Freak Show (album) - Trivia

Trivia

• The CD release of Freak Show is an Enhanced CD that includes interactive CD-ROM media from the making of the album. The material found on the Enhanced CD is accessed when placing the disc into the CD-ROM drive of a computer.
• Many Freak Show songs such as "Slave", "Freak", "No Association", and "Nobody Came" were performed live two years prior to their release on the album.
• Several of the songs also had different titles prior to the album's release. These include: "Cat and Mouse" ("The Closing"), "The Proxy Song" ("The Door"), and "Punk Song #1" ("Lie to Me"). A song entitled "Punk Song #2" was recorded but not renamed; it later appeared on the "Freak" single. "Punk Song #3" ("Satin Sheets") was originally recorded for Freak Show, but was omitted from the album and included on Neon Ballroom instead.
• The release of Freak Show was originally slated for the autumn of 1996; it was later pushed back to avoid competition from Pearl Jam's No Code.
• Although Freak Show was shelved until February 1997 for the general public, European and Australian promotional pressings were officially circulated throughout the music press in late October/early November 1996.
• Frontman Daniel Johns described the album's title in 1997 by comparing the on-the-road life of Silverchair to that of a traveling carnival.
• Johns also stated that some of the lyrics were toned-down for release on Freak Show. Although, the majority of the songs found on the album still retain dark and morbid themes that include disease, drug abuse, and suicide.
• An unreleased song entitled "Slime" was recorded during the Freak Show sessions, but has yet to see release of any kind.
• The existence of "Slime" can originally be traced back to the 1996 late October/early November European press release where it is listed amongst the rest of the Freak Show track listing. The song was described in the press release as "similar to 'No Association'" but "more melodic". Thematically-speaking, it was described as the "linchpin" of the entire album.
• In 2007, Johns referred to Freak Show as "some kind of dark" "skeleton" in the band's "closet"
• The album was available in Great Britain pressed on yellow vinyl and limited to 3,000 copies worldwide.
• A demo version of "Freak" is featured in trailers for the 1995 space combat film Screamers. This is one of the aforementioned Freak Show songs that Silverchair debuted live as early as January 1995.
• "No Association" is featured in Blackrock.