 "Photo: Richard Marks/Greyhound")
A decade has passed since Third Eye Blind released their highly acclaimed self-titled album which ripped through the air waves in 1997. Since then their music has adapted and band members have changed, leaving only two from the original line-up. This begs the question then, does Third Eye Blind still have that inherent quality that they began with? Lead singer Stephan Jenkins may spend a little too much time making cryptic statements on togetherness during the show, but there seems to be a genuine smile on his face, one that doesn't come from money or drugs, but a true desire to be in the moment. That passion held throughout their sold out performance of a 14-track set and two encores.
With studio quality rarity, Third Eye Blind, like a blitzkrieg, inundated the audience with major selections from their classic repertoire. Jenkins opened their set with the title song of their album "Losing a Whole Year" and moved onto other fan favorites such as "Graduate," "Jumper," "Semi-Charmed Life," and "How's It Gonna Be." The performance, however, was far from a regurgitation of their popular catalog. Memorable moments such as an acoustic "Deep Inside of You" followed by "Motorcycle Driveby" reminded the audience that within the aging pop rock band lays a real and lasting musical talent. Well, maybe I'm bias to those two songs, but there is no doubt that during "Jumper," Tony Fredianelli's guitar solo and Brad Hargreaves drum solo displayed unbridled skill. For a true 3eb aficionado, the meat of the performance rested in the more-somber-than-expected, encore. The graphic murder ballad "Slow Motion" pacified the crowd and ignited lighters while the closing track "God of Wine" was the angst of a warm goodbye.
Despite the girl behind me that was making such comments as-"play something I know (despite the fact that the only song she did know was "Semi-Charmed Life") and "stop talking and play," the crowd was energetic and responsive even when they played a new track on their up and coming album. At times though maybe the crowd became over zealous, or maybe they were just drunk. I have been to a lot of shows and if anyone ever bet me that a mosh pit would open up during a Third Eye Blind concert, my legs would probably be broken from lack of payment. Second only to the mosh pit was the crowd surfing that looked more like rag dolls thrashing in the air. Not going unnoticed Jenkins, a Grinch smile creeping across his face, addressed the audience: "crowd surfing is for chicks," poking fun at the uncanny amount of dudes passing over head, before launching back into another song.
Third Eye Blind is not reinventing the face of rock music; still an undeniable appreciation should be given to them for the ability to put on an entertaining and cohesive show. Saturday night's performance marked the end of their recordings for their up and coming live album due out sometime later this year. After the show we, along with WLOY, were able to catch up with drummer, and one of the only remaining original members, Brad Hargreaves.
Matt Gwin: Many times there are these moments of self-realization or arrival. Is there any one event, maybe even during a live performance that everything dawned on you, and you realized, hey, we're a hit?
Brad Hargreaves: I felt like we had that 10 years ago. There was actually a moment in D.C…..we were playing at the B stage outside the stadium…. Everything kind of crystallizes, "oh things are going well."
MG: So sometimes you hear these crazy stories about bands, have you ever thrown a TV out of a window or anything of the sort?
BH: I never had, but I wanted to, I think I broke a phone, it might have been my own cell phone, I broke a lamp I think once. If you spend enough time in hotel rooms you're going to get mad at some point in one of them….is that a good enough excuse?
MG: A few years back I was in Camden at a festival and I got the chance to see you live. On your final song of the night you burst into the final few minutes of Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." Is that something you do often? Is Zeppelin a big influence?
BH: Yeah everyone in our band loves Zeppelin, it's like rock 101. We were doing that for a while, but since they got back together and played that show we thought maybe we shouldn't play Led Zeppelin. It's a good way to end the show on a really high note.
WLOY: You have a new album coming out this spring. Title is "Hideous Strength" based on a C.S. Lewis novel, what was the inspiration behind that?
BH: Well I wanted it to be a vulgar display of power. The music's been done for quite a while and were just waiting on Stephan for the lyrics. I've got my fingers crossed.
Courtney Carbone: Do you ever collaborate with Stephan to do lyrics?
BH: No, he does it all on his own.
MG: If you could play with any musician dead or alive who would it be?
BH:I wouldn't mind playing with Coltrane Miles, those instrumentalists….there are so many great musicians.
CC: A lot of your songs are really upbeat but then the lyrics have a more profound meaning. How are you able to make a balance by keeping it upbeat and getting a message across?
BH: That's the way it's intended to come out….the music sort of encapsulated the way everyone felt…and the lyrics kind of touched on "hey, maybe there is another side to this" and the paradox to all these good times is the fact that right around the corner is some nasty stuff.
MG: What are you listening to right now? Any artists you are into?
BH: I'm into my other band, it's called Year Long Disaster…it's a power trio.
MG: How do you cope with travel and being away from home?
BH: Dealing with it you take the good with the bad. It's a really good job. You just try to make your girlfriend understand.
CC: How did you meet originally and how did relationship change over the years?
Be the first to comment on this article!