Third Eye Blind/Our Lady Peace
Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
To get to my seat at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center Saturday night, I have to wade through a throng of teenaged girls in baby doll T-shirts and guy doing South Park impressions. They are all here to see Third Eye Blind and Our Lady Peace, two bands seemingly battling for complete control over the alternative radio airwaves.
When Eve 6 opens the show, the seats are almost empty, and most people don't seem to know the show has begun. It takes the audience so long to warm up, Eve 6's lead singer/bassist has to yell at them to stand and dance. "Inside Out," their own hit radio single, finally gets a rise out of the crowd. Energized, the band hits their stride two songs from the end before making way for Our Lady Peace.
Suddenly, the seats are packed and no one is sitting anymore. The front of the stage is now packed, and the formerly docile crowd is getting antsy. After a surprisingly quick set change, Our Lady Peace takes the stage. They get up so soon it almost seems like they're roadies continuing sound check, but by the time the first chords of "Automatic Flowers" reaches the audience, everyone is singing along.
Lead singer Raine Maida heads for the edge of the stage, his stare showing flashed of insanity. His arm straightens out toward the crowd, swinging stiffly at his side like a doll's broken limb. He cups his hand and points it at the audience as if he were trying to levitate them, letting rip his shrill trademark howl. He is definitely the visual focal point, providing an intensity the other members of the band feed off of, and even have fun with at times.
Just before the last chorus of "Automatic Flowers," Maida stops to lead the crowd through the last chorus. "You okay with that?" he says. When he strums the chords of the last chorus and sings along, he seems genuinely disappointed with the result. "That was week. Try again." This time, the audience doesn't disappoint, and the band hops in to close off the song.
With the crowd sufficiently into the music despite a muffled sound mix, Our Lady Peace leads them through all of their huge hits, including "Superman's Dead," "4 a.m.," "Clumsy," and "Starseed." People seem ready to cheer for anything, and start screaming wildly when Maida dons an old man's fishing hat. The effect is comical, and guitarist Mike Turner and bassist Duncan Coutts smile affably, a counterpoint to Maida's poker face. Our Lady Peace closes the set with "Eternal Life," a tribute to drowned musician Jeff Buckley.
It finally starts to get dark before Third Eye Blind takes the stage. The crowd has more than a half an hour's wait until the band is up. When the orange curtain toward the front of the stage finally drops, the stage is bedecked with a large red theatre curtain, a tacky leather chair, and a huge Third Eye Blind banner that would be right at home on a homecoming float.
The band works through the material on its popular, self-titled debut album as singer Stephan Jenkins cavorts around the stage like Bono's geeky little brother. And like U2, Third Eye Blind hits the audience with everything they can think of. Jenkins talks to the people up front and runs around trying to frustrate the band's photographer, here to shoot pictures for the tour book. There are several set changes. The most amusing of which provides the backdrop for the acoustic middle set. The band sits on a fold out couch for their own version of unplugged.
Another curtain falls after yet another set change, revealing about thirty members of the audience on risers dancing in front of a more professional looking banner. Fireworks go off over the park out to punctuate the music. Either Third Eye Blind is the most pretentious band in the world, or they're extremely self-aware and making the most of their fifteen minutes. They cover their most popular material toward the end, including their singles, "Graduate," "How's It Going To Be?" and "Semi-charmed Life," everyone's favorite pop song about junkies. The crowd cheers Jenkins as he empties a bottle of wine onto the stage during the encore, "God of Wine." The show has focused on anything but the music, but the crowd doesn't seem to mind.
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