Summer package tours are the norm these days, and the Summer Unity tour sees 3 bands that made their names with huge runs in the 1990s combine for a great night of hits. Our Lady Peace, Collective Soul, and Live have all been on the scene for over 30 years, so there was a ton of great music to be heard, and on a hot July night, they rolled into Bridgeport, CT.
Plese scroll below for MisplacedStraws’ Summer Unity tour photos and recap.
First to the stage was emerging artist Greylin James Rue. Rue possesses a strong voice and decent songs. Like most young artists, however, she needs to work on her stage presence. It will be interesting to watch Rue’s career progression as she begins releasing new music.
Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace followed with a compact, hits-packed set. The band was touring as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. I was able to see Our Lady Peace live in their early days, as well as a few times in recent years. They have always been a strong live band with frontman, and lone remaining original member, Raine Maida commanding the stage as few can.
The band’s six-song set began with a new track, “Sound The Alarm”, from the OLP 30 project. The rest of the set featured 90s hits like “Superman’s Dead”, “Clumsy”, “Somewhere Out There”, and “Starseed”. But it was one particular track, “Whatever” that stole the show. Originally written for wrestler Chris Benoit, the band had not played the song since the tragedy surrounding the wrestler in 2007. Maida decided to rerecord the song with proceed benefitting suicide prevention initiatives and add it to the band’s 30th anniversary set list. It made for a powerful moment that really touched fans.
Collective Soul hit the Bridgeport stage with “Mother’s Love” from their 2024 double album Here to Eternity. Colelctive Soul has rarely slowed down in their 31 years. On the heels of Here to Eternity, the band also released a documentary called “Give Me A Word”, and frontman Ed Roland announced from the stage that a new record was coming in the fall.
Roland, along with his brother Dean on guitar, Will Turpin on bass, Johnny Rabb on drums and guitarist Jesse Triplett, blasted through a set heavy on the band’s classics, but also featuring 2 tracks from the 2024 release and “Right As Rain” from 2019’s Blood. Collective Soul has put out consistently strong records and has cultivated a fan base that wants to hear some of the later material just as much as the hits.
I have been lucky enough to have seen Collective Soul many times over the years, beginning with a 1994 show at the legendary New Haven club Toad’s Place for $0.99. This show, however, was the best I have ever seen the band live. Their energy was infectious, and Ed was in great voice. The addition of a keyboard player on stage allowed Ed the freedom to really control the stage. I think the biggest difference, however, was the total emergence of guitarist Jesse Triplett. Triplett has been in the band for over a decade, and I’ve seen him take a bigger and bigger role each tour. He’s a criminally underrated guitar player and a great foil to Ed Roland.
In a set packed with familiar hits, for me, the standout was an absolutely stunning version of the Dosage track “She Said”. This version featured only Ed’s dynamic vocal accompanied by Triplett on guitar. The song became a powerful anthem and had the crowd on its feet singing along. Another highlight was “Tremble For My Beloved”, the rarely played cut from the Twilight soundtrack (and also Dosage). The band has such a deep, rich catalog that it was great to see a rarity pulled out for the tour.
Collective Soul is a band that keeps evolving and keeps getting better. They tend to tour with other bands from their biggest era, but I would love to see them do a full headline set where they can go deeper into their catalog. This is a band with a storied past and a bright future.
Ed Kowalczyk and his current version of Live ended the night. After rejoining the band and completing a few tours with bands like Bush and Counting Crows, Kowalczyk dismissed the original members and formed a new lineup of Live. It was this new lineup, featuring Zak Loy on guitar, Chris Heerlein on bass, Johnny Radelot on drums, and Nick Jay on keys that are currently on tour.
Their set, much like the band’s career, kicked off with the 1991 hit “Pain Lies On The Riverside”. The opening trifecta also included monster hits “Selling The Drama” and “All Over You” from their biggest release, 1994’s Throwing Copper. While it wasn’t a huge crowd, they were into the hits and the band’s stage show.
The new members gave the familiar songs a different vibe. Kowalczyk’s voice still sounded great, but the music felt a little heavier than the original band played it. The two new tracks in the set, “Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rolling)” and “Leave The Radio On” seemed a bit out of place with the classic material and didn’t resonate as much with the crowd.
The majority of the set was based around Throwing Copper, eight of that record’s 14 songs were played. It’s follow-up Secret Samadhi saw of its 3 tracks played, while the last of the classic-era albums, The Distance To Here had two.
Zak Loy and Chris Heerlein were standouts of the new lineup as both sounded great musically. Live is another band I’ve seen a lot over their career, so while I enjoyed the show, it just felt off not seeing the original band. If this was billed as Ed Kowalczyk and his band (as Kevin Cronin is now doing), I would have felt like they did a great job, but billing it as Live just felt a bit off.
The Summer Unity tour is a fun night, packed with hits and sure to bring back memories. These are three bands with great catalogs that have not only been entertaining us for over 30 years, but can still rock the stage now.
