What’s better during the summer than a package tour? Not much, if you ask me. What’s even better than a summer package tour? A summer package tour with bands that made a huge impact on your youth! Such was the case for the Summer Unity Tour at Jiffy Lube Live. The four act bill was a blend of the nostalgic and the new and included Greyling James Rue, Our Lady Peace, Live, and Collective Soul.
At Jiffy Lube Live on August 3, the show started with Greylin James Rue. She’s an up-and-coming alt-rock singer and songwriter. She’s an extremely talented performer, and her alt rock sound meshes easily with the rest of the bands on the tour. Being the opening act of a four-band show means her set is a bit short. But all that did was make me want to hear more.
After a short break, Our Lady Peace took the stage. The band’s debut was released in 1994, and they’ve been very active ever since. The Canadian band has a pretty dedicated following here in the States — and they really showed up for their performance! The set was short but pulled together some of their best songs from the early years to recent releases, including the song “Whatever.” They hadn’t played the track in 22 years. It was the entrance song for the late WWE wrestling star Chris Benoit. It was definitely a welcome surprise. The set was strong, even if again it was short by necessity.
With four bands on the bill, the time in between sets was shorter than usual. So after Our Lady Peace wrapped up, it wasn’t too long before Live took the stage. In one of the best moves of the night, Live began their set with the very first track from their very first album, “Pain Lies On The Riverside.”
Watch Live perform “Pain Lies On The Riverside” live in 1992 via YouTube:
The next several songs were from Live’s enormously huge album, Throwing Copper. But it wasn’t just a greatest hits show. Songs like “Iris” and “TBD” popped up between hits like “All Over You,” new songs like “Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’),” and an as yet unreleased song, “Leave The Radio On.”
Singer Ed Kowalczyk’s voice is just as strong as ever. He can sing the songs just like he did 30 years ago. Guitarist Zak Loy plays the classic material as if he wrote it. He’s faithful to the original while adding his own personality to the solos. He and Ed have been playing together for over 12 years, and their chemistry is apparent in the new music. Drum duty is handled by the talented Johnny Radelat, while Nick Jay plays the keyboards.
Two personal favorites from Live’s set were “The Dolphin’s Cry” and “Lakini’s Juice,” which were highlights of the latter part of their show. After 11 songs, the Live set was over the band walked off stage for a minute or so and reemerged for the only encore of the evening. They had to! They hadn’t played their most popular songs. That was remedied in the encore which consisted of “Turn My Head,” “I Alone,” and “Lightning Crashes.”
Co-headlining and wrapping up the show was Collective Soul. The kicked off their portion of the evening with “Mother’s Love,” the opening track from their 2024 release, Here To Eternity. Singer Ed Roland sauntered on stage in true rock star fashion in a sparkling, dark grey suit, white cowboy hat, and glass-knobbed cane. Well, the cane didn’t last very long (although it did return later in the set). Three songs later, they lept into their breakthrough, and maybe most well-known song, “Shine,” (Yeah!). And why not? Everyone wants to hear it, they know you HAVE to play it, why make the crowd wait to the end to hear it?
Watch the official music video for “Shine” by Collective Soul on YouTube:
Collective Soul followed the theme of the evening by playing a mixture of the old and new. Ed and his brother Dean told stories of recording in one of Elvis’ houses, growing up in Georgia where their father was a Southern Baptist minister, and even pointing out a friend in the audience named Ricky that they hadn’t seen in several decades. One of the best moments of the evening was when all of the band members (Dean, bassist Will Turpin, guitarist Jesse Triplett, and drummer Johnny Rabb) all turned to wish Ed a happy birthday by covering The Beatles’ song “Happy Birthday.” They DID call him James Hetfield, but I’m pretty sure his name is Ed. After that, the entire crowd burst into a chorus of “Happy Birthday.” Ed seemed honestly touched, in a regular way, not the southern way.
The evening wrapped up the classics “Gel,” “Where The River Flows,” and “Run.”
I love shows like this because it puts the music into perspective. There were no political stances, no hot takes, nothing but the desire to play and listen to great music by amazing bands. Ed Roland wrapped up the evening, not with an encore, but with a statement: God Bless you, God Bless Virginia, and God Bless the USA.
Setlists
Greylin James Rue
- It Gets Bad
- Happy
- Steve’s House
- Birth of Venus
Our Lady Peace
- Sound The Alarm
- Superman’s Dead
- Whatever
- Innocent
- Clumsy
- Somewhere Out There
- Starseed
+Live+
- Pain Lies On The Riverside
- Selling The Drama
- All Over You
- Iris
- Lady Bhang (She Got Me Rollin’)
- T.B.D.
- Shit Towne
- The Dolphin’s Cry
- Leave The Radio On
- Rattlesnake
- Lakini’s Juice
Encore
- Turn My Head
- I Alone
- Lightning Crashes
Collective Soul
- Mother’s Love
- Heavy
- Right As Rain
- Shine
- Precious Declaration
- Keep It On Track
- Tremble For My Beloved
- She Said
- The World I Know
- December
- Birthday (The Beatles)
- Happy Birthday (from the audience to Ed)
- Gel
- Where The River Flows
- Run
Here are more photos of the bands performing live at Jiffy Lube Live on August 3, 2025. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Marc Shea.
