The alternative rock band Bush has been around for a while to say the least. And even after 33 years, they’re still bringing their unique sound to all corners of the world, and landed in Kitchener on May 3rd during their “Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour” at the Kitchener Auditorium with supper from Filter and Rival Sons.
As the Aud began to fill with fans of all ages, Ohio rock band Filter took to the stage. The four piece has an interesting origin story, as Filter came to be when frontman Richard Patrick decided to start his own band after leaving as a touring guitarist for Nine Inch Nails. With the help of bandmates Brian Liesegang (guitar), Bobby Miller (bass), and Tosh Peterson (drums), Filter’s performance shone as brightly as the flashing lights they used throughout their set. Patrick’s vocals alternated between clear and crisp to gritty and distorted while Liesegang brought some sweeping solos with that classic rock tone that everyone knows and loves. Miller and Peterson made everything heavy and gritty with the addition of the heavy bass lines and fast drum fills. They performed the song that, as Patrtick put it, “put them on the map”, entitled Hey Man Nice Shot. The song began with some heavy bass from Miller and some cleans from Patrick. It slowly started to grow in energy and culminated in a huge drum solo by the end of the song. A cheering crowd marked the end of Filter’s set, leaving the crowd ready for the next two bands.
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Next to the stage was Rival Sons, a rock band from Long Beach, California. The four piece band consisted of Jay Buchanan (lead vocals), Scott Holiday (guitar), Dave Beste (bass guitar) and Michael Miley (drums) and together, they brought a unique energy to the stage. Everything about their set screamed classic rock with a little bit of country influence. Everything from the band’s outfits to the tones on Holiday’s guitar brought the energy of the cowboys in the southwest all the way to the true north. Buchanan’s vocal range was out of this world, hitting highs and lows while still maintaining perfect pitch and adding just the right amount of vocal grit. At one point, the frontman got the crowd to sing along with him during some songs, and just after the crowd’s collective voice sang, Buchanan brought out some of those impressively long high notes, and then thanked the crowd for coming early and spending their time on live music. The rest of Rival Sons’ set was filled out with that distinctive southwestern rock sound, with fun, bendy riffs from Holiday and the steady rhythmic beats from Miley and Beste that truly made everyone in the crowd feel like cowboys ready to take on the southwest.
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Finally, at 9:00pm on the dot, it was time for Bush to take to the stage. The set started off with a low droning sound, and as fans waited in anticipation, drummer Nik Hughes crept up from behind his drum kit. After hitting the kit a couple times, the lights dimmed and rest of the band took their places on the stage and jumped right into their first song of the night, Everything Zen. From there, the energy of the Aud reached a level it hadn’t yet that night. Crowd members in the seats stood up to watch the show while people on the floor jumped around and danced. Vocalist Gavin Rossdale brought the crowd’s energy up with his power chords, raw vocals and constant movement. Couple that with riffs from Chris Traynor and heavy bass from Corey Britz, and you have a recipe for an amazing show.
Bush continued their set with an explosive performance of Machinehead. And if you were at the barricade during Bullet Holes, your night would become extra special when Rossdale jumped towards the crowd and sang directly to them, holding hands with some of the fans and singing to others.
The rest of their set only got better from that point on, with performances of songs such as The Chemicals Between Us, Quicksand and Greedy Fly. At one point, Rossdale held his drink in hand and made a toast to the crowd, thanking everyone for coming to their shows all around Canada. From there, they alerted the crowd that they would be playing a new song, and Rossdale told them to “give it a shot” before playing the intro to 60 Ways To Forget People.
Following 60 Ways To Forget People, Traynor, Britz and Hughes would leave the stage, leaving Rossdale alone on the stage to sing the next song of the setlist, Swallowed. During the solo performance, the atmosphere of the Aud mellowed out during the slower, more emotional song. Some fans got on the shoulders of others to sing the song at the top of their lungs. But the softness of Swallowed only lasted as long as it did, because the song that followed was everything but soft. Heavy Is The Ocean began with a gritty and heavy bass line, followed by some gritty guitars and some energetic and powerful vocals. During their next song, Flowers on a Grave, Rossdale jumped down from the stage and went around the arena, greeting and singing to the fans both in the pit and in the seats. Everyone had their phones out to capture the moment. After Rossdale’s tour of the crowd during Flowers on a Grave, Bush closed out their set with Little Things, a single from their debut album, Sixteen Stone.
After a lot of cheering and chanting from the crowd, Bush returned to the stage for their encore, beginning with More Than Machines, which was one of two songs played that night from their 2022 album, The Art Of Survival. Though it was getting late, no one in that crowd was lacking in liveliness, and would carry that vigor all the way to the end of the set. Following More Than Machines was a cover of The Beatles’ Come Together. Afterwards, Rossdale would take on another solo, this time performing the ethereal and mythical song titled Glycerine. Even from side stage, the light show was nothing short of spectacular and Rossdale hit every note perfectly. Finally came their last song of the night, which welcomed back the rest of the band as an excited Canadian crowd shouted along to every word of Comedown. After a vivacious performance filled with dancing, joy and riffs that would make any listener want to jump, a long drum and guitar outro marked the end of Bush’s concert, leaving hearts filled and energetic.
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