Well not really nuts and gum as per se, but something close enough I guess. Last Tuesday I had the good fortune to attend the Powderfinger and Sliverchair, aka the megalith amalgam known as Powderchair. I am a big fan of both bands, though I would probably prefer the Finger over the Chair most days of the week, so either way it is win - win for me... as long as Silverchair do not try to play stuff off the new album. I don't hate it but it does sound a little too weird for my post grunge leanings at times.
I conscripted my sister to go with me when the tickets first came out months ago, and as you would expect the tickets cost a fine mint here and there. Fortunately being the working class kinda guy that I am, I was easily able to afford the luxury of two $103 tickets plus booking fee. Considering that's what you pay for seeing a single act these days I reckon that was a sweet deal in anyone's language, unless you happen to buy tickets to Hinder by accident and end up hanging yourself the day they arrive in the post. I would personally supply the noose myself if you can't afford it. Hinder likers deserve nothing less. (More on that in a future post... put it on my to do list)
As the concert began around 7pm, I had to go extract my sister from uni around 6ish. Most people would be free from uni at that time, but not the students at RMIT, where classes can start at the crack of dawn and finish as the cows come home. A friend of mine there even had the odd weekend class which would have floored me if not for the fact I had already tripped into a gutter moments ago. People may complain about Melbourne Uni being a victim of their self wrecking device and over reliance on the brand name but at least we don't come home via the 9pm train along with the drunks, goths and emos, or even worse, drunk gothy emos.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Melbourne Central before heading off, but not before I got a bit too comfortable and let the entire food court know of my appreciation for their fine foods through the highly audible miracle of burping. Better out than in I suppose, even if it does put people off their dinner. When we got there it seemed like half the audience was standing in the foyer lining up to get a drink or buy merchandise, though we realised the support act was just doing the warmups. It all seemed like a silly idea at the time really. We didn't really hear all that much of Dan Kelly, but he is definitely one worth looking out for if you're after new music.
Silverchair started proceedings eventually with Young Modern Station, the opener off the latest record and went on to do a setlist of roughly half new and old material. The old stuff was what most of the audience was after, and their best off the really early material was excellent though the stuff off Diorama was beautiful to listen to, especially Luv Your Life and Without You. Strangely the new gear was very listenable and translated very well off the record. Listening to Young Modern I thought they might have trouble playing some of the synth laden tracks live but they have obviously done their homework and pulled it off admirably. At this point we're very much in danger of Marcia Hines popping out and uttering some random cliched words of encouragement but I think we can get rid of her for now. (that's right girlfriend, I really dug that)
When all that was over, Powderfinger finally emerged with Head Up In The Clouds from Dream Days. Their set was ready made for shows like this with the audience singing along for moments during My Happiness and Sunsets. I felt Bernard's voice wasn't at his sharpest at the early stages but he quickly warmed up after a few songs and before I knew it I didn't really notice it anymore. I Don't Remember played out really well being one of the better tracks off the new album. I ended up bootlegging it with my camera and I managed to keep my hand steady for most of it... I tried uploading it but the bloody file is 70mb large and my efforts to convert it in Quicktime resulted in the audio being cut out each time. Oh well, I'm sure someone has it on YouTube somewhere anyway.
At the end of it all, it was really hard to say who came out on top. Both bands were at their best when going through old material, and I felt Silverchair gave Powderfinger a good run for their money. All in all I'd say they were about break even in terms of quality. Silverchair was certainly a lot better than I expected them to be, giving an excellent show with both new and old tracks shining. Powderfinger was solid throughout but relied on a lot of their back catalogue.
Before I go, here is one of several videos I tried uploading. This one is the shortest of them all and is really just me seeing how video uploading works on Blogger. Lesson learned - upload big bastard video files using someone else's faster net access.