Review by Adam
August 13, 2003

First things first, Nate’s description of the Escanaba concert was very close to the truth, especially the one about the security guard who was a seat Nazi and people sitting down.  Anyway, I and my friend switched peninsulas and traveled 250 miles, the very next day to Midland to see this whole show again.

I can tell you right now that this crowd was hot, both literally and in spirit. Before the show even started, about 3,000 people were already packed near the stage, and that number only grew much higher in the night, especially for OLP.  The crowd was already cheering when the Shinedown banner was being raised behind the stage.  The singer of Shinedown, Brent Smith, was much more social tonight, probably due to the energetic crowd.  He was really relaxed with the crowd and fairly entertaining.

Then came Seether, who really didn’t impress me until the last two songs, “Fine Again” and “You Know You’re Right.”  “Fine Again” was pretty much when the crowd finally got jumping and active in the show.  Shaun Morgan truly and eerily sounds way too much like Kurt Cobain in that final song, which also rocked.

Then, came the guys I was there for, OLP.  There were definitely OLP fans in the crowd that night as there were “Our Lady Peace!” chants before the guys even came out. (Maybe there were more Canadians in the audience since Midland is only 80 miles from the nearest border crossing)  I also was about 10 rows behind the stage which offered a great view of the guys.

All For You was great at getting the eager fans excited, and it was followed up with Whatever, a great live song with a great guitar solo for Steve.  Superman’s Dead was next, in which Raine let part of the crowd sing some of the song. Innocent came after that, and then came the new stuff.

Wipe that Smile Off Your Face was really cool and moody which will be cool to hear on CD and hopefully radio next year.  Walking In Circles was also very energetic and got crazy when Raine climbed 20 feet on the side scaffolding.

Birdman was really cool since it started out with Raine walking through the grandstand to make the people in the back stand up too. The song was going really well until Raine totally stopped the song right before the guitar solo. I guess some guys were fighting towards the back, and Raine said that people came to have a good time and not see f***ing idiots beat each other.  The guitar solo did happen when they restarted the song and it was pretty amazing.

Clumsy was next and the crowd definitely knew the chorus to that song.  Somewhere Out There was next and that was the loudest song of the night. Between the crowd and the lighting effects, it looked & sounded just like the music video, which totally impressed me.

The set was ended with Starseed, which totally fit perfectly.  I would have to say that being just a casual fan two days ago has changed me into an avid one.  These guys should have led this summer fair tour, hands down.  Oh well, at least they’ll have the satisfaction of leaving 3 Doors Down appearing mediocre, despite putting out a good effort.  Check these boys out, you’ll simply feel great on the inside once they’re done performing no matter what’s happening in your life.