Across The Great Divide

Last night, Melissa and I went along to Rod Laver Arena for the Across The Great Divide gig, and tour of both Silverchair and Powderfinger, all around Australia. Having bagged out gigs at the tennis centre for the lack of view and poor sound up in the seats, I demanded floor tickets if I was to go, and that’s what Lissy got – and they were great!

Making our way down to the floor after a drink, we found a posse where we could most avoid tall people, and got ready for the much anticipated show.

Silverchair up first, and a ripped Daniel Johns and his band gave it their all on stage. Sadly, while Johns’ musical performance was brilliant, he just struggled to engage the crowd, with no chatter for at least the first four songs. Clearly hadn’t learnt too much from that performance down at Pyramid, at one point working hard at gaining crowd participation he reach a chorus and called out “hopefully you don’t need help with this one”, hoping for a crowd singalong….which was met with a sold out stadium that simply did not know the words! Very bewildering, really, considering how long this great Aussie band has been around.

Johns pulled out all the tricks, except his ability to engage with his audience, he played his guitar with his teeth at one point….. Pulling out the huge numbers at the end of their set, Silverchair finally got the crowd reaction much desired, with Straight Lines and Freak, to finish.

A short interval, before the boys from Brisbane come on stage, with Bernard sporting a new haircut. Opening with the first track of Dream Days At The Hotel Existence, they rocked from go to whoa! Massive numbers like My Happiness, On My Mind, Lost and Running, These Days received a stadium chorus, and so did many of their other unreleased tunes. A haunting Black Tears solo by Bernard was amazing, showing the range of his voice, showed us where this tour’s message lay.

Beaches by the three acoustic guitars of the band started the encore for Powderfinger, again showing off their talents, before coming back out with Silverchair for a combined rendition of The Who’s Substitute.

Such a great gig!

The tour’s message is about reconciliation, and left us with a clip of people talking about their views on the need to say sorry, and the plight of the aboriginal people. Take a Chair, Lift a Finger, was that lasting note of the evening.