The whole thing was definitely a circus, and this being (i think) my first 21 and over show ever, I was shocked at the difference in the crowd from an all ages show. It seemed as if every 30 and 40 something who either used to rock out, or always wanted to rock out, was there attempting to rock out. The half naked girls on stage were apparently the "Camel-ettes", aka, there to promote Camel brand cigarettes. Gross. They came on once before Silvertide and once between acts. For Silvertide, I think they put on a great show, I immensely enjoyed the lead guitarist, he's got all of his cliched rock moves down and actually looks natural doing them. Got a kick out of the way the lead singer would air-guitar at some point during almost every song, which looks kind of dumb, but I think he just is really into it just like all the rest of us out there that were also subconciously air-guitaring. As for their music, they were right on target most of the time, but I'm afraid the sound mix was total bollocks. It got a little better as they went on, but the vocals were too soft and it was overall muddy.
Collective Soul played a decent set, this is the third time I've seen them, and it's all much the same as the other times. Joel (replacement lead guitarist) is finally starting to feel like a real member of the band and it shows, but who the heck was the drummer? Did the original drummer leave? Or is he sick? The mix was pretty good, but the set ran on a little long for my taste. By the end I was quite tired of the massively drunk middle aged crowd around me that was lapping up whatever was going on stage more because they were pissed out of their minds than because they appreciated the music. Probably last time for a long while that I'll see Collective Soul, but hope Silvertide will finally come around as headliners sometime.
