As the lights went down, and you could see the Collective Soul banner, the audience was cheering with anticipation. Singer Ed Roland came out and played a little intro and then stood and pointed to the stage as the rest of the band came out.  They broke out into the opening song “Observation of Thoughts” from the new album Blood.

On “Heavy” and "Why, Pt. 2" Collective Soul rocked out by showing their skills on stage. During “Shine” I could hear the crowd singing along from all the way in back of the festival grounds. Roland then thanked the audience for having them and said, “Let's get back to playing, That's what were here for.” With that they started playing “Better Now.” Next up were two songs from the new album, “Now's the Time” and “Over Me,” both of which I and the rest of the audience really enjoyed. In fact the response was so strong that Roland thanked everyone for enjoying the new songs. Next they played "Precious Declaration."

 Collective Soul was still going strong during “December,” but slowed it down a little bit for another new song “Right as Rain” and their hit song “The World I Know." Then Roland brought out Robin Wilson of Gin Blossoms for a cover of R.E.Ms’ “The One I Love.” After that Collective Soul brought the heat back up with “Gel” and “Where the River Flows” before closing the show with “Run.": On that one Roland played an acoustic guitar and sang as everyone left the stage.

In summary, Collective Soul put on a great show for their 25th anniversary tour, full of energy and a nice mix of older and newer material. I would definitely see them again.