What Emma Did Last Wednesday Night

Why, I went to see Silverchair, of course.

Long overdue is my blog entry on this, my apologies. Emma has been a sick girl, and also a busy one.

So! What made the concert so very very good? So many things. For a start, the fact that I actually got to go. Bless friends, really, bless 'em. And once more, just for fun.

Right, so I met up with Meg just before I finished work. I'd totally hijacked the stereo and was playing Young Modern very loudly for the last hour of my shift. (We can pretty much play whatever we want on our iPods at work. Which, of course, rocks.) I packed up the store, and then we went to get a beer and something to eat at the Lounge. Jamie joined us soon afterwards, and then we made our way up to the Metro. Now, I've only ever been there for slightly-dodgy nights out (a friend used to do promotions there, which meant we drank for free) and was pretty sceptical about how good it would be as a venue. It was actually awesome as you could see the stage from pretty much anywhere, including the three levels at the back.

We had a quick drink and I checked my bag, and then stood around for a while waiting for the support act. They were good! Actually good! The support act for Muse was so godawful that I thought I was scarred for life, but the support act (Dappled Cities Fly) were really great! The lead singer looked like David Tennant! The crowd gave them a lot of love, and they were all so excited. Great stuff.

About half an hour after they finished up, the lights dropped and everyone screamed.

The curtain at the back of the stage parted to reveal a massive set looking like the front cover of Young Modern, and then Silverchair came on stage. The whole place had erupted. We were probably standing about five-ish metres from the stage (about the same place I saw Muse from at the BDO, Q, if you're reading) and could see everything... They started off with Young Modern Station, and it was all so good...

From Young Modern Station (I called Age) they went into Low, which had everyone singing along. Then they played a couple of songs from Frogstomp, whose names I can't remember, and then Without You, and Insomnia and Mind Reader and Tuna in the Brine! Oh, I was so happy that they played Tuna in the Brine. It's such a brilliant song. (I called Q.) They had Paul Mac doing some of the orchestral stuff through his keyboard I guess (he was actually there the whole time) and another guy on piano. It sounded magnificent.

They also played Those Thieving Birds (Part 1)/Strange Behavior/Those Thieving Birds (Part 2.) And if you're not familiar with the song, that'll probably sound like a pretentious wank. It's not. (I called Jes.)Ah, so beautiful. Before they started, Daniel said 'We've only played this live like, twice in our lives... So here we go.' Gorgeous. Insert happy sigh here. They also played Reflections of a Sound, which was equally lovely.

What else? The Greatest View, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Luv Your Life, Waiting all Day, Straight Lines... Eeeee! So good! They also cut out the chorus to Freak, which of course had everyone screaming along. As if anyone under 30 doesn't know the chorus to Freak...

And Daniel talked quite a bit through the show, which was lovely. He kept saying 'Thank you, thank you all very much for coming...' And we sang happy birthday to Chris. Daniel was dressed in a red vest, with brown pants and a white scarf around his head. He looked a bit like a sexy pirate, especially as he kept doing this funny little swagger. Oh, he was so cute. I just wanted to pinch his cheeks. (The ones on his face, thank you very much...) And it was such a polite crowd. No smashing people to pieces in the mosh, no-one pushing and shoving at the cloak room after the show... Very good vibe.

The encore was If You Keep Losing Sleep (I called Jes again) and Lever. Mmmm. Lever. Ah! Was so good! The sound in the Metro was surprisingly brilliant, and every song made me squeesplode a little bit more... In the end they played for almost two hours!

Silverchair rocked. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.