Our Lady Peace Tickets Robinsonville

This Band Isn’t U2, Nor Should They Attempt To Be

Excellent was Jimmy Eat World, first off. No glitz, no glamour, no pandering - just a rock n roll show. Opening with a subpar sounding "Pain" was a bit of a misstep, but they found an amazing groove after. The hits, such as "Bleed American" and of course "Sweetness," had the crowd going pretty hard. The entire theater could hear the whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohhhhh, and that felt special. A great set ender with "A Praise Chorus" - my favorite song of theirs leading into their massive radio hit and sing-along "The Middle" to close out about an hour set. Highly recommend if you love early 2000s pop/punk/emo nostalgia, you see them.

On the other hand, Our Lady Peace... I was not as impressed. The band comes off as really self-important with their stage set up and elaborate, choreographed theatrics. Their open wasn't inviting at all, playing behind a curtain so you could see their shadow figures to a song no one in the audience seemed to know. Their sets are the same every night, and on Spotify, there were at least 3-4 songs not on there that they played. When they did their big reveal and dropped the curtain, it felt mistimed or poorly executed. It took me out of the show early because I was so thrown off by what they were trying to accomplish. This was a 5,000 seat venue in Wallingford, Connecticut, and the stuff they were trying to pull off felt like an imitation of what U2 would do at Madison Square Garden. While the stage set up and LED boards visually looked pleasing, it was all too much for this type of venue. This looked like a band truly desperate to be back in their heyday, not realizing the average person in the audience knew at best 4-5 hit songs out of the 18 they played.

Steven Jenkins... I don’t know if he thinks he’s Bono in his own mind, but within three or four songs in the set, he’s trying to convince the crowd how special of a moment they're witnessing. Preached to people and rambled randomness such as ‘say hello to a stranger next to you because they are part of your experience.’ It was odd, no one seemed to get off on it, and it just made a guy who had a few hit songs in the 90s feel like he's grasping onto his last ounce of mild relevance. While it’s not difficult to tell on their album recordings that Jenkins isn’t the most talented vocalist in the world, their strength lies in their songwriting and relatability. “Motorcycle Drive By” displayed a ton of passion and was adored by the crowd as one of their insider favorites. He had mentioned a documentary about the song... it’s a good song, I wouldn’t waste the money you made on tour to shoot and edit something like that though. Just another inflated ego desperation to be relevant.

But of course, the other three songs that stick out to me from their set are their biggest hits - “Jumper,” “How’s It Gonna Be?” and “Semi-Charmed Life.” Sometimes it’s just nice to hear something familiar and pleasing. Their first album came out in 97, which was the first year that I really started to follow the music scene and pay attention to songs on MTV, VH1, and radio, and they were a major part of that growing experience. So maybe I roll my eyes a little bit when I hear them on 90s flashbacks stations on Sirius because my taste has matured since then, but deep down inside, I’m screaming into the apartment intercom like he did in the music video. For a few minutes, I was able to forget the showboating theatrics and get lost in the moment, singing lyrics that I didn’t think I had remembered after all these years but never went away.

That was the main reason why we decided to go to this show. My fiancée and I love live music, and even though neither of us are hardcore fans of the band, we wanted to go for a short nostalgia kick, and that’s exactly what we got. They will never be on U2’s level of legacy, I will never respect them as much as I love and respect Pearl Jam, but it made me feel like I was back in 1997 as an 11-year old for a brief period of time. That’s what music is all about.