The Georgia native band Collective Soul stopped at Foxwoods Resort and Casino on their 2023 tour.

This is the second time that I’ve seen Collective Soul. The first time I saw them at the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning and they were amazing. This time around, they were spectacular.

The band, which consists of lead singer Ed Roland, his brother and rhythm guitarist, Dean Roland, lead guitarist Jesse Triplett, and drummer Johnny Rabb, played 14 songs for the packed Foxwoods crowd that sang along to every word and played air guitar to every riff that the band played.

At one point during the show, right before one of their biggest hits, “December” off of their 1995 self-titled record, they brought up a fan from the crowd by the name of George.

George was gifted lead singer, Roland’s acoustic guitar and joined the band in smiles as they rocked out to one of the band’s biggest hits.

Prior to “December,” Ed Roland asked the crowd what they wanted to hear and fans shouted all types of songs from Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” Happily, Triplett decided to play each riff on his guitar while Rabb backed him up on the drums for a little game of, as Roland put it, “stump Jesse.”

I personally love when bands goof off during a portion of their whether it’s engaging with fans or playing stump the guitarist, it’s always fun.

In between songs, Roland announced that over the pandemic, the band recorded over 22 songs for three records and decided to play one of their new songs for tonight’s show.

The brand new song titled “Not the Same,” was an awesome, catchy song and I can’t wait to hear it on one of their new records.

Collective Soul pulled out all the stops for this show as they played a wide range of songs from various records. From fan favorites like “Shine,” and “Gel,” to more recent songs like “Cut the Cord,” off of 2022’s “Vibrating,” or “Better Now,” off of 2004’s “Youth,” the band pulled out all different eras to incorporate into their setlist. If you’re interested, click here for a review of the band’s most recent record.

As mentioned before, Collective Soul was formed in Stockbridge, Georgia. Georgia has been a hub for bands to get their start. The Black Crowes and R.E.M are some of the most notable bands from the state along with Collective Soul.

In a sign of respect to those that came before them and inspired them, Collective Soul decided to cover R.E.M’s “The One I Love,” and they smashed it out of the park and delivered a great version of the R.E.M classic.

From the minute the band stepped on stage till the moment the band walked off, they delivered a powerful performance that was definitely worth admission. It is very clear that the band loves being up on stage and playing in front of fans. 

With fans as loyal and amazing as Collective Soul’s, it would be extremely hard to not play with a smile on my face. The entire band, for an hour and a half played with huge smiles and thanked the crowd after multiple songs for coming out and seeing them. Now, I’ll speak on behalf of the entire audience, we are very glad that we saw them. For the entire concert, the crowd was on their feet and never sat down once.

If you have an opportunity to see Collective Soul I would highly suggest taking the opportunity to see them. They’re amazing musicians and put on a great show!