Maybe 2025 is the year that proves the 1990s just won’t go away. This year is chock full of package tours where numerous recognizable bands join forces in hopes of enticing everyone to come out and sing along to the songs they grew up with. One of those package tours, the Summer Unity Tour 2025, features perennial 90’s chart toppers Live, Collective Soul, and Our Lady Peace and recently made a stop at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, New York on August 2.
As part of this tour, Greylin James Rue, a 24 year old singer from California has been serving as the opening act, with her and her tight 3 piece band offering up 20 minutes of solid contemporary alt rock. There’s not really much known about Rue, and maybe this billing wasn’t the best placement for her, but her voice and demeanor certainly makes it appear like the world will be hearing much more from the young singer.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Our Lady Peace, a four piece band from Canada, seemed to burst onto the US rock radio stations with their infectious blend of rock, blues and psychedelia. For this tour, the band is making the most of their 30 minute set time and covering everything from their fan favorite “Superman’s Dead,” to their most recognizable cut, “Somewhere Out There.” Throughout the years, one of the most identifiable aspects of Our Lady Peace was the nasally vocals of singer Raine Maida. It is certainly a unique voice; however it has noticeable differences after the last 30 years. It still sounds good, but it tends to lean more towards the tenor side than the falsetto most people are accustomed to.
Arguable the best band on the bill, Collective Soul, brought a rousing one hour twenty minute show that had everyone singing along to nearly every song. In the 90s it was nearly impossible to turn on an alternative rock, top 40 rock, or even just a top 40 channel and not hear one of the band’s singles played multiple times a day. They were a band that seemed to have a recipe for creating infectious songs that you can’t forget. 30 years later, the band is still relatively the same with founding members Ed Roland, Dean Roland, and very early member Will Turpin on bass joined by long term members Jesse Triplett on guitar and Johnny Rabb on drums.
As with most of their current tours, Collective Soul has forged a set list that basically includes the same songs in somewhat different order. Not that it’s a bad thing; it’s something that works and keeps the crowd energized for the duration of the show. In a slight distraction from the music, Ed Roland loves the role of being the band’s front man. His stage show alone is full of every standard rock star pose in the book, a well-rehearsed banter with the crowd, and always an over-the-top fashion sense (Bethel saw him take the stage in some sort of two piece Elvis Presley meets a mariachi band suit). Seeing the show for the first time can leave the listener wondering what they just witnessed.
But it’s not his stage antics that are the star of the show, it’s the music. The band delivers on all fronts including the thumping, distortion driven opening trio of “Mother’s Love,” “Heavy,” and “Right as Rain.” Ed Roland was ever the rock star on the band’s breakthrough smash hit “Shine,” which lead into a set highlight of “Precious Declaration,” which had some fine fill ins courtesy of Triplett. Another two-song shot of hits came with “The World I Know,” and “December.” Along with being an enigmatic front man, Roland also has an affinity for changing the inflection he uses on certain words during songs, with these two being prime examples. It’s tough to describe, but even tougher to sing along to when you’re used to a certain way for 30 years. The band’s extremely well played set ended with a trio of “Gel,” the driving “Where the River Flows,” and a softer “Run,” which the band carried on for an extended ending.
That leaves us with the current group of musicians calling themselves Live. Sure, founding member and singer/songwriter Ed Kowalczyk is there, but that’s all anyone would recognize. The history of Live is extremely contentious and involves numerous firings, re-hirings, lawsuits and just about any other bullshit that comes along with being a band. With just the original singer, the outfit brought proper justice to the opening numbers of “Pain Lies on the Riverside,” “Selling the Drama,” and “All Over You.” But when they got into some of the deeper stuff like “Iris,” “T.B.D.,” and “Shit Towne,” the energy seemed to fade and the band didn’t really sound too enthusiastic or even interested in what they were doing. In their heyday Live sounded like a band who all came together to try and deliver their music the best they could; the current version sounds more like the Ed Kowalczyk show and doesn’t have the feel of a unified band.
The hits continued in the form of “The Dolphin’s Cry,” but momentum was lost again when the band jumped to the opening two numbers from one of their heaviest albums, 1997’s “Secret Samadhi.” The album’s opening song, “Rattlesnake,” can be considered one of the best pieces of music in the Live catalogue, but when it was performed in Bethel the music never really reached the level it should have, especially when paying homage to the original guitar solo of Chad Taylor. The album’s next song, “Lakini’s Juice,” served as the set closer, but like most other songs failed to really grab the crowd’s attention. Coming back for a three-song encore, the band started off with one of their softer songs, “Turn My Head,” which was done nearly perfectly. Kowalczyk chose to end the show with a double shot of standard runs through “I Alone,” and the unavoidable “Lightning Crashes.”
For casual fans, the Live set may have been enjoyable, but for long time fans of the band, it just doesn’t feel the same. The band was loved in the 1990’s and this current tour could almost make people forget how good they once were. But this is what happens with package tours – not every act can be a homerun. In the case of this tour, Collective Soul may have provided the best chance for a homerun, but sadly they weren’t the headliner.
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