In the days leading up to my fourth-and-a-half time seeing Collective Soul in concert, I was excited but not overly so. After all, I'd already seen them at Edgefest, plus two headlining shows at which I was in the front row, one on the Silent Parade Tour back in 97, and one on the Dosage tour this past March, and as one of ten people in a small acoustic set/interview at a radio station. Seeing them from thirtieth-row seats in an arena as huge as the Molson Centre, opening for the Cranberries, just didn't seem like justice. Still, I'm not one to scoff at any opportunity to see the guys in concert, so I bought my tickets and tried to be optimistic.

Jason and I agreed to meet at 2:30 in the afternoon in front of MusiquePlus (French MuchMusic) downtown, where CS was scheduled to be interviewed at 3pm. I arrived and waited... no sign of Jason. At about ten to three, I happened to look up and I noticed Ed and Shane cross Ste-Catherine street and disappear into the audio-electronics store across the street.

Of course I did a double-take, and after briefly debating (what if Jason shows up and I'm not here?) realized that I was a colossal idiot and decided to run after them. I start walking and bump into my friend Jodi who just happened to be walking around downtown. After exchanging hi's, I told her that Ed and Shane were across the street and we ran into traffic.

We went up to them in the store and said hi and chatted for a few minutes. Of course I was rambling like a moron and I don't remember much of what I said except that it was dumb. I asked why they were opening for the Cranberries, and they just shrugged and Shane mumbled that it was just something they'd decided to do, that's all. I guess that was all he was really allowed to say. After a couple of minutes, they had to go back to MusiquePlus for the interview. They left, and I, not wanting to look like a stalker, said bye to Jodi and left a few seconds later. I re-crossed the street and Jason appeared... turns out there was a mixup with the bus schedule. He said hi and I just poked him and pointed. He looked confused, then did a double-take and realized that he was standing three feet away from Ed and Shane. We went over again and said hi again (they must think I'm a real stalker) and talked for about a minute. Ed said that the other guys were all over the place; Ross was at a radio station doing an interview. Then we stood back and watched them do the interview. While the VJ was translating, they kept looking around, at the ground, at the sky... you could tell they were bored cuz they didn't understand what was being said. The entire time, I was kicking myself that I didn't have a camera with me.

After the interview, Ed and Shane disappeared, and Jason and I had some time to kill. We went to bug Sam at his job until we were afraid that we'd get him fired, then killed some more time at a burger king. When Sam finally got off work, we drove to the Molson Centre and parked and went for dinner.

When we got inside the arena, it was mostly empty, and we were only a half-hour early. Luckily, it mainly filled up by the time the show started. Unluckily, our floor seats were about 30 rows away, and I didn't have much of a view. A far cry from front-row. Jason and Sam, being considerably taller than I was, could see much better. It ain't fun being 5 foot 1. During the show, I tried standing on my chair but security kept making me get down. Even more unluckily, ninety percent of the fans seemed to be there for the Cranberries.

Collective Soul's set started without any fanfare. With the opening notes of Tremble, I was screaming and most people were just sitting down, bored. However, Ed completely won them over. What an incredible showman! I'm more amazed every time I see him. After Tremble, they launched directly into December, and the fans seemed relieved that they were in familiar territory. The new interlude/solo to December, while expected by us, seemed to catch a few people by surprise and make them sit up and notice. After December, they played Precious Declaration, then Listen, which I was surprised they'd play during a shortened set. Then they played The World I Know, but for some reason they played it slowed-down. They then launched into their live intro to Where The River Flows. Since the crowd was mainly non-CS fans, people seemed a little confused until the main part of the song started. Then they got into it. People on the floor were dancing and jumping up and down.

Run seemed to be the crowd-favourite. The cheering in the place was incredibly loud. Ed kept bringing the house lights on in the middle and getting everyone to stand up, and clap, and cheer. When they played Heavy and there were no strobe lights, I realized just how much restriction the poor guys must have to deal with on this tour. Still, they played the song incredibly... Ross even popped a string during the solo. Then they played I Will Follow, Gel, and finally, Shine. A total of only ten songs. They were onstage for only about 50 minutes total.

I almost cried when I heard the opening notes to Shine and realized that was it. Ed got the entire crowd into it, even the people sitting up in the sections, not just the floor. Everyone was standing up and singing along, even the people who didn't know the words, and were just shouting "yeah". Many people seemed pleasantly surprised by Collective Soul. I wasn't surprised at all, just in heaven.

The Cranberries were a disappointment. Even despite the fact that I knew that, for me, nothing could follow CS, I was still willing to give them a chance. After all, they do have some songs that I like. But they sounded exactly like they did on the radio, no more, no less (to quote a song that Collective Soul didn't play. Other conspicuous omissions included Blame, Generate, Simple, and Crazy Train). I was wondering if I was just biased, but the Cranberries didn't seem to wow most of the fans. And remember, this was a sold-out crowd composed mainly of 'berries fans. Even despite CS's restrictions on lighting, set time, setup, etc., they still managed to upstage the Cranberries. Even the newspaper review in the next morning's paper agreed.

Anyway, after trying unsuccessfully to enjoy the Cranberries' set, we were getting pretty bored. At one point, I just happened to glance to my right, and in that instant, thanked the miracle that afforded me our so-so seats. Because we were right next to the walkway leading backstage. And while it was guarded by security and a big fence, I managed, in that glance, to catch sight of Dean standing right there. Next to him, I saw a flash of light blond hair and I think Shane was there with him. I poked Jason and Sam, and we tried to get there but with no luck. By the time Jason and Sam got up to the barrier, they were gone and security motioned them back. Meanwhile, I'd run outside to attempt to get there the back way, but it was guarded and blocked off too. Disappointed, we sat down again but kept glancing to our right.

A couple of songs later, it paid off when the door opened again and who should walk out but Ross. We literally leaped out of our seats and stepped on people (sorry guys) to get over to the barrier and managed to catch Ross. We couldn't talk very well cuz Dolores what's-her-face was belting away, but we did say hi, and Ross said he remembered Jason from the last show (after all, there can't be that many people who hand him an e-bow in the middle of the show).

After talking to Ross, we all had a sense of "mission accomplished". The Cranberries were boring anyway so we decided to leave cuz two out of three of us had to be up early the next morning. I'm pretty sure we didn't miss too much. Oh yeah, and on the way out of the parking garage, we were accosted by a really drunk Cran-fan who was singing one of their songs, and I could swear he sounded better than Dolores.

Overall, I'd call the show amazing yet disappointing. CS's set was amazing, but way too short, and our seats were way too far back. Next time I'm definately gonna catch them doing their own club show. It's just so much better that way.