Collective Soul, Concert Review Options

[LiveRoCkS77]

Well, they managed to sell out a 6,000 seat venue in a small city. Which tells me that fans of this band are alive and well.

From what I've heard, Roland rarely ever swears, but this changed a little this night. It starts off with him coming out only to realize his monitors aren't working. So he tells the crowd "fuck these guys, I'll entertain you while they get their shit worked out." He plays a song solo acoustic and asks some guy if their shit is in order yet and when the guy flahes a flashlight at him, Roland responds "I don't know what a flashing fucking light in my eyes means, are we ready?"

Ok, so while I'll readily admit that this guy is a little goofy and off, I kinda like it. Don't really care if little fuckhead faggots like Nick and Hoodsucker don't....

During one point in All That I Know, Ed asks the crowd to sing two lines after he sings em. He says, "you're all now the lead singer of Collective Soul!" So he sings the two lines and the band stops so you can hear the crowd. He laughs out loud and says "not bad, now you're all fucking fired!" I actually started to laugh when I heard him say it, just didn't expect it I guess.

Now to the show. The band sounded fucking great. Joel Kosche(SP?) is really a damn good guitarist. One of the highlights of the night was plating Georgia Girl from their new CD afterwords. For such a slow song, it was really well done with a gorgeous guitar solo from Joel in the middle. Ed sounded off to me from the last time I seen them but he seemed to be having a really great time. He wished a girl in the front a happy birthday and was responding to what the crowd was saying quite a bit. At one point saying to somebody "what? what you want to do what to me?" Something like that. Another guy asking a question apparently and Ed asking him what he said and all the guy screams is EDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!! Roland says "EDDDD, that not a fucking question!" Laughing the whole time. I dunno, but he seemed really confident and it rubbed off on the crowd.

The crowd was tame for the first while but by the end of the show, the whole place was standing and going nuts. Their rendition of Shine was fucking fantastic. Lasted about 6 or 7 minutes and the guitar solos by Joel just flat out kicked ass. Roland wasn't even asking the crowd to sing but for the last half of the song, they were louder than Roland himself. He turned and shrugged his shoulders to the band as if to say, "holy shit, listen to these people!" The song wass utterly fantastic, gave me goosebumps.

But the biggest highlight had to be a song that I actually totally despise. Their first single from their new record Hollywood was fucking awesome in concert. Three or four times the guitar changed over to the main riff in Thunderstruck from AC/DC and it was fucking amazing. Wow can this Joel guy play guitar. Same as in the song Listen, he had it a wailing and it resonated right deep down inside of me.

Overall, another great performance. Thought I'd enjoy them sober this time since last time I was hammered and thought maybe that biased my opinion. But it didn't, they were just as good if not better. Roland is much more personable and in touch with the crowd than our Ed. This guy actually gives a fuck if his fans are enjoying the show. I'll definately see them anytime they come back and to be honest, if they tour with Live again, I'll be there more to see this band than I will for Live, that's for god damn sure.

[Voodoo-Lady]

I’m happy as hell that Live & CS are touring together again this summer. My impression of CS here in Detroit was exceedingly more positive than the perspectives shared here of that show. I noted some worthy points & never posted em’ here since the consensus was so jaded but for what its worth, here are my thoughts – the reasons I’m looking as forward to seeing CS as Live again:

We had kick ass seats – 5th row (slid up to 3rd row and then to the stage barrier in front of the first row for Live) Both Eds were friendly with us. I remember the thought occurred to me in that regard, that Roland was possibly having a positive influence on Kowalczyk because he seemed warmer even than when I met him last March – which was an amazing experience, don’t get me wrong I think he’s the shit, but we had that in common. On this night he was, venture to say, sweet….just in a renewed and humble mood about his fans, and just based on the way I notice Roland expresses toward fans, I think it might be contagious, and it’s all good. Roland gives direct contact and is just overall makes an acknowledgement of gratitude.

For the 1st two sets it was mainly CS fans around us, all totally gracious and good company. CS have a powerful presence, a magnetic southern charm we don’t get blessed with much around here. They really did their best to reach the audience and succeeded in impressing the hell out of me as being an exceptionally fan-oriented band. Several highlights – Joel matching his guitar skills with some amazing vocals, Ed enchanting the crowd ala pied piper leading everyone together for “Better Now” and an inspired cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Digging in the Dirt”. There wasn’t a helluva lot of space on that stage for the band to avail, it was literally crammed with equipment behind them. They still accomplish being as focally connected with their audience as any band I’ve seen mixing up the full stage. I respected that Roland didn’t disguise his disappointment with the time constraints by point-blank announcing it. To me that just all the more distinctly reinforced that CS genuinely gives a shit about the fans/shares the disappointment at settling on a mediocre set. They quite clearly have a lot more to offer than opportunity allowed. CS has got more heart than I’ve seen in a long, long time on a stage.