Press
16-11-2007
House Of Blues - San Diego, USA
By CESAR
This was my first Silverchair show and they were so amazing!!!!!. i traveled from mexicali baja california, mexico just to see the boys of silverchair.first i wasn't excited cause i knew that they were not going to play the songs i wanted to hear such like:
Suicidal Dream
Slave
Abuse Me
Pop Song for us rejects
Nobody Came
Do You Feel the Same
Point of view
Steam will rise
others...
but when they opened the show with Young Modern Station i was freaked out.then Israel's son was a complete surprise and the crowd was INSANE!...after two songs, they played ana's song.thanks to that song i started to listen to Silverchair and i cried when i heard it.it wasn't the same version as the Neon Ballroom days, but it was amazing too...this was the first time that i've ever seen a singer talking to the crowd a lot.that's right, Daniel Johns talked with the crowd in each song and he said a lot of funny things...he also said that this show was the best he ever played, Keep it real man!!!!
Setlist:
Young Modern Station
Emotion Sickness
ISRAEL'S SON!
Reflections of a Sound
Insomnia
ANA'S SONG
Those Thieving Birds
Greatest View
Straight Lines
The Door
Mind Reader
If You Keep Losing Sleep
-------------------------
Freak
By ASHLEY
On November 16th 2007 I went to go see silverchair play at the House Of
Blues in San Diego California. Anticipating this day was something that
I had been doing since I saw them play in July. Loving silverchair
since I was about 13 I went to the concert with much nostalgia in my
heart, back in July, and emerged once again a full blown chairhead. I
hung out after the concert, met Ben. Lost my mind completely. So going
to California to see the men was far within the question, since all the
other dates in July were sold out. I was super excited, and recruited
some of my best friends to come with me to the concert. The morning of
the concert I woke up completely excited, dancing around my hotel room
screaming the worlds to straight lines- or calling it what I have heard
Daniel and Ben refer to as “straighto’s”. Everything that day was
straighto’s… Let’s go get breakfast- Let’s go get some straighto’s. My
best friend Liz and I were completely giddy. Walking around San Diego,
we went to breakfast and I informed the girls of my schedule for the
day. They had no choice, this day was all about silverchair- Going to
the House of Blues, seeing the surroundings, making friends with the
people that work there… who knows. It was silverchair day. Anything
could happen.
After breakfast we walked over to the HOB which I strategically planned
to be about five blocks away from our hotel. You never know, they might
have wanted us to quickly pack our things and go on tour with them.
Crazy things have happened. I wanted to be prepared! Ha.. so getting to
the HOB at 12pm… I decided that just being there, seeing the signs with
SILVERCHAIR written all around, I was pumped… waiting eight hours for
the concert was nothing. Lets get a cocktail I suggested, and the
madness began. We were talking to the bar tender, a lovely healthy
version of Amy Winehouse named Lisa for a few hours, having tequila
mixes of seltzer and lime, waiting hopefully to maybe run into a band
member, someone cool.. I was just excited about the atmosphere. The
anticipation of finally seeing silverchair again, my favorite band.
Amazing.
We waited for quite a few hours there, a friend of mine that was with
us and traveled across the country also was getting annoyed that we
were “wasting time” in the HOB all day. I told her to go where ever she
wanted, sightsee, go see a movie, I was not leaving. There were some
girls there from way earlier then when I got there, camped outside in
their silverchair war gear, hoodies signed by the band, silverchair
shoe laces, silverchair photo albums packed to the brim with signed
pictures. Everything and anything. I unfortunately came unprepared,
seeing that I only believed that I was going to check out the venue and
retreat back to the hotel.. but that wasn’t the case. As the time went
by, the band’s huge blue bus rolled up with their bright silver carry
on trailer filled with their equipment and everything. This was a huge
highlight for me, seeing the words “SILVERCHAIR, NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA”
on everything. All the huge boxes filed out of the trailer by the crew
members with YOUNG MODERN button up shirts on. Amazing. The greatest
sicker I saw stamped down on one case was a green one with black
writing that said “vegan”. Ha! Love that Daniel Johns.
As time wore on my friends left me a few times, I was standing in the
back by the band entrance, waiting, not knowing, excited and hopeful.
They came back and the one who was really not feeling my session of
staying all day in one place said that she was going back to the hotel
to shower and get ready for our dinner reservation at the House Of
Blues. As the two of my friends walked by Chris came out of the venue
with Jade and Jake, and I shouted over to him. “waittt!! Chris! Can I
just say hi and take a picture!” My friends ran back to just watch this
experience, and Liz looked at him and said “she’s been waiting for this
forever.” He was awesome. Said hi, thanked me for coming to the show, I
was awe struck. I smiled so big in that picture it was actually
ridiculous. I thanked him and he turned to me and said “no worries”.
Made my day. Awesome.
Another hour went by and my friends really left. I was waiting again, I
wanted to see if I could meet Daniel. I had 2 out of 3 so, I wanted to
give it a shot. As I was standing with the other chair fans we were all
talking and then someone ran over and said “they are already doing
soundcheck, they must have went through the front” I said my goodbyes
for now, since I had my cousin coming in from LA and I wanted to meet
her and change for the show, I started walking back to my hotel. As I’m
walking I get to the entrance of the Marriot Hotel and BAM!!! Out comes
Daniel, Paul, Adam and Jake. I stopped dead in my tracks, I think I had
an outer body experience, just looking at him. He was right there in
front of me, texting someone on a pink chocolate cell phone. I raised
my courage, stuck out my hand and said “Hi Daniel, I’m Ashley.” He
greeted me with a handshake and a smile, and I told him so many things
in the span of about one minute “I’ve been a huge fan forever, I love
you guys so much, thank you for making the music that you do. I came
here all the way from New York to see you” To my last comment he raised
his brows and looked at me and said “wow…well thank you for coming out”
I even made him laugh. That was so amazing. He took a picture with me,
thanks to Adam who took the picture since my friends left me like a dog
alone, and I said it was beautiful to have met him, and I’ll see him
later at the show. He looked at me, smiled again and said ok see you
later.
I ran back to the hotel, this mostly is a blur of me screaming and
having a slight heart attack. I changed with the speed of light, we all
ran back to the HOB to “eat” (I couldn’t eat a damn thing all day, I
was so f’ing excited) and we got on line and waited for the show to
start.
The opening band, I can’t even say I want to remember anything about
them. They had no chemistry with me, and honestly they were just one
thing standing in front of me seeing silverchair. That may be rude, but
honestly, they did nothing for me.
The hour arrived, and the train station noise started. Duhdun duh dunn…
duhdunduh dunnn… and out came the guys. Daniel in his famous green
blazor with not just one, but two ties on “to be extra professional”
because of the shit show they had in Vegas the night before. He was
seemingly down and out about that, “lost all my money” ah well.. shit
happens. Ben was just about naked, as per usual, Chris in jeans and a
David and Golith T-shirt I’ve seen in countless pictures.
Opening the show with young modern station, off to emotion sickness, a
quick talk with the crowd. Daniel was feeling very appreciative of our
obvious love and support that was going on. We were screaming, waving,
jumping… everything. I was one person away from the very front of the
crowd, and it was a very short woman, so I was all okay with it. The
show was spectacular, the band sounded tight as ever, Daniel’s voice
sounded suburb and there were so many moments to remember. Some in
particular were when they played Israel’s Son. I can’t say I remember
hearing them play that since 1997 when I first saw them. That was
amazing. Daniel was on the floor with his guitar, messing with his
pedal, going all out during the break. At the point when he screams
“you’re lateeeeeeeeee” he held the note for about 20 seconds, if not
more… fantastic. The crowd was going wild. “for the execution” then
another step away from the microphone – even more screams followed, and
as he walked back up to the stand, we wouldn’t stop screaming,
clapping, loosing our minds and he just waved us on and stepped back
again. When he finally finished the verse he started laughing into the
microphone as he yelled the angry verse of “if you’re not here soon
I’ll kill your friend instead”… irony at its best.
He introduced several other songs, and let the crowd do much of the
singing in the chorus of Straight Lines (aka straighto’s mate!!) they
were phenomenal. And when they were playing Insomnia, the part right
when Daniel says “Wait…I hear another song" …
I stuck out my hand all Diana Ross, Stop in the name of Love style, and
I saw Ben looking straight at me and laughing his head off. I gave him
some thumbs up and watched him continue to giggle. Other highlights
were of course Brittyn’s underwear throwing (fat granny panties) on
stage which Daniel chucked at Ben who threw them to Adam. Adam put them
on his head for a hot minute but then they came off. At one point some
one yelled to Daniel to play frogstomp, and he said “shh, no frogstomp…
we’ll play something for ya mate.” And I screamed “Play Without YOU
PLEASEEEEEEE!!!!!!” and he said “we won’t…” and laughed… During one of
Daniel’s famous rant’s he told the crowd that “Chris is looking for a
new wife. And Ben. Fuck it we can have a night off” That sent a lot of
the ladies threw the roof. Then during Mindreader when there was a bit
of a fight in the audience, some people were getting trampled on and
Daniel stopped playing and said that “we’re lovers not fighters mate,
now turn to the person next to you and give them a hug”… and then
looked at the guys and said “ok so we were up to the part where it goes
ticka ticka waaaa” and laughed and said, “they know what I mean… one
two three…” and started playing EXACTLY where they left off, perfectly.
Unbelievable… Another great moment was when they played Those Thieving
Birds. That came off so beautifully. It was amazing, the energy in that
one room, everything about that moment was perfect. And I believe
everyone in that room felt it, especially the guys. A friendly reprise
greeted the show’s faux ending with Freak being the song of choice. The
crowd lost its mind, no real scary mosh pits or anything, just lots of
hopping and singing. Lots of love coming to and from the crowd. It was
amazing. All in all it was the best silverchair show I had ever
attended, and there have been quite a few. I can’t wait for them to
come back to the NYC area so I can rock out with them again. Amazing…
By DAINA
This is the story of a long-time Silverchair fan living in Orange County California and her non-musical-farm-boy-white-bread boyfriend transplanted from the wilds of Montana who together undertake an epic journey to San Diego CA in search of a musical miracle just in time for the holidays:
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away from Australia…
Despite the fact that I have dragged my otherwise agreeable boyfriend to numerous high quality shows (Pearl Jam for one example) so that he could experience the power of an amazing rock concert, he has steadfastly remained blasé about music, deeming it entertaining but devoid of any meaning for him. I blame an overexposure to high altitudes, a possible childhood head injury and his obsession with sporting events, but I digress. My darling boyfriend has repeatedly claimed that it is my “hippy DNA and refusal to eat meat” that causes me to believe that music has intrinsic value in and of itself and is arguably the most powerful medium of artistic expression. He was convinced there is simply not a band on this great Earth that could make him think music was anymore important that a fun hobby, such as his beloved but socially meaningless 2 AM games of Beer Pong. Bless you Silverchair, because on Friday night, November 16th, you rocked his little small town world and made him see the light.
I should note that this was a concert experience was full of tribulations. We were unaware that the original date in July had been cancelled due to Daniel’s illness and left work early in happy anticipation of a show I assured him would be unlike anything else he had seen. We found out about the cancellation after we had rearranged our air flights for a long planned vacation so that we could accommodate the USA tour dates published after we had purchased our tickets (cost us several hundred dollars), paid for a non-refundable hotel room in San Diego ($260 dollars) and had driven the 75 mile distance between our home and the concert venue in rush hour traffic which caused us to be stuck in his car in the heat with faulty air conditioning for 4 hours. We were 10 minutes out from our hotel when we heard on the radio that the show was to be rescheduled. Needless to say the drive home was full stewing silence, bitter laments against the Fates and the general cruelty of laryngitis to so ruin our adventure. No matter, things happen and we looked forward to the November date (well I might have been slightly more positive than my boyfriend as technically it was him that was out a lot of money and he has a tendency to be prone to violent verbal outbursts at fellow motorists when stuck in prolonged periods of stop-and-go traffic).
And finally, like water after a long drought, November 16th dawned clear and sunny. My now-doubly cynical boyfriend spent the majority of the trip back down to San Diego proclaiming that even if Randy Moss (a USA football player that he greatly admires for his athletic talents) gets up on stage and demonstrates the proper way to level a man on Dick Cheney himself while Angelina Jolie danced naked in the background, this show was not going to budge him an inch in his appreciation of music. Having never been to smaller venue before, he was alarmed and befuddled by the open floor and the lack of assigned seating. Plus, he was distressed that the only accessible bar was upstairs and very crowded. As I am a smaller person and not as feisty as I once was in my salad years, I was a bit concerned about being smashed about and poor visibility. We were fortunate enough to discover that seats on the balcony (dead center, front row) could be purchased for a nominal fee and all seats include your own cocktail waitress. Sold! Several gin & tonics later, the show began. The open band was energetic and entertaining, although there was much speculation whether the lead singer was wearing pants or if someone had merely painted pants onto him (they were that tight). But they were lively and fun and I especially appreciated the Mick Jagger nod in the lead singer’s choice of leather jacket and dance moves.
And then it was time for the main event. The lights went down and Silverchair took the stage. The first comment made was an exclamation of shock and awe made by my boyfriend directed at Ben’s bold decision to wear dangerously miniscule exercise shorts and matching tube socks. The swimming goggles were also a nice touch. Oh, and he did comment on Daniel’s form-fitting pants as well, likely in fear that I would start demanding he wear them for me during our alone time. He hasn’t the figure for them. Anyway, it wasn’t much longer than the second chorus of “Young Modern Station” when I caught my boyfriend tapping his foot along, which was more enthusiasm than he had ever displayed before at any other show. By the end of “Straight Lines” he was (GASP!) smiling and nodding his head. By “Mind Reader” he was jumping up and down, screaming out what lyrics he knew and bellowing “You guys rock!” at every opportunity. He even began to refuse drinks as he was afraid he would become inebriated and thus, not remember every detail of this extraordinary event in the morning. By the end of the show, he was exuberant, flushed and could not stop exclaiming his undying love of rock ‘n roll and the brilliance that is Silverchair. He must have called every person he knew the next day to tell them that he had Been Blown Away and bought everyone on his holiday list a copy of Young Modern.
So thank you Silverchair for making this music loving girl’s life a bit easier, as now we argue over what track to listen to instead of whether or not to listen to anything at all. You have broadened his horizons and as always, you are among the most vibrant, technically talented and masterful musicians to grace the stage in the 21st century. It was a privilege and a pleasure but please, don’t make us USA fans wait so long to see you next time.
Happy New Year and heartfelt thanks.
Footnote by Chairpage - It was recently released via The LAS (Silverchair's Fan Club) that the band and long time road crew regard this show as one of the best 5 they have ever done.