ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070126
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SEAN PICCOLI KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
Lead singer Gavin Rossdale sometimes thinks the reaction they get from fans is just weird.
On a Thursday last month, the first night of a 78-date North American tour, London's only link to the Seattle rock scene staged a one-band British invasion, turning Miami Arena into a sold-out house of screaming meemies.
Some 16,000 young fans drowned the British grunge act Bush in shock waves of noisy adoration - ``They'll deafen us before we deafen ourselves,'' bassist Dave Parsons joked afterward.
They tried, shaking the building with sing-alongs to a clutch of sepia-toned, cryptically titled hard-rock singles, including "Swallowed" and "Everything Zen."
The show, which comes to the Roanoke Civic Center tonight before moving on to Philadelphia, was, by arena standards, a smash.
But sitting backstage with his band mates in front of an MTV camera crew, lead singer-guitarist Gavin Rossdale - the face and voice of Bush - wore the slightly distracted expression of somebody with something besides amplifiers still ringing in his head.
``It seems really weird, for a band that does predominantly depressing songs,'' Rossdale, 29, mused to the camera. ``Everyone was so happy. ... Why that many people would congregate to celebrate that kind of music is weird to me.''
Weird but true. Rossdale, Parsons, guitarist Nigel Pulsford and drummer Robin Goodridge are hitting the road behind "Razorblade Suitcase," which debuted at No.1 in the United States last November and quickly packed off all predictions of a sophomore slump. The current tour follows two-plus years on the road with their multiplatinum debut, "Sixteen Stone."
Bush is not quite so popular in its homeland, though that's changing. "Razorblade Suitcase" debuted at No. 4 in the United Kingdom.
``It's not Oasis,'' said tour publicist Michael Pagnotta, ``but it's pretty good.''
To Rossdale, it's just strange. He suggested more than once after the concert that all those dark, elliptically worded songs of his, which deal in ``personal politics,'' don't lend themselves to arena-class catharsis. Measuring his audience's unqualified response, he said, ``I'm a bit undecided about it.''
Perhaps he doth protest too much. Whatever Rossdale's intentions, Bush's set was a triumph of big-show stratospherics. The group's baseline brand of grunge draws heavily on the minor-to-major-key, soft-to-loud dynamic jumps that Seattle bands such as the Pixies and Nirvana refined.
These tunes would play well enough in little punk parlors like New York City's CBGB's, where Bush launched its very first U.S. tour. But they're most at home reverberating through the sonic temples that American audiences reserve for ambitious guys with guitars.
The Razorblade Suitcase tour, begun after a two-week layover, isn't so much a new trip as the continuation of an odyssey marked by interruptions for the occasional studio session or video shoot.
``I went to [the Miami neighborhood] South Beach for lunch today,'' Rossdale said before the opening show, ``and I saw all the people, all the couples, sitting together, and for a moment I really wanted to go on holiday.
``But when somebody has asked you to come and play for 15,000 people who really like you, I figured I should employ some perspective.''
Bush plays the Roanoke Civic Center tonight at 7:30. Veruca Salt opens. $25. 981-1201.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Bush is (from left) Nigel Pulsford, Dave Parsons, Gavinby CNBRossdale and Robin Goodridge. color.