silverchair experience
Daniel: Hi, I'm Daniel. (glances at bandmates, looks down) Two Really Strange Dreams
This section was supposed to be all about your silverchair experiences, but since no one sent me any for several months, I decided I might as well tell you all about mine. They're a little different, though. I have never had the chance to attend a 'chair concert (the *one* show I could have attended sold out while Ticketmaster had me on hold!), let alone meet the band, so I don't think I should really call them silverchair experiences, but what the heck, I'd still like to share.
The First Time I Ever Heard Of silverchair (September 1995)
(this is really pathetic!)
I'm not one of those fans who has adored them since the release of Frogstomp. When it hit store shelves in 1995, I had much, much heavier things on my mind than what bands were hot at the time. Anyway, some of my high school classmates were into writing stuff on their backpacks with whiteout, and this guy in my Spanish and science classes had "SILVERCHAIR" written across the back of his bag. When I saw it, I thought, Huh. Must be a band. I didn't really think about it again until...
My Introduction To Freak Show (date unknown)
I have my friend Angharad to thank for this. We used to talk about music during Spanish class (cuando la profesora no estaba prestando atencion a la clase!), and one day she brought up the song Freak. I had never heard of it and said so. She wanted to know if I was serious and recited the first verse to be sure it didn't ring a bell. She was all, "Oh my God, you *have* to listen to it!" and loaned me her Freak Show tape the following day. When the intro to Slave boomed through my speakers, I couldn't help thinking, Yikes. But after I got used to the loud guitars on that song, I started to like it. Then came (what else?) Freak. I thought the guitar riff sounded a little familiar, but couldn't quite place it (turns out it was used in a 1997 episode of my favorite cartoon, Daria). That's such a cool song. Body and soul, I'm a freak, I'm a freeeeeeeak! (sorry!)
I'll admit the album took some getting used to. I thought it was the loudest, angriest recording I would ever hear in my life. (And, at the time, it was.) Don't get me wrong, I could relate to anger (I'm not going to go into that here, it's not the focus of this page), but I was not used to hearing it expressed like that. I instantly liked Cemetery (and I don't think I need to explain why). And I'm not going to go into full details on this one either, but when Nobody Came started, I discovered that silverchair's music can serve what some teenagers consider a very important purpose: drowning out parents. That weekend, I bought my own copy of the album.
Neon Ballroom Listening Party (April 2, 1999)
When the listening party was announced, Angharad got all excited and tried to get everyone she knew to go. There was a contest of sorts going on - the high school that sent in the most reviews from the listening party would win a 'chair concert. It was held during lunch on the Friday before spring break, so a lot of students didn't go (*most* of my friends had club meetings and such), but it was worth it (of course). I had no clue silverchair had released a third album and had absolutely no idea how it would sound, so I went to the quad that day not knowing what to expect.
Since lunch was only about 35 minutes long and the album is longer than that, not all of the songs were played, and I doubt they were played in order (I can't remember the order in which they *were* played anyway). I don't remember hearing Spawn Again, which may have had something to do with the fact that animal rights activists have something of a bad name in this high school. It was damn near impossible to hear the song titles being announced with that awful sound system (when asked to write down the best three songs, most everyone just wrote down the names of the singles). It was damn near impossible to hear much of *anything* through those Distort-O-Matic speakers, come to think of it. (Plus it didn't exactly help that my high school held over 3300 students, most of them noisy, and all of us had lunch at the same time.) I couldn't even make out the lyrics. No, really. I could not make out one word of what Daniel was singing. But that didn't really matter. The music drew me in like I don't know what, and even though Daniel might as well have been singing in French (which, for the record, I *don't* speak), the range and power of his voice really stunned me. I was in complete awe of everything I was hearing.
I will never forget the first time I heard Paint Pastel Princess. I had no idea what it (or any other song on the album) was about (since I couldn't hear the words and knew *nothing* about the album), but I had gotten closer to the speakers to hear better (even though my stupid ex and his scummy friends would see me...) and was sitting on a bench nearby with my friend Em, who was saying something about this Smashing Pumpkins song we both like (she wasn't comparing the two bands btw), but when the song started, I stopped hearing her. All I could hear was this incredible, beautiful, heart-wrenching music. I literally started crying. I gave the album a 10 out of 10 based on the music alone and bought my own copy the very next day. We all know the lyrics are pretty incredible as well - they blew me away all over again. What an album.
How silverchair has helped me (May 1999)
Lots of people have been helped by silverchair's music - some have even decided not to commit suicide because something in the music hit home and gave them hope. While there *are* a few 'chair songs that have helped me deal with stuff, one song helped me in a different way. I had spent a long weekend visiting a friend who lives hundreds of miles away, and had just boarded the plane home. Needless to say, I had spent the whole weekend partying with her and her friends pretty much nonstop and had gotten about an hour's worth of sleep in nearly four days (no, I'm not kidding!). I was ready to collapse, and I would have liked to sleep for the entire flight, but I had to get off the plane at the first stopover. If I fell asleep, I would wind up halfway across the country, but I had to be in school at 7:30 a.m. the next day, so I had to stay awake. It would be a while before I could get a caffeine boost from the beverage cart, so I slipped Neon Ballroom into my Discman, cued up Spawn Again, and blasted it loudly (but not loudly enough to bother the person next to me) several times until I was sure I'd be wide awake when the plane landed. Yeah, it seems strange, but it really did help me - like I said, I *had* to stay awake, and as I'm sure you know, it's simply not possible to doze off with that song playing! Of course, I fell asleep when I got home and wound up sleeping from 5:30 pm until around noon the next day (wouldn't Daniel be proud? *lol*). And then on Tuesday, when certain classmates with nothing better to do asked where I had been, I just gave them a sleepy half-smile and said "Partied!" (Come on, admit you want to do that too! I know you do!)
Some TV Appearances (March - September 1999)
I've seen silverchair perform Anthem for the Year 2000 on Letterman, stayed up super-late to see their set-concluding performance of Freak at Atlanta's Rockfest on MTV, and of course I saw their appearance on TRL. I didn't get to see them on Rocks Off (I didn't know they'd be on and I was in class at the time anyway - *why* couldn't MTV show it after school?!), but I *did* catch them introducing a video on the Castaway Countdown when MTV went to the Bahamas for the summer:
Ben: Hi, I'm Ben.
(Daniel starts moving to the background music - not very much, though, you really have to pay attention.)
Chris: Hi, I'm Chris, and we're from silverchair, and the video I'd take with me to a desert island if I were going to be stuck there would be Walk This Way by Run-DMC and Aerosmith because it's kind of, like, fun and I guess it would be pretty boring stuck on an island. (Daniel inspects his fingernails.)
(Late 1999)
I don't know about you guys, but silverchair has popped up in some of my weirdest dreams. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not going to try and tell you about *every* *single* *one*, but I will tell you about one dream in particular that I have had more than once. In this dream, I'm sitting at a hair salon reception desk - just another day at work. Ben, having just had his hair perfectly spiked (the hairdresser used more stiff gel on him than I have ever used on myself - *lol*), has just left for a few minutes - with the hairdresser - to get some nachos (this area is full of Mexican takeouts). I'm just minding my own business, leafing through Rolling Stone and waiting for the phone to ring or *some*thing to happen, when Daniel comes in...and let's just say his hair looks really, really, *really* bad. As in, worse than usual. I tell him Ben will be back in a few...and then quietly lock the door, drag him to a sink, and somehow manage to get his hair clean. (Don't worry, kids, it was *only* a crazy dream, and in my crazy dream, he stopped struggling after realizing that I outweighed him.) That's the *weirdest* dream I've ever had. I don't know *why* I dreamed about, of all things, washing Daniel's greasy hair. (If you've had a similarly weird 'chair dream, please email me and tell me I'm not completely crazy.)
Anyway, here's the other one:
My garage band, having finally gotten out of the garage, is one of the support acts for a festival tour. We're in the catering tent, and it's like the grade-school cafeteria all over again, only with
musicians, and I'm wearing my tiara. Dexter and Noodles from The Offspring are at the next table, so my guy-crazy drummer tries to get Dexter's attention - by, of course, throwing French fries. Within seconds, Dexter, Noodles, and my mates are having an all-out food fight. Then Daniel and Ben walk up to get a better view of the insanity. I'm just sitting and watching, but when Noodles launches a huge, cheesy enchilada at the drummer, she ducks and it lands right on my tiara! Daniel cracks up, so I calmly stand
up, take off my enchilada-topped tiara, and put it on him, joking that rhinestones and cheese are a good look for him. Then everyone else cracks up.
The SPIN thing (January 2000)
I was at work, and it was an incredibly slow morning, so I reached for the new copy of SPIN. When I got to the readers' poll results, I just about choked on my bagel. Daniel Johns, Sex God of 1999? Beating out Trent Reznor (idol of alternakids everywhere) *and* Fred Durst (idol of screaming TRL viewers and just about everyone else)? It didn't make sense, until I remembered that most of my friends (all female, by the way) find him *very* attractive (one even said *she* wouldn't mind being the inspiration for a 'chair song!), as do quite a few screaming TRL viewers. Then (this is the weirdest thing), this scene suddenly flashed into my head (like a "psychic vision" or whatever you want to call it). I got a very clear image of Daniel coming downstairs (looking disheveled as usual and followed by his precious little Sweep), going into the kitchen, pouring himself a bowl of cereal, sitting at the table, reading about his new "title" in the newspaper, and just going straight back to bed - for the rest of the day. That was the end of the sequence. I don't know if it actually happened, although it *does* kind of make sense (at least to me)...
You can share your stories too. If you have been to a show, met silverchair, had any weird visions or dreams about silverchair, or have any fiction written and would like to tell your story to the rest of the world, please fill out the form below (remember, kids, fill it out *before* you click the button! I don't like getting empty forms in my inbox!). If you sent me your story prior to January 2000, please send it again. That hacker wiped out everything, and there were some darn good stories, too. *pouts like a spoiled kid*