Buck Cherry & Hoobastank- Live Review

Buckcherry & Hoobastank 

                                 @ Rock City, 15th Feb 2019


Boy were we excited to see Californian 90’s band, Hoobastank on the Rock City 2019 Gig list.
The term “gateway band” is batted around quite frequently, but alongside Incubus and The Offspring, for us, Hoobastank were right up there! The early days of Hush’s Rock love affair! 

Hoobastank have been active since 1994, but with a new album out last year, these guys are no sentimental flash back band, they’re current and still pushing forwards. Luckily they did blast out a few of the old favourites as well as treating us to the newer tracks, and although the newer stuff was received well, the hit of the night was obviously ‘The Reason’, with the crowd singing louder than the speakers and loving every second of it. We love Rock City, it’s our favourite venue and we always have a blast here, but on this night, for both bands, we found the sound not ideal. The levels were off and didn’t capture the talent that you could tell was being presented, they’ve had the new floor, maybe it’s time for a new speaker system…

Having said that, Hoobastank are great. Vocalist Douglas has the gem of rock voices, the actual ability to properly sing! But without the sound being too singy…if you get me?! They have obviously become a refined machine over the years, playing with both technicality and passion- the perfect combo. 

Buckcherry storm onto the stage like a band possessed. After years of touring (this being their 9th time at Rock City) they still trike us here at Hush like they are a band that still love to do what they do. They own the stage, the room and the crowd within milliseconds. The staging was ultimate class and style, red curtains and a subtle name banner, Buckcherry know how to do this tour-thing right. 

Undeniably cool (in a late 80s, hair-metal kind of way) Buckcherry have more energy than most bands half their age, front-man Josh commands crowd and stage with a performance worthy of a young Axl Rose playing The Rainbow in L.A. Treating the eager audience to tracks old and new, Buckcherry have got a cool contemporary sound with hints and nods to rocks history past.

The tour is representing their upcoming new record Warpaint which is out next month, check it out!


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