At The Arcada Theatre With CATEGORY 7

All Photos By Travis Failey Photography

Fans of hard rock and heavy metal have been familiar with the name John Bush for decades. He has been the frontman for Armored Saint and when Anthrax made the decision to replace Joey Belladonna, Bush got the call. He took the job and the rest as they say is “history.” Musical history that is. Bush and Anthrax reached some big highs and some unfortunate lows later in the years due to changes in the music industry and with their labels.

The band released 4 studio albums with the first one being Sound of White Noise which reached the highest position on Billboards top 200 at number 7. The album had multiple singles with the track “Only” being called a perfect song by many people in the industry including James Hetfield of Metallica. The release is considered a must have by the metal community as is Symbol of Salvation by Armored Saint which was released 2 years before Bush joined Anthrax. 2 monster albums produced by Dave Jerden with well written musical pieces and the same powerhouse singer in John Bush.

After their final led Bush album in We Come For You All, which to me is one of Anthrax’s best, and the band in a period of flux, Anthrax was offered a considerable sum of money to be a part of the Ozzfest festival. The one caveat being was that Joey Belladonna was to be back leading the band.

It was an offer they couldn’t refuse and the switch was made but the band never played the Ozzfest tour with Sharon being the only one who knows why. This also coincided with Anthrax’s 20th anniversary with former guitarist Dan Spitz also rejoining the band and they toured and played multiple festivals with this lineup until Spitz departed once again.

Since then though, Bush and Armored Saint have released multiple albums and so has Anthrax, with both bands receiving high praise for the material.

The question though for many fans of both bands and Bush specifically was if Bush and/or Anthrax would ever revisit their material live.

That leads us to Thursday night in St. Charles, IL, just outside of Chicago. Bush brought his current side project to the Arcada Theatre in Category 7 to play songs from their debut release and to also play material from his time with Anthrax. This show was only one of three tour stops with the others being in two other major cities, in L.A. and in New York.

Category 7 is a metal super group, fronted by Bush with Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmell, Adrenaline Mob guitarist Mike Orlando, Exodus bassist Jack Gibson and Exodus & Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner. For this tour though, Joey Vera would be manning the bass duties as Gibson had a scheduling conflict. Vera is tight with Bush as they have been bandmates and best pals in Armored Saint since the beginning. Vera is also a consummate pro and meshed in perfectly with the rest of the band.

Category 7 came out to a packed house and performed a non-stop metal onslaught of 6 songs with minimal chatter between songs except for Bush thanking the crowd and introducing the band. The stage setup was also minimal with a digital image of the band’s name and logo shining brightly behind Jason Bittner’s drumkit.

There were 2 additions though to the Arcada Theatre stage as two Christmas trees flanked the stage as the band opened with “Land I Used To Love” and “Exhausted.” Both of these songs are heavy but also melodic with a pinch of thrash mixed in. The debut release is a hard as nails nonstop assault on your senses that contains no filler.

Category 7 continued with 4 more songs and gave Bush a much-deserved break as they finished with an instrumental in “Etter Storman.” This song let the band shine as Demmel & Orlando traded leads with Bittner and Vera in backline synch. The band raised their guitars and Bittner his sticks as the band departed for a short 15–20-minute break which the crowd appreciated highly.

Bush and the boys then retook the stage with Bush knowing how to pull on the heart strings of Chicagoans by wearing a Chicago Bulls John Paxson jersey. My friend asked me why Paxson and I responded by telling him that John is a damn good hoops player that has a deadly jump shot. This was confirmed by Frank Bello from Anthrax so it made sense that he would pick a sharpshooter from the Bulls first Championship run.

The band opened with “Potters Field” from Sound of White Noise, and instantly the crowd was taken back to 1993. The video screen had a huge blimp wrapped in chains with spiders crawling on it and really brightened up the whole stage and theatre as a whole as the Christmas trees shined in glitter, green & gold.

The band didn’t really on material from just Sound of White noise though as they varied the setlist with singles they released and deep cuts from all 4 albums. After “Potters Field, they played songs from the other three releases in “Random Acts of Senseless Violence” (Stomp 442) “Refused To Be Denied” (We Come For You All) & “Inside Out” (Volume 8.)
John talked about Dimebag Darrell from Pantera being a big part of the band during their recording sessions after Danny Spitz left Anthrax. Dime contributed on multiple songs including “Cadillac Rock Box” & “Kingsize,” both of which the band played on Thursday night with Demmel & Orlando performing Dime’s parts perfectly.

The set was intense and non-stop but did slow down a bit during “Black Lodge” where the band was joined by Villianvex ( Analise Rahn) on keyboards. And yes, it was strange and a first for me seeing a keyboard on stage as the band played an Anthrax song.

Bush then went into the first row of the crowd to the fans’ delight during “Room for One More” and they finished the main set with a crowd favorite in “Fueled.”

After a brief intermission, the band came out and did a two song encore that featured “What Doesn’t Die” and the aforementioned “Only.” During the former, Bittner completely pulled off one of the harder drumbeats created by Charlie Benante who I’m sure was impressed as he was in the crowd taking in the show to support his friends and brothers.

Bush then got the crowd to chant “Ohhhhnnnnly” and bounced back and forth vocally between him and the crowd which the fans happily obliged. As the house lights lit up and the band took pics with a screaming crowd behind them, the question hit me, “Was this the show of the year?

I had to ask myself: Am I just being a prisoner of the moment? The resounding answer was “No Way.” Fans including myself have been waiting for years to see this material played live once again and John Bush and his bandmates in Category 7 left it all on the stage, giving the fans what they have been waiting years for.

Will the turnout and the response lead to additional tour dates? Bush has mentioned possibly but next year’s schedule is pretty booked as Armored Saint is releasing a new album with a tour to follow.

At some point though, due to the fan’s response and how the band sounded and the overwhelming enjoyment that looked on their faces while doing the material from John’s tenure in Anthrax, It is inevitable that there will be more dates added at some point or hopefully at least there’s “Room for One More.”

Setlist:

1. “Potter’s Field”
2. “Random Acts of Senseless Violence”
3. “Refused to Be Denied”
4. “Inside Out”
5. “Cadillac Rock Box”
6. “Hy Pro Glo”
7. “1000 Points of Hate”
8. “Crush”
9. “Nobody Knows Anything”
10. “Black Lodge”
11. “King Size”
12. “Safe Home”
13. “Room for One More”
14. “Fueled”

Encore:

15. “What Doesn’t Die”
16. “Only”

JOHN BUSH