Third Eye Blind’s self-titled first album, released in 1997, boasts the summery, feel-good smash “Semi-Charmed Life” that skyrocketed the band out of their self-described “cult status” into the mainstream. Follow-up hits include “Jumper,” “How’s It Gonna Be,” “Losing a Whole Year” and “Graduate.” Two years later, the band released Blue, the follow-up album and my personal favorite, which boasted another big hit, “Never Let You Go.” In 2003, Third Eye Blind released the vastly underrated “Out of the Vein,” a sentiment echoed by Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins. That record’s first (only?) single, “Blinded,” received some airplay, but nothing compared to the band’s prior hits.
Now that the history lesson is over…my experience at Sunday’s Third Eye Blind show at the House of Blues proved that some bands are best left to the radio. Jenkins has a powerful stage presence – at 6’2’’, he commands the stage and demands the audience’s attention, but his stage show was a bit inconsistent. One minute he was dancing around, playing on drummer Brad Hargreaves’ cymbals, the next he seemed lethargic and indifferent. Um, Stephan? Just pick. It’s stressful trying to keep up with you.
Jenkins also struggled to hit some of his most famous high notes. For example, during “Blinded,” Jenkins stepped away from the microphone during the high notes and hid behind the more apt voices of his bandmates. Not to get too snarky, but covering Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”? If Jenkins was going for a cliché rock cover song, he might as well have sang “Freebird.”
On the positive side, Jenkins killed during the haunting, acoustically-driven “Slow Motion,” and delivered the band’s token hits with flair. Jenkins made a wise choice for the hardcore 3EB fans in the audience by focusing mostly on songs from the first album, including a goosebump-inducing version of “The Background.”
My question – where was “10 Days Late,” an ode to the baby daddy and one of my favorites from “Blue?” The band also debuted a few new songs; in the words of my fellow (mildly disappointed) concert-goer, “They should let the radio pop the audience’s cherry.”
Overall, I’d say that Third Eye Blind is well on its way to releasing a mediocre fourth CD, and playing to crowds of 35-year-old men chanting, “Play Semi-Charmed Life again!” Though still one of my favorite bands, this show sealed 3EB’s fate and a good example that you can never go back.
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