Thursday, August 18, 2011

90's Rock Rules!

Even 15 years later, BUSH rocked the stage at Stubb's last night as part of the 101X 16th Anniversary concert series. The sold out show did not disappoint and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Gavin Rossdale sound just as good in 2011 as he did when I saw him at Rockfest in 1997. They played all of the oldies from Sixteen Stone and Razorblade Suitcase, plus new material for their new album coming out next month.

Now, for those of you who know me, I can be a little high maintenance about concerts. For one, I am not a fan of General Admission/Festival type events. My back issues make standing on a hard surface for hours not very comfortable and frankly I prefer to pay a little more for a reserved seat, which I can choose to stand or sit as I please. Secondly, I run hot. All. The. Time. So summer outdoor events, and especially this summer, are serious sweatfests in my mind. I'm not afraid to sweat, but I hate being like a waterfall! Last night was both a General Admission show and HOT, but I went and I'm SO happy I did. BUSH is one of my favorite 90's rock bands and I love me some Gavin. The show was great! He ended the show with a shirtless performance for the last few songs and ended it with an encore of Glycerin and Comedown.

Last night also brought back many great memories from college...

My freshman year of college, I attended Baylor University (don't ask me why, I don't really know). On Sundays when I'd have to go back to Waco, I would put on my Sixteen Stone CD and haul ass north on 35. I can remember putting it on as soon as I hit the interstate and flying. In the Spring of my freshman year, I might not have wanted to head to Waco but with BUSH blaring, all was right with the world.

In the summer of 1997, between my freshman and sophomore year of college, Blockbuster Video put on Rockfest at Texas Motor Speedway in DFW. The line up was huge...BUSH, Counting Crows, Collective Soul, No Doubt...and the tickets were FREE. Yes, free. So a group of my friends loaded up to spend the weekend at a family friends house and join 300,000 of our closest friends for this one day mega concert. The stories are too numerous but includes lots of traffic, the radio playing a live BUSH concert on the radio and us thinking we were missing the show because of traffic, a girl with a blown out flip flop walking into the show which sparked the suburban to start singing Jimmy Buffett, seeing girls in thong bikinis in the infield area (not common back then), Katie getting hit on the head by a gigantic roll of toilet paper, and when leaving the show, being stuck in traffic in the parking lot for so long we pulled out of the line for a few hours to sleep and when we woke up no one had moved. In short, it was A-Mazing.

The 4:45 am wake up call this morning was early, but in the end, it was totally worth it. This is my life and I'm going to live it to the fullest. I'd rather be dog tired on the plane, than regret not going to that show. As my cousin always says "You can sleep when you're dead."

With that, I'm headed to Lake Tahoe for a few days of beautiful scenery, cooler weather, and material for my next blog entry.

Until then happy travels and many laughs...


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