“Bush” Opens Nine Musical Nights At Oregon’s State Fair
Photographs by Corinne D. Sullivan
Salem, OR—Friday, 25 August, 2023: Emerging fresh tonight, the rock band Bush had the opening night of nine days of music scheduled during the Oregon State Fair, inside the sky-filled L. B. Day Amphitheater and courtesy of Umpqua Bank. Bush was perfect for both young and old Oregonians. Anyone who bought a ticket to the State Fair was welcome. Another four thousand dedicated Bush fans who bought premiere seating were in attendance.
Pristine can be fine. Gleaming and showing any vivacity vicious bass chords can give, fifteen-plus heart-delivered songs were rendered. Dazzling songs, in fact. Well entendu’ed, they were filled with unrestrictive collaborations, minute by minute, by Bush’s line-up today: Corey Britz (bass), Nik Hughes (drums), Chris Traynor (guitar) and Gavin Rossdale (lead vocals/guitar).
The show featured superior sound and light effects. I particularly enjoyed a blue-lit atmosphere for Rossdale’s songwriting masterpiece for human rights, “Heavy Is The Ocean,” from Bush‘s 2022 studio album The Art Of Survival. The entire night was dancing color and music alongside the band’s moves on stage, culminating in that senses-smothered atmosphere which oh so kisses well grunge-era fanatics.
Bush has survived three decades under massive public scrutiny. And sparkling new, tonight, they launched onto the stage—from a beginning, instead of resting some place in the middle. I can’t say enough tonight about Rossdale’s vocals while, in actual fact, people all stood staring in shocked silence as the night sky ceiling of air expanded and contracted.
I was a 15-year-old Oregonian when first I heard “Everything Zen.” Bush had emerged to scathing comparisons in a fairly over-marketed alternative music genre. With lots and lots of fights amongst executives everywhere, and all beyond his reach, stoic yet steadfast frontman Rossdale seemed easy enough to take the barrage of label marketing campaign wars in stride.
By 2014, Rolling Stone magazine saw their light and named Bush’s 1994 six-times-certified-platinum debut album Sixteen Stone one of the topmost important alternative albums in history.
This evening in Oregon, 2023, frontman Gavin Rossdale threw feisty fire from his eyes, still. Rossdale drew from various albums in the Bush treasury, including The Art of Survival’s lead single, “More Than Machines,” and the same album’s “All Things Must Change,” which was introduced by Rossdale stating to the crowd, “We wrote a song about forgiveness. Forgive yourself.”
Youths and adulthood pumped their shoulders and rocked their fists. Young mothers with babies snoozing lip-synced. I spotted an elderly security guard punching the air and searching longingly at the mosh pit.
Making a new day, every day, once again, Bush began their show at 7:30pm, this evening, Friday, 25 August. The moody, grating enthusiasms and dancing throughout the packed house seemed to agree this new-in-mindset band isn’t one to miss, ever again.
Thinking to conclude my blog entry with a dire on-stage comment made by Rossdale before delivering one of rock and roll’s greatest live performances ever: “We appreciate all the people who have been before. Watch out. It’s the little things that kill.”—Gavin Rossdale, Songwriter.
Article written by Corinne D. Sullivan
