I remember perfectly the summer before seventh grade I invited my two friends Sheena and Vicky over to my house to jump on my trampoline and eat watermelon that I had grown in the backyard. We were inside for a break and we had the TV on to MTV and we were watching the show Say What... the one with Dave Holmes hosting and the lyrics to the music video would scroll at the bottom of the screen... and we were singing along to "Semi-Charmed Life" trying to keep up, and thinking that those were the dumbest lyrics ever, and not really knowing what it meant. I remember Vicky specifically asking what crystal meth was after the "doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break" and none of us not knowing what that even meant.
Stephen Jenkins looks exactly the way I remember him. He had that clean cut face but with that look of "I might just kick your ass". And he walked across the stage like he was Axl Rose. Almost 12 years after I first saw Third Eye Blind on TV and Jenkins is still hot. He still seems like a preppy- bad ass kind of dude. And I'm still turned on by it. His intro was a bit dragged out, maybe to build up the anticipation for the crowd who hadn't seen/heard these guys in years, but after a bit, it was time to get the show on the road. They all came on stage wearing sunglasses. That, I'm not so sure about that. I wore sunglasses to my senior homecoming because I thought I was cool. Rockstar or not, its lame.
The show opened with "Losing A Whole Year" and I was surprised to see that the crowd knew the words and Jenkins left it up to the audience to sing the choruses. I was surprised because the crowd consisted of USD students in the age range of 18-21 and a few of us non USD-ers who were there to see this band of the 90s rock out. These "youngsters" reminded me of my little brother, wasted and making a scene for the sake of being college kids, which at times was annoying when they would start squealing and hugging each other through songs like "Crystal Baller" (one of my favorites) and drunkenly stepping on my feet.
Of course they played their classics ("How's it Gonna Be", "Jumper", "Graduate") and threw in some of their most recent songs ("Never Let You Go", "Crystal Baller") but they also tried to move away from their signature 90s songs and played songs off their upcoming record. Those didn't fare so well with the young and drunken crowd, although they were pretty good songs. I figure its because Third Eye Blind will forever be seen as the "Semi Charmed Life" guys and playing songs that no one knows 12 years later makes the crowd lose interest.
Personally, I think Out of the Vein was a great album... my favorite TEB song is for sure "Can't Get Away From You" which floods me with memories of senior year of high school, but unfortunately they didn't play that song (understandably so, its a slow song), nor did they play their hit "Blinded".
They did put on a great show. They had the crowd very excited- whether it was because of alcohol or not- and there was even crowdsurfing. They "finished" off the night with, of course, "Semi Charmed Kind of Life", which I pride myself in knowing all the lyrics thanks to Say What, which EVERYONE sang the "do do do, do do do do, do do do, I want something else, to get me through this, semi charmed kind of life", and then they thanked everyone and ran off. A few people made their way to the door, but most stayed. Within seconds everyone was yelling "Encore!" and they came back out and finished it off with "Narcolepsy" and "Jumper"
90s band or not, these guys can still rock, and Jenkins can still pull off the leather jacket with chains. They can still make the crowd jump, and they can still make people come to their shows. Laugh at me all you want, I am glad I went to their show, I'm glad they're still around, and I'm glad they're coming out with another album.
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