without You - yet another highly hypnotising version example of a of a truly beautiful and layered down-tempo Silverchair song.
My personal favourite from the latest album Reflections Of A Sound featured next, and led the way for a lift in mood and spirit with some more rock driven tunes. Insomnia played out to the enraptured crowd before Daniel slammed into The Door, the oldest song of the whole set-list, now 10 years old. The crowd showed its appreciation with a powerful surge and rise in excitement and volume.
Straight Lines bought me to tears due to its intense personal associations in my own life, and the rocking energy from the band was not lost on the rest of the listeners.
Mind Reader followed continuing the harder up-tempo theme, with Freak the second song of the concert off the Freak Show album bringing the crowd back into a frenzy.
With that the boys jumped off stage and left everyone to scream, stomp and chant for 10 minutes before humbly returning with animated grins and bows and their instruments. If You Keep Losing Sleep and Lever made up the encore, the latter an extravagant extended version with an intense guitar and drums solo mid-way building back up to the final verses.
Satisfied, the crowd dispersed and began moving as one throbbing mass to the one exit to the venue. I looked back to see the torn set-list being ripped up by a roadie and handed over to an overly excited fan and smiled.
The boys are back in town. =D