Guster are a massively underrated American power pop band with a number of very good albums full of catchy hooks and three part harmonies. They had a minor hit with Satellite a few years back and tonight it’s a pretty full Bush Hall welcoming them back to these shores after far too long.
A new album came out over here on Monday and the set leans heavily from that which is no bad thing. I got it a couple of months back from the US and it’s their best produced album. The songs seemed a little one paced on the record but live they really come to life full of energy and sound excellent tonight. Stand out tracks are ‘Endlessly’ and ‘Kid Dreams’. The three front men of Ryan, Adam and Luke are multi instrumentalists seamlessly swapping between keys, acoustic, electric and bass guitars after every song.
The set, put together by Brian the drummer, has a good selection of oldies but no room for my favourites ‘Barrel of a Gun’ and ‘Amsterdam’ but they have enough great songs for this not to matter. Constant requests for ‘Satellite’ from a group of girls near the front are finally rewarded toward the end of the set. The band are clearly enjoying themselves and there’s great interaction with the crowd. There’s no pretence on stage and its a tight band doing what they do best. Dispensing with the charade of an encore they play through with the classic ‘Diane’ stealing the show. The band leave buts hey it’s not over, and after much shouting and screaming form the crowd the band return unplugged for a beautifully haunting version of ‘Jesus on the Radio’, their harmonies complementing perfectly with one another. We all leaving humming the refrain on our way out into the ‘bush.
I am quickly coming to the opinion that Bush Hall is one of the best music venues in London with the last three gigs I have seen there, Delta Spirit, Hiss Golden Messenger and Guster, being in my top nights in the past twelve months.
Keep on rockin y’all