On Thursday, December 18, the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois, hosted a rare celebration of 90s thrash history as legendary vocalist John Bush took the stage for the second of three exclusive concerts dedicated to his decade-long tenure with Anthrax. The event offered fans a deep dive into the four albums Bush recorded with the New York icons: Sound Of White Noise, Stomp 442, Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, and We’ve Come For You All.
The night was a marathon for the musicians involved. Bush was backed by his current Category 7 bandmates—guitarists Phil Demmel and Mike Orlando, and drummer Jason Bittner—who also performed an opening set as Category 7 earlier in the evening. However, the lineup saw a special adjustment in the rhythm section; with Category 7 bassist Jack Gibson unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict, Bush recruited his longtime Armored Saint cohort and best friend Joey Vera to handle low-end duties for the Anthrax set.
The performance featured a 16-song setlist that balanced radio staples with tracks that have gone unplayed for nearly twenty years. The full setlist was as follows:
- “Potters Field“
- “Random Acts Of Senseless Violence“
- “Refuse To Be Denied“
- “Inside Out“
- “Cadillac Rock Box“
- “Hy Pro Glo“
- “1000 Points Of Hate“
- “Crush“
- “Nobody Knows Anything“
- “Black Lodge“
- “King Size“
- “Safe Home“
- “Room For One More“
- “Fueled “
Encore:
- “What Doesn’t Die“
- “Only“
Preparing for these shows required significant effort from the vocalist, who hadn’t touched much of this material since his departure from Anthrax in 2005. In a recent conversation on “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz,” Bush admitted that dusting off the old catalog was a mental exercise. “Well, I’ve been singing to the Anthrax songs right now because I’m trying to remember them,” Bush explained. “Strangely enough, they actually are coming back to me, which is funny ’cause I haven’t sung those songs in years. Some of ’em I have — I did a couple things at the Metal Allegiance shows that we did — but mostly just like ‘Only‘ and maybe ‘Room For One More‘. Yeah, it’s funny how my memory is still there. I still have a lot of work to do, but, yeah, it’s good… But, yeah, this is a memory challenge, for sure.”
During the same interview, Bush reflected on his final studio output with the band, 2003’s We’ve Come For You All, viewing it as a creative high point despite industry hurdles in the States. “Yeah. I look fondly on all of ’em, really, to be honest. I think all four records are really cool — all a little different from one another,” he said. “But We’ve Come For You All was pretty solid. We signed to Nuclear Blast in Europe at that time, so they kind of gave us a resurgence, ’cause they’re a great label in Europe and they just know what they’re doing. And we really kind of re-established ourselves on that record, particularly in Europe. In America, I think it was on Sanctuary, and I think they kind of folded not too long after that. So, not as well of a job done here in America, but it was still received well and we toured and some great, great tunes on that record.”
