1) All Over You
2) The River
3) Selling The Drama
4) Mirror Song
4) Where Do We Go From Here?
5) They Stood Up For Love
6) I Walk The Line [Johnny Cash]
7) Wings
8) The Dolphin's Cry
9) I Alone
11) Heaven
12) Lightning Crashes
13) Lakini's Juice

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Good day. Just weighing in on the show my friend Joe and I saw tonite. We saw the triple bill show featuring Collective Soul, Live, and Counting Crows tonite, at Dunn Tire Park here in Buffalo. (Dunn Tire Park is home to the Buffalo Bisons, the triple A farm team of the Cleveland Indians).

My main interest in attending the show was to see Live. Joe, meanwhile, went to pledge his allegiance to Counting Crows, who swept Joe off his fee when he saw them a summer or two ago. (After an excellent ballpark Italian Sausage!!...) The show began promptly at 6:30, when Collective Soul took the stage following the playing of our national anthem. (A bit odd, but,
it did get everyone on their feet!) Collective Soul played a very well-paced, eight-song set. They followed the pattern throughout their set of playing a more obscure song, then one of their hits, then a more obscure song, then one of their hits, etc. While I found (lead singer) Ed Roland's stage presence to be...odd...I did really get off on the band's energy, and my
familiarity with every other song they played. Granted, the crowd (of approximately 4,000ish) was pretty lame throughout the entire nite. In fact, halfway through Collective Soul's set, Ed Roland said something like, "You guys are pretty quiet out there. You're making me nervous." So, considering they were playing to a less-than-enthusiastic audience, I respected them for playing with as much energy as they did. At the very least, they won my respect, and have put themselves on my radar.

After a short break, at exactly 7:34, Live came on stage, to begin what turned out to be a 13-song set. Their set/show was, in a word...totally disappointing. (All right, two words.) They were just so distant, so impersonal,...it just did absolutely nothing for me. Well, wait, it *did* do something for me. It turned me off to the band is what it did. I mean, Ed Kowalczyk has just become too "cool" for me, as evidenced by his on-stage persona. He didn't announce/reference "Buffalo" until moments before playing the final song of the night!! Ridiculous. Heck, they even butchered my second favorite Live song, "Lakini's Juice", which was their last song of the night. Ed was actin' like some friggin' rapper, with his shirt off, prancing around the stage like I was at "Fresh Fest '07", instead of a rock show. Man, "Lakini's Juice" just rocks on record, and tonite, it just blew. I'm so disappointed. I so wanted to see them, and like them. My initial enthusiasm for seeing them left me feeling deflated when they ultimately left the stage.(By the way, they left the stage at 833, making it a 59 minute set.)

Briefly, the Counting Crows. Man, that singer- Adam Duritz- what a great singer!! I never thought much of him, or that band for that matter. But, the thing I took away most from seeing them was his dramatic stage presence, and what a talented, unique singer he is. I only knew three of their songs, but, just having him as the frontman captivated me for most of their set.
However,... (I've always gotta make a Rush comparison/angle...) I'm sure you'd agree that "Mr. Jones" is their biggest song. Well, they played it, as you can imagine. It was the 3rd song of their set. However, it was "Mr. Jones" in name only. They really reworked it, making it barely unrecognizable. It was at that point that I turned to Joe and said, "Makes you appreciate
Rush again, doesn't it." "How", Joe asked. "Well, Rush play "Tom Sawyer" every friggin' night, and play it true to form, as it was recorded- brilliantly- for their fans to enjoy, and have done so for 26 years. The Counting Crows are obviously playing "Mr. Jones" out of obligation, but are bored with it already." (The fact that I made the same point a few songs later, using "The Spirit of Radio" as my Rush-parallel, when the Crows played an altered version of "Long December" probably doesn't surprise you.)

Over all, then, Collective Soul were a pleasant surprise, Live totally disappointed me, and Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows is a great singer/frontman.

A comfortable lineup of ’90s nostalgia
By Christopher Schobert, Contributing Reviewer

The announcement that Counting Crows, Live and Collective Soul were teaming up to play a concert at Dunn Tire Park in Buffalo seems to have been greeted with a collective “Hmm. . . .”

It’s a little odd, after all, this trio of bands. Outside of a few post-Y2K hits for Counting Crows — “Accidentally in Love,” a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” — the bands have been on a downward commercial spiral for years.

But all three still have a name-recognition factor and collection of hits many groups would kill for. And while the ballpark’s seating was heavily truncated, with only about a third of the usual seats open, I would still judge the audience size a modest success, and proof that nostalgia package tours — even ’90s nostalgia package tours — can work nicely.

Collective Soul, the evening’s kickoff artists, actually found themselves back in the news recently for signing an exclusive deal with Target to act as the only nondigital retailer for the band’s latest album, “Afterwords.”

The new deal may have upped their confidence quotient, as singer Ed Roland now sports a blond “do” and pulled rock star poses throughout the set, while the band’s sound was far more muscular than expected.

“We’ve got a lot of songs to play for you and not a lot of time to do it,” quipped Roland, and he was correct — for every “December” or “Shine” that made the cut, there were many hits that did not. With likable banter and enthusiasm, the Soul was a very pleasant treat, and their emphasis on radio favorites made definite headway with the crowd.

I wish I could say that Live kept that spirit alive, but alas, they did not; except for a nice, brooding cover of “Walk the Line” and a pounding “Lakini’s Juice,” the set closer, Ed Kowalczyk’s band was downright dull.

This was a Western New York return for Live, following a pretty solid set at UB’s Alumni Arena in 2006, and say what you will about their clear lack of subtlety, the band has always been capable of meaty shout rock.

But for the most part, it just didn’t work on this night, coming across as sub-Daughtry, with a shocking emphasis on newer, less-popular material. You know it’s a bad sign when watching folks gyrate in the stands is more interesting than what’s on stage.

Counting Crows were the headliners of the show, and they should be. They are now a veteran act, with a greatest hits record behind them and a string of hot actresses on singer Adam Duritz’s romantic resume.

As Duritz — still instantly recognizable — and company strode on stage, it became clear the crowd was overwhelmingly there to see them, and they responded with a surprise, the dreaded “new one.” But “Washington Square,” a track from the band’s upcoming record, “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” was a gentle gem, a “Round Here”-style ballad that lacked that song’s hook but kept its soaring melody.

Overall, the Crows’ set list had just enough classics, like “Mr. Jones,” to keep the masses happy, and the smell of nostalgia in the air.

Maybe ’90s flashbacks aren’t so scary after all.