On a hot summer night in LA in 2009, Gavin Rossdale gave a free concert at The Grove. I can tell you all straight up that he’s amazing, but he had two opening acts that I’ve never heard before at that time. They were Amy Kuney and Varsity Fanclub. Perhaps I should be open to new people or at least pay more attention to what’s going on in the music business now, the fact is that from all the people that I talked that night, nobody knew them. Apparently, both are well-known from their myspace pages.
This time, I got there early to find a good spot to watch the concert, take pictures and document everything that I could. It all started with the girl from Oklahoma State singing songs from her album, Bird’s Eye View, followed by the five guys singing and dancing like ‘N Sync ten years later. All I can say is they were so amusing because it looked like they were more concerned about the dance moves than the singing itself. It was quite funny and entertaining.
Finally, Gavin Rossdale showed up! My first impression of him was that he’s skinnier live than when on TV, but still in good shape. Besides, he has such great energy on stage that really amazed me. He surpassed my expectations. I must confess that I didn’t know all his songs because I didn’t follow his career since he was in Bush, but to my surprise, he pulled it out a great concert for around 10.000 people that evening. On the opposite side, I met two girls that were almost passing out with the idea of being there, especially because anyone close enough could notice that the girls are hardcore fans since Bush, when they were around 13 years old. Jenny and Samantha Pilcher, said the concert was incredible, outstanding. Honestly, I even felt a little embarrassed, the girls were singing all his songs and I was trying to capture everything around me.
He switched between ballads and heavier sounds. Definitely one of the coolest moments was when he and the whole audience were singing in one choir “Love Remains The Same”. This concert was part of Summer Concert Series that The Grove puts on each year. For this year, they had a partnership with 104.3 MyFM, which promoted the concerts for a month.
The night was going so good and just like me, people were truly making most of their time there. Putting all those elements together plus his impressive performance only made the night perfect! Unfortunately, pleasing moments as this one always come to an end. Without nobody even noticing, he had to say goodbye.
**Read while listening to “Glycerine” and “Love Remains The Same”.
Music by Mary 