Press
28-01-2008
Flemington Racecourse - Big Day Out - Melbourne, Australia
By JENNA and NIKKI
We owe this whole day to V energy drink and 7 Eleven, for Nikki won 4 BDO tickets and all this other stuff :)
We were so excited when we discovered that we had won 4 tickets. Nikki was actually shaking. This all meant we were going to see Silverchair ONCE AGAIN!
At 10:30am on Monday the 28th of Jan, we arrived at flemington. The line was 2 kilometre long, going down 3 blocks and around a corner, though it only took 10 minutes to get in. On the way to walking to the end of the line we almost got hit by a car! That would've ruined the day wouldn't it?
We began lining up for the entry into the Big Day Out Festival. We actually got in around 11ish, after the security threw out all our water cause they were over 600mls.
We had spare time on our hands, so we walked around wearing our made silverchair tops, one saying 'WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BEN?' and the other saying 'JAKE, YOU TOOK US THE LONG WAY!' (LAS members can see photos of these in the Members Only area "Wall Of Fame") and wearing our very own pair of the novelity glasses that daniel wore on Rove Live and throughout the ATGD powderchair tour.
We got in the D barrier around the time when Midnight Juggernauts were finishing (1:30ish) and started moving towards our standing position for the 5 hours ahead Silverchair Set. Whilst Grinspoon were playing we met the founder of the Joannou for PM tshirts etc. (Krissy)
When Arcade Fire announced they were playing their last song we were so relieved and excited that Silverchair were about to come on stage!! Standing for 5 hours had really paid off, for we were right at the front of the barrier :)
Before they walked on stage, a voiceover said "next stop: young modern station." The train started rolling in. When Silverchair walked on stage everyone was cheering. This was the first time we were seeing Daniel's new hair in public, and we fell in love with it straight away. The first song they performed was Emotion Sickness. It was brilliant how they started the song. There was such power. A lot of the crowd was singing along to "get up! get up!" The crowd participation was better than i thought it would be because of the 'rage hecklers.' Krissy had made this wonderful banner about Ben Gillies that she hung over the barrier. I cant exactly remember what it said, but it said something like "If its Ben Gillies, its good!" Whilst it was quiet in between the set, we would always call out "BEN!!" to get his attention and show him the banner, or wave at him if he was looking in our direction. We also tried getting Chris' attention yelling out his name, as he was the closest to us. I think he heard us but he was trying to focus on his wonderful performance. There was a girl we think her name was Jade as Daniel introduced her as, on stage with a video camera. As she was panning over the crowd she noticed Krissy's banner and came over to the edge of the stage where we were all standing. She filmed the banner and all of us cheering.
Daniel then introduced his orchestra - the backup singers and the trumpeters etc. The next song they performed was All Across The World, which was the first time we experianced this song live. It was so much fun, it was like a group of friends (chairfans) having a sing-along with the band.
They followed with reflections of a sound and israels son (which was absolutely awesome!). Chris has such talent. He performed the bass of the start of Israels Son so well!
They then went on to playing Straight Lines, which the whole crowd sung along to like they were in Australian Idol (as Daniel put it). During the straight lines chorus whilst the crowd was singing along, daniel was doing actions to the lyrics. example: when we sang "wake me up strong in the morning" daniel would flex his muscles. When we sang "walking in a straight line" Daniel would walk backwards moving his arms round. When we sang "lately im a desperate believer" he would pretend he was crying.
It then followed with the powerful 'The Greatest View' which had a lot of people singing along. Then was 'Mind Reader', which we used a lot of energy in whilst jumping up and down. By now our arms were getting sore from having them in the air, but it was all worth it! The Rage hecklers weren't even as bad as i thought they would be, until someone threw a bottle or a thong (not sure) at Daniel in the beginning of Mind Reader, whilst he was yelling "EVERYBODY SCREAM ONE TIME!" Everyone was yelling "oooooh!" as if they were dissapointed at the person who threw the bottle. Daniel said to the 'thrower,' "you know what you are, you're a f**kn c***." Everyone was cheering for Daniel. Daniel then yelled to the crowd, "EVERYONE BOO ONE TIME!" and everyone booed (directed to the thrower). Serves the heckler right i guess!
Then followed a long start version of Ana's Song. Dans vocals were AMAZING as usual. He is so talented. He had the whole crowd quiet, listening to him sing every word. Daniel always sings Ana's Song with such meaning. Same with the other songs, but especially Ana's song.
The energetic If You Keep Losing Sleep came on next, which had most of the crowd jumping or bopping up and down. And Paul Mac did his famous bounce during the whole song. Daniel told us melbournians that we were the best crowd of the tour so far. He also mentioned that the Sydney BDO's crowd was shit and he said something about their singing, haha.
The next and final song was the awesome freak, which had the whole crowd moshing. The whole bands energy was amazing. Ben was so thunderous on his drums. He wore his famous blue hat btw, and a blue singlet and blue ruggers to go with it! He was all blue. "Blue Ben."
This was the most exciting, fun and memorable chairshow we have ever experianced. The boys were all amazing! They had so much power in their performance. Daniels vocals were perfect, Chris' bass playing was amazing, and every drum beat Ben sounded was with such force and meaning. Paul Mac was also wonderful on keys, and the orchestra were really getting into it all. We say well done boys! Can't wait until your next tour!
By CHRISTINE
We entered the D section just as Regurgitator started playing, with the plan that we would work our way to the front in between sets. Off course our main interest was the "chair" but we hoped to hold on for Rage Against the Machine.
As the gurg finished, we easily walked up to seven rows from the front, right in the middle. The crowd just compressed as Grinspoon started playing and without any effort Melissa and I were pushed forward to two rows from the front. A great spot, but very squashed.
Daniel came on looking fabulous as usual, with a white garter around his right thigh. He made the comment that he was getting married and at one stage said he is not gay, but then rolled his eyes at Chris.
Chris and Ben looked their usual spunky selves and Paul Mac on keys kept a fairly low profile.
The set opened with Emotion Sickness , which the crowd loved. Freak was a huge crowd pleaser, with everyone singing along at the top of their lungs.
A lot of people seemed to be there only to see RATM and were yelling at all the other bands to get off. I thought this was pretty stupid, as RATM were not going to come on any earlier and were we just going to stare at nothing for three hours? Also I am sure RATM , with their well known egalitarian attitude to things would have been ashamed of the idiots giving the other bands and our beloved "chair", a hard time.
Quite a few plastic bottles were thrown onstage with one hitting Daniels guitar and I think another one hit his head. Daniel was being very good, asking the crowd what they were saying and telling security to give us more water. Also throwing bottles of water out to us.
I know they played Israels Son and Anas song but due to the sheer physical effort and heat the rest is pretty much a blur. I remember giving one guy a smack on the head for abusing silverchair and yelling for Rage. Surprisingly he did not retaliate, and I remember feeling smug cos I was surrounded by a big group of Maori guys who were enjoying silverchair.
After silverchair finished, my strength left me and I decided to leave the mosh to the Rage fans. It was impossible to get out any other way than be pulled over the barrier by security, which after a lot of effort was finally achieved.
Melissa and I watched the rest of Bjork and Rage and the amusing idiots on the roof of the tent from the back area.
It was a fabulous Big Day Out and Flemington is a great venue.
By SHANE
This was my 9th Silverchair show (I'm no Logan, but getting there!) and I can never have anything bad to say about them! They played as a 12 piece band: Daniel, Chris, Ben, Paul on piano, Adam on keys, 4 brass players and 3 backing vocalists. Needless to say, it sounded AMAZING! Daniel was his usual classic self, wearing a garder around his leg, he said "I'm getting married, that explains this. I'm not gay!" The crowd erupted in laughter. A few idiots in the crowd throwing bottles at Daniel but it wasn't as bad as Sydney. Dan's reaction was classic when a thong was thrown and hit his guitar during If You Keep Losing Sleep, he said "Let me hear you boo, one time!" Boooooo! "They don't like you, mate!". Dan is great in those situations! Set list was:
Emotion Sickness
All Across The World
The Greatest View
Reflections Of A Sound
Israel's Son
Ana's Song
Straight Lines
Mind Reader
If You Keep Losing Sleep
Freak
Can't wait for the next one!
By JESSICA
now my memory is a little bit sketchy but seeing as you require some more reports i thought id let you know how my experience went!
it was a scorcher of a day in melbourne town at the 2008 Big Day Out, and after experiencing my last two silverchair shows dwelling in the seated areas i was determined to be up the front for silverchairs set! So from Fakers set onwards me n my mates battled the sweaty mosh in order to be there for the 6.30 start. regurgitator made us all happy and we had a good jump around to polyester girl, then i became inspired to make a band of 10 people or more when the arcade fire clan took to the stage and belted out 'wake up'!
Anyway after hours of standing in the sun and making friends with the security guy so we got lots of water it was time for daniel ben and chris to grace us with their presence. With them of course was mr paul mac (their first best friend) and the other keyboardist whose name i forget (their second best friend)... according to daniel at the across the great divide tour! they also had three back up singers who i think made the stage look pretty cool!
now i was a little overcome with the fact i was so close to daniel and i don't mean that in a creepy way but it was that exciting to be right there and my friends and i agreed he was looking quite fine in his skinny black jeans and lacy garter ha!
First up we heard emotion sickness and Israel's son which was pretty bloody exciting and got the crowd going! we also got to hear, and in no particular order:
greatest view
mind reader
anna's song
if you keep losing sleep
reflections of a sound
straight lines (where we sung it like we were on australian idol!)
and the big finale freak! where of course everyone announced to the whole world that body and soul they were a freak!
Daniel was awesome with the crowd, probably the best i have seen him and us melb kids loved him back. He clarified to us that he wasn't gay and wore a wedding garter to prove this to us ha! he let us scream for him 1 2 3 4 5 & 6 times.. we even got to participate in screaming for one looooongggg sexually frustrated time!! he got up on the piano in 'if you keep losing sleep' and up on the amp for 'freak' things got real crazy when he told us to scream like if we didn't our family was going to die (i found that one to be quite an important scream) at one point at the start of freak when he was fiddling round to make the guitar sound all wack he looked as if he needed to vomit and then kinda dry reached haha.. so I'm not sure if it was for show or he genuinely nearly did, but it was entertaining all the same!
the only shitty point of the set was when Some EFFhead, who should have been smacked, in the crowd threw what i think was a thong or plastic bottle at daniel. He copped a deserving C word and boooooo in which daniel conducted, from the rest of us!
daniels overall energy was the best I've ever seen it when performing.. he was dancing around the stage doing all sorts of moves and the sounds that came out of that mouth of his blew everyone away! its clear that he is an amazing singer but melb big day out was the best iv seen and heard him. there was so much power and strength in it!
Now there's a small chance that i may have imagined this or it was directed to someone behind me but i am 99% sure that daniel threw me a wink as he came over to play us his guitar, id like to think it was for me ha!
that is about all i can remember right now but hopefully that gives people a bit of an idea at how brilliant it was.. definitely the best show of the day by far and daniel showed more interaction with the crowd than any other act i saw so three cheeeers for him!!!