The Hordern Pavilion has hosted plenty of rock history, and tonight is another big night that arrives in the shape of a bill spanning three countries and several generations of rock.
New Zealand’s Coast Arcade open proceedings before Bush and Shinedown take over.
Bush formed in London in 1992, the band broke internationally with 1994 debut Sixteen Stone, the album that delivered ‘Glycerine’, ‘Machinehead’ and ‘Comedown’ and propelled them into the thick of the alternative-rock explosion. More than three decades later, there is still considerable muscle behind those songs.
And then there is Gavin Rossdale’s voice. It sounds absolutely amazing tonight, carrying the grit and weight that made those early Bush records so instantly recognisable while losing none of its power. He delights the crowd as he heads into the pit and shakes hands with those lucky enough to be on the barrier. With Chris Traynor, Corey Britz and Nik Hughes alongside him, Rossdale commands the Hordern with the ease of someone who has spent decades learning exactly how to work a room this size.
Bush have also refused to become a band preserved in the 1990s. After splitting in 2002 and reforming in 2010, they have released six more albums, most recently 2025’s I Beat Loneliness. Tonight those different eras sit comfortably beside one another, but it is Rossdale’s voice that remains the gravitational centre of the band.
Before Shinedown arrive, things take a wonderfully strange turn. The Hordern is treated first to John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, followed by some INXS, before a figure wearing a suit and a television for a head appears and dances to Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’. It is bizarre, funny and completely unexpected, turning the wait between bands into a piece of theatre in its own right.
Then Shinedown storm on and any lingering weirdness is promptly blown skywards. Pyrotechnics erupt around the stage as the Jacksonville band make their long-awaited Australian return, immediately turning the Hordern into an arena-rock spectacle. After more than 15 years away from Australian stages, they certainly aren’t easing themselves back into the country.
Formed by Brent Smith in 2001, Shinedown now have eight studio albums behind them, more than 8.3 billion streams and 24 Number One rock hits. Smith and longtime drummer Barry Kerch are joined by Zach Myers and Eric Bass, with a catalogue stretching from 2003’s Leave a Whisper through The Sound of Madness, Amaryllis and Planet Zero to this year’s EI8HT.
Tonight, though, the numbers matter less than the sheer scale of the performance. Shinedown dazzle with pyrotechnics and a show built to fill every corner of the Hordern, while Smith provides the focal point at the centre of it all. Between Coast Arcade’s opening salvo, Rossdale’s extraordinary vocal performance and Shinedown’s explosive return, this is a night that understands rock theatre should occasionally be allowed to go gloriously overboard.
The tour moves to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth next, tickets HERE.
Images Deb Pelser
