SILVERCHAIR, 'LIVE FREAK SHOW CONCERT' REVIEW: (HELD IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES, JUNE 22nd '97)
"Manila -- tastes like vanilla... I'm gunna haveta' kill her, if she tries to steal my pillow," were the superveniently spoken words which silverchair's lead guitarist and vocalist Daniel Johns left the crowd rendered with a great deal of silence (as well as disarray) by during last June 22nd's live Freakshow act held at a local university theater in Manila, Philippines. It was apt to have been the middle of the show at the time, and no one could quite make out just what he could have meant by such a line.
"That was a song called... MANILA, which I wrote about a girl I picked up along the streets for 15$," he further expounded soon afterwards. And once again, a sheer silence filled the venue. Rather bewildering, one might say. Appaling, even. Just a little pinch insolent, maybe?! Nevertheless, and as if it couldn't have mattered any less, a great and lush roar soon arose from the enthusiastic fans (that included myself), only proving for a fact that -- hoax or truth, humorous or degrading, meaningful or simply senseless.. just about ANYTHING that these three youthful Grunge Gods from Down Under would choose to say or do [especially after having made their way up onto the international bandwagon, all the way from their earlier 'Garage Band' years] would undoubtedly be considered anything remotely less than praise-worthy.
Under the general circumstances, (and from personal experience) it would probably be no brown-nosing exaggeration to say that it wouldn't in the slightest bit be surprising if even all the worldwide musical acts put together were blown to the moon by the `chair's walloping performance(s) alone. The band dominated the venue undeniably during the show, saturating the night with both their extraordinary pieces and rollicking riffs. Everything from their rousingly-aggressive tunes such as Slave (w/c conveniently commenced the show), Roses, Freak and No Association to the more well-known (and loved) tunes like Tomorrow, Pure Massacre, Suicidal Dream and Israel's Son rapidly rocked the hours away, so much so as to have gotten every single person in the crowd screaming and raving like some demonically-possessed victims of a sort.
Incontrovertibly, the genuine thrill to it all was remarkably carried out all the way up until the end of the show, by which Daniel relentlessly threw himself half-way over the surface of his closet-type amplifier (at the end of the closing piece, which happened to be ISRAEL's SON) and allowed a kilometrically-sustained, yet not-quite-aggitating hum to echo throughout the entire theater. Chaos filled the air, as everyone saught to assume just what would happen next. Ben and Chris had already left the scene by that time, but Dan (and his wailing PRS alone) remained undisturbed onstage.
A minute had gone by. Then two. And then nearing the third minute or so, he abruptly leaped off his resting area, picked up his guitar, hushed it up with a single downbeat, and walked away. The show was over with that, and these three supernally brilliant LEGENDS had then clearly and surely established their marks in the realms of the Philippine music industry.
Needless to say, it must have been *the* most memorably outrageous (and PRIVILEGED at that!) experience I've ever been faced with in all my life, and I could never even *begin* to come up with a suitable-enough word to describe it.
Awesome. Amazing. Prodigiuous. PHENOMENAL. -?! Not all of these words put all together could ever meet it's worth!
What can I say, after all?