I was glad when I got to see one of my favorite bands, silverchair. What I didn't know is that I would be stuck in a mosh pit with 2 kinds
of people. The hormonal 12 year old girls only there to see Daniel,
the singer/guitarist, and the big, drunk 18-20 year old guys beating each other up. When I got to the place the concert was being held,
the New World Music Theatre in Tinley Park, Illinois, I had no idea we didn't have seats. My friend Lizzi and I found a place to stand,
about 10 heads back. silverchair came out, and began to play
"madman". Because we were stuck in a teeny weeny part of the New World, part of the parking lot, actually, and the fact we were only
about 10 feet from the stage and speakers, 'madman' pounded its way
into my ear drums. Thats when the moshing started.
For those of you who don't know, those who haven't seen one or
haven't experienced it first-hand, moshing is a group of crazy people
literally beating each other up to the beat of the music. I was
caught in between two six-foot tall twenty-somethings that were drunk
and high off of something. They knocked me back and fourth for the remainder of "madman", which was about a minute (a very long, painful
minute) untill they finally pushed me so hard I got right in front to
they teeny boppers. They were all fighting over who got to stand
straight in front of Daniel (who I admit, I like too, but I love the
music first and foremost). I got pushed so hard I was pushed through
the teenies to right in front of Daniel. That's when I got beaten up
by about 60 pre- pubescent 11 and 12 year old girls. I grabbed a
hold of the barrier to the stage so they couldn't throw me back into
the pit. KERPLOW!!! I got hit in the chest by a vicious teenie.
Plow!!! Again. That was the blow that made my front-hook bra come
undone. All of this happening while playing Freak. I didn't care
though, I was standing in front of silverchair, who I missed twice cos
I had to have knee surgery. By this time my knee majorly hurt. But
I didn't care, I was standing in front of silverchair. They teenies
proceeded to attempt to get me to move, but I didn't. I just kept
meeting eyes with Daniel. My heart was going about a thousand time
a second. I let loose of the barrier for a second, just to scratch
my back. That's when it happened. A team to two teenies grabbed a
hold of my short, white, soaked with the water security guards were
throwing at us cos it was so hot, tank top and lifted it off. I
ended up not only seeing Daniel, but he saw more of me than most guys.
His eyes almost bugged out of his head, while I was throughly
embarrassed. I got over it fast, thinking that I'll most likely
never see him again when it happened. Daniel jumped to the right of
the stage, so I turned to the right. Thats when a drunk guy was
pushed out of the mosh pit. He kneed me right in my broken knee cap.
I shuddered with pain and grabbed a hold of the barrier again.
Daniel must have seen what happened, on his way back where he was
standing originally, playing "Abuse Me". He looked at me like "are
you okay?" No, I wasn't. I stayed for the rest of the 40 minute set
holding on to the barrier and looking at Daniel (with new dread
locks), Ben (with a little Mohawk, he looked like skunk, in a good
way) and Chris (who looked normal). After silverchair finished
playing, I limped over and found Lizzi, who took me to first aid.
They loud-speakered to find my sister and her friend who had also
come, but stayed in back, to come to first-aid. My knee cap at this
time had swelled to the size of a grapefruit. The paramedics kept
saying I should go to the hospital, while I kept thinking "I missed
them twice of knee surgery, now that I saw them, I might end up
having another operation..." But I didn't go to the hospital cos my
dad's an orthopaedic surgeon. They said they had called my parents,
which it turned out they hadn't. I waited in first aid for 3 hrs.
Until my parents were reached and came to pick me up with my pink
and flowery crutches. I spent the entire weekend of crutches, scared
that I'd have to have another operation. That experience taught me
something. Don't get caught in a mosh pit. Especially a teeny
filled mosh pit. My sister hated the show, but I loved it. I love
silverchair, and I don't care I spent the weekend on crutches. They
performed most of my fave songs (like Freak, madman, No Association...), and I loved (almost) every minute of
it.
Another review of Rockstock by silvereyes1@hotmail.com
My bestfriend and I got to Tinley Park around 2. I held my breath as we
were checked becuse my mom had a camera hidden in her bag for me.
Luckily it wasn't found, so we ditched my mom and went to watch some of
the other bands. My fave on the main stage was Local H, after they were
done, Heather and I walked around, waiting for Veruca Salt. We wandered
over to the second stage to see what was going on when I saw Katie, who
I'd gone to my last silverchair show with in Milwaukee, and her friend
Kindra. They'd been standing by the gate, that was keeping us
unimportant people away from the bands, for a few hours watching the
band. I was mad I'd missed silverchair arriving, but I was also glad I
wasn't so pathetic that I'd missed all the other great bands to stand by
a gate. We decided to stay for a while, just to talk to Kate of course
(yeah, right), then Ben comes out to tune his drums. Veruca Salt was
soon forgotten. All the little teenies scream for him to come over,
including the little ten year old beside me with purple hair, who has
informed me she wants to marry Ben. I was a bit embarrassed, but I
stayed to observe. Every once in a while it looked like he might come
over, but he never did =( Then just as I was about to leave to find a
good place to stand, I see my friend Carrie on the other side of the
gate. I must have stood there a full minute with my mouth hanging open,
but finally I yelled for her to come talk to me. She had somehow talked
a security guard into letting her go back there. I was jealous, but at
least I'd get a full report. So we then left the gate to get a good
spot to see the 'chair. It was already pretty packed but we were able
to shove our way up to about six rows back in the center. silverchair
finally comes out, after being told by about a dozen other people to
move back, and they start with Madman. The pit goes wild. I'm not
exaggerating when I say it was the worst pit I'd ever been in. It
wasn't long before I couldn't stand up or even breathe. I needed to get
out, but I was enveloped with people with no escape route. I panicked a
little, but somehow Heather was able to pull me all the way up to the
front where we hung on to the barricade a bit to the left of Daniel. It
was the perfect place to see and you could still jump around with out
totally falling on your ass. I got a couple of pictures, but they
didn't really turn out, oh well. It was suffocatingly hot and security
kept pouring water over top of everyone. It felt good until this one
moron kept throwing it repeatedly into my face! I saw tons of people
carried out hurt and crying, and no one could get the crowd to calm
down. Daniel made it worse when he said "I don't see a solution for
this, so Jump Motherfuckers, Jump!" Everytime he said this it got a
little worse, but it rocked! Daniel said something about coming to kick
our asses, and about the 'motherfuckin' hood yall.' It wasn't until he
started a chorus of 'halleluiah' that I was a little concerned, it was
just too weird. He also said we needed to calm down because a lot of
people were getting hurt and that everyone was going to lose their jobs
because Americans like to sue, this got a big response from the crowd,
as did every word he uttered. Ben was shirtless and Daniel had on a
blue shirt, I couldn't see Chris. Daniel's dreads are awesome!
Here's the setlist:
Madman
Freak
Abuse Me
Pure Massacre
Tomorrow
No Association
The Door
Spawn (my fave!)
Israel's son
all in that order. It was over way too soon! Later Heather and I found
Katie, who had been taken to the first aide! It was still the best show
I'd ever been to!!!
