From: Tim Forster (forster@borg24.jsc.nasa.gov)
Subject: Lush Set at Buzzfest April 20th 1996
To: bkeeley@ucsd.edu
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 96 14:14:31 CDT
Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85]

I have the Reality's Lush Webpage in my bookmarks and thought you'd like
possibly my impressions of their set at Buzzfest on Saturday April 20th
in Houston at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. I hope you can overlook
my editorial comments and aren't too put off by this. I did get sunburnt and
I was rather disappointed with the whole affair.

First things first, Buzzfest was a 'festival' if you will put on by a local
Houston radio station known as 107.5 the 'Buzz'. It was supposedly supposed 
to be a showcase of the bigger 'alternative' (a label that's got as much meaning
to me as the Generation X label the media like to associate with anyone who's in
their 20's) acts  on the mainstage while showing off what Houston has to offer
musically on the secondary stage near the overpriced beverage and t-shirt 
vending booths. It seemed more like an excuse to promote the Hunger (a local
Houston band who is promoted out the wazoo by the radio stations here  with no
merit other than they seem to be a somewhat 'safe' version of those oh so many
Nine Inch Nail copy bands that seem to be popping up all over ... kinda like
The New Kids on the Block doing Industrial , if you can picture that sickening
image.) and the Nixons (who although an established act had little to offer
musically other than they were buddy-buddy with the people at the radio station)

But enough of my complaints....

Lush seemed to have a good sound despite their short (only about thirty minutes
tops) set. They started playing about 5:10 in the afternoon. I was up in the 
cheap seats on the lawn so I was quite a distance from the stage although I did have a good view and could hear the sound rather crystal clear. That's the one 
good thing about this venue. I have yet to see a concert here where the sound is
awful. However, it was hard to tell what was going on on the stage as it 
was utter chaos in the crowd as well as on stage between sets, so it was
anyone's guess when they were going to come on stage. I knew they were going on
soon when they wheeled out Emma's guitar rig (a rackmount affair with two 
Marshall 4x12's next to it). And then the band came on finally about 10 minutes
before they were actually slated to play (I knew this mainly because of Miki andEmma picking up their guitars - Miki you couldn't miss from a distance as she
still has her trademark magenta hair and was wearing this fluorescent green 
dress made of some really metallic looking material that made her visible even 
in the nosebleed section). 

After an extremely lame introduction by one of the radio personalities, they
began their set, albeit a rather short and uneventful one. Here's a set list
from what I remember (I may not have the exact order right here as I was put
in a rather bad mood after ther second song - you'll see why if you read a 
bit further).

1. Heroes
2. The Childcatcher
3. Ladykillers
4. For Love
5. Single Girl
6. Sweetness and Light
7. Hypocrite 

They started off with Heroes from the new album, which was a letter perfect
rendition as the album version (a mark that they are indeed very professional
musicians and they know their material well) and proceeded into their next song,
The Childcatcher, which I informed my friend Jim - who is not as much of a Lush
fan as myself but he digs 'em okay - when they finished, that 
this indeed was a song they had been performing for a while. They finished the
second song , and Miki proceeded to become slightly angry at the neanderthals
in front of the stage ... you know the type who mosh just for the hell of it?..
the type who would mosh even to polka? ... well, one or more of them apparently
disposed of his plastic cup (of beer or soda? I dunno which) by lobbing it onto 
the stage. Miki proceeded to put the little wanker in his place by saying 
something to the effect that it was a cowardly act
and that he should know better lest the 'four blokes backstage' (I assumed the
security) use other means of convincing him to behave. I was quite welcome to
know that this really was Lush (due to Miki's known ... well, guts ... when 
dealing with people of that nature) on stage due to this incident but things
gradually degraded into utter chaos on the crowd's part. Right after For Love,
Miki had queried (as I heard while running for cover to another section of the
lawn seats) what was going up in the lawn seats as all sorts of debris (full 
cups of soda and beer, coozies, 1/2 empty trays of nachos, etc...) were being
thrown around by ill behaved concertgoers. Lush performed three more
songs in rapid succession, stopping only briefly for Miki to offer a suggestion
for a man in the front row near the pit to restrain himself from his rather
obvious and public advances towards the young woman in his vicinity. They went
off immediately after finishing the last song, faster than you could say 'Damn, 
that was quick.'

I don't know whether they had kept the set short due to their pending perform-
ance in Dallas which was the day after or because they were so rudely treated
by the crowd. I hope it was not the latter, as I hope to see the band pass 
through this way again (hopefully, they'll play somewhere like #'s (Numbers)
where they'll be appreciated and shown a little more respect that's due to them
by those in attendance at one of their gigs. ) and if this is the case, then
I sincerely apologize to the band that they were not welcomed as they should 
have been by the crowd at Buzzfest. There were some of us here who did buy
tickets just to see Lush!

Oh well...Thanks for your time and patience in reading this, Reality. And kudos to your Lush website. So far it's been the most informative (for me as a fan)
site on the subject I have seen thus far. And if you're ever in Houston, check
out Violent Blue. My friend Edward is the guitarist for the band. He's pretty
damn good. I have a feeling you might like them as they are heavily influenced
by Lush and other ethereal sounding artists.

Tim Forster 
forster@borg24.jsc.nasa.gov