90’s nostalgia filled RiverWorks in Buffalo on Friday, April 3, as Our Lady Peace brought their OLP30 tour to the Queen City. The sold-out concert also featured The Verve Pipe.
Formed in 1992 in Toronto, Our Lady Peace helped usher in a unique “post-grunge” alternative rock sound. Led by singer Raine Maida’s unique falsetto vocals, the band achieved success with their debut 1994 release, Naveed, which saw the single “Starseed” hit the Top 40. In 1997, the band released Clumsy, which propelled them to new heights with hit singles “Superman’s Dead”, “Clumsy” and “4 A.M.”, all of which still receive regular airplay, today. The band has released 10 studio albums, including the notable Spiritual Machines (2000) which foreshadowed the rise of artificial intelligence. The band’s current lineup features Raine Maida on vocals, Steve Mazur on guitar, Duncan Coutts on bass, and Jason Pierce on drums.
Friday’s show kicked off with a high-energy set from The Verve Pipe. The Michigan natives were all smiles as they took the stage and launched into “Photograph”, the lead single off their 1996 album, Villains. As the set neared a close, the band performed their smash hit “The Freshmen”, which had singer Brian Vander Ark joined in unison by nearly everyone in attendance, as they helped sing along. As the song concluded, Vander Ark proclaimed “God, I loved the ’90’s”, while familiar opening chords of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” rang out. They would conclude their 40 minute set with a cover of the song, a fitting tribute to one of the ’90’s most influential bands.
After a brief changeover, the stage was set, literally, for Our Lady Peace. As the house lights dimmed, fans were treated to a video montage of highlights of their over 30 year career. The clips included interviews, music videos, and live shots from their 1999 set at Woodstock 99, in Rome, New York. At last the band took to the stage with a thunderous ovation and quickly, the venue was filled with the rhythmic and hypnotic bass line of “Automatic Flowers”. The slow building track off of Clumsy led nicely into the second track, the anthemic sing-along “Innocent”.
Between songs, Maida offered the band’s thanks and gratitude to the city of Buffalo, a town which has become a second home for the band over the last three decades, with countless sold-out shows in the city. At times, Maida would pause to tell stories and reflect on the influences which led to some of the songs. He spoke of his desire from a young age to turn music in to a career, a dream he wasn’t sure if he would ever achieve, until he saw a highly inspirational performance by fellow Canadian rockers, The Tragically Hip. Maida proclaimed that he was so inspired by their performance, that he would forever choose the pursuit of art. This led into the band’s rendition of “Locked in the Trunk of a Car”, the 1992 hit single by The Tragically Hip.
The band performed for nearly two hours, delivering a setlist that spanned their lengthy career. Songs played included “Is Anybody Home”, “Life”, and “In Repair”, the latter saw the band brilliantly weave another of their tracks, “Angels/Losing/Sleep” into the song’s outro. One of the standout performances of the evening was the band’s rendition of “Naveed”, a song that started with a pulsating bass intro before erupting with a chorus so powerful it could fill a football stadium.
Of course, no Our Lady Peace show would be complete without the performances of some of their biggest hits, and on this night, the audience understood the assignment. The crowd sang along in thunderous fashion to “Superman’s Dead”, “Clumsy”, and “4AM”, drawing smiles from the band. “That was worth the price of admission” a nearby audience member proclaimed soon after “Superman’s Dead”.
The band closed out the evening with a five song encore, ultimately ending the night on a high note, with the energetic “Starseed”. The track allowed for one last communal sing along, before fans made their way back in to the cold Buffalo night.
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