Collective Soul/Darlahood LIVE

7-11-97 Cedar Rapids, IA

By Christopher R. Adams

The atmosphere of the concert right off the bat was ODD. You had your basic Iowan beerguzzlers and floozies, then you had your alternative rock fans and lovers (like me). Well, that was something I had to live with. Ok, the bands. Darlahood was definitely comprised of skilled musicians but they created this cheap rip off of general rock-blues-soul stuff. Kind of Black Crowes, kind of Cheap Trick, and kind of current Neil Young. I'm not one to classify a band by what other band(s) they sound like, but Darlahood just sounded like a patchquilt of those three aforementioned bands. That and their lead singer wouldn't shut up about this and that and whatever he had to say. (Grade: C)

Then Collective Soul came about 20 minutes later. (They must have heard the drunk guy behind me yelling at them to "Get their mofo asses on stage!") They opened w/ Disciplined Breakdown and my mind was changed about these guys. I hadn't always been a fan but they were very tight and not as weak and worn as I had seen them during coverage of Rock Fest '97 (in Texas a couple weeks ago.) They proceeded into an even better and slightly souped-up version of Listen, very nice. The set was made up of most of their material off of "Disciplined Breakdown," their 3rd and newest album. They also included all of their major singles (Shine, December, etc.) Some disappointing things: Even slower versions of Shine, December, and The World I Know. And the tempo of a couple of the songs for some reason slowed down a bit in the middle of those songs. But I have seen some concerts featuring popular artists of the day, and Collective Soul easily proved to me and everyone else why they're on the pop and modern rock scenes. (Grade: A-)