Occupied with an enormous circus tent, the Claremont Oval filled with a sold out crowd pressed shoulder to shoulder beneath the canvas roof, treading the grass beneath into a muddy pulp. Perhaps not quite as elaborate as other circuses in town, the crowd that gathered awaited two of Australia’s greatest and most successful bands, Silverchair and Powderfinger. Playing back-to-back, the energy in the atmosphere rivalled the main arena at Big Day Out, however the stage itself was more characteristic of the featured bands. Featuring a full, thick red curtain in the theme of Powderfinger’s latest release, the audience had to wait through an impressive support act, who surely were pleased to receive the support for this leg of the Across the Great Divide tour.

Sydney four-piece Expatriate satisfied the waiting audience with a very charismatic and musically colourful performance. Vocalist Ben King sounded almost too much like Bono to come from Australia, but they are indeed from our soil. This isn’t a bad thing, of course; let’s face it: Bono is a great singer. Collectively, the band had a sound that was familiar to Coldplay, but never unoriginal. It seems the crowd was content.

It was a guessing game to some to see which of the headliners would open, though with this lineup, you can’t really go wrong either way. Nonetheless, it was Silverchair to race out on stage, Daniel Johns sporting a lovely green jacket and a tight pink waistcoat. For this performance, it wasn’t just the original trio. Joined by Johns’ Dissociatives collaborator Paul Mac on piano, and another keyboardist, all five rocked hard, Johns rocking the crowd the hardest.

Opening with a less popular song off their latest, and le’ts face it: underwhelming release (which received an obligatory J Award nomination), they followed up with the more familiar Israel’s Son, which had the shoulder to shoulder local audience breaking into the infamous mosh pit sweat.

Silverchair’s set featured many of their classics, Emotion Sickness still alive with the raw, hypnotic emotion Johns poured into it when first released in 1999. Perth happened to be the lucky city on this tour to celebrate the birthday of bassist Chris Joannou, with which Johns pleasantly encouraged the audience to join him in the Marilyn Monroe style “Happy Birthday Mr President” sing-along to the much appreciated bassist – Johns’ managing an impersonation of Miss Monroe perhaps too well…

The trio (with Paul Mac and the other unknown keyboardist coming and leaving the stage for different songs) seemed very thankful of the audience, and why wouldn’t they when everyone joined with Johns as he demanded so with his crowd pumping between song banter. Asking “Do you like to walk?”, an unknown reply returned before Johns replied, “good, because we’re going to take a stroll down memory lane,” introducing an entourage of old classics.

Highlights included Anna’s song (Open Fire), The Door, and of course the latest single Straight Lines, which fortunately proved to be a bit more entertaining than the otherwise bland recorded version. Closing with the explosive Freak of which half was sung in a screaming falsetto that wouldn’t have been out of place as an overdub in a 1940s horror flick.

When it came time for Powderfinger, the stage grew very dark, before a wall-to-wall LED screen produced a digital clock counting down a minute to their performance. Instead of suddenly running on to the stage, the band waited until the screen filled with the most alarming red, every object on stage forming a perfect black silhouette, making the band’s entrance all the more dramatic.

The lighting show that came with the band was overwhelming, and awesome, captivating every person beneath the circus-tent roof, their appreciation reflected in an almost deafening cheer. As the band produced current single Lost and Running, the screen behind them featured animations of a headless business man running endlessly. Vocalist Bernard Fanning just stepped back for these choruses as the volume from the crowd equally rivalled the hard-driven PA.

It is hard not to compare the two Aussie rock bands when they play side by side, and next to Silverchair, Powderfinger just seemed less engaged with the audience. Fanning didn’t speak much to the audience, and although singing flawlessly he seemed almost uninterested. That’s not to say that he didn’t have the crowd in the palm of his hand. If anything, Powderfinger seemed more mature than the outrageous rock qualities of the ‘Chair.

In the same way as Silverchair, songs off their latest album Dream Days at the Hotel Existence, didn’t seem to engage with the crowd as much as the old favourites such as My Happiness, and Got You On My Mind.

At one moment, quite unexpectedly, the screen behind the band filled with live feeds from pen cameras mounted at random places on the stage, bringing the band into close view, the song ending with a jam between new keyboardist Benmont Tench and drummer Jon Coghill whilst Fanning made his way to a secret side stage for a solo beneath a simple spotlight.

When time for the encore came, the cheer from the crowd was quite literally deafening. Fanning and his two guitarists, Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, proceeded to make their way to another secret stage at the other side of the main stage, for an acoustic rendition of Sunsets, a song of which the lyrics only apply to us here on the west coast. Ending with a lovely a cappella, the three then joined their band mates on the main stage for a Rolling Stones jam, closing the night thankfully.

With a subtle political twist, the performance ended with a video from reconcile.org.au, for racial reconciliation in Australia.