Bush
Support: the Kickback
Date: Thursday May 18th, 2017
Venue: Rebel in Toronto, Ontario

The Kickback opened. They were typical, forgettable pop rock. The singer was actually pretty funny with his banter. That was the highlight of their set for me.

I never was a huge Bush fan, even back in the day. Actually, back in the day I fucking hated them (as any teenager will when something that's in their eyes inferior dominates the airwaves). But I wanted to take my wife to this show because she doesn’t get out to too many shows and I knew she’d have fun. Bush weren’t bad at all really. They’re a nostalgia band now so as expected the “hits” got the better reactions while the newer stuff got tepid claps. But to tell the honest truth I didn’t mind some of the newer songs. I actually liked a few of them better than the "classics". Nurse, Mad Love and Peace-S were all really good songs. My wife turned to me during the second “?” and said it might have been one of the worst songs she’d heard in her life. I didn’t think it was that bad but it wasn’t that great either. They’ve been alternating a few different songs in that slot on this tour (Be Still My Love, Reasons, Sky Turns Day Glo, The Only Way Out, All the Worlds Within You, Lost in You) so those two “?”’s could have been any of those. I wouldn’t know. I know the second one that she hated was a slower, mellower song. But overall Bush weren’t really bad at all. Their screen effects and lighting were really good too.

Bush
1. Everything Zen
2. Nurse
3. The Chemicals Between Us
4. The Sound of Winter
5. Mad Love
6. Greedy Fly
7. The Only Way Out
8. ?
9. ?
10. The People That We Love
11. Swallowed
12. The Beat of Your Heart
13. Letting the Cables Sleep (dedicated to Chris Cornell)
14. Peace-S
15. Little Things
[encore]
16. Machinehead
17. The One I Love (R.E.M. cover) w/Black Hole Sun
18. Glycerine
19. Comedown

And for all my Toronto brethren wondering how the newly relaunched “Rebel” stacked up against its former incarnation as the Sound Academy. The décor is more millennial hipster nightclub than whatever it was before. There are two HUGE bars that take up almost the entire left and right sides of the room and another in the back. The VIP balcony looked revamped from what I remember it looking like before. But it was eight dollars for a 355mL can of Budweiser (that’s 12oz for you ‘mericans). They don’t even have big cans of anything. And it took me almost an hour to get out of the parking lot (because even if you have five gates, only open one ).

So yeah:
“Fuck the Docks” (I never went there when it was called that but I’m sure people said that)
“Fuck the Sound Academy”
and now the tradition can continue with
“Fuck Rebel”

I’ll avoid that place at all costs.