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by Spencer
Ross
The last time
I saw Third Eye Blind was two years ago when they played the
Oakdale Theater on their Bonfire Tour, a tour designed to
showcase their music, while also allowing fans to see some of
their hits played in an acoustic setting. On this year's Red
Summer Sun Tour 2000, all stops are pulled out for a great
performance. In sharp contrast to the Bonfire Tour, which opened
with Eve 6 and the Canadian Cleo winning Our Lady Peace, Third
Eye Blind selected more recognizable opening acts to warm up the
crowd in suitable fashion. I was fortunate enough to catch a
sneak peak of the concert that was broadcast the night before
from Holmdel, NJ via www.broadcast.com. But while I knew the setlist and
the staging, I was still anxious to see this concert live.
We got to the
Oakdale July 30, on a pretty crappy day with the rain pouring
down, but after finding a parking space easily, we met our the
rest of our friends and headed for the show (getting the ritual
concert t-shirts on the way). We found our seats rather quickly,
mid orchestra center, section d, row m, seat 14. Not bad seating.
Opening the
concert first at 7:30 was the New York band, Splender, with the
song off their first album Halfway Down the Sky,
"It's the Way." I can't say I know too much about the
band (other than the short performance I had seen them in at
April's Radio 104 sponsored "Modern Rock the Earth Day"
concert), but I like their sound. When that song was over, the
lead singer of the band, Waymon Boone, screamed at the crowd that
it looked like the five guys in the front row were the only ones
there to see a rock concert. So everyone else was up on their
feet soon after, clapping, jumping, and cheering as the band
launched into their next few songs, "Monotone,"
"Space Boy," and "Wallflower." Splender had
been slated to play on the tour until August 1, at which time the
Long Island band, Nine Days, is scheduled to finish the rest of
the tour. As a result, the Splender roadies had made several
appearances onstage during the band's set; throwing out balls,
wearing Dicky Nixon masks, and even performing a chorus line.
They then launched into their current top 40 hot single "I
Think God Can Explain," to which the entire audience was
singing along. Their closing song was their modern rock single,
"Yeah Whatever," which again had the crowd jumping
around. One of the things that impressed me most was that before
the second 3 songs, Boone would introduce one of the musicians,
who would solo into the next song before the rest of the band
started joining in.
Next up on
the bill was Vertical Horizon, another band who was scheduled to
headline Modern Rock the Earth Day, but left the concert after a
mud fight erupted before even stepping foot on stage. This made
the crowd even more anxious to see the band, whose single
"Everything You Want," had reached number one on the
Billboard Top 200, a feat not achieved with a modern rock song in
several years. Vertical Horizon opened up with "Finding
Me" and "All of You" at 8:22. While the energy
level for Splender was pretty high, it soared even higher for VH
as they broke into their current top 40 single, "You're a
God" which was familar to everyone there and the crowd was
singing along again. Next up was "Best I Ever Had"
followed by "Shackled," the last song on their current
album Everything You Want, and a song sung by their
other singer and guitarist, Manchester native Keith Kane. From
their entire set, I think that was the song I disliked the most.
"Send It Up" was the next song they played, followed by
their pop hit "Everything You Want" and their modern
rock single "We Are." Similarly to Splender. Vertical
Horizon has reached big with songs on the top 40 charts, while
stumbling around the modern rock charts with songs that are great
to listen to, but obviously not worthy enough to be played on
mainstream radio. They left the stage at 9:01, only to leave the
band with a long wait before the main act that everybody was
there to see. Although the show was supposed to be sold out, a
lot of the seats didn't fill up until Third Eye Blind was going
to come on. Vertical Horizon definitely gave a great show.
Unfortunately, I didn't know all of the songs they had played,
but Matt Scannell and company definitely didn't dissapoint and
played with enough enthusiasm that got everyone excited to be
there.
Forty-six
minutes later, the act everyone was there to see appeared on
stage. With a blue backlit silk sheet covering the front of the
stage, the music started to play and the silk was fluttering
around, leading into some feedback and the beginning of
"Anything." The stage then bursts into all different
colors and a sun starts to rise behind drummer Brad Hargreaves.
It's a leopard set and Third Eye Blind is in their traditional
setup. Hargreaves upstage center on a platform, lead guitarist
Tony Fredianelli on downstage right, lead singer and guitarist
Stephan Jenkins on downstage center, and bassist Arion Salazar on
downstage left. Unlike on the Bonfire Tour, two things had
changed. The first was that there was only one set on the Red
Summer Sun Tour, whereas the Bonfire Tour had about three or four
sets. The other thing that had changed was the lead guitarist.
Back in January, the band had fired their guitarist, Kevin
Cadogan, and replaced him with their old guitarist, Tony
Fredianelli. This tour was the first one where the band was
breaking in the new (old) guitarist to their fans. Fredianelli
definitely didn't disappoint in this concert. In fact, his guitar
playing skills definitely enhanced the sound of the band.
After
"Anything," 3EB shot straight into "Thanks A
Lot," followed by one of my favorite songs "10 Days
Late." The best thing in "10 Days Late" is the
bass line and Salazar, the quiet and most underspoken band
member, gave a great performance. The lights turned out briefly
for a time, and we got our first glimpse of his bass guitar,
which was inlaid with blue neon lights. The lights came back up
and Jenkins and Fredianelli started playing a "Dueling
Guitars" into an unrecognizable "Wounded." But
like a camera coming into focus, the song shifted gears full
stream into the song, and by the time the band got to the chorus,
everyone was jumping around and singing along. And as usual,
arrogant Jenkins was jumping and running around the stage in his
pimp jacket. But it's still fun to see the guy, even if he does
own the band. The next song was one of my least favorite, but
since it's their new chart topper, they had to play it,
"Never Let You Go." After that, "Narcolepsy,"
and Jenkins talks about feeling closer with his peeps. So he runs
into the audience in the section over, and stands on a platform
to sing a cover of the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated."
They finish off "Narcolepsy" and a roadie brings a
guitar out to Jenkins so that he may start playing
"Jumper" in front of his peeps. During the solo, the
spotlight goes off and Jenkins runs back on stage, grabs an
electric guitar and joins in for the end of the song. When
"Jumper" ends, Fredianelli bursts out into a solo,
probably to get the crowd even more familiar with his musical
style, which is drastically different from Cadogan's.
Unfortunately, the monitors cut out through his solo and the
beginning of the next song, but we could still hear it somewhat
via the backstage monitors. Fredianelli plays heavily, drawing on
80's heavy metal, and in fact, he is rumored to have been one of
the "masters" of "speed metal." His guitar
part is extremely fast, yet requires minimal physical effort.
After his
solo, 3EB broke into "The Red Summer Sun" a song
heavily backed by Fredianelli with great drumming by Hargreaves
(whose birthday it was on that night). This song is also where
the name of the tour comes from. Unfortunately, Jenkins didn't
explain tonight why the tour was named after this song. Following
that was "Farther," "How's It Gonna Be,"
"1000 Julys," and a rousing Happy Birthday to
Hargreaves. Then to "I Want You" (which i recall
Jenkins doing solo in the beginning in the last concert), and
"Motorcycle Drive By," another slow and then rock out
song. The last song of their set was "Semi-Charmed
Life," which was interrupted by an anti-Republican party
tirade, telling us not to be greedy, to be anarchist, and to take
back the schools. And in typical 3EB fashion, they cut
"SC-L" in half with their cover of The Who's "Baba
O'Riley." Then back to finish off the song.
After a four
minute wait, the band played a three song encore, featuring
"Graduate," their new single "Deep Inside of
You," which again, was heavily backed by Fredianelli, and
the ritual tour closer, "God of Wine" at 11:29. The one
thing that was dissapointing was that after touring for three
years, I think I expected more in "God of Wine" but it
was still a good song and a fitting way for the concert to end; a
way to bring all the fans together, as Jenkins would say. And as
"God of Wine" came to a close, a red light shined on
the setting sun that rose in the beginning of the concert- the
red summer sun.
As far as
tours go, both the Saturday night New Jersey performance and the
Sunday night Connecticut performance were the same to the tee
with a few minor changes in the bands' banter and the performance
itself. However, as far as concerts go (and I've only been to
four), this one certainly was filled with high energy, brought on
by all of the bands that were playing. From Splender to Vertical
Horizon to Third Eye Blind, this concert was living proof that
rock hasn't died yet. With a sellout crowd rocking the house,
these bands certainly put on a great show, even if Stephan
Jenkins likes to think he's the King of the World.
8/1/00
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