I was supposed to meet Sarah there at around 6pm and I thought that it would all work out since we left Willamette at about 5pm and Sarah had said it only takes about an hour to get there. Unfortunately there was heaps of traffic and construction (not to mention our car almost overheated!) so we didn’t wind up into Milwaukee until a little after 7pm. Of course we wound up getting lost and having to ask some kids who were playing basketball to tell us how to get there. When we finally did make it there we found parking really far away from the place and so by the time we wound up at Sarah and my meeting place, it was about 8pm and so I couldn’t find her.
After a while of searching through the various rows of benches and bleachers that make up the Levi Rock Stage (where silverchair would be playing later on) I finally found my friend Christy who took me to her excellent second row bench spot. There I also met up with my friend Jewels and Christy’s friend Amy.
At that point Jewels told Christy that she had to go and do something.. I wasn’t quite sure what, but anyhow she left and so the three of us were there just hanging out and talking while the Cupcakes played. When Jewels returned she told us that she found John Watson and convinced him to let her have a photo pass and that she had to go back there at like ten till 10pm (which was when they would start playing).
Once the Cupcakes had left the stage they began broadcasting the radio over the loud speakers, which got to be slightly annoying when they played Limp Bizkit’s new song “Nookie” which everyone was chanting. Although I love Limp Bizkit, or at least their old stuff ( I haven’t heard anything else off this new album), I really don’t like that song. Christy, Amy, and I somehow wound up talking to this guy who told us that this was his first silverchair show and about how he didn’t like their first album much, but once her heard the latest two he just loved them.
A few songs later the radio played “Got The Life” by Korn which sent the crowd moshing. I kinda though that was rather dumb because I mean it was just the fucking radio, not an actual concert! Before I go any further though you must understand that the way this place is set up is that there are all these long rows of benches on which people for some reason like to stand during the concerts. Then in front there’s a really small area that’s for moshing and then off a ways to the side are normal bleachers. So anyways, when the mosh pit moves back, then that knocks the people in the first row back, which in turn knocks the second row back and so on and so forth. So during the “Got the Life” moshing Christy and I both got knocked down. So we decided that if this was the way it was during the radio playing, it would be very brutal during the actual show, and we left the benches. Then our long search for somewhere to stand began (the place was packed!), during which silverchair came onstage.
They opened as usual with Emotion Sickness, which I couldn’t fully enjoy cause I was trying to find a place where I could both see the concert, and hear it.. but from what I did hear of the song it was really good. Christy and I finally settled in a spot way right of the stage (on Chris’ side) in the area between the benches and the bleachers. We could sometimes see the top of Daniel and Chris’ heads.. and occasionally most of Chris’ body, Sam’s head and Daniel’s arm. But I suppose it was the best place we could find.
Next on the setlist came Israel’s Son, followed by Slave, Abuse Me, and then Pure Massacre. I believe that the break between this and the next song was the first spot where Daniel spoke and I think that all he said was “Thank you” or maybe “Thank You Wisconsin!” but then again I might have fucked this up because that was like 6 hours ago. Then they played Ana’s Song, which was so good.. I mean it’s always really good, but I dunno, there was something about tonight’s performance of it a little different. Speaking of which all through out the night Daniel was doing various vocal and guitar improvisations.. Well maybe they weren’t improvisations.. But they were different.. And they sounded really good. After that was Suicidal Dream.
Sometime during the show, and I believe it might have been now Daniel talked about how they appreciated the audience’s claps and such, but to try and be a little careful because when it really bothers them when they see people getting hurt.. and also something about how everyone looked so tiny. Then he went “This is for all the radio listeners: Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck” and the crowd cheered for that. Then they played “Point Of View” which is becoming one of my most favourite songs off of the new album.
I believe that next was another one of Daniel’s banters.. I don’t remember if he said this during that point, but I know that he did mention about how he usually comes up with fun (funny?) things to say, but he couldn’t think of anything so sorry. The next song was Paint Pastel Princess, which of course was so wonderful.
I believe that next was Madman, then they began to play the full band version of Tomorrow which got most of the crowd singing, but then after like the first verse and I think part of the chorus they broke into Lie To Me. At that Christ and I began freaking out because we’d much rather hear that then Tomorrow.. Not that Tomorrow’s a bad song or anything, it’s just that we’ve heard it so many times, and I’m sure that silverchair probably feel the same way, having had to play the song so many times as well.
Then they played Miss You Love, which somehow today (as well as last night) caught my off guard. Like at first I was like ‘huh, what’s that song?’ but then I caught on. I don’t know why it’s been doing that to me. Maybe it’s because of it following up to Lie To Me and I’ve been really getting into that song, and since it’s such a short one I’m not really finished being in that rocking-out-fast-punk mode to get into Miss You Love quick enough. Anyway, during that song people were holding lighters in the air, which made me wanna puke because I dunno, I just sort of think that the whole lighter in the air thing is rather corny.
Before the next song, which was the door, Daniel sort of flipped out. I’m not exactly why, Christy said that she thinks that because of the feedback, or something else soundboard related. He just sort of was like “Who the fuck’s doing that?! It’s alright if it’s (said somebody’s name here) and it’s alright if it’s Watson, but if it’s (someone’s name here) I’m going to be pretty fucking pissed!” And then he just sort of paused and then said “It’s alright, I’m okay..” and then went into his “Can’t I get a hallelujah” speech which was slightly altered by adding a few more plain Hallelujah’s before the Hale-fucking-lujah part, which caught Christy and Me off guard cause we were mouthing the words along with him and kept on wanting to do that part before he did. He also said towards the end of that speech “Who hear believes in peace, love and harmony?” and people screamed and he said something about how he was disappointed that we had a bunch of fucking hippies there and said something else about how he didn’t like hippies.
Possibly before they played Freak (which was next) Daniel said another “This is for the people on the radio: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck”. I know that he said it again, with six fucks sometime during the show, but I can’t really remember when. Then they went off stage (and Christy and I saw them walk down the stairs on the side of the stage), and people began cheering “En-core!”. While that was going on Christy turned to me and asked me what I thought they’d play for the encore and I said that I didn’t know, but I’d really like to hear Satin Sheets and she agreed, but also added that she’d like to hear them do that, Spawn Again and No Association for an encore.
Just then Ben came out and evidently mooned the crowd in famous Ben fashion. But since I was in a crappy area and I’m kinda short I didn’t see.. all I saw was him walking out on stage and his back. Then on came Daniel and Chris and they broke into Satin Sheets and Christy and I just went completely wild. They did such an amazing version of that song, it was the first time that I had heard it live since the March 15th Vic show, and it was the first time that I got to hear it and actually knew the song. Then Daniel said: “I wanna play Spawn, where the fuck’s Holloway?” and Christy and I just looked at each other as if to say: ‘Are they gunna play it?!’ and then Daniel started talking about how Sam’s Ben’s masturbational tutor and about how Ben loves everyone in the crowd, except for that one guy with the hat, and that Ben wanted everyone to come to a tent after the show because he was going to give out invitations to his mum’s 38th birthday party (38th? Come on, she can’t be that young!). Then on came Sam and sure enough they played Spawn Again! They did and it was the best version of it I’ve ever heard.
Once the show was over we found Amy again (who said it was the best concert she’d ever been to) and went to sit down to wait for Jewels to find out what happened with her and the photo pass. After a couple minutes she came running up to us and told us about how she took some pretty cool pictures, but how some of the security guards were assholes to her. She also told us about how Daniel had some new bracelets and how Ben and Chris both sort of looked over at her her and noticed her being there and taking the pictures right in front. After we had finished up sharing various comments and stories from the concert (including me being pissed off that I couldn’t really see any of them that well, and that I didn’t see Ben at all), I went back to my dad. Then began the next part of this saga.
So first of all my Dad and I thought that we knew which lot we had parked in. So we talked in that direction, but that wasn’t the lot. We walked and walked all over the area for I’d say about half an hour or longer. Finally we found this really nice police officer who tried to tell us where to go to get to the right lot.. Unfortunately all we remembered about where we parked was that we crossed a steel bridge right near it. The place the cop told us to go wasn’t the right place either. The whole walking around time I had been humming Paint Pastel Princess and quietly doing the “To Mee-eee-eee-eee” part that Daniel had added along tonight. Then my dad got the idea maybe we could get a cab to drive us around until we found our car, but the stupid cab driver or the cab we hailed told us that unless we knew the exact address he wouldn’t do it.
At this point I was feeling completely worn out from the concert, my knee hurt from the fall, and I hadn’t had anything to drink or eat since 4:30 that afternoon (it was now after midnight). And so I just started to cry because I honestly didn’t think that we’d ever make it back to Chicago again. Luckily we made our way back to the nice cop and he even filed a report for our car incase any other cops had happened to see it. Then I just sat down in the middle of the sidewalk where this cop was and was in the middle of having a panic attack, I just felt like everything was going wrong. But then this super nice cab drivers pulled up and he agreed to help us find where we had parked. So what we did with him was he basically traced our steps, so to speak from the point of our arrival in that area. Once we finally found the lot with our car in it I just got out and went over to the car and leaned over on it. I never thought I’d be that happy to see a car in my life!
As we were driving along I asked my dad if he needed something to drink or anything (since he had gotten me a bottle of water out of our trunk, but didn’t have anything for himself) and he said he would, so for some odd reason I was like “Let’s go to Wendy’s!”. That was really odd for me to do because I really hate Wendy’s and I don’t really even like their food. But as I said at the beginning of the review, I found out today that everything happens for a reason. I just didn’t know what that reason was just then.
A few minutes after I had said that I spotted a sign for a Wendy’s at the next exit. So as we were pulling into the parking lot my dad asked me if I wanted to just drive through and I told him “No, I’d like to go in.” But as we got into the parking spot I was looking in the window and I thought to myself ‘got that guy’s haircut is so much like Ben’s” But when we stood up out of the car, I saw that it was Ben! And not only was Ben sitting in this very Wendy’s, but so were Chris, Sam, and about five roadies just sitting around eating burgers and stuff. I just turned to my dad and went: “Um, Dad.. silverchair’s in there.” I couldn’t fucking believe it, it was just too weird. But sure enough, it was true.
So my dad and I got in line to order our food and he kept saying to me “Heidi, aren’t you going to say something?” and I’m like “Yes, Just wait a minute” and in I tried to come up with something to say. So I finally walked over to them as Ben was standing up to get some ketchup, and Chris was standing up for some reason and I said: “Um, I’m really sorry to bother you guys..” and Chris goes “Well you should be!” and Ben just had this goofy grin on his face and I stated cracking up and then I told them that I just saw them play Summerfest and I thought it was a great show and they were like “Thanks..” and then I said “Yeah, so we just stopped off here to get something to eat on the way back to Chicago..” and Chris is like “Cool..” and then I’m like “Yup.. alright well later!” And I walked back over to my dad.
Shortly there after Chris got up and took his bag of food and walked outside and then Ben walked almost to the door and yelled “You coming Sam?” and then the two of them went outside as well. I could see Ben and Sam goofing around and laughing outside which I thought was really funny. Then one of the roadie guys who was wearing the new Ana’s Song shirt said to me “So the show was really awful tonight huh?” and I started laughing and was like “Oh no not at all!” and then my dad said something to the guy about how great he thought silverchair’s music was (where the hell did that come from!?) and the guy thanked him and then he thanked us for coming such a long way just to see silverchair, and I told him about how I talked my way into the show last night and he’s like “Wow two nights of shows, cool..” and so then my dad and I just left and I rode home with a goofy grin on my face.
I should also mention that Ben and Chris had changed their clothes (well I don’t really know if Ben had or not since I couldn’t see him at all during the show..but he was wearing more than shorts so..). When I saw them at the Wendy’s (so weird..) Ben was wearing black shorts and had a white nylon.. or some other shiny adidas type material, zip up jacket with a blue stripe on each sleeve, red socks and sneakers of some sort. Chris had on jeans (I think) and a grayish long sleeved sweatshirt.. and of course shoes as well.
When I told my mom about this experience she, and my little brother were asking me why I didn’t ask Ben and Chris all these other questions, and at first I felt kinda bad I didn’t take advantage of my opportunity.. But now I’m sort of glad that I did what I did, because at least I worked up the guts to say something to them while I had the chance, not to mention I’m glad I just sort of said what I did and then let them get back to eating and doing what they were there to do.
Well being that it’s five am and I’m super exhausted I think I’ll end my review right here.