Bush

Nineties heavy hitters Bush came to the Wiltern in LA last weekend and it was like a time machine back to 1995.  Twenty years ago seemed like now. It felt like everyone in attendance had reached back in their closet for their favorite long-forgotten flannel and tied it around their waist.  And the band sounded fantastic, just like you wanted them to sound when you first heard “Glycerine” on MTV. 

The opening band was The Dead Deads, a 5-piece young female rock band with X’s painted over their eyes, playing a harder edged rock and roll than modern youth have grown accustomed to in the modern pop age.  I did see a couple of young concertgoers with X’s painted over their eyes. Their followers are known as “dead corps. “ They put on a high-energy show with adequate musical talents.  I can see how they have huge appeal to any young lady that prefers music with a harder sound.  They were also very hands on with their fans, offering pictures and meet and greets at the merchandise booth, where they were much friendlier than their name and stage presence would have suggested.  I look forward to seeing how their talent and careers advance in the coming years.

Bush blasted on the stage with “Everything Zen” just like they blasted on the rock scene in the mid nineties.  It was a predictable opener, but who doesn’t like the comfort of feeling right.  Despite having a sound that clearly sounds like nineties rock, Bush is able to also sound distinct, and as they played through some of their less popular tracks from their later albums there was always a recognizable rocking energy and the crowd was still high on nostalgia enjoying the familiarity of the sounds.  “Sixteen Stone” was Bush’s first and most popular album with five songs receiving heavy airplay, and with the exception of the show opener they kept you waiting for them.  But they had pretty solid success with their second and third album and sprinkled in “Chemicals Between Us”, “Greedy Fly” and “Swallowed” in at a relatively even pace to keep the crowds attention and keep them on their toes.  They closed the standard set with “Little Things” and frontman Gavin Rossdale ran off the stage, up the middle of the venue out the back doors of the floor and re-emerged on the balcony.  It was a great piece of showmanship and a good bit of fun for everyone not on the floor. 

While cheering for the encores to start I paused for a minute to think they should have played a cover song. Then the band retook the stage and went into “Machinehead”. There was very little doubt among the audience of what songs remained, with their three most popular songs yet to be performed.  Then the band went into the opening notes of a song that was definitely not their own: REM’s “The One I Love”, which fixed the one thing missing from their show.  The band left Gavin Rossdale alone on stage for “Glycerine” which is a nineties sing-a-long anthem if their ever was one.  The crowd obliged. For for the second verse of the song Rossdale didn’t even strum his guitar, it was just he and the audience singing a cappella, pretty cool.  They closed with “Come Down”, and everyone was having enough fun they did not want to come down from the cloud of nostalgia and rock and roll this concert provided. 

Set list

        Everything Zen  

        Just Like My Other Sins    

        The Chemicals Between Us  

        The Disease of the Dancing Cats  

        The Sound of Winter  
        Greedy Fly 
        Earth Keeps Burning  

        Monkey  

        The People That We Love  

        Swallowed  

        Lost in You
        The Only Way Out  

        This House Is on Fire
        Little Things
    Encore:  

        Machinehead
        The One I Love  *REM cover
        Glycerine
        Comedown