Messed!Up
Let me start by telling you a story. It was the end of 1994 and I was sitting in front of the telly in my flat in Ruislip in London when the weekly (or was it monthly?) Headbanger’s Ball show on MTV aired Bush’s debut video for “Everything Zen”. It was raw, felt both chaotic and hypnotic, and captured the post-grunge angst of the mid-’90s. I was an instant fan.
The nod to Nirvana’s sound while carving out their own dark, stylish identity, combined with hot and young frontman Gavin Rossdale and his slightly hoarse, breathy resonance of a voice, would become the recipe for success. The debut album Sixteen Stone was released at the beginning of November that year, and I lined up outside the record store to buy a copy (still have it!), and the album has sold almost seven million copies worldwide today. Fast forward 31 years and six Bush gigs later, most of them in the 90s, Bush opened for Denmark’s metal giants Volbeat at a sold-out Barclays Arena in Hamburg.
Expectations were high on my side. It doesn’t matter that we’re far from the post-grunge and that Bush have moved into hard-hitting heavy rock, sometimes even metal, territory. It’s still Rossdale’s unique vocals that create the sound of Bush, not the songs. Opening song “More Than Machines” from their 2022 album The Art of Survival reminded us in what direction it was about to go; we were off into their modern heavy rock era with some excursions back to the 90s, like their follow-up, the second song of the night and one of their biggest hits from the 90s, “Machinehead” (yes, it started with some sort of machine theme). Then it’s down the heavy rock road with songs like “The Land of Milk and Honey”, “Flowers On a Grave”, and the brutal title song from their latest album, “I Beat Loneliness”.
It’s refreshing with a band that’s not afraid of playing their latest stuff rather than relying on their major hits from an era long gone. I may have questioned their modern sound on record, but experiencing it live is something completely different, and they’re painted in a lot darker colors on stage. Their major hits? Yes, we got a few of those as well.
First out was “Everything Zen”, my second favorite after “Little Things” (which is never played live anymore). That opening riff is pure 90s magic and instantly transports me back to MTV at 2 am, and it still hits like a wave of static and emotion. Our photographer burst out in a singalong contest (I never win those – you can’t beat a choir lady); ‘There’s no sex in your violence’ and ‘Everything zen, everything zen […] I don’t think so’. Just let us have this moment, me being back to 20 again and remembering days when crowdsurfing wasn’t stopped by knee injuries and a bad back. But that wasn’t enough. A few songs later, and ‘the sound of the 90s’ starts – “Swallowed”. It wasn’t my favorite back in the days, and it may not be it now either, but the video is etched into my brain. I just can’t get it out of my head, probably because it reminds me of the flat parties we had back in London and Bristol when I was young (yes, they were quite wild). We made sure to support at the top of our voices, and when it was over and done, I felt like I didn’t need more. But we still had the headliner left!
I would lie to you if I say I’m a super fan of Volbeat, and tonight I was probably only the 14 132nd biggest fan in the building, but Volbeat and I go way back and have a Roskilde Festival relationship. Denmark’s biggest festival, the Roskilde Festival, has hosted Volbeat four times – 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2013 – and I was at all of them and had some of my most epic festival memories at their shows. If Bush is me reminiscing about the days of my youth, Volbeat is my reminder of my best festival memories.
Volbeat slashes off their intro with their major hit “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown”. That’s the sound I love them for, not the cheesy pop/rock sound of “Montez”, the second song on the set and another major hit. Their sound changed quite a lot between 2008 and 2016, and when that happened, my interest in the band sparked to life. Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie from 2016 is still their best album, and the record that brought them into a heavier direction. However, the audience seems to love their early works to the point that the man next to us used up all his blood in the head while singing and almost knocked our team to the ground. I guess there was some beer(s) involved as well, thus causing a general balance problem.
All the above is Volbeat’s strength – they know their audience and adapt the setlists to their wishes. Frontman Michael Poulsen is also a great entertainer and good storyteller, and he knows how to reach out to people, like when he asked, ‘We haven’t been here in three years! What have you been doing while we were gone?’ and someone answered, ‘We have been waiting for Volbeat!’.
And it’s nothing but a greatest hits tour. “For Evigt”, “Seal the Deal”, “By a Monster’s Hand”, “Shotgun Blues”, “A Warrior’s Call” – they’re all on the setlist – and I promise you that no true fan left the building saying ‘I didn’t hear my favorite song’, because at least one was on the setlist. However, the best moment was when Asinhell’s vocalist, Marc Grewe, made a guest appearance in “Evelyn”. It added a whole new darkness to the show with Grewe’s howling and growling – nothing short of epic!
Thanks for an amazing night! It was a stroll down memory lane needed in times of rising darkness (wars, conflicts, and the arrival of actual darkness as winter is upon us), and gave me energy to make it through the next few months just by living on memories from this night.
Yes. Gavin dancing looks like me at Molotow’s Don’t You Want Me 80s party once a month, and that’s not a pretty sight.
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Photographer: Julia Schwendner
