Electric Chair

It said here that Silverchair had a devoted, thriving fan base, despite limited touring and declining radio play in America. But I had no idea that Saturday night’s Fillmore at the TLA crowd would be that into it. Several minutes before the band took the stage, chants of “Sil-Ver-Chair, Sil-Ver-Chair” drowned out the house music, and the sold-out crowd roared when the Australian trio took the stage.

It didn’t take the band long to match the crowd’s intensity, as it ripped through the first half of its set in a blink. The intro to the fourth number, “Ana’s Song,” stopped when the crowd was screaming too loudly for frontman Daniel Johns' vocals to be heard. The singer, who had previously told the fans that his throat was bothering him and he would need their help, smiled warmly.

But what Johns might have lacked in vocal power, he and the rest of the band made up for with passion and showmanship. They wore shirts thrown onto the stage by fans, climbed atop keyboards, pumped their fists and clapped for the crowd, and even joked about drunken koalas. They deftly blended their new songs off of Young Modern with past hits like “The Greatest View” and “Freak,” and the crowd never let up. They sung their hearts out, flicked lighters (or, more commonly, camera phones), and affirmed what a great rock town Philly is. Good on ya, mates.

Set list:
Young Modern Station
Man Who Knew Too Much
Reflections Of A Sound
Ana's Song
Straight Lines
Insomnia
Low
The Greatest View
Mind Reader
Emotion Sickness
The Door
The Lever

Encore:
If You Keep Losing Sleep
Freak

Photo by Flickr user punkassphotos