Concert Review
Summer Unity Tour
Live
Collective Soul
Our Lady Peace
Saturday July 26, 2025
Darien Lake Amphitheater
Darien Center, NY
Review/Photos: Joseph Suto
The Summer Unity Tour landed inside the friendly confines of the Darien Lake Amphitheater Saturday evening. It was a spirited affair with co-headliners Live and Collective Soul at the top of the marquee. Joining them were Canadian band Our Lady Peace and newcomer Greylin James Rue. It was a solid package but in my eyes did not need a 4th band although I did enjoy the opener Greylin James Rue. To have the caliber of a band like Our Lady Peace on the bill and with them being so close to their native Canada, they truly deserved a longer set.
Our Lady Peace these days still features vocalist, guitarist Raine Maida as well as bassist Duncan Coutts who have remained since the bands peak era. Joining them were guitarist Steve Mazur and drummer Jason Pierce. The band ran through a short but potent set featuring mostly fan favorites and even a cover of “Locked In the Trunk Of A Car” as a tribute to The Tragically Hip. The band plays the area quite regularly being from nearby Toronto and it was good to see them play a big venue like the Darien Lake Amphitheater.
Collective Soul was up next as they usually alternate who closes each show. Ed Roland and company haven’t played a show at the Amphitheater since their electric performance in 2016 opening for Buffalo’s own, The Goo Goo Dolls. With Roland you never know what he will wear as on this hot and sticky humid night he wore a cowboy hat and hat his face all glittered up. While Roland has seemed erratic in the wardrobe department he clearly had the crowd at Darien right in the palm of his hands.
The band has a huge catalog of some really great songs so the fact they focused by playing four off the 1995 self-titled and four more off Dosage was a little bit of a letdown. I would have loved for them to play perhaps a few songs from albums such as Youth, Afterwords and Rabbit which spanned the era of 2004-2009 which to me are the albums where Roland really crafted some of his finest songs of the catalog. They did give us a pair from their latest album From Here To Eternity which was released last year. I get it as it would be very hard for the band to leave without the fans hearing “Where the River Flows”, “December” or even perhaps “Gel”. The band ended it with what has become the traditional closer to their shows over the past ten years in “Run”.
Joining Roland was his younger brother Dean on guitar, bassist Will Turpin, guitarist Jesse Triplett and drummer Johnny Rabb. This band lineup has now been together for eleven years and they are as solid as it gets. This band is on fire as witnessed by solid vocals by Roland along side the solid guitar playing duo of Dean Roland and Triplett. They are Like a fine wine and seem to get better each time out.
Closing out the evening on a high note were Live. The unit is lead by vocalist, guitarist Ed Kowalczyk hit it big in 1994 with the release of Throwing Copper. That album has since been certified eight times platinum making it the biggest seller of any band on the bill. It was no surprise the band played eight songs from the album. The show started off with a bang. If “Pain Lies Down By The Riverside” did not catch your attention surely the one-two punch of “Selling The Drama” and “All Over You” did. What a start to begin their 70-minute set.
Kowalczyk seems to have put together quite a touring band. These cats can play the catalog without batting an eye. Joining Mr. Kowalczyk on stage were guitarist Zak Loy, drummer Johnny Radelat, bassist Chris Heerlein and keyboardist Nick Jay. The band saved the best for last with a triple encore featuring “Turn My Head”, “I Alone” and “Lightning Crashes” with the latter topping the U.S. Alt. chart back in 1995.
Many of these songs take one back in time to approximately thirty years ago. We were living in what seemed to be a different world back then. This show was so sparsely attended that they closed out the lawn section. Sadly the summer of 25′ has not been a good year for many concert promoters. I can see the thought process though behind this package, as had this been 1995, the venue would had been filled to the brim as all three of the main acts were in the peak of their careers. The summer concert season these days is as competitive as ever with almost every band out on the road during the summer months. With much of the U.S. in a heat wave and the way the economy is driving up costs involved with trying to take the family to a show thus making it very hard for many to afford. People simply are just not going to as many concerts this summer. Like I had mentioned it has nothing to do with the performances of these bands as they all delivered and then some. This tour may very well be the sleeper of all the tours out on the road this summer making this a highly recommended tour to see.
Photo Galleries
Live
Collective Soul
Our Lady Peace
Greylin James Rue
Set Lists
Live
Pain Lies on the Riverside
Selling the Drama
All Over You
Iris
Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’)
T.B.D.
Shit Towne
The Dolphin’s Cry
Leave The Radio On
Rattlesnake
White, Discussion
Lakini’s Juice
Encore
Turn My Head
I Alone
Lightning Crashes
Collective Soul
Mother’s Love
Heavy
Right As Rain
Shine
Precious Declaration
Keep It On Track
She Said
The World I KNow
December
Tremble For My Beloved
Gel
Where The River Flows
Run
Our Lady Peace
Sound the Alarm
Superman’s Dead
Whatever
Clumsy
Somewhere Out There
Locked In the Trunk of a Car (Tragically Hip Cover)
Starseed
