This past Sunday, a good friend and I rolled into The Rose Music Center at Huber Heights, Ohio around 5:45 p.m. with our anticipations high, and we were met immediately with kind and helpful staff and a quick entrance.
We found ourselves quickly at the beer booth, finding astonishingly low venue prices. $8 for a beer? $9.50 for draft? Quite a surprise right off the rip, and a change of pace from the $13-$20 price range of your standard city venues.
With free parking to pair, our energy was high and our excitement only growing. We found ourselves in the pit around 6:45 p.m., awaiting the energy that would soon be brought on by Our Lady Peace.
As the seemingly forgotten 90’s legends moved through a set plastered with hits and fan favorites, the crowd started off docile, slowly growing in energy.
The band worked their way through a six-song setlist, a seemingly short set, but nonetheless jam packed with some of their best and most recognizable work. By the end of the set, the crowd had finally worked its way into an energetic frenzy.
Three minutes before 8 p.m., Collective Soul came to the stage; a band I was eager to see, in hopes they’d go against my admittedly low expectations. As the band moved through the setlist, my opinions were contradicted swiftly, and the slate cleaned.
Between their incredible stage presence, plain as day camaraderie and sheer love for their craft, I was mesmerized. Not to mention, the truly captivating visual aspect that their light and screen show brought to the amphitheater.
As the set pressed on, I found myself a few times going “Holy Shit, THEY wrote this one?,” quickly realizing just how many well-written hits that the aging 90’s rockers have built in their incredibly long tenure.
The only downside for me, and admittedly this is purely opinion based, was that they often times felt a tad preachy. I know they’ve often stated that they’re not a “Christian band,” despite some faith leaning lyrics, but it felt like that was a hard thing to refute with the fairly frequent talk about the crowd becoming the congregation.
Otherwise, Collective Soul’s live show entirely reshaped my opinion on a band that I at one point had completely written off.
Last but not least, the Pennsylvania based 90’s icons LIVE rushed to the stage with an energy unmatched, immediately jumping into “Pain Lies By The Riverside,” the opening track to their 1991 debut LP Mental Jewelry, with the same energy as the day it released, if not more.
Hairs were standing up on the backs of necks surrounding us, an entire amphitheater immediately entranced and electrified, the 3,000+ crowd moving, swaying and jumping in unison.
Unaware of the set to unfold in front of us and eager with anticipation, the energy only continued to grow.
The band moved seamlessly into “Selling The Drama,” one of the many fan favorites from the incredible sophomore album Throwing Copper, an LP filled with some of the band’s biggest familiarities.
Again, somehow, the energy continued to grow. Ed Kowalczyk’s vocals as youthful and poise as ever and maybe even twice as sharp.
Moving next through another gorgeous expression from Throwing Copper, “All Over You” poured loudly over the ampitheater, matched beautifully with a light and screen show far too perfectly layered.
The energy AGAIN rising and rising. The entire building feeling intertwined, a clear purpose hanging over each and every one of us.
From then on, the band jumped album to album with more fan favorites and proof that LIVE is in fact one of, if not THE surviving, true-to-form remnant of the 1990’s music scene.
Laying upon us tracks including: “Iris,” “Lady Bhang” (the most recent single from the band, released in 2024) “T.B.D.,” “Shit Towne” and more.
Some of the highlights for the night were saved for the latter half with tracks “The Dolphins Cry” and the ever goosebump-inducing “White, Discussion,” a personal favorite and quite a surprise against the average tour setlist for 2025 so far—a true gem to watch unfold in person; passionate, gritty, and true to form.
Following that, we received one of the best tracks from 1997’s Secret Samadhi: “Lakini’s Juice.”
The band wrapped up the beautiful rainy evening with two absolutely massive tracks, household names “I Alone” and the tear-inducing “Lightning Crashes,” both saved to wrap up the evening in perfect fashion.
The crowd was alive, electric and left feeling full.
The energy that LIVE brings to a stage is truly unlike that of anything I’ve seen before, after 200 some concerts, I was left shook by a band far too slept on for such an expansive and beautiful discography.
Whatever you do, don’t miss this tour if it hits any cities surrounding you—you’d be depriving yourself of an evening of catharsis you likely need more than you know.
Get out now and get your tickets for the LIVE and Collective Soul Summer Unity Tour today.
Tour Dates
https://livetheband.com/#home-tour
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