ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997 TAG: 9704080096
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: CONCERT REVIEW
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG THE ROANOKE TIMES
Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon and Louise Post hit their harmonies during a 40-minute set that highlighted songs from their new "Eight Arms to Hold You."
Close your eyes while Gavin Rossdale belts out the words to "Greedy Fly" and just try not to see at least a flickering image of Kurt Cobain.
Unfortunately for British band Bush, Nirvana Sound-alike Syndrome - an affliction that plagues the band members two CDs into their career - seems destined to keep music critics from saying "great show."
Because no matter how much the band really rocks (it did), no matter how good the sound is (it was) and no matter how many members of the mostly teen-age audience scream "We want Bush! We Want Bush!" the rock group is still reminiscent of somebody else.
That is not to say songs like "Swallowed" and "Personal Holloway" don't have their merit.
Or that the band isn't gripping the ladder of success with steady, glue-coated fingers - though Monday night's audience at the Roanoke Civic Center totaled only 5,539 compared to a sold-out crowd of more than 9,000 a year ago.
Consider the throng of T-shirt purchasing teen-agers and the push to get close to the stage. In the immortal words of my great Aunt Pearl: "So this is what kids today are into!"
Defense witness No. 1, Kevin Bush (no relation), 17, of Christiansburg, who came to the concert with Amber Croy, 17, of Radford: "They're a good band." And if they sound a little like Nirvana, he said, "they were a good band, too."
Defense witness No. 2, Leann Lovelace, 17, of Salem, who attended the show with Veruca Salt fan Erin Pearson: "I like Gavin. He's really hot."
To be equal opportunity, here, Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon and Louise Post were "hot," too, in platform shoes and gold lame pantsuits.
Bush's trip to the stage was heralded by an overactive fog machine that, for a few moments, obscured the hot Rossdale and band mates Nigel Pulsford, Robin Goodridge and Dave Parsons. The fog lifted by the end of "Greedy Fly." Other songs during the 105-minute performance included "Machinehead," which made the mosh pit work double-time, "Cold Contagious" and "Straight No Chaser," which Rossdale dedicated to the late Allen Ginsberg. The show ended with "Everything Zen" and a four-song encore that included "Swallowed" and "Little Things."
Security's main purpose Monday seemed to be to snatch the crowd surfers before they fell face first onto the floor.
One mother, armed with ear plugs and a book, sat in the stands to make sure her daughter didn't get too close to the front. She asked that her name not be used to prevent her daughter's ultimate humiliation.
Veruca Salt's Gordon and Post hit their harmonies during a 40-minute set that highlighted songs from their new "Eight Arms to Hold You."
They play the sort of music you can feel in your chest, with every strum of Steve Lack's bass.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB