Guster

Wednesday 4th March. Bush Hall. Guster. Big night tonight, the bush plays host to Guster for their first London show in eight years as well as the London derby of QPR v The Arsenal. It’s a home fan only policy in all of the pubs which seems a bit excessive when I imagine all of the Rangers season ticket holders could fit into the local Nandos.

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

Although Guster started playing underground shows during the early years of the band, they soon found themselves breaking into the musical mainstream playing to huge audiences that were dying to hear them live.
Guster is able to get rich atmospheric sounds live with crisp, pristine acoustic guitars shimmering over their ornate soundscape. The band’s main songwriters, Ryan Miller and Adam Gardner, have excellent dynamics on stage with Adam usually singing the chorus in a deeper vocal range and Ryan singing a harmony in a higher pitch to create a rich sound. Their vocal harmonies are also interesting because Ryan and Adam are often singing different lyrics when they are harmonizing. The band’s drummer, Brian Rosenworcel, also has a unique style of performance often playing with his bare hands and using different drums than a usual drum kit such as bongos. Brian’s drumming style was so unique and entrancing that his fans have labeled him as the “Thundergod”.
The band wants the environment of their performance to be very open and friendly so they do not enforce any restrictions on live taping and allow the audience to freely record their live performances if they want. The band also follows unique traditions during their live performances such as letting the drummer sing obscure cover songs for the encore. During their performance of “Airport Song” the audience has a tradition of throwing ping-pong balls onto the stage after the end of the song. Guster is also known for performing hilarious antics on stage as well as maintaining a close relationship with their audience. Guster is well loved by their fan base and have impressed numerous of respectable musicians that they have toured with such as Rufus Wainwright, Ben Folds, and Pete Yorn. You never know what to expect at a Guster performance. You could hear a cover of the Cheers theme song or you might see the band dancing with KFC buckets on their heads (all things which the band has done), but you can definitely expect to be in awe of their immense talents and their catchy music.

Massachusetts alternative rockers Guster may not be particularly a household name in the UK but when they do visit Britain you are assured that the fans will turn up in force for the powerful sounds created by this quartet of musicians. They also appear slightly taken aback by the scene they are presented with and take a moment to take it all in before beginning a setlist that reaches from almost all of their long discography that now spans two decades.

The music ties together really nicely and the band moves from track to track succinctly as they have developed the sounds to have a really slick consistency. This is a credit to their instrumental ability and skill onstage, the group has been touring tirelessly since their beginnings and the payoff is this loyal, dedicated following. They demonstrate the passion they have during 'Do You Love Me?' and this keeps the audience clapping along all evening. Perhaps the UK really are missing a trick when it comes to Guster, it would definitely seem so from the show tonight.

An incredible evening! Although Ryan was under the weather (having recounted a very entertaining adventure about getting a steroid shot the day of the show in order to sing) he still managed to give it his all and sounded amazing. Every time I see these guys live, I'm blown away, and this was no exception. Ryan came out into the crowd and walked across the armrests of the row in front, and we also got to hear a song about a single piece of confetti. Love these guys, can't wait for them to come back through NY again.

Fantastic show! Not only doing a show, but then following it up with doing the Lost and Gone album in its entirety was wonderful. They are always entertaining live and put on a good show. This album is very tied into my life so being able to hear it in full live is a once in a lifetime experience.

This was our fist time at the venue, and even as 'standing only' for GA it was a great time. I recommend hitting up Punchline across the street before the show for some drinks and small bites.

Great band! Very versatile musicians. Truthfully, wasn't familiar with much of Guster's music outside of "Keep it Together." So it was a bit of a rare experience for me to really enjoy tunes I'd never heard. Amazing percussion. Stick-free drummer was remarkable. Terrific rapport with audience. Concert exceeded expectations.

Guster were Brilliant! Thanks to not being very well known in Europe (yet) it was a very small venue and pretty much felt like a private concert. Excellent music, nice guys, fabulous Dutch beer and a great city - all on a Sunday night!

My first time seeing Guster. Singers sounded great live. Fun show, they played for about an hour and twenty before fireworks. They played a 3 song encore including Amsterdam,last song I did not know. Kids liked it too.

GREAT NIGHT, GREAT SHOW!! My review must be 30 words long... I really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really liked the guster show.

One of the best shows I ve ever seen!
Guster is a nice band but the show they've put was quite amazing!
Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was their last show on the tour.