Bush
April 24, 1997
The Rosemont Horizon
Rosemont, IL
A Review by Marty McSnegg
I walked up to the Horizon expecting to see a mixed crowd of teenagers and young adults, but I was assaulted by a view of purely pubescent throngs. I felt really old until I finally caught sight of the Dude on the Right - I always feel young around him. Anyway, after a few comments with him I departed for my seat before the concert began. All the while I was sitting there I kept thinking that the possibilities of statutory rape did not look good to me so I kept my eyes from focusing on any particular person. Luckily for me the lights went down quickly and Veruca Salt hit the stage, but I'll get to them later.
Bush was the headliner, and when 9 o'clock came around the band strolled on stage and the crowd of hormonal females immediately began to wail for Gavin Rossdale, Bush's lead singer, and Gavin played those young girls well, so well in fact that it almost made me sick how he would strut across the stage to the platforms set up just so he could get more screams. This is nothing against Bush, I just think Gavin, whether intentionally or not, played it up too much.
Anyway, the boys of Bush came out of the blocks racing with two songs from "Razorblade Suitcase," including their first single from that CD called "Swallowed." Now, I admit that I have both "Razorblade Suitcase" and "Sixteen Stone" at home, and this night the band had a very tight sound that was true to their releases, all except for the fact that they tended to extend almost every song ending so that Gavin could throw a palsy-like fit that would set the girls in the crowd screeching so loud that my eardrums nearly burst. The endings were cool, but I could really do without the hearing loss.
Over the course of the concert Bush played all of its big hits from both CD's including "Machinehead," "Comedown," "Everything Zen," and a fantastic solo performance of "Glycerine" by Gavin. While the night held a couple of surprises for the crowd, the band got one as well.
As the intro to "Cold Contagious" started, Gavin's microphone fizzled and needed to be replaced. Rather than stop playing, the band just kept jammin' an extended intro while doing a very good cover-up for the road crew so that they could wire up a new mic. I was impressed the band didn't bail, but I guess that's why they get paid the big bucks.
Now maybe the band was surprised at the technical problem, but the surprise for me came when the band covered the Rolling Stones classic, "Wild Horses." The young crowd didn't seem to recognize it, but I grew up with my brothers and sisters listening to the Stones and this was always one of my favorites. Personally I found it a little strange, Bush covering a Stones song, but overall it was a treat.
The night was starting to come to a close, the band left the stage, and after an insufferably long break before the encore (about 7 minutes), Bush finally returned to a deafening high-pitched scream. Three songs later, including the songs "Swallowed" and "Little Things," the show was done.
I thought the entire show was good by most standards, but was a little disappointed that the rest of the band, that is all except Gavin, showed little enthusiasm throughout the entire show. Gavin though, had this amazing talent of showing tons of enthusiasm while still maintaining his brooding character that could just provoke depression in the teenagers. I don't know if that's too difficult, though, the depression part, because wasn't it Bart Simpson who said "Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel?" Me, I just wanted to walk up to Gavin and tell him to turn his frown upside-down - life's not that bad.
Well, Bush played around 18 songs and kept the crowd screaming and moshing for nearly two hours. Overall I give Bush TWO THUMBS UP for keeping the crowd happy, but I would really like to see more excitement from the rest of the band rather than it just being the "Gavin" show. They've got the talent, let them showcase it.
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