GAVIN ROSSDALE + Suzie McNeil @ Le National

By Cory Alder - Rock the Plank - 04/26/2009

You may not remember MTV's Spring Break 1996, but I do. I remember it because it happened back when every CD I owned was a favourite, and I knew all their track lists by heart. The moments that sunk in during this time will stay with me forever. Like sitting in front of the TV watching the live performance of "Glycerin" on MTV, with a rain-soaked Gavin Rossdale heroically standing strumming his Fender Jazzmaster in the middle of a monsoon. He delivered his masterpiece to an equally soaked crowd eager to see his band Bush perform at MTV's Spring Break party location. I know I'm not the only one who remembers this moment. It is touted by some as the most romantic concert experience ever aired on television.

While Bush was panned at the time for sounding too much like Nirvana, they nevertheless built a huge following in North America before un-officially disbanding in 2002. Gavin had another band two years later called Institute, but it is his 2008 solo album WanderLust that has him on the road right now and enjoying the most success since 1999's The Science of Things.

Opening the show was Suzie McNeil, a Toronto-based singer who first grabbed attention by making it to the final four on the CBS show Rockstar: INXS. More recently she can be seen performing her song "Believe" on commercials for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver; it was this song that got the biggest response from the crowd, as many sang along. For the most part however the audience was indifferent. There was probably more attention paid to snapping camera-phone pics of her notably revealing skirt than to her music.

Gavin Rossdale and his band took the stage amidst a frenzy of smoke and strobe lights. The other four members were posted near the rear of the stage looking more like "hired guns" and less like band mates; all eyes were on Gavin. They kicked off the set with a couple of tracks from the new album and another one from Institute, all of which were warmly received by the audience, but it was when they launched into the opening riff of the 1994 hit song "Machinehead" that the show instantly attained a serious level of intensity. The at-first timid fans jumped up and down with Gavin. I felt like I was in the music video--I was driving a motorcycle really fast through crowded city streets, Gavin was rocking it, Mark Wahlberg had just carved "Nicole 4 Eva" on his chest, and somehow everything made perfect sense to me. I was also very pleased with myself that I happened to have my camera out filming when he meandered into the Talking Heads’ "Once in a Lifetime" mid "Everything Zen". He suggested we ask ourselves "how did I get here?", and for the life of me I can't imagine what I did right to be right there right then with my camera rolling.

I was absolutely thrilled that he played some of the classics, but I was sort of feeling guilty about enjoying them so much, and I was beginning to suspect (judging by crowd reactions to them) that most everyone attended in hopes of hearing a few choice Bush cuts. It's bad enough that 90's music has found its way to classic rock stations, but I couldn't bear to have one of my heroes as a teen become a relic just yet. My proudest moment came as I looked around to see people singing along to his newer songs-- especially  "Forever May You Run" and "Love Remains the Same", the latter used to promote the movie Nights in Rodanthe and finding its way onto the mainstream charts.  

The encore brought it all home for me. In a way that closely resembled his Spring Break performance thirteen years ago, Gavin, completely drenched in sweat this time, strode out alone to center stage wielding his trademark Fender Jazzmaster guitar (making its first appearance of the night) and started into the super-mega-hit "Glycerin". Sweat poured down his guitar and spattered the front row of captivated fans, and I don't know if it was all of the Gavin pheromones or what, but the crowd was completely overtaken by the urge to make out with each other and sing along. It's hard to be down on a show that so closely resembled the "most romantic concert experience ever aired on television". Sure the new songs don't have the impact of that first batch from 1994, but it's like his song says: “Everything will change. My love remains the same.”

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