Third Eye Blind Live Up To Their 'Summer Gods' Title at Darien Lake

This was a pretty cool first for me.

I've reviewed bands more than once before. Sometimes I catch them at a festival and then a dedicated show of their own. Other times a band comes through as an opening act only to come back through town later as a headliner. The fact that I've only been covering concerts for a year and a half and have still had this kind of overlap shows you how common it can be to have bands come through quite a bit in a short amount of time. Also that I probably go to too many shows.

This isn't the first time I've seen Third Eye Blind (I think it's the fourth time that would have been a fifth if not for a rainout a few years back). It's not even the first time I've covered Third Eye Blind as a headliner (here's my review from last April in Chicago). But if I'm going to continue the metaphor from my previous review, it's important to remember that one of the most important things to remember to do in a long-term relationship is to travel and discover new places together. And so what better band to cover for this publication's first ever out of town show!

That's right! I've ditched the "it's awesome in the summer, but the winters are trash" weather, local cuisine designed to insulate the body, and proximity to a Great Lake of Chicago and traded it for the "it's awesome in the summer, but the winters are trash" weather, local cuisine designed to insulate the body, and proximity to a Great Lake of...Buffalo! Yes, both cities have a lot in common, and those similarities extended to the venue as well. The Darien Lake Amphitheater is a LiveNation amphitheater, which means it's an awful lot like the LiveNation amphitheater we have here in Chicago down in Tinley Park. And that's not a bad thing! All the LiveNation venues are well lit with great sound and Darien Lake was no exception. Plus it's right next to a Six Flags! Toss in both Yellowcard and Arizona as support and the stage was set (literally and figuratively) for a hell of a show.

I have to give Arizona lead singer Zachary Charles a lot of credit. By taking the stage and getting the obligatory "We're Arizona - the band, not the state" dad joke out of the way immediately, no one in the audience (or the photo pit in my case) felt the urge to make their own shitty pun and distract at all from paying attention to the performance. And hot damn, was it a fantastic performance. Being the opening act of an amphitheater show on a 90+ degree evening when the sun is still in the sky is no easy task, but Arizona was up to the task. Combining Charles' clean, soaring vocals with the 'frenetic one moment, soothing and reflective the next' guitar stylings of Nathan Esquite all being supported by David Labuguen's array of sonic textures and synths. It was perfect hot weather music for fans of The Chainsmokers and and Quinn XCII.

Like millions of others who had their formative years line up with the turn of the century, Yellowcard was a HUGE part of my life from 2003-2006. A pop punk band with a violin? Overly emotional lyrics with arena-sized choruses? Might as well have been scientifically engineered in a lab for Senior-in-college Rich to inject right into his veins. But as big as Ocean Avenue was, the follow up (2006's Lights and Sounds) came nowhere near that success, which I always thought was weird since it was a great album. I'll always remember moving to Los Angeles in early January, just a week or two before Lights and Sounds was set to be released. I remember the advertisements for it being EVERYWHERE. Bus ads. Park bench ads. Billboards. The first single (also called 'Lights and Sounds') was a bit harder than anything on Ocean Avenue, but still retained the band's signature sound, and was getting constant play on LA's rock station KROQ. And then...nothing. One follow-up single and the album was largely moved on from. Like I said, a real shame since there's a lot of really great songs in there.

It seemed like the band agreed with me (naturally, as I'm a genius), and decided to kick off their set with 'Lights and Sounds', which absolutely kicked all kinds of ass in person. And in a welcome pivot from last year's tour where they played Ocean Avenue in its entirety to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of its release, this time around they really spread things out and covered material from eight of their albums across just twelve total songs. And yes, I was there alongside everyone else singing all the words to songs like 'Ocean Avenue' and 'Only One', but it was also awesome to hear some deep cuts like 'Cut Me, Mick' and 'Keeper' off 2007's Paper Walls. Talking such a deep dive through their back catalogue seemed to have the band energized and in top form. I never got the chance to see Yellowcard in their breakout days, but it's hard to imagine they've lost even a fraction of a step along the way with how tight they sound.

Then comes the main event of the night. There was a lot of pressure for Third Eye Blind to knock this show out of the park, mostly brought on by themselves. For the fourth time since 2018, the band is embarking on the 'Summer Gods' tour and you can't give yourselves that kind of label and then not back it up onstage. I mean, you can...but you aren't going to get away with doing it four times.

Just like with Yellowcard, I never got a chance to see Third Eye Blind back in their heyday. And from what I've heard, that might not be a bad thing. Only within the last year or so had I heard any tales of inconsistent quality when it came to the band's live performances at the beginning of their career. This was quite the shocker to me because, as I mentioned, I'd seen them a handful of times and they were great each time. Granted, I didn't see them for the first time till about 2012 or so, and 15 years of touring and recording can do a lot to improve the quality of any band's performances so that might be the case here.

No matter the reason, that the band's trajectory when it comes to the overall quality of their live performances continues to go on an upward trend. They've got both the experience and the back catalog to be able to pull off any kind of set that they want. When I previously covered them in Chicago, they were doing an 'Evening with Third Eye Blind' tour where it was just them with no opener for a 2+ hour set that included an extended acoustic set in the middle. Going back to what is more of a 'traditional' performance on this night in Buffalo, their ability to absolutely stuff a standard 90 minute set to the gills with crowd-pleasers would be hard for any alternative rock band of their era to match. And while they certainly played all the live songs that fans have come to expect (most of side A of their self-titled debut, 'Wounded', 'Bonfire'), they also threw in some unexpected flourishes from time to time, mashing together 'Company of Strangers' with TV on the Radio's 'Wolf Like Me' or using 'Dust Storm' as an extended intro for The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven'.

Singer/guitarist Stephan Jenkins didn't really do much talking between songs at all, and honestly he didn't really need to. The band was so tight, so confident in their performance that it seemed like any unnecessary chit chat with the audience would just be more time that we weren't getting blown away by the next song. Jumping from song to song, after years of honing them in front of crowds of thousands of fans screaming each word back to them, the entire performance was the combination of a well-oiled machine with a dash of pre-4th of July fireworks thanks to the absolute 10/10 kick-ass job by whoever did their lighting for the show.

When doing a review of a show like this, especially for an extremely established act like Third Eye Blind, I always wonder what the actual point is. It's not like Third Eye Blind is some tiny local band where a review from a major publication can make or break their whole tour. I am also not a major publication. It's not like I have an audience of millions of readers who could be swayed by my opinion. Plus, even when I love a band (which is like 99% of the time), by the time you read my review, they may have already played your city and won't be back for a while.

But with the continuation of these Summer Gods tours and the absolutely stacked support each one of them has had, it seems like Third Eye Blind might be going the Dave Matthews route when it comes to being a stable of the summer touring season (and hopefully dumping way less poop on the city of Chicago in the process). And if that's the case, I guess the point of what I'm writing here is to convince anyone who reads it that they should give Third Eye Blind their money the next time the weather gets warm and they roll into town. Having seen them now for two consecutive years, I would say yes, do that every time you have a chance. Am I an unpaid shill who may be completely biased? Sure! But that doesn't mean that Third Eye Blind isn't also one of the best live bands in the business today. And to be honest, watching Kryz Reid absolutely shred on guitar for 90+ minutes is worth the price of admission alone. Everyone in the band is a top-tier rock musician, but this is two straight Third Eye Blind shows I've left thinking to myself "holy shit, that guy can absolutely rip!"

I mean shit, if you need any more proof that this band is one you should definitely make the effort to see whenever and wherever you can, look no further than myself. I drove 9+ hours away (and went though Indiana and Ohio to do it yuck) to see this band rock out in the shadow of rollercoasters with names like Predator and Tantrum. And I'd do it all over again if given the chance.

Third Eye Blind Setlist - Darien Lake Performing Arts Center 7/3/2024

Motorcycle Drive By
Dust Storm
Never Let You Go
Narcolepsy
The Kids Are Coming (To Take You Down)
Wolf Like Me/Company of Strangers
Graduate
Wounded
Weightless/Faster/Water Landing
Shipboard Cook
The Background
Palm Reader
Blinded (When I See You)
Slow Motion
Jumper
Semi-Charmed Life
How's It Going to Be