Collective Soul take us Back
show review by Scotty Evil
There was no wasting time at the Commodore Ballroom…in fact both bands took us back to completely different decades.
Warming the packed house for rockers Collective Soul, openers The Static Shift bounced gleefully onto the stage. The power trio consisting of Mitchell Brady, Keone Friesen and Isaiah Stonehouse dialled back to the early 70’s…replete with bell-bottoms and long hair to match. They launched into the bluesy “Common Bliss” and had the audience bopping along immediately. It seriously sounded like some fantastic lost basement jam between early Zeppelin and Cream. The early rock influences were strong and well presented. The intro to “TheValley” reminds one of Stairway to Heaven yet takes a more southern turn. I was sad but not surprised that all their vinyl was sold out at the merch booth. Every song was entertaining, well composed, musically loose and fun. You could tell they were just plain
thrilled to be performing and poured themselves into every note.
And then the veterans took the stage. Collective Soul strode out and then frontman Ed Roland exploded on the stage, dancing and bouncing the mic stand back and forth. And while fans were chomping at the bit to reminisce with their catalog of hits, they were first to be treated to a few new songs yet to be released. According to the set list on stage, the first is titled “Now’s the Time”. Following up with another track, they kept going until Roland headed to the keyboard and launched the crowd into “Shine”. Just when we thought the song was ending he led the audience into a massive sing along…the fans
kept the volume up and cheered voraciously.
Ed Roland paused to compliment Vancouver saying what a pleasure it was always to come back. The banter was light and cheerful with the lead singer throwing peace signs in the air and the crowd responding in kind. He then strapped on an acoustic for much of the remainder, thanking fans for listening raptly to the new material but then pumping them up again with hits like “Precious Declaration” and “December”. As an added bonus, he announced that Collective Soul would be streaming four new tracks from their website on July 4th. “You heard it here first!”
The rest of the show flew by and Collective Soul ended it with more audience participation. The chorus of “Run” was carried by the fans as the band slowly exited the stage, the sounds of Ed Roland’s acoustic trailing off.
Then the lights came on and we all came back from the 90’s.
written by Scotty Evil
pics from Red Lenses Photography
©nightMair Creative.com
all rights reserved
Read our candid interview with Collective Soul’s first/original drummer Shane Evans on drug addiction, getting clean and sober, and reconnecting with the other band members.
