BUSH-MOBY CONCERT NEWEST SIGNAL OF ROCK'S REVIVAL

Sammy Hagar's was the only rock concert at the Show Me Center in 1997. The Christian alternative rock band Jars of Clay carried the rock 'n' roll flag alone in 1998. In 1999, the Goo Goo Dolls had the place to themselves.

But in 2000, with the announcement Wednesday of a concert April 5 by Bush and Moby, the Show Me Center has booked three rock 'n' roll shows in less than three months.

Def Leppard and Joan Jett broke the most recent drought with a well-attended concert Jan. 21, while Friday's show with Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Laidlaw is sold out.

The upcoming concert by Bush and Moby is part of the spring MTV Campus Invasion Tour.

David Ross, director of the Show Me Center, is happy to see rock 'n' roll return to the venue.

"It's a nice feeling to have people asking again," he said.

It's hard to tell where these results are coming from, Ross said. "Maybe it's happenstance, maybe it's not. We're working on it."

The market seems to be swinging back toward rock 'n' roll after so many years when country music was boss.

The Lynyrd Skynyrd-ZZ Top concert was offered when the bands' tour was extended, Ross said. "There's nothing we did other than be available and acceptable when they called."

The Show Me Center pursued a date with the MTV Campus Invasion Tour at the urging of Southeast Missouri State University students.

"We are committed to bringing more variety here," Ross said. "We went after it and got it."

He said the Show Me Center already is looking for another concert, possibly with an up-and-coming rock band that could be paired with a local band to play before 2,000 to 3,000 people.

When concert dates began drying up, the Show Me Center substituted alternative programming such as soccer tournaments and girls basketball tournaments. The center booked more than 100 dates from July through the end of January. A typical year is 160 bookings.

"We've been extremely busy," Ross said.

Bush has played much bigger arenas than the Show Me Center, but in this case the center benefited from being at a university. "The MTV tour wanted to play college markets," Ross said.

Bush had five hit singles with the band's first CD, "Sixteen Stone," selling over seven million copies just in the United States.

The band's 1997 single, "Mouth," was part of the soundtrack to the film "An American Werewolf in Paris" and was one of the band's biggest hits.

The newest album is titled "The Science of Things."

Moby's CDs "Everything is Wrong," "Animal Rights" and "Play" have garnered the techno remixer a growing number of fans. He sang a duet with Elton John at the recent Grammy awards show. "He's hot now," Ross said.

Tickets for the MTV Campus Invasion Tour will go on sale at 9 a.m. Monday at the Show Me Center box office and at ticket outlets. Southeast Missouri State University students can purchase tickets for $9.85 through the SAC Advantage Program.

Ross said some tickets for the Lynyrd Skynyrd-ZZ Top show could become available on the day of the concert. More than 6,600 tickets have been sold.

The Show Me Center has a capacity of 7,200 seats, but how many of those extra seats have views of the stage depends on how the bands set up, Ross said.