Sorry that this is so long, and it took me a while to get it on here. But - my Bush Hall review, first ever Guster concert! 
So, my first time ever seeing Guster live! How amazing was that? Me and my dad had been talking about how we would get there, what we were gonna do etc for ages. So when the day finally came – 8th November – I found it pretty damn hard to concentrate in school. I was just so excited. Anyways, I left school early to get home and get changed, and then we were off.
All the way there in the car, I was playing Guster On Ice CD to get me in the mood! I was getting really nervous (why?!)/excited now, not long to go! The car journey was really good… took a lot less than we thought it would. Only 2 hours to get to a road nearby, then we found Bush Hall. This was about 4:15, only 3 and a quarter hours before the show starts! *rolls eyes*. Anywho, as we were standing outside the venue, a bloke walked past and said “are you waiting to get in?”.. we said “no, we’re just ridiculously early for the Guster show!” Well it turned out that he was the venue manager (good timing!) so he let me and my dad in for a pee lol, before telling us that Guster hadn’t even arrived yet, and it would be best for us to go and do something, and come back later. Naturally we ignored this, and a few minutes later I a familiar looking guy walks past, and I’m trying to decide if it’s Joe or not. I decide it is, so I freak out, try and think what to say, and he comes up to me and asks how do they get into the venue? Hehe. I told him, but then said “I’m a big fan… queuing already, would you mind having a photo taken?” He was really cool and said yeah, so that was pretty cool to be meeting Joe straight away! He was a lot taller than I thought, but definitely a cool bloke.
About 5 minutes after that, I get a call from Becca who is coming up the street. I knew who she was straight away! (strange BNL/Guster connection maybe?!) So we met up, stood around for a bit… a bit more… etc. If any of you haven’t already met Becca, you should. She is awesome. (bex_uk on this board). I’m always nervous about meeting people but she made is so much easier. Heh. Also I remember thinking that every slightly bearded, tall man to walk past was Brian, weird. Soon enough there was some more Guster action, and Adam walked past. He looked in a little hurry with his guitar case so we just said “hey”, and then quickly after that Ryan walked past too, same thing there. I was like “##### THAT WAS RYAN!” ….so so excited about it. When we walked to near by the side door, we were lucky enough to be able to hear sound check. I listened to Amsterdam, Red Oyster Cult and part of a new song, tho’ not the one they played in the show. They sounded good, and that was from behind closed doors! Hearing that made me even *more* excited for the show, and so I had to eat something. Me and Becca walked to McDonalds, but I was so excited about that show that I couldn’t eat all of it – strange for me, I’d normally scoff it down! Hehe.
Anyways later on doors opened, almost peeing myself by this stage, and we get in there. All of the queuing paid off – we were right at the front, and the venue was unbelievable. It was a carpeted room with some chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and a stage that wasn’t even separated from the audience – basically the stage ended, and the audience began. I couldn’t believe how close we were, literally… I was leaning on the stage. So the support act came on – a woman, Sarah (can’t remember last name), and her band, and I liked them. Their songs were funky and upbeat, I enjoyed their set. A couple of them were a bit samey, but hey still good. She was hot too. Her and her keyboard were incredibly close to where we were… I could’ve tied her shoelaces together if I wanted to.
So she goes off to a good applause, tells us to enjoy Guster ‘cos they’re great guys (yeah!). Then Guster’s crew come up and set up, I see Sean (drum tech) fixing up all Brian’s bongos and adjusting the drum set. He was wearing a Ben Kweller t-shirt which I thought was cool. Anyway they were setting up for about 15 minutes and I was getting impatient (the brat that I am). A bit of a bummer was that they put the set lists out, and because we were so close to the stage, we could see what songs were ahead of us. I like a surprise so that was a bit of a bummer, but hey… I could see some great songs on there, some of my favourites.
At last… about 9 o clock, to a huge applause… GUSTER! Woo, the moment we had been waiting for! Just as the set list said, they opened with “I Spy”. Wow. Not my favourite song and I think they could’ve chosen a better opener personally, but just WOW. Brian’s bongos were excellent… it was so amazing seeing him play them live. They all looked really up for it, and they played the song really well. It included the outro bit (as shown on the DVD), which I absolutely love so I’m thrilled! At this point I give Becca the ‘oh-my-friggin-god-we’re watching-Guster-live’ look, she gives me the same look back. And then WHOA (Nothing But) Flowers is the second song, and what a great song that is live! I was cheering along Brian when he was playing the opening few beats, and then the guitars kicked in and it was all systems go. I noticed that, during this song, Adam seemed to be giving the 2 technical people some panicky looks, and they were rushing around pressing some buttons, but it all sounded great to me. I think they had to turn his guitar up or something. They looked really energetic… especially Brian. I found myself just watching the man in awe.
They then had a little in-between song banter about the next song, “Diane”. Ryan assured us all that the mention of the city “London” was in no way fishing for a cheer like when some bands say the name of the city they are in to get a cheer. He said they don’t even know why London is mentioned in the song, but to listen out for it. Sure enough, when London was mentioned, a bit cheer! Hehe. Brian was playing the beginning bit of this song on the drum kit, but still with his hands. I found that interesting. He must be in such pain! Anyway, I enjoyed that one… didn’t really expect to hear it.
Then came Red Oyster Cult, which Adam totally rawked. I got a good photo of Adam practically bending backwards playing guitar in this one. I was so happy when they played the next song… Happier. One of my favourites, it was so good. Pretty similar to the version of the DVD, but obviously a completely different dimension live. I love the ending to this – it’s just so good (the stop/starty bit). There was then banter about the UK EP that has been released. Ryan (who did all the talking in the show, Adam didn’t say a word other than singing), said that it is basically a few songs from Keep It Together and with a cover version on it too. He said he’s not bothered if we don’t buy it if we already had the album… saying that we could just download the cover version and have it all, but that we could also support the band in the UK. Haha. Come Downstairs And Say Hello was next, and that was probably the highlight of the evening for me. Such an amazing song. I can’t believe I used to skip the ‘boring’ part. I remember taking lots of pictures, especially of Brian, in this one. Great song.
Next they played Demons, which was great. I pointed out to Becca the bit where Brian stops playing in the pause, then quickly grabs his stick and carries on playing with the stick (can be seen in the DVD), and that was pretty clever.
Then was the bit that I was waiting for… Airport Song! I really did hope they would play this one, otherwise I feel silly with ping pong balls on me! Anyways I saw that it was next and so got the balls out of the bag, and soon enough came the bit where Thundegod totally goes nuts on his bongos… so at this point, I threw the first UK Guster ping pong ball! Hehe. The one that I had written ‘Guster, the UK loves you, please come back again! Liam’ went just to Brian’s left, the one that I wrote ‘Thundergod’ on bounced off his bongo ehehe, and the third one didn’t quite make Brian (pathetic shot, I know!) I enjoyed doing that. I’m not sure if Brian would have read them or not, but I think the message that Guster *need* to come back here is pretty clear. At some point – not sure when – Ryan said that they’d had a really good time touring over here, and then someone shouted “you better come back!” Haha! Ryan gave a kinda “ooooo!” look, and said that they had finalised plans for the Garage date in March… then there was this whole other banter about how us UKers speak, and whether it was “garr-idge” or “gar-aaage”. Lol.
Then came another highlight, Barrel Of A Gun. Does anyone know where the intro to this song came from? Not the bongo bit, the bit before, where they are all kinda tweaking their guitars and stuff… it’s weird. So they played it, and I could tell they were all really getting into it – Ryan and Adam both had huge grins on their faces. Maybe because there was an excellent audience reaction – I think it was one that most people recognised. Anyway, if Guster hadn’t already torn the roof down, then this sure did it. Excellent live song.
Then came Backyard – which admittedly isn’t one of my favourite songs, but it was the first time really that Joe took some of the limelight – he was up there with his mouth harmonica and banjo, both being played at the same time. I remember lots of looks between Joe, Adam and Ryan in this one to try to figure out when the song would actually end!
Now for the new song – “Yo LA”. I’m not sure if that’s an abbreviation of anything, but what the hell, great song. There was a lot of chat before this about the new record, and that they are writing on the road. They said that this is the slowest song they’ve ever written but they’re not about to go all soppy on us, it’s probably the only slow song on the new record… something like that. They started it, but it didn’t work and Ryan said “#####”. Not into the mic, but we were so close that we could hear it anyway. So they played it, it was a nice song… as they said, very slow, but had a nice chorus. Quite a long song. Becca filmed it on her snazzy digital camera, and I’ve been re-watching it a lot, I’ve decided I really do like it. Brian plays on the kit for this, but uses a brush and cymbal very softly.
He stayed on the drum kit for the next song too – Keep It Together. I’d never heard/seen this song live before, and it was really good. Then there was a little bit of banter about this *would* be the time that they’d exit the stage for the first banter, but breaking the rock and roll tradition, they would stay on and “play through the break”. Amsterdam was very good; lots of people recognised the first few beats and got into it. I can’t really dance at all to save my life, but I was there bobbing up and down like a twat, lol.
Brian then taped his hands up for Fa Fa. The quality of the performance on the DVD was just awesome for this song, so I was really really looking forward to seeing it live. I’d seen it there on the set list from the start and was looking forward to it. Sure enough, it was great. The outro, like the DVD, was mind-blowing. They just played it so so well. One of Brian’s plasters came flying off his hand, and because we were so close to the stage, it landed pretty much on the edge, right by the audience. Some bloke picked it up and put it on his finger! Ewwww! I was thinking about reaching out and grabbing it, but remembered that Brain’s hands bleed and puss and #####, so decided not to! Haha.
Very much nearing the end now, quite a short Guster show but in no way did that make it any less special. Ryan joked about an encore again, but said that he realised the audience knows that they’ll only just come back on again, so said that this was their last song, but held up speech marks with his fingers while he was saying it. That made me laugh out loud… also he said to the rest of the band, “come on guys, lets play the last song”… but the way he said “last song” was sooo funny. Kinda sarcastic and in a weird voice. Ramona followed. Again, not one of my favourites but I remember really enjoying it, and Adam’s voice on this one considering it was the last song… whoa.
I saw that Jesus was the last song on the list, and I was praying that they did it acoustically. However, nothing could’ve prepared us for what happened! Ryan explained that sometimes they like to do the last song acoustic, so they excused themselves for un-setting stuff up for a mo, and got their acoustic guitars, and came to the front of the stage. #####. And when I say front of the stage, because of the tiny venue/closeness of audience and stage, I literally had to move my hands away from resting on the amp to allow them to put their feet there! Oh my God… I couldn’t believe it. They were so so close… I could’ve tied their shoelaces together, that close. Basically like someone standing right in front of you. So they played Jesus On The Radio, which I was loving to bits – only just recently got into this song. I remember having to actually step back from where I was to get a half-decent photo – they were lined up right above us: Adam, Joe, Brian, Ryan. Brian looked really tired at this point and was banging his shaker and tambourine on his leg. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the show than that – so amazing having them that close, playing acoustically.
They then thanked London and walked off stage… leaving me, and pretty much everyone in the room, just astounded – they had completely rocked everyone, such a great performance. Now came another struggle for me – the roadies came on stage to unpack all the stuff, and were handing out set lists. There were 6 in total, so I thought SURELY I’ve gotta get one, I’m screaming at them hard enough! So I scream, and some bloke with long hair comes over, but he gives it to the girl 2 people away from me, who then really kindly give it to Becca! One down, but I’m pleased that Becca got one. And then, bugger me, the girl the other side of me got one… getting anxious now. Another person in the front row got one, and then another one was taken by a man… now none left! 
awww! Aye, still plectrums to go, I think. So a man tosses them out to the entire front row, one lands on the stage so I reach out for it, but no. Another bloke got it, dammit. To be honest I think everyone in the front row got one except me! Haha. Oh well… I was very close, but I can’t really complain… I was a little disappointed at the time, but what was about to happen later would MORE than make up for it! :-D
After the show, and after getting my voice back, we went to the merchandise stall so I could get my stuff! It turned out that the CDs had sold out, bummer. I still haven’t got one (it’s Friday), so I’ll have to try in town. Still, I got me a t-shirt (luxurious green *rolls eyes*) but I love it to bits… it was a tenner and I’d say it’s worth it, no other way of getting a Guster t-shirt! Pasty was on the merchandise stall selling the t-shirts, he seemed like a really nice guy – he was smiling so much!
So after that me and Becca go outside back into the freezing cold, and ‘cos I rang my dad, he was standing there. Turns out he had been sat in the car for 3 hours, what a legend. I’m surprised that he’d do something like that for me, but just proves how awesome he is. Drove me to London, waited around before and after the show for ages, got nothing out of it for himself, and then drove us back. I really love my dad. 
I’m pretty disappointed at this point as Becca has to catch the train to go home – I wish there was a way of her staying to meet them, but alas… I got her album off her to get it signed for her. OK this review is getting really shitty now but I am getting so excited at the thought of meeting them! Heh.
We went back into Bush Hall, and while we had been waiting outside, the Gusters had been inside signing stuff and chatting to fans! At least I wasn’t too late, I got in the room and Brian wasn’t talking to anyone – just sipping on his Budweiser and standing by Pasty, so nervously I went over to talk to him. I went up to him, and before I even said anything, he said “Hey! Liam, right?” – WOW! He then said “yeah I got your email!” Haha, how amazing is that?! He recognised me by face even though he’d never seen me before, so it was either a really good guess or he had a premonition. Lol. He was soo cool tho’. Once I’d plucked up the courage to actually say anything, I said “oh man that was a great show, I really enjoyed that… thanks!” He said “aw thanks man! It was great”. I then told him that they should come back over here sometime, and he said that they’d really enjoyed it. I was growing more confident as the conversation went on, so I asked him how his hands were, and he held them up to show me. “Ah, not too bad… but we’ve done 5 nights in a row so they’re pretty sore.” His hands looked destroyed! Haha. I then got him to sign my album, and I gave him the only pen I had on me, which to be honest was a bit of a crappy marker. As he took my KIT cover to sign it, he started to scrawl his signature but then pen smudged. He said, “uh-ho, bad pen!” and I said “uh-ho” … although I was really panicking about the pen smudging, it was really funny. He rubbed it and it did smudge a little, but he finished it off and said “you know what; I’ll go over that in biro too. You’ve got a really unique signature there, man!” Haha. He signed over it again in case the marker pen rubbed off, leaving kinda 2 signatures in one. Really cool. I then got a photo with him, he had to hunch a little (was very tall!) but all was cool… I was surprised that I’d managed to talk to him for so long!
Next was Adam, who was at first pretty much engulfed by American women. When they went and I finally got to talk to him, again I told him that they’d played a great show, and thanked him, and he said thanks back. When he saw the KIT album that I was getting him to sign, he said “oh cool, I haven’t seen many of these , where did you get it from, the internet or something?” I told him no, I think it was from a UK rep (couldn’t remember at the time!) and he said “oh cool – the UK reps spreading the love”, or something to that extent. Whatever he said, it was cool. I then said “do you reckon you’ll be coming back again - has it been good?” to which he replied “yeah we’ve really enjoyed it… we’ve booked a March date in for the Garage, however it is that you UK people say garage…” Haha. I told him it was “gar-aaage” (the posh version) and he laughed. I then got him to sign the other KIT – “for my friend that was in the front row with me, but she had to leave.” I think I remember him saying that he saw us, but whatever, I just smiled and got my photo taken, then moved on. Adam was definitely cool, a really nice guy, softly spoken and really good to talk to.
Ryan was next, and he had probably about 7 Americans around him, who he was talking to. My dad said “get in there, before it’s too late” so I went up to him, and without even looking at me really, he took my album and signed it. I wanted to hang around for a photo but at the same time not really look like a weirdo-stalker, so I decided I’d let it calm until the other people went away. They did in the end, and I approached him again, and he said “hey man, we’ve already done this!” Haha. I said “no… I was just wondering if I could get a photo with you” but then I realised he was messing… he said “aw it’s ok man” and when my dad took the photo he said “hey! Hey! Hi! Hello!” and waved at the camera. It’s a classic photo. I thanked him and then walked off again in search of Joe.
Joe was leaning against the bar, talking to another bloke. I said hey again, and got him to sign my album and get a photo taken. That was pretty much it. As I walked away I thought “oh #####”, ‘cos I meant to ask him about his solo stuff, which I also really enjoy. I didn’t wanna go back and look like a dork though. Ah well – next time!
So that was it! What a great night I have… something I’ll never forget, my first Guster experience. A great concert and they’re great guys. I’m gonna see about booking my March tickets soon, I’ll hopefully be there! (can’t see why not, it’s on a Saturday! Yay!)
Sorry that was so long, I just had a lot to say about it, such a cool night. Two Points if you read all that;)
~Liam
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