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Within four years of their sludgy, bratty and bombastic debut, Frogstomp, Aussie trio Silverchair scaled the musical heights with Neon Ballroom. The bold, experimental album took these grunge acolytes into the stratosphere of rock, borrowing from Led Zeppelin as equally as they’d once borrowed from Nirvana. Fronted by the brutally honest Daniel Johns, Neon Ballroom explored animal rights, anorexia and rococo movements like no other teen band could.


Black tangled hearts                                                                                                               

The lads of Silverchair (Johns, bassist Chris Joannou and drummer Ben Gillies) were already light years ahead of their high-school brethren when they released Frogstomp in 1995. Its raw homage to the American grunge scene wowed many, due to their ages (all 15 at the time) and Johns’ nimble ax-shredding. Singles such as “Tomorrow” zoomed up the U.S. charts, solidifying Silverchair as international stars and pinups for girls’ lockers.

The next album, 1997’s Freak Show, added classical muscle to their repertoire (see “The Door” and “Cemetery”). But it wasn’t until 1999’s Neon Ballroom that Silverchair went all in on their love for a wider range of music. In fact, one of the record’s guest artists was pianist David Helfgott, subject of the Academy Award-winning 1996 film Shine. He contributed the swirling keys for album opener “Emotion Sickness.”

“David Helfgott seemed like the perfect guy— I just wanted a really manic, discordant piano part,” Johns told Triple J radio in 1999.

“… (I)t’s so lush; a lot of the strings are just so smooth and pretty and beautiful in parts. I wanted to have something which was unsettling, so the discordant, manic stuff was just David Helfgott's style, so it seemed to fit.”
 

Open fire

To some, the addition of the Helfgott was too fitting. His recorded schizoaffective disorder served as a terrifying mirror to the depression and anorexia from which Johns suffered.

“With the first two albums, because we were very young, when you are that age, and a male, it is kind of scary to open up too much because you've got to have this tough macho image, and you can't be too mellow,” he recalled in the Triple J interview. “… But with this album I just kind of wanted to be totally open and honest and get everything out.”

Johns brought listeners into the tumultuous strain of his eating disorder with the heartbreaking ballad “Ana’s Song (Open Fire).” Gillies’ drums would crash as the singer confessed his hurt: “Open fire, on the needs designed, on my knees for you,” he crooned, begging for respite. The equally pained music video dealt with extreme OCD and allowed the song to become an empathetic venue for anyone wrestling his or her own demons.

To counter the vulnerability, Silverchair then pummeled audiences with “Spawn Again,” a metallic tirade against human imperialism upon their fellow animals. Joannou’s death-rattle bass lurched like a bovine to the slaughter as Johns screamed in the name of veganism. (Though, he was quick to point out in interviews that he was not trying to convert any meat eaters, as even his band mates were omnivores.)
 

Teenage angst brigade

Though Silverchair noted they were “part of the teenage angst brigade” in the sweeping number “Miss You Love,” the threesome transcended the self-important pseudo-intelligence the college-aged can exude. Were the frequent strings and morose, detuned guitars pompous? Perhaps, but the pomposity was warranted. These were three gifted young gents that were more reverent of David Bowie and John Bonham than they were of Blink-182. (Oddly, Silverchair opened for Blink on tour in 1999. The performances were like night and day.)

The epic nature of Neon Ballroom bled into subsequent releases Diorama (2002) and Young Modern (2007), but neither of those touched the unfettered majesty of the 1999 beacon. There was something so scathing, so pure about those 12 songs, penned by a newly adult Johns. The album remains an unsung hero of alternative rock experimentalism.
 

Label: Epic Records
Release Date: March 8, 1999 (U.S.)