I was lucky enough to get tickets to Acoustic Christmas and all I can say
about Bush is "WOW!". For the most part, their set was rockin and they gave
an awesome performance. This was the third Bush show I've seen, and this
definitely ranks up there as one of the best shows they've put on. My seats
totally sucked though. We were on the top level of the Pond and had to use
binoculars to see the stage really well. It was worth it though. I got
there late, so thankfully I missed Powerman 5000. The whole concert in
general was really strange. The crowd just seemed SO dead to me. Normally
when I go to a concert, people are totally rocking, but last night was just
DEAD. Anyways, Bush was the headliner for the night (Thank God!) and
seriously they were the only band there the whole night that put on an
honest-to-goodness awesome set. I felt bad though because they had to go on
after Blink 182, and everyone was there for Blink. Honestly, BLINK SUCKED!
They were entertaining and all, but their set was horrible. And everyone
LOVED it! I seriously couldn't believe what I was seeing. People were
totally dancing and jumping and going crazy. At the time this made me
pretty happy cause I thought that it would be even rowdier when Bush came
on. Boy was I wrong. As soon as Blink left the stage, about 30% of the
arena left! I could not believe it! People were leaving without even
giving Bush a chance!! I was soooooooooo pissed. Anyways, Jed the Fish
introduced Bush by saying "I love the Bush", and he even introduced Sacha as
the newest member of Bush!:) Anyways, the guys came out playing Everything
Zen and they totally rocked the house (what was left of it). Then they
launched into Chemicals and during the ending guitar solo, Gavin decided he
would stir up the crowd and just jump in. He took off running up the stairs
of the first section of seats, then went running down one of the rows and
then went back onto the floor section where everyone was sitting. He was
CRAZY. He still had his guitar on and was just getting clobbered. Anyways,
he got back up on stage just in time for the "there is no lonlier.." part.
While Gavin was gone, Nigel, Dave and Robin totally rocked. Nigel did this
awesome solo. It was great! I think it lasted a good two minutes, maybe
more. Nigel is such an underrated guitar player. Then they played
Machinehead (where he did the "I've seen the best minds of my generation..."
part) and Swallowed. Both sounded awesome! After Swallowed, they broke
into Letting the Cables Sleep. Gavin introduced the song as a song about
communicating and how we don't speak enough and how "without words we're all
fucked". I almost cried during this song--and that is SO not me. Gavin
sang so beautifully. It is the most awesome song to be seen played live. I
LOVED it. After Cables, they played Greedy Fly, which was great, and then
they played Comedown, which Gavin started by saying "I don't wanna come back
down from this cloud, BABAY!". At the end, they launched into the guitar
part of Comedown that was used in the version of Comedown where it's just
Gavin and Nigel playing, which was kinda different. They closed with
Everything Zen, which was amazing. Gavin did the "I was born in this town,
lived here my whole life... putting out the fire with kerosene" part and
then they played the "Stone cold deeeeeeeaaaaaaaad" part. Right before Zen,
Gavin sounded kinda pissed off, and he said "Merry Christmas--you fuckers!".
There was also this other part after they played Comedown where it sounded
like he was saying "fuck you fuck you fuck you very much" (I think that's
what he was saying). I totally don't blame him. The crowd sucked so bad.
The guys played the most awesome set of all the people there, and no one
even appreciated it. It was like, oh, let's sit here and listen to crappy
old Blink and leave right before the best band plays. Seriously, the guys
are such pros at what they do. Me and my boyfriend were blown away by how
well they played last night. I've seen them in concert twice before this
and this show was probably the cleanest I've heard. Gavin's singing and
guitar playing has gotten so much better and Nigel, Robin and Dave just
rocked!! The whole show was just really immature to me. All this stupid
sex talk about tits and "doing your mom" from Blink--which people stay and
watched. Then when a classy, rockin band like Bush comes out and plays like
a true rock band, everyone leaves. I don't get it. I can't wait till next
year when they go on their own tour and we can see who the true Bush fans
really are. I know that there's way more fans around than who stayed to
watch them last night. I noticed last night that Nigel was doing a lot more
backup vocals than he used to, and I think the addition of Sacha to the band
is a great idea. He gives the songs such a new sound, and I think that's
good for the guys right now. I was pretty disappointed that they didn't
play hardly any songs from TSOT, but I guess they're saving those for their
own tour. Anyways, I loved the show for the most part. Tori Amos was
amazing, and so was Beck and 311(surprisingly). I am so glad that I got the
chance to see the guys twice this year! 1999 rocked my Bushy little world!
*Jennifer*
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