Wayde Richardson
I was going to wait for it to be published, but wanted to share here… so here it is!
As soon as I heard these events were happening, I knew I had to go. Being an Adelaide native, this meant travel. Melbourne is my favourite city to travel, and also the cheapest to get to so it was an easy decision. As soon as tickets went on sale, I went online and bought one. I figured out my travel and accommodation later!
Once I arrived in Melbourne, and made my way to the CBD, I booked a rideshare enroute to St Kilda, where the Palais Theatre is located. I’d arrived early so I could have dinner first and then made my way to the venue. It was so beautiful to feel the electricity in the air already. So many people from all ages and walks of life converging in one place, with a mutual love for Daniel Johns and Silverchair.
As Melbourne was the last show, I'd heard whispers about the merch stand selling out and so once the doors opened I made a beeline to the merch stand to see what mementos I could get. I was a little disappointed they had no Mind Riot shirts but I did get a FutureNever shirt, a copy of the show program and the elusive “guitar pick” that I’d heard about. Basically if you hold the pick to your smart phone, it unlocked a Dropbox link with bonus tracks from Daniel’s FutureNever album. Standouts for me were a song called “Start to Heal” by Mind Riot (essentially a reworking of Israel’s Son, performed by Mind Riot, the fictitious band from the short film) and the Daniel’s Version of the Silverchair hit song Freak.
Once I had my merch, I made my way to my seat. I was early to sit and the theatre was fairly empty. It didn’t take long for that to change. Eventually it seemed to fill to capacity. I was thrilled to meet 3 fellow fans sitting on either side of me, and we all struck up conversation until the show began. While we waited we were treated to a soundtrack of Silverchair and Daniel Johns classics. The vibe in the room was incredible.
When the show began we were greeted by the iconic Australian legend Dylan Lewis who we’d already learned was the host of the event. He was his usual jovial self, full of love and energy that was infectious. He conducted the usual introduction, outlining what to expect and the rudimentary housekeeping, which included a very strict “No filming” policy. Once this concluded it was time to introduce and welcome the man of the hour, Daniel Johns.
It was all love when he entered and he took his seat on stage. They were seated on a couch in a loungeroom type setting, which I found reminiscent of the 90’s TV Show Recovery. Dan was noticeably more comfortable based on previous show reviews, which was great to see. He seemed genuinely very happy to be on stage in a room full of fans.
After a little bit of banter and chit chat, we were treated to the first of a few early demos. It was a song Daniel had recorded in his family home whilst the family slept, on his 4 track recorder, called All The Time In The World. In my humble opinion, it had Cemetery vibes, and was quite dark and haunting. When asked why this song didn’t make it onto Neon Ballroom, Daniel replied “I forgot about it”.
The second demo we were treated to was an excerpt of Waiting All Day, a song which formed part of Silverchair’s final album Young Modern. It wasn’t too different to the released version, other than being a little more raw and unpolished.
Dylan asked Dan at this point about his songwriting process. Daniel replied he’d usually grab the nearest instrument and attempt to repeat what he could hear in his imagination. There was also a mention of Daniel having said at one stage that Diorama, The Dissociatives and Young Modern forming a trilogy however there was no clear answer to the validity of this.
We were introduced to Julian Hamilton (The Presets) who had joined the Silverchair touring band on keyboards. Julian featured on the Waiting All Day demo and the Straight Lines demo we were about to hear.
They discussed a little about the genesis of Straight Lines before sharing the early demo. This demo was probably a highlight for me. Dylan mentioned this was the only of the 4 shows that they played it (as each show was promoted as being a unique experience, with various guests and demos shared). The song was predominantly just Daniel singing and Julian on the keys, until a big synth bass hit. Although only a demo, it was beautiful and anthemic. This was further highlighted by the entire audience clapping in time with the song, which ended in a standing ovation. It was magical.
What followed next was two hilarious quotes from Dylan Lewis. The first was in the form of a question, asked Daniel if hearing the demo “make you feel a thing, or is it like tickling yourself?”. He then followed that up by saying it gave him “Goosebumps on his dick”. Suffice to say, laughter erupted in the room.
The final demo we were treated to was referred to as a future Demo, because it was unheard and unreleased. It was called Can’t Stop Loving You. Daniel said he felt it had E.L.O. vibes. Composed primarily of some heavy bass and Daniels vocals, it was yet another example of the beauty in Daniel’s songwriting.
At this point Dylan asked Daniel how it felt to be in front of a crowd of fans again to which he replied “It’s been beautiful” before bursting into tears.
We were then introduced to Adam “Van Damme” Alexander, who was the sound designer for Daniel’s short film What If The Future Never Happened?. He spoke a bit about when he first met Daniel, and described the brief Dan had given him for the film which was “Needs to be visceral and authentic”. He then went on to say that Daniel “writes melodies that tell stories”.
Dan was asked what made the film so special (to him) and his first response was “oh shit”. On further reflection he cited Rasmus King as being the reason. Rasmus played a “young Daniel” in the film. He went on to describe Rasmus as being “So Meta” after he calmed Daniel on set, where he said he’d be close to a nervous breakdown.
By this time the show had run approximately 2 hours and now it was time for the short film What If The Future Never Happened?”.
I found it to be a great film, which highlighted some pretty heavy subject matter such as bullying and trademarks of “boys’ in the nineties. This was highlighted in a quote where Dan asks Rasmus why he does music to which he replied “Music helps me with feelings and shit”. Dan replies “The world doesn’t like boys with feelings”.
After the credits rolled, we were treated to a well produced filmclip for the band Mind Riot, with their song Start to Heal.
Overall the night was memorable and absolutely beautiful. As a fan of both Daniel and Silverchair, I can only hope this may be a stepping stone to Daniel performing live again, or at minimum, more music and special events like this one.
neonballroom1
They brought out Julian Hamilton and he talked about him and Dan’s writing process for straight lines which was pretty cool. He also talked a bit about the day he auditioned for silverchair and saw Ben and Dan trying to make each other laugh behind the drums or something. The demos were for waiting all day, all the time in the world, straight lines, could be loving you (written after Futurenever I think). During straight lines Dan got the crowd to stand up and everyone was clapping! Bit of a brief summary, but yeah