The atmosphere on a Friday night at Merriweather Post Pavilion is unmatched. Whether enjoying the show from the lawn, the seated section, or the boxes and sky lawn, there is nothing quite like basking in the golden glow of the sunset while watching your favorite band. Having viewed a concert from the lawn at Merriweather once before already fueled my excitement for the night ahead. Yet, the experience of the show was raised tenfold by the box tickets I generously received from IMP. The perfect view of the
band, the extra room to dance, and the ability to order food or a drink without missing a second of the show was quite the luxury, and truly elevated the concert experience.
Yellowcard, the pop-punk rockers from Jacksonville, Florida, opened the show. While the band hasn’t been focused on releasing new material, their performance was not solely throwback hits. Still, the band placed heavy emphasis on their pop-punk hits, entirely avoiding early albums such as One for the Kids and Where We Stand. Still, Yellowcard struck a balance between uplifting pop-rock songs such as Southern Air and Childhood eyes, slow yet emotional songs like Only One and Lift a Sail, and angsty
emo-rock songs like Lights and Sounds. Exciting and versatile were two words to encapsulate the performance, yet the band and crowd became most animated for final song Ocean Avenue, the band’s most well-known and well-loved song.
90s Alternative Rock poster children Third Eye Blind played a fun and laid-back concert, which at the same felt nostalgic and heartfelt. After 27 years since their first full-length release, Third Eye Blind proved to fans and themselves that they could really rock a stadium. In a closing remark, Yellowcard singer Ryan Key told fans that Third Eye Blind’s set was “everything you could ever hope for in a set from them,” and for all intents and purposes, his statement rung true. Opening with Motorcycle Drive By was a bold choice that paid off. The song started off slow and intimate, yet ended with a burst of energy, captured in an electric guitar solo. The first half of the show was equal parts radio hits, less well known gems for longtime fans, and snippets of other alternative rock classics such as hit song by The Cure, Just Like Heaven. Despite his long tenure as a vocalist in 3EB, singer Stephan Jenkins screamed like never before on high-energy songs Graduate and Losing a Whole Year.
At the halfway point of the band’s performance, they turned the energy down from a boil to a simmer, swapping electric guitars for acoustic ones, and a full rock drum set to a hand drum. The acoustic format added a soulful style to melancholic tracks like The Background and Slow Motion. Stephan Jenkins, the band’s lead singer and last remaining founding member, expressed in an intimate speech toward the end of the show, that though Third Eye Blind had played at Merriweather Post Pavilion before on multiple occasions, the crowd they played for on July 19, 2024, was the largest crowd they had ever played for
at the venue. In the same speech, Jenkins confessed feelings of doubt and uncertainty regarding the state of 3EB. Do fans still care enough to see them live? Can Third Eye Blind still deliver a tour worthy of the expectations of fans and themselves? If not for the small insight that Jenkins gave fans into his anxieties surrounding the 2024 Summer Gods Tour, it would have been impossible to assume that Jenkins or any member of Third Eye Blind could doubt themselves or their fans.
Ending with a boisterously loud and enjoyable encore while fans continued to scream for more, Third Eye Blind finished a truly outstanding show, marked by their ability to innovate in their approach to old tunes, while delivering covers and new or lesser known songs in a way that excited fans, even if they weren’t familiar with the material.
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