Concert Review
Collective Soul
Tuesday June 25, 2024
The Warner Theatre
Erie, PA
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
Ed Roland and Collective Soul took a night off from their current shed tour with fellow artists Hootie & The Blowfish and Edwin McCain to jaunt to Erie, PA and the Warner Theatre much to the delight of the fans. Erie was picked as one of the lucky cities where the boys from Atlanta picked to do a headline show. Touring in support of their latest release the double album Here To Eternity which is jam packed with twenty new tunes for the fans to discover and devour. Everything Collective Soul does well was on display from the sound and musicianship right down to a gratifying set list.
Collective Soul got the night started with “Mother’s Love” and “Bluer Than So Blue” which incidentally are the first two songs from Here To Eternity. The band then mixed in some songs from their vast catalog including fan favorite “Heavy”. Once the familiar chords strummed to “Shine” it helped set the tone for the rest of the set. Roland snuck in another pair of songs from Here To Eternity with “Not The Same” and “Let It Flow”, with the former being perhaps the top candidate for best song on the album.
Other noted highlights sprinkled into the set were “AYTA” which was played for the first time in three years, a new unnamed song played for the first time ever and the addictive “Why, Part 2”, always a live favorite. Of course Roland and his band of plenty played all the big songs one would hope to hear at a Collective Soul show. Roland was decked out in a pink suit and rarely stood still as he was bouncing all over the stage whether he had a guitar strapped around his neck or microphone in hand.
The band was known for writing heavier, darker songs early on in their career. By the time Youth came out in 2004, the opening track “Better Now” showed a rejuvenated Roland and as he proclaimed in the opening lyrics “Oh I’m newly calibrated, All shiny and clean, I’m your recent adaptation, Time to redefine me”. Those lyrics propelled the band onward and upward in a more positive direction that they still continue on to this day. The band has made some fine albums such as Collective Soul (Rabbit), Afterwords and this latest release which will go down as such as well. They are equally regarded highly by the fanbase. This band could play for three hours and still not play every good song they have because the catalog has gotten that much bigger with each subsequent release.
Drummer Johnny Rabb and lead guitarist Jesse Triplett were the final two pieces to the puzzle when they were added to the band. This is now the longest tenure that any lineup of the band has been together. If you haven’t seen them live yet do yourself a favor and see a show very soon. While Roland, his brother Dean and bassist Will Turpin are the foundation the band was built on, they do not take it for granted one minute and truly appreciate where they are today. Judging from the crowd reaction throughout the night, it went as brilliantly as one could imagine.
Set List
Mother’s Love
Bluer Than So Blue
Heavy
Right as Rain
Compliment
Shine
Not the Same
Let It Flow
Precious Declaration
Better Now
New Untitled Song (According to Ed on stage first time played live)
AYTA
The World I Know
December
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Why, Pt. 2
Gel
Where the River Flows
Run
