Bush Comes Home, Sort Of -- The Band's British, But The Rock Is Pure Seattle

----------------------------------------------------------------- Concert preview

Bush, the Goo Goo Dolls and No Doubt, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Tacoma Dome; $22.50, 628-0888. -----------------------------------------------------------------

You've got to admire Gavin Rossdale's baldfaced ambition, because he's honest about it.

The lead singer of Bush openly admits he imitated the Seattle sound on Bush's "Sixteen Stone" album, which has sold 3 million copies and produced five hit singles. His songs offer Seattle grunge cleaned up just enough for commercial rock radio. They're full of hooks, catch phrases and anthems, and bristle with the kind of violent and sexual imagery young men identify with.

Rossdale claims to be mystified by his pinup-boy image, but Bush's videos blatantly exploit his good looks - the camera lingers on his boyish face - and on the cover of the current Rolling Stone he's shown in bed, shirtless, with a coy, come-hither look.

Ignored at home

Bush is a British band but you'd hardly know it from listening to "Everything Zen," "Glycerine, "Comedown" or any of its other grungy, hard-driving rock songs. The band sounds so American, in style and even in Rossdale's pronunciation of the lyrics, that the British rock press has turned its back on Bush. They mostly ignore the band, or criticize it.

"When Chris Cornell slagged us off, they printed that," Rossdale noted wryly from a tour stop in California.

That slap from the lead singer of Soundgarden hurt, Rossdale hinted, but he said he had no trepidation as the tour neared here because the band was well received in shows last year at Moe and Endfest.

"We've been so labeled with the Seattle tag that it now seems totally crazy," he said in a soft English accent.

The last time he was here he stayed a week, he said, even recording a song here for the soundtrack of "Mallrats."

"I loved it," he said. "I was going down to the Market every day, having coffee, looking at the water and the mountains. You have great food there, great restaurants."

We also have one of his very good friends, Courtney Love. He said he was looking forward to seeing her here.

"She's an amazing woman," he offered. "A very interesting woman; a dizzying experience."

Whereas some - like the British rock press - see Rossdale's friendship with Kurt Cobain's widow as just another attempt to link Bush with Seattle, Rossdale said their friendship stemmed mostly from a mutual interest in music.

A better brand of mainstream

He admitted, however, that Nirvana was one of his main influences - as can clearly be heard on "Little Things" and other Bush songs. He said he's glad Bush has helped bring Nirvana-inspired alternative music into the mainstream.

"It's far better to not allow the mainstream to just have really puerile stuff," he explained. "It's far better to have popularity with music that has some kind of relevance or cultural significance."

Rossdale denied he's been selling his sound with sex, despite the Rolling Stone cover.

"It's crazy, crazy," he insisted. "Figure this - I've been in two other bands, and this band's been going like a few years, so five-six years of playing properly and my looks didn't accelerate me none then! It's such a strange thing at 28 to be finally successful, and suddenly it's because of my looks."

Fame hasn't boosted his ego, he said. Quite the opposite.

"I find it makes you even more fragile," he observed. "That's the funny thing about it. It's just hard to live in everyone's face the whole time."

Within the whirlwind of rock stardom, his anchor is performing his songs live, he said. "All these songs save my life the whole time. The songs that matter don't change for me. I can still sing them with conviction."

In addition to songs from "Sixteen Stone," Bush will play a few new songs and some covers here, Rossdale said.

The Goo Goo Dolls had been underground favorites for years before the surprise hit "Name," from their "Boy Named Goo" album, broke big late last year.

But the song, a sweet ballad with touching lyrics, is an anomaly for the group, which is primarily a roaring, thrashy alternative band. Fans who only know the Goo Goos from "Name" may be surprised at the band's powerful, fiery stage presence.

No Doubt is another veteran alternative band with an unlikely breakthrough hit single, the bouncy "Just A Girl," which has been out five months but is still climbing the charts.