Press
19-07-2007
Aladdin Theater - Portland, USA
By SNARLCAD
What a terrific show! I think a lot of Portlanders were surprised they played such a small venue (600 capacity), but this made for a nice, intimate show.
A fan from day one, I have never seen Silverchair live before. Even on TV, I have only seen them play Tomorrow and Pure Massacre out on the rooftop back in 1996. Well, the wait was worth it! These guys are great and you could feel the love and interaction between the crowd and the band. The band was all smiles, and even playful at times (once breaking into Isaak Hayes Cafe Reggio during a water break). You could see in their eyes (especially Daniel and Ben) that they were really having a good time and were blown away by the Portland crowd. This was the nicest thing to see. Anyone who has followed this band knows they have been through a lot and it's nice to see they are now doing it their way and getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. We're proud of you and we love you!
The following is NOT a set list, but simply the songs I remember hearing - going from memory. I'm sure I missed one or two or may have made some mistakes...hopefully someone else (who kept track) will post a set list for this show:
The Door
Emotion Sickness
Ana's Song
Without You
Luv Your Life
Lever
Young Modern Station
Straight Lines
If You Keep Losing Sleep
Reflections Of A Sound
Those Thieving Birds...
The Man That Knew Too Much
Mind Reader
Low
Insomnia
Cafe Reggio (Isaak Hayes cover)
ps. Silverchair have very clean production on their last few albums. Unfortunately, this sometimes makes you wonder if it's played by humans or not (I always prefer to hear a mistake or two, so I know it's real). One thing I took away from finally seeing them live is that Ben is a terrific drummer! Plus, he seems to be quite a character. I don't know why I kept thinking about Charlie from the ABC television series Lost when I watched him. Anyway, seems like the kind of guy you'd want sitting across from you, drinking beer, playing poker at a party or something...seems like a fun guy.
By TARYNN
I saw silverchair for the first time in Portland and it was the best concert ever.
Here's the set list.
1.Young Modern Station
2.Low
3.The Man That Know Too Much
4.Emotion Sickness
5.Without You
6.Reflections Of A Sound
7.Insomia
8.Ana's Song(Open Fire)
9.Those Thieving Birds
10.Straight Lines
11.Luv Your Life
12.The Door
13.Mind Reader
encore
14.If You Keep Losing Sleep
15.The Lever
By VICKY
silverchair's first US tour gig since 1999 could not have started any better. Dan had obviously recovered from his laryngitis, because the kick-off show in Portland Oregon was simply INSANE.
silverchair came out onto the stage to uproarious cheering and screaming. Everyone in the band waved to the crowd and they broke into Young Modern Station. This got the crowd going for sure! After the song ended I was just amazed at how excited and LOUD the crowd was. The boys then immediately ripped into Low - the guitar solo was a real crowd pleaser!
After they finished, the crowd again burst into rabid, deafening cheering and applause. The band just looked at each other with smiles and completely awe. Dan threw his arms into the air and egged the crowd on and we responded with LOUD enthusiasm. I could not believe there was that much noise coming from the audience! I thought to myself, "Where did all these silverchair fans come from?!" I think the band was surprised too, as Daniel smiled and said "My god, we're huge here!" which made the crowd scream even LOUDER.
Next up, we made a "trip back to 1999" and the boys ripped in to Emotion Sickness, followed by Without You. The set list included (not really in order): The Man That Knew Too Much, Ana's Song, Reflections of a Sound, Thieving Birds/Strange Behavior, Luv Your Life, Insomnia, Mind Reader, The Door, Straight Lines, If You Keep Losing Sleep, and the Lever. It was really cool to finally hear songs from Young Modern - the boys really do well with extended/more rockin'
versions of Insomnia and If You Keep Losing Sleep! The Door, as usual, completely brought the house down with Dan playing the solo with his teeth.
Before Thieving Birds, Daniel said something along the lines of, "If I close my eyes during this one it doesn't mean that I don't love you, I'm just thinking really hard about stuff." Hee hee. And then in the middle of the set, Daniel asked if it was OK if they took a break. We were then treated to an instrumental intermission of "The Girl from Ipanema", complete with Daniel doing a little sassy/happy dance. It was completely hilarious and everyone was cracking up, including the band! Everyone was in great spirits the entire night.
I guess at one point someone yelled out "Frogstomp" or something, as Dan said "Is somebody requesting Tomorrow? (laughs) Don't worry, we'll get to it for the fourth encore." There may have been a few people disappointed with the lack of older songs but for the most part people went nuts over the newer material! I also think the band are really trying to impress those 'old skool' fans in a different way now - evidenced by Dan's INSANE guitar soloing and harsher vocal technique on some of the songs - and I think it's working! But I also think that silverchair has picked up a lot of new fans along the way. I saw so many people singing along to EVERY lyric at the show. We were even able to have a sing-a-long to Luv Your Life - and you could see that Dan was totally surprised and happy about that!
I can't stress enough how GREAT the crowd was. We gave it our all from the very beginning of the show, and we hung on to the band the whole time and did not let up one bit! This led to comments such as, "Man, we should play Portland more often!" and "Thank you Portland, this is the best first show ever." I think that really says something about how great this show was. Even the next night in Seattle, Dan said "That wasn't as loud as Portland!"
And personally, I was just completely happy and excited that they were getting such a wonderful reception after being away for 8 years. It really surprised the band, I don't think they were expecting anything like it - and I wasn't either! So it was really an honor to be part of such a fantastic tour kick-off. This one is definitely going down in the books! This was my TENTH silverchair show since 1996, and it seems everything is coming full circle. I left the show thinking that America is finally ready for the "new" silverchair!