Bush, Rival Sons & Filter
April 26, 2025
Rogers Place, Edmonton, AB
It was a ’90s grunge renaissance tonight at Rogers Place in Edmonton with ’90s mega-stars Bush, who were joined by Filter and Rival Sons.
Filter kicked off the evening with a 7-song set that included their 2 hits, Take A Picture and Hey Man, Nice Shot. Solid set, they sounded great, and were a fun band to check off the bucket list. As a young guitar player, “Hey Man” was one of the first “heavy” riffs I learned.
Long Beach throwback rockers Rival Sons followed shortly after – bringing their blues-rock, 70’s throwback style zeal to the evening, delivering an energetic set comprised largely of songs from “Great Western Valkyrie”. Super fun band with a very familiar style that I can only really categorize as modern classic rock.
Far and away, the most eagerly anticipated band of the night was Bush. I saw and shot them in 2019 at K-Days, where their set was eventually cut short because of rain. To see a full, arena-grade show from these guys was pure awesome. Just a juggernaut of energy, they came straight out of the gates with “Everything Zen” and followed up with “Machinehead”.
There’s something that’s just so much fun about being able to take photos during one of your favorite songs by a band, and as I did my thing, I happily sang along to every word of both. After having to retreat back to the conference room when we were done shooting “All Things Must Change”, I had to bring my camera gear to coat check, and didn’t get back to my spot until the end of Swallowed, which was a bummer to miss. I think it was during “Flowers on a Grave” that singer Gavin Rossdale ripped out in to the crowd, making his way all the way to the very back of the floor, hugging fans along the way, then climbing the stairs of the lower bowl, all the way to the upper row of the furthest away seats, singing away, giving hearty embraces and just making for some really cool, intimate moments for those in attendance tonight.
The 3-song encore included Glycerine, performed solely by Rossdale and about 10,000 of his closest friends. Goosebumps. It was awesome.
Even during the final number, “Comedown” had the entire arena singing along, capping off one of my favorite performances of the year so far.
