I brag more often than I should that I saw Bush the second time they played in New York City, in 1995 at Roseland Ballroom. My concert companion and I weren’t even old enough to drive.
Around the time of the American Tiger King binge during our nation’s “two weeks to slow the spread,” Bush released The Kingdom.
Whenever I noticed, I bounced along to “Flowers on a Grave,” thinking, ‘They’ve still got it.’
The Art of Survival came out last year with “Heavy is the Ocean.” I didn’t know – partly because I don’t make it a point to follow my favorite groups from my formative years – and partly because I unsubscribed to Spotify’s unending email reminder list.
I get it. Alice Cooper and Megadeth are keeping shock and thrash rock alive. And they’re coming to my city for the first of many “finale” tours.
Of course, nowadays, anyone with an internet connection can access every recorded song and most live shows, so why bother leaving the house?
We go out for that same sense of camaraderie we felt the loss of during COVID. The truth is that we love the chance to get some sweaty jock’s headbang spit across our faces. Live and in person.
If you had asked me two weeks before the show who I thought would headline the Atlanta lineup, I would have thought about it for a moment.
Was Jerry Cantrell bigger than Candlebox?
I hadn’t realized Candlebox has stayed as prolific as Bush, and that Jerry Cantrell is still fighting for a solo career outside of the current Alice in Chains lineup.
My husband and I walked toward the music from the Cadence Bank Amphitheater parking lot – I had to look that up as the place has changed names more times than I’ve covered Bush — as Candlebox played “Cover Me.”
As I entered through the metal detector, I thought about my life at the time this album filled the frustrated silence of my bedroom.
A song called “Blanket he Calls Home” reminds me of a homeless man I met while on vacation with my step-grandmother and mother in the mid-’90s.
He carried a comforter on his back in the Florida heat, which isn’t just heat but a wet, humid heat that sticks cotton shirts to the skin. I wanted to know more about him, his blond hair in locks, his face tanned by dirty hands wiping sweat from his forehead.
When we exchanged information, my face was fascinated, and Grandmother’s face was horrified—well, I gave him my home address in New Jersey.
They were well into “Far Behind” when I found my seat, singing along. As Candlebox closed out their set with “You,” I felt more than the sticky humidity; I felt a lingering nostalgia for the mid to late 1990s.
Seven of the nine songs played came off the band’s eponymous 1993 debut album.
Kids, that’s before Kurt Cobain died by suicide.
Jerry Cantrell took the stage next, his classic long, straight hair grayer now than blond. He seems genuinely happy to be putting on a show – even if he performed before dark on a stage he headlined in previous bands.
Cantrell released “Brighten” in 2021, but his last solo album before that was in 2002. Cantrell’s never dropped far from the spotlight as Alice in Chains released records in 2009, 2013, and 2018. If you liked that low-heavy groan with the patented grunge tone back then, you probably still will.
Every stranger in the crowd was a classmate from my high school. Yours, too, if you’re reading this.
A sea of business casual seasoned with T-shirts of grunge bands like Nirvana, but 2023 tour shirts of Candlebox and Collective Soul washed by. One man in a Miller Lite jersey protected his head with a Metallica “Damage, Inc.” ball cap as he videoed Gavin Rossdale’s rendition of “Machinehead.”
Bush’s new album is out. I listened to it before the show, and Gavin and Co. still have it.
I don’t know how much the lineup has changed since Sixteen Stone dropped, but the sound is the same, which is a nice respite from the auto-tuned stuff my kids are listening to.
As I sucked the last drop from my $30 drink, I decided to check the setlist to see what we’d miss if we left early. Some were my favorite songs I really like, but I’ve heard them live before, and there’s a Taco Bell on the way home.
