Radio May Have Abandoned Them,
But Their Fans Haven't

Garbage Still Know How To Push It

You remember them - lots of big hits a few years ago, a great record called Version 2.0, singer Shirley Manson in every magazine…  So where did they go?

The answer, delivered this night at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre, is a resounding "nowhere!"  Radio may have abandoned them and music television has basically blown them off, but they're still here, blowing audiences away.  With a sell-out crowd firmly behind them, Garbage went through their extensive list of hits and showed that rock radio has made a serious mistake.

Out in support of their latest record, Beautiful Garbage, the band sprinkled in new tracks "Androgyny" and "Cherry Lips," but it was the string of hits that got the fans on their feet.  It was obvious that many of the fans weren't truly familiar with all of Garbage's music - they may have known a few songs, but there were a number of faces with a look suggesting they were unaware that the song being played was part of the Garbage catalog.

While Garbage put on a stunning show, part of the fun that evening was noting how many people said, at the beginning of each song, "That was Garbage?"

Shirley Manson, strutting about in a bleached-blond buzz cut, white tee-shirt (sans bra) and fatigues, hit the stage as a dynamo of energy, the fans eagerly joining in.  After two songs, Manson had to cut things short for a few minutes to change shoes, stating that the slope of the stage was throwing her off.  While many singers would have lost the crowd after stopping things cold like that, when Manson hit the stage again in more comfortable shoes, she took the reigns again and brought the crowd back to it's feet almost immediately.

The band did a superb job of mixing in the new material with Garbage classics like "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Push It" from 1998's multi-platinum Version 2.0, as well as fan favorite "Stupid Girl" from their self-titled 1995 debut record.   One of many high points in the show was the excellent rendition of the theme for the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough, which was much more raw than the original version.

If anything was obvious by the end of the evening, it was that even if rock radio has forgotten them, Garbage hasn't forgotten how to rock.