{"id":4827,"date":"2019-06-14T11:29:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T16:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=4827"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:11:21","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:11:21","slug":"review-live-bush-our-lady-peace-rockland-trust-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/06\/14\/review-live-bush-our-lady-peace-rockland-trust-pavilion\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Live, Bush, Our Lady Peace @ Rockland Trust Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Olivia Gehrke<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There wouldn\u2019t be nearly as much to say about the \u201890s if 1994 disappeared from the picture. Seminal rock \u2018n\u2019 roll albums would never have graced the airwaves. No <\/span>Jar of Flies <\/span><\/i>by Alice in Chains, or Weezer\u2019s Blue Album. No <\/span>Dookie <\/span><\/i>by Green Day, no <\/span>Parklife <\/span><\/i>by Blur or <\/span>Definitely Maybe <\/span><\/i>by Oasis. Nirvana\u2019s MTV Unplugged session wouldn\u2019t have changed the world, and Soundgarden\u2019s <\/span>Super Unknown <\/span><\/i>would cease to exist. Ah yes, 1994. A year to remember, if not revel in. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cue the ALTimate Tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true: the cringe-worthy title elicits images of dads with bad tattoos, outdated goatees, and affinities for Vans, moaning about a bygone era of \u201creal rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.\u201d And yet, despite that, the ALTimate Tour\u2014featuring notable noughties alt rockers Live, Bush, and Our Lady Peace\u2014delivered the hits, 25 years later, without being a sloppy nostalgia tour. <\/span><\/p>\n

Live, Bush, and Our Lady Peace released <\/span>Throwing Copper<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Sixteen Stone<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Naveed\u00a0<\/span><\/i>respectively in 1994. While the bands may not have the same instant name recognition as say Nirvana or Pearl Jam, the trio wrote songs that indisputably defined the decade. (Honestly, when was the last time you switched on Lithium on Sirius XM without hearing \u201cI Alone\u201d or \u201cGlycerine\u201d or \u201cSuperman\u2019s Dead\u201d?) Together, the bands formed an unstoppable force of characteristic rasping vocals and general disillusionment. <\/span><\/p>\n

Starting off the night, Our Lady Peace presented an eclectic sampler of their music from the past three decades. Hits like \u201cClumsy\u201d\u2014an angsty and beautifully whiny tune that sounds like a precursor to emo\u2014and energy-packed \u201cSuperman\u2019s Dead\u201d gave way to heavy guitar pop numbers like \u201cInnocent\u201d and \u201cSomewhere Out There.\u201d While the latter songs suited a post-millennium Our Lady Peace, they lacked the live grit of the previous releases, not quite resonating with the same power. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was something charmingly narcissistic about rock in the \u201890s. Every song made you ache or rage, causing the onset of a personal existential crisis every time\u2014even if the song spoke of a grander scale. \u201cSuperman\u2019s Dead\u201d delivered on that front. Our Lady Peace performed it with the anger and punch that the song warrants. But when the band jumped about to the live debut of their new song, \u201cStop Making Stupid People Famous,\u201d (think upbeat snares and Killers-esque vocals) there was a very noticeable disconnect. You were pulled from that narcissism and grunge, forced to reflect once again on the current political turmoil, made audible through an underwhelming dance tune. It was an unwelcome reminder that the romanticized \u201890s don\u2019t\u2014and haven\u2019t\u2014lasted forever. But when Bush took the stage, you believed in the bliss for just a bit longer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sixteen Stone<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cMachinehead\u201d acted as a high-powered intro for Bush. The London post punkers spotlighted Gavin Rossdale\u2014the tatted up, alt-rock Jesus figure, who surely fell from the cross before resurrecting to become the Bush frontman. With Rossdale charging from stage left to right as the band launched into the unnecessarily dramatic track \u201cThis Is War,\u201d all the ingredients were there for the set to be another washed-up-\u201890s-band-nostalgia-tour trope. But Bush had the chops to back it up. \u201cLittle Things,\u201d sparked drive for escalated choruses. \u201cEverything Zen\u201d harnessed chaos as it must have in 1994. \u201cGlycerine\u201d ached beautifully. Rossdale performed it solo, crooning the second verse without once strumming his acoustic that was in hand. The stripped-back, raw version left the song exposed to its starkest elements. And \u201cComedown\u201d served as a satisfying closer. Even \u201cThe Sound of Winter,\u201d (2011) a latecomer to Bush\u2019s impressive repertoire was audibly impactful. \u201cSwallowed,\u201d Bush\u2019s 1996 chart-topping single, proved to be the exception. The explosive chorus fell flat, lacking the unbridled double-edged euphoria of the recording that should have, if anything, been emphasized live. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, Bush\u2019s overall performance made up for the brief blip in energy, because the energy remained steadily high the entire set. It was, ultimately, a performance\u2014something Bush clearly understood and built off of. A tour couldn\u2019t be dubbed the \u201cALTimate Tour\u201d if a bunch of washed-up musicians were going to stand around and make a feeble attempt to relive their prime. So Rossdale put on a spectacle, moving about like he never aged a day past 28, screaming until his already raspy voice strained even more. <\/span><\/p>\n

Completing the trifecta of the ALTimate Tour was Live. Preceding them on stage, the iconic haunting characters from the cover of <\/span>Throwing Copper<\/span><\/i>floated out on screen as the album\u2019s opener, \u201cThe Dam at Otter Creek\u201d trickled in ominously. The York, Penn. natives then powered through a set complete with tracks from <\/span>Throwing Copper<\/span><\/i>, like \u201cShit Towne\u201d (dedicated to their hometown), \u201cIris,\u201d and popular hit \u201cSelling the Drama.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Singer Ed Kowalczyk acted as a chameleon when Live covered R.E.M.\u2019s \u201cLosing My Religion\u201d and the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cPaint it Black,\u201d sounding eerily like Michael Stipe and then Jagger not long after. While Live executed the covers flawlessly, the decision to include them made the set seem more like an American Idol episode than an \u201cALTimate Tour\u201d show. This was only compounded when the band pandered to the crowd with their notable hits like \u201cAll Over You\u201d and \u201cI Alone.\u201d The excitement was there\u2014both from Live and the audience\u2014these songs were decade-defining after all. But the presentation of them came across as careless. Kowalczyk stopped after what seemed like every other word (and for entire choruses) to have the crowd sing. While a common concert practice, those songs could have made a hugely impactful statement had the band just dedicated themselves to playing it in its fullest form. The focus should have been more on the performance of the music, as opposed to on fan-pleasing (because surely the execution of the former would ultimately lead to fan enjoyment anyways). <\/span><\/p>\n

With that said, Live delivered on pretty much every other song of the set. Songs like \u201cLakini\u2019s Juice\u201d packed a punch. Atop the track\u2019s violent, distorted repetition, Kowalczyk had the opportunity to showcase his talent as a vocalist and performer. And as Live closed with their magnum opus, \u201cLightning Crashes,\u201d the set came full circle\u2014from Live toying with a gimmicky form of entertainment to the band giving a nod of solid reassurance that they can put on a substantial show if they see it through. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The vocals of all three frontmen and the unerring talent of the bands\u201425 years on\u2014remained a constant through all three sets, helping to immortalize a very particular point in time. Live, Bush, and Our Lady Peace may continue to craft more albums, and they may drift farther from the vein of undiluted grungey rock from the genre\u2019s glory days. And it may be 2019. But during the ALTimate Tour, the bands proved the \u201890s haven\u2019t quite run their course just yet. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Olivia Gehrke There wouldn\u2019t be nearly as much to say about the \u201890s if 1994 disappeared from the picture. Seminal rock \u2018n\u2019 roll albums would never have graced the airwaves. No Jar of Flies by Alice in Chains, or Weezer\u2019s Blue Album. No Dookie by Green Day, no Parklife by Blur or Definitely Maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[795,794,798,796,797],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4830,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4827\/revisions\/4830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}