Saturday night, Gen X and the Elder Millennials alike gathered to celebrate 25 years of Our Lady Peace, Live & Bush. Several classic albums are turning 25 this year, but tonight was all about "Throwing Copper", the 3rd studio album from Live & "Sixteen Stone", the debut album from Bush. Our Lady Peace, the Canadian rockers that debuted in the States in 1995, kicked off the night. Coming out with a simple backdrop that just says the band name, singer Raine Maida brought his beautiful, flowing voice to entrance the crowd. The audience started the night hyped and OLP fed off that energy and played the hits everyone knows and a couple of songs that are not as familiar. If you are not familiar with Our Lady Peace, I would suggest checking out their 2nd album "Clumsy" to start. Maida is known for his poetic lyrics that still resonate to this day. The crowd sang along as they played "Superman's Dead", "Clumsy", "Somewhere Out There" & "Innocent". There was little chatter from the band, but they did stop to thank the crowd and other bands before their set ended.
Live took the stage to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "Throwing Copper", their 3rd & best known album. The album brought the 90's Alternative classics "I Alone", "Lightning Crashes" & "All Over You". All of those were played during their set as well as other fan favorites and lesser known gems. Ed Kowalczyk and the rest of the band entertained the already bouncing crowd the whole time they were on stage. Stopping to talk about the songs and how much it means to be celebrating 25 years as a band. At one point before singing "Heaven", a song written after the birth of his first daughter, Kowalczyk said between the 4 original members of the band, there are a total of 13 children. They also paid tribute to a couple of bands that influenced them along the way. First, Ed mentioned a little band out of Athens, GA named R.E.M. You may have heard of them, they also have an album turning 25 this year. The band then went into a beautiful version of "Losing My Religion", encouraging the crowd to sing along, which we all gladly did. The 2nd cover of the evening was a song that every band wishes they had written, "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones. Kowalczyk's haunting vocals brought another level of beauty to an already amazing song.
Bush, the British band fronted by the still dreamy Gavin Rossdale, took the stage to the glaring guitars of "Machinehead" and didn't stop the entire time. Their debut album, "Sixteen Stone" is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. With the way Gavin and company were running around the stage, you would have never guessed they were old enough to have an album that old. Not only do Gavin's vocals still sound as crisp as they did in 1994, he is as active as ever. Between running from one end of the stage to the other during songs, he also ventured out into the crowd during "Little Things". He ran up to the top of the Stir Cove Deck, standing on a plastic chair to belt a couple of lines before coming down to visit the rear fence and back down through the crowd, passing yours truly (I touched him, he's pure muscle), along the way back to the stage. The set was jam packed with hits, including their most recent release, "Bullet Holes" from John Wick 3, but I was still left wanting more. If they played every song the crowd wanted, the show would have lasted into the wee hours of the morning, which would have totally been worth it. Stir Cove has the distinction of being the first "Sold-Out" show on the ALT-imate tour, which Gavin pointed out between songs.
The weather was warm, but not overbearing and the crowd was a lot of fun, which helped make this already amazing show that much better. If you missed your chance to see these giants of Alternative music, be sure you keep an eye out for the next time they are in town.