A trio of bands, each bringing a different flavor of rock ‘n roll to the FirstOntario Centre stage, rocked Hamilton on Saturday, November 25, 2023.
Detroit-based Eva Under Fire kick-started the evening with their hybrid blend of metal, pop and classic rock, followed by Los Angeles-based Bad Wolves and their boundary pushing mix of hard rock, seismic heaviness, mysterious experimentation and captivating melodies.
The headlining act was the iconic and hard-hitting British rockers Bush.
Bush
Frontman Gavin Rossdale sprinkled the Hamilton crowd with some inspiring words throughout their hour and a half long set.
“You’ve always got to lift each other up,” Rossdale told the audience, while the British rockers performed their encore tune ‘Comedown’.
“Never down, always up.”
Performing songs, spanning their deep catalog, Rossdale told the audience “it has been a crazy journey” throughout their 30-plus year career.
“Every time you’ve ever played a Bush song, anytime you’ve ever come to a show… thank-you,” Rossdale said.
“Playing through these songs, different ones have different histories and this and that, but this song when it came along, it came along really early. I felt like it was sort of a beautiful jet plane coming right into my life. I didn’t know where it was going to take me, but I felt like it was going to take me to good places. Tonight, it takes me to Hamilton, in Canada, to play this song to celebrate many, many years of this band,” he added, before performing a solo rendition of Bush’ 1994 hit ‘Glycerine’.
Earlier in the performance, the frontman gave a shout out to an iconic Canadian producer.
“This song was produced with Bob Rock, your famous Canadian superstar producer extraordinaire, a good friend of ours,” Rossdale said.
“We made this song with him and whenever we play it, especially in Canada I always think of Bob, because he’s a fucking genius,” he added, before the band playd 2011’s ‘The Sound of Winter’.
The entire concert had a more intimate feeling, as the FirstOntario Centre was cut in half for the performance, with the stage setup in the middle of the arena with half of the seats blocked off.
At one point, Rossdale got even more up close and personal with the crowd, as he bounded off of the stage and climbed to the back of the audience to sing, shake hands, give hugs and interact with the fans.
Have a look, below:
And if someone would’ve told us before the show that a dog would be on stage during the Bush set, we would’ve assumed a member of Bad Wolves was joining the headliners on stage for a guest spot.
However, that was not the case, as an actual furry, canine, animal laid on the stage at the feet of her owner for the majority of the set.
Oh, her name was Emma, by the way, and the adorable pup definitely won over the hearts of the band, even giving Rossdale a kiss and accepting multiple pets from lead guitarist Chris Traynor.
“Too good right? Just too good, you can’t let that go,” Rossdale told the crowd, after Emma (who was equipped with special hearing protection) received a warm applause.
Here is the full Bush setlist from their Hamilton performance:
1. Everything Zen
2. Machinehead
3. The Kingdom
4. The Chemicals Between Us
5. Greedy Fly
6. Quicksand
7. Swallowed
8. Nowhere to Go But Everywhere
9. The Sound of Winter
10. Letting the Cables Sleep
11. Heavy Is the Ocean
12. Flowers on a Grave
13. All Things Must Change
14. Little Things
Encore:
15. More Than Machines
16. Glycerine
17. Comedown
Here are some photos we captured during the Bush set:
Learn more about the band on their official website https://bushofficial.com/.
Bad Wolves
Platinum-certified, 5x #1 Hard Rock radio-charting band Bad Wolves were the penultimate band on the evening.
Frontman Daniel ‘DL’ Laskiewicz energized the crowd throughout their set, encouraging them to scream and pumping them up for Bush.
“Do you know how to headbang, Canada?” Laskiewicz asked.
To close out their set, Bad Wolves performed a cover of The Cranberries, 1994 classic hit ‘Zombie’ – a cover that Bad Wolves released in 2018, which vaulted them into the Billboard charts
“We just want to thank you, guys,” Laskiewicz said.
“To you and thank you to all of Bush’s crew, tour managers, everybody for having us on this tour. We’re so very grateful, we love doing these cool fucking tours, with these shows in these awesome rooms, with these beautiful fucking people.”
Laskiewicz added, before playing their closing tune: “I need two things from you guys. Number one, anybody that has a cell phone or a lighter, light this fucking room up. It’s the holidays, make this room look pretty for this next one. And number two, more important than the lights, every single one of you, sing this song at the top of your fucking lungs. This song goes out to Dolores O’Riordan. This song is called ‘Zombie’.”
Leading up to the November 25 concert, SWOMP caught up with Doc Coyle, the lead guitarist for Bad Wolves, who discussed the band’s brand new album Die About It, along with their tour with Bush.
Listen to the full interview, below:
Here are some photos we captured during the Bad Wolves set:
Learn more about the band on their official website https://badwolvesnation.com/.
Eva Under Fire
Detroit rockers Eva Under Fire brought high energy to the Hamilton stage right out of the gate on Saturday night.
“We take our job as a warm up band very seriously,” vocalist Amanda ‘Eva Marie’ Lyberg told the crowd, adding that Rossdale told her before the show that he liked her pants.
Prior to the concert, SWOMP caught up with Eva Marie to discuss the one-year anniversary of their critically acclaimed 2022 debut album Love, Drugs & Misery, along with joining Bush and label-mates Bad Wolves on tour.
Listen, below:
Here are some photos we captured during the Eva Under Fire set:
Learn more about the band on their official website https://evaunderfire.os.fan/.