Press
14-12-2007
Nokia Theatre - Dallas, USA
By MARCIN
I had only been to one silverchair concert in my life, The Water Festival, Stockholm, Sweden (13-08-97). It left me speechless. Now I had to wait 10 years for another chance and I would do anything to be there. I had to ferry across the Baltic sea to get to Sweden from Poland for that concert. The road to this one was even more perilous. I left work at 3pm to get to the show at Grand Prairie thinking it would take an hour to get there. Wrong! It seems like Texans dont really know how to drive in the rain. It took me 3 and 1/2 hours to get to Nokia Live and I had to miss Silversun Pickups and Coheed and Cambria. I was bummed but I knew that the main reason I went to the show in the first place was my good old friends from silverchair and I wouldn't miss them for the world.
As Paremore finshed their set, I had only one wish and that was for the lads from silverchair to get on stage as soon as possible. I couldn't wait any longer. And slowly but surely the sound checks ceased and darkness consumed the arena. A pre recorded sound was played over and over, faster and faster until Ben, Chris and Daniel appeared and started right off with "Young Modern Station". It was brilliant, a perfect entrance.
"Emotion Sickness" was next but it wasn't the album version, it was an out of this world experience. Daniel was trying to pump up the crowd as much as he could, screaming "GET UP" and imploring the audience to do the same. This is when I realized that some people in the crowd were just sitting in their seats, chilling as if they were at home instead of a silverchair concert. Either they were waiting for the rest of the bands on the bill (Jimmy Eat World :), Modest Mouse :( ) or they were just zombies! I couldn't believe my eyes. One of the most dynamic, energetic and influential bands was playing to a crowd where the majority was subdued. Unbelievable!
I decided to concentrate on the show instead of the crowd and I couldn't take my eyes off it. With Daniel playing the guitar with his mouth and some unique feedback on his amp the song was truely memorable. After the brilliant ending to "Emotion Sickness", Chris started the bass line to Israel's Son and the place was going wild. Again, the album version was thrown out the window and I started to think that they would just remix all their songs on stage there and then. You couldn't figure out when the song ended because just as they stopped playing and everyone started cheering, Daniel broke into another verse and the song just continued.
The mosh pit was getting crazy and after the song Daniel reminded everyone to take care of each other and not hurt anyone. As usual Daniel was very talkative on stage and right after "Israel's Son" he produced his frist gaff which I dont think everyone trully understood. He reminded the crowd how Metallica dissed Texas and said that silverchair was better than them. Unfortunately, most of the people in the crowd had a short memory because when Daniel began playing the intro to "Enter Sandman" the fans started cheering instead of booing. Daniel dug his own hole in his own words. He had to think quick and he did when he started playing "Ana's Song". I had my lighter in the air as soon as I heard the chords, but not everyone followed suit.
I saw Ben recording the scene on his video camera but he had to light his own lighter and put it in front of the lens to compensate for all the absconders. After the song a fan in the mosh pit screamed something at Daniel and his response was "Sorry, we dont take requests little brother". Its too bad not everyone has grown accustomed to silverchairs music after frogstomp.
"The Greatest View" was the next song played and I realized that because of certain time constraints regarding the other bands,silverchair was not going to play the same set they did in Chicago a few days earlier. Daniel started teasing the crowd, telling the left side to shout "HO" and the right "MO". Not everyone realized it meant homo! :) Great stuff, what a laugh! Daniel asked all the people to hug each other and made the band do the same. This is when I realized that Ben was playing in his boxers as he came out from behind the drums to hug his bandmates.
Daniel then did a little test with the crowd and went on to claim that there are more men but the women are louder.
"Straight Lines" was the next song and the fans lyrical deficiency was exposed. Very few knew the words to the chorus and when Daniel told everyone to sing, you could barely hear it. Again I was dissapointed in the crowd but what can you do! A series of one shout, two shouts, three shouts and four but not limited to shouts energized the audience and the final song "If You Keep Losing Sleep" started off with the army march beat. Daniel implored the crowd to sing along to the intro and that moment was stuck in my head the whole night. It was a great night and a great concert if you exclude the folks who just didnt care. I hope silverchair come to Dallas again but play at Smirnoff Music Center instead of Nokia Live. It really makes a difference when it comes to the crowd.
By SUSAN
DITTO WITH MARCIN'S REPORT! Thanx, it's great and accurate! I logged on to check for any reports yet as there haven't been any for December and found TWO! I was going to submit mine, anyway, and am glad they're starting to come in. Come on people, if you were there, SHARE!
Ok, me, my husband, our two daughters and one daughter's boyfriend all found our way to Nokia through the rain for SILVERCHAIR!!! Especially me! This is MY band! (And me & hubbie are from the days of Led Zep, Doors, Cream, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, etc.!) This was my very first time to see them! We've 'known' them since '99 when Neon Ballroom came out and then, of course, I went backwards discovering Freak Show and then Frogstomp! I was sooo amazed with them!!! The kids (my daughters, Brittini & Tootsie and one boyfriend, Zach) & hubbie, Condy, would go in and out seeing the other bands (this was the 'How The Edge Stole Christmas' show) while I mostly hung out in the 'lobby' waiting for Daniel, uh what?, uh Silverchair! The 'signing autographs' schedule had Silverchair down to sign BEFORE they went on, everybody else was signing AFTER they went on, so there was either a mix-up OR Silverchair was running behind coz of the rain AND it is a LOOOONG way from Chicago (icy roads), their last gig! So people that had been in line had to wait for awhile and get in line again later, which I must say was VERY well worth it to me! Ok, but first, we went back in to our seats and waited for the guys and watched the other bands. When they came on it was GREAT!!!!!!! I only mostly had eyes for Daniel! He was wearing all black: tightish black shirt with sleeves either rolled up or unbuttoned and tight black stretchy pants and black boots! We were in the front section on the left side (Daniel's side of the stage, duh) right under a screen so we could watch them live & up close AND on the screen big! Marcin's order of songs is right and here they are at a glance:
YOUNG MODERN STATION
EMOTION SICKNESS
ISRAEL'S SON
ANA'S SONG (omg, my fave, ahhhhhh!)
GREATEST VIEW
IF YOU KEEP LOSING SLEEP
It was sooo cool seeing them playing and moving around in person in the same air! The music was WONDERFUL and changed around some from how they are on the CD and drawn out longer!!! And of course, LOUD! oh yeahhh. Everything vibrated! And like all the other Road Reports, it went by way TOO FAST! I loved the HO MO joke, (Daniel got one section to shout out HO and another to shout out MO and put it together), but I was looking forward to the Koala and Lizard joke! So, if anybody will share that with me and anybody else who still hasn't heard it, I'd 'appresiate'! Thanx! And yeah, I agree with Marcin, the 'Chair' part of the crowd was GREAT but everybody wasn't there for just them. It was a mixture of fans since there were other bands! Yeah, I would LOVE to see you guys somewhere like how 'TREES' in Deep Ellum (I loved TREES!) was; a small, tight, close-knit 'family' venue but for 'all ages' where it's 'Chair' fans only! It'd be a better vibe! But, of course, the guys were GREAT anyway! Daniel did ALOT of jammin' on his guitars and Ben and Chris were jammin' just as hard!!!
Then when they were finished and the lights came on we hooked 'em back out to the 'lobby' for the signing. It was I guess maybe about 30 minutes or so(?) when they came down some stairs from behind a door that had "The Club" over it which were the private suites where you could view the concert and audience in...private! They walked right by us to the signing tables. I watched them for a little then went and got in line where my kids were holding our spot! I let my daughters go first, Brittini, 21, had them sign her Neon Ballroom shirt on the back across her shoulders (so she got to feel all their hands on her!), Ben said "oh, wow, this is old school" and Brittini told him she's had it since she was about 12. Then Brittini moved on down to Daniel, showing him a picture that it looked like he was in the background and to ask him if it was and he looked at it and made several comments, he thought it was at first then said it wasn't coz he doesn't have a watch like that but that the guy did look like him, then to sweeeeet Chris! My other daughter, Tootsie, 15, was next and Ben was talking to her quite a bit and smiling and staring at her ALOT even after she moved on to Daniel and Chris! (I think Ben has a little crush!) Then I went through and started with Ben, giving him a pic of Daniel with Sweep, Daniel's beloved doggie, (that Daniel had signed a few years ago and sent it through the LAS) and Ben made a rude drawing on Daniel as if Sweep were nursing from him! He showed it to Daniel and Daniel was all over the table and back in his chair laughing! (They WERE all downing Heinekens, btw...) Then I got to DANIEL and he said 'hi, how are ya doin'?, and I gave him a small Christmas present and I asked for a hug and he so graciously said 'sure' and got right up and oh, it was soooo wonderful, I didn't want to let go, so warm, so sweet, so ahhh!, then we were smiling at each other and he said 'Cheers", then I went to Chris and he finished up signing my pic. I wanted to carry on a convo with all of them but didn't want to hold up the line so... They're all sooo SWEET and CRAZY and GRACIOUS. I was noticing when I was watching them sign everybody's stuff, they're genuinely interested with everybody that comes through! They're having fun meeting everybody and seeing everybody. They're not at all bored or in a hurry to wind it up! Nooo, Ben took forever (which I was glad of) with the rude drawing of Daniel and Sweep! They're sooo cool. They stayed till everybody who wanted to meet them, met them! Then they got up and walked back the way they came and they were gone! Man! Now, I can't wait till the next album and next tour!
Oh yeah, and sorry, no pics, my daughter's cell died even though it had been charged! Naturally! So I'm really happy to see on Chairpage News that there's professional pics taken at Nokia - Dallas courtesy of Front Row Center for sale later! Yea!
By ABBY
The HELL begins at 8:30 AM ! (crap, this is kind of long...)
I got up...with a hangover I'm sure...and had to clean my apt ALL Morning! My friends from Houston were on their way and my apt was a wreck...and I'm not just saying that it was a mess! Tons of laundry to do!!!
So I spent all morning and arvo cleaning. I wasn't too worried because I figured it's at a big venue we won't meet them...for that same reason, and the weather (was wet and f-in cold!) I didn't put to much effort into my appearance. Then when my friends got there they told me they were not staying the night and had to go home after the show...All that cleaning for nothing...I could have focused that effort into looking good and getting all my stuff together...just in case we met them again...but it's ok... :)
Well, straight up 12:30pm rolls around and I'm finishing up the laundry and getting ready. Lauren and Dallas arrive and we rush out the door about 2ish
It only took 30 min. to get to the venue (good to know I live that close) We're all starving but didn't want to go eat because we thought SC were going to come on 2nd or 3rd, seeing as how the freaking radio hasn't been playing them up...So we get there and have to stand in the rain until 3. The food is over priced as usual but actually tasty and optional. Beers were big but $8.00 - which is also actually pretty good. Come to think of it, I really like Nokia Live everywhere is a good spot, they had big flat screens on the wall so you could see, and the sound was great!
Anyway, all the little SC freaks start coming out of the wood work, and we begin to socialize...Only to find out that they don't go on until 8pm, and that if you buy their CD you can meet them after their set and get autographs! I was F-IN PISSED (at myself)! Not only did I have to buy the CD again, but it's ok, because now I have one for the house and one for my car! (the total has now come to about $300 towards SC merchandise/gas/and shows this year) But I left all my stuff that I wanted them to sign at home with my camera! They didn't even have metal detectors or anything! I could have gotten a camcorder in there!
We ran into a girl we met in Houston, Em she was super cool, even though she didn't get my photo with the guys... :( I love her anyway...and forgive her, there is always next time... :)
Silverchair is supposed to come out at 6:30 to sign - they were running late and did it after their set. So we go sit down and watch the rest of Paramour (really good btw) the lights come on and Lauren and I casually stroll down to the lower level section 100 - center stage! We had a great spot! The spot light kept shinning on us so it would have been perfect to have a sign for "Heaps More Cowbell" and "Play Tail" - but we didn't...Oh, and perfect spot to record it! There were people in front of us but they were sitting down so the view would have been great! ;)
The lights go down and Young Modern Station opens the act. then emotion sickness...straight lines...Anna's song...Israels son...greatest view...and If you keep loosing sleep. It was only like 30 -45 min. I kept trying to look around and see how many people were there...it was a lot, not everyone was standing up, so I don't know how many actually enjoyed the show or came specifically for SC...but I had fun! Somewhere in the middle of the set Daniel started talking about how they were Metallica, or something, then busted in to Enter Sandman, I think it was, Ben started in on the drums but it was ended quickly by Dan, with some comment about how they just dug a hole...It was still pretty funny!
Daniel started to tell people to "Stand the F up!" - That was rad! They needed to!!! I think it was during emotion sickness or Anna's song Ben got the audience to put up their lighters up! That was rad! Daniel used the same antics to get the crowd going, he did the HO-MO thing again LOL!!! I love that!!! It's so unexpected!
The pit full of about 100 people broke into moshing a couple times. Daniel commended them for dancing around but warmly reminded them to not hurt each other. What a nice guy!
Right after the show Lauren rushed to get in line for signing, I hung around until they got off stage. I don't remember if he left his guitar on the mic...? I don't think he did...
When the lights came on, as they were walking off Ben tossed some drum sticks, I missed, but I guess there was a guy on the other row that caught it, handed it to the girls behind me and told them to give it to me. All that jumping, screaming and actin'-a-fool paid off! :)
Back to the signing...They finally come out and we were at the front of the line. The whole thing happened so fast, and I was asking Em to take the photo and she kept blowing me off, I should have just not worried about it, but I was buzzed, caught up in the moment, and really wanted a picture...
She called her friend and was shoving the phone in each of the guys face asking them to tell her friend happy b-day. They did, so that was nice of the guys! The security moved me on and was telling her to move on too...Chris and their manager said they were not doing pics...(If I had known Laurens husband was taking photos with his black berry I would have been more focused...)
So once again I feel like a total idiot! I asked Chris if the intermission music was the Presets; he didn't know. They played it in Houston too. It sounded like them...Amongst all the chaos I got over to Lauren and she goes "Did Ben sign you're drum stick...?" I looked down with shock and said "Fuck No I forgot I had it!" So we waited until the last person and I got Ben's attention before he walked off. YEA!
The whole thing just happened to fast. When I talked to Daniel he remembered us from Houston. That was cool! Paul Mac didn't come out to sign... :( He's just as much part of that album...
The funny thing was I THINK...IN MY OPINION...They were ripped! Dan and Ben kept looking back at Jake (he was standing in front/next to us, we were right next to the table) and laughing, and cracking up. Jake had to keep pointing to the line so Ben and Dan would get back to signing! :)
I was watching the line kind of and didn't notice anything super funny going on, so either people kept saying the right thing to make Ben laugh or something...I don't know, but I even think I saw him turn to Jake and say "I’m so stoned" LOL!! I Could Be Wrong...But he was cracking up, Dan had perm-a-grin and Chris was suspiciously relaxed... just "chill" - it was great. This girl next to me shouted "Daniel Johns is hotter then Texas" and he started cracking up!!! :) Good times!
I hate getting caught up in the moment, since then I've thought of a hundred funny things I could have said to the guys! I hope next year they come back to Texas. If Em and I can work around work and school, we're going to try and catch some more shows.
So the night goes back to being lame...We left right after all that mess. A lot of people were leaving after they played. After SC was Jimmy Eat World, I would have liked to see them...and Modest Mouse...eh...played, but Dallas was feeling really sick so we went a head and left.
So I get home and realized all day that I kept meaning to check my mail...Now I'm getting even more irritated because I just freakin knew that Across the Great Divide DVD was in the mail! SURE ENOUGH!!! IT WAS!!! I Didn't get it signed :(
It's not the signing that matters, I could trace their autographs on the DVD, it's the reaction that would come from it. I wonder if any of those people had it with them - It would have been cool! It would have been SO FUNNY to get the line singing "Jake You Took Us the Wrong Way!" Oh, how funny!!!
To make things more annoying the DVD didn't even work on my DVD player. I have the VS-Powderfinger DVD, Something for Kate, Making of Young Modern, Disso and PF's DVD that came with this new album...they all work on my DVD player...BUT NOT THE ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE!!!
I wonder if it will work on my dads lap top... it says All Regions on the back, and all those other DVDs are PAL version...?
I'm done...I'm going to see if this works on my dads lap top. Later Dudes! :)
p.s. It totally works on the lap top!!! I encourage everyone to order the Across the Great Divide - and figure out a way to watch it! I haven't watched the shows yet - I'm pacing myself - but the Behind the Scenes DVD is 90 minutes of Side Splitting Hilarity!!! Also I left my Young Modern CD in my friends truck the other day, and now he's hooked. He's like, "I fell in love with this album! You can have it back after I burn it!!!"
I'm looking forward to next year when you guys come back!!! Thanks for Everything!