Soul' plays to sold-out crowd

By Jeremy Bouman

Staff Writer

Jennifer Rojek

News Editor

"Everything just happened so fast, it's kind of blurry like a car wreck when you think back on it," said Shane Evans, the drummer for the band Collective Soul about this past year's successes for the band.

On Saturday night, Nov. 11, Collective Soul played in Weber Chapel Auditorium before their first sold out audience on their current tour promoting their new self-titled album, "Collective Soul."

The band formed while in high school in Georgia. Although members of the early band differ from those of the current band, Evans has been playing with the band since 1989.

"I've always wanted to be in a band," said Evans. "There's something magical about how these bands roll into town once a year to do a show and everyone gets excited about it. I wanted to be a part of it."

Many of the bands they idolized, such as the Beatles and Elton John, influenced Ed Roland, the lead singer of the band, to write most of the music and lyrics.

"We couldn't quite find our niche. Really, the answer was just to be a rock and roll band and that's what we try to maintain to be...We still are a relatively young band," said Evans.

The name for the band came from a novel, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. In the book, she refers to mankind as a "collective soul."

"You want to have a cool name for your band, something that stands out; but then again ...it's just a name," said Evans.

Their first smash hit, "Shine," began getting extensive airplay on radio and MTV and their independent first album, "Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid," was released again by Atlantic Records.

"At first we thought that the most important thing was getting a record deal, but now that we're passed that, we realize that there is so much more to it," said Evans.

This current album has been hitting the charts hard. It is currently at the number three spot on the Billboard's Album Charts. It's the first effort from the band where all of the members were in the studio together.

"The second album we consider our first album. It was a real band effort. It was our first opportunity to get in a real studio and see what we could do," said Evans.

Evans' favorite song on the album is "She Gathers Rain."

He says about the song, "When we were recording it, it came together really well. It seemed like it was one of those songs that was there from the moment we started playing."

On tour since March with their new album, Collective Soul has opened for many acts they grew up listening to such as Van Halen and Aerosmith.

"Van Halen is one of the greatest bands ever. We could only hope to have half the career that Van Halen has," said Evans. Collective Soul also considers playing in Woodstock last year one of the highlights of their career.

While on tour, the band spends quality time being with their girlfriends and wives, hanging out, going to the mall or playing golf, what Evans called "being normal people."

"It's not the sex, drugs and rock and roll that everyone thinks it is," said Evans about a tour.

In fact, Saturday afternoon Evans and his girlfriend, Jennifer, went to the Susquehanna Valley Mall and stopped in one of the hair salons to buy some essentials. No one in the store recognized him. Even when Evans' girlfriend told the salesclerk who he was, no one believed them.

"It takes time for someone to recognize you. The more people see something, the more they recognize it...It's like Kato Kaelin on TV," said Evans about the incident.

Recently the band experienced some changes in management, but this did not affect the band's momentum. In ten years from now, Evans expects Collective Soul to be on their six album.

"We're in it for the long haul," said Evans. "We grew up together; we hung out before this. If this ceased to exist, we'd still be friends."

"You've just got to believe in what your doing. Believe in the music and that's all you can do. Go up on stage every night and play the best you can and then it's up to people. If the people like it, that's great."