April 02, 2026 – There’s a certain kind of electricity that only lives in tight rooms, breathing walls, and a crowd close enough to feel every note land in their chest. That was the scene in Red Bank at Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center, where Collective Soul pulled the past into the present, and made it all feel urgent again.
Photos + Article by David Broskley @davidromanphoto
From the jump, the energy was restless. “Heavy” cracked open the night like a thunderclap, immediately followed by “Where the River Flows,” and suddenly the room wasn’t seated anymore. It was alive. Breathing. Moving. By the time “December” rolled in, the crowd were remembering who they were when they first heard it.
At the center of it all stood Ed Roland, equal parts ringmaster and true believer. Watching him perform is like trying to predict a lightning strike, you just can’t. One second he’s locked into a groove, the next he’s wandering the stage, chasing a feeling, chasing the moment. There’s no autopilot here. Every lyric feels like it’s being discovered in real time, and his love for the music is absolutely contagious.
On guitar, Jesse Triplett brought a kind of effortless swagger, carving through riffs with precision while still leaving room for personality. His playing pulls you deeper into every song. Alongside him, Dean Roland played the quiet architect, threading everything together with a steady hand, never chasing the spotlight but always shaping the sound.
The rhythm section, Will Turpin and Shane Evans, proved why this band has endured. There’s a chemistry there that can’t be manufactured. It’s earned, over years, over miles, over stages just like this one. Every groove felt locked in, unshakable, like the kind of foundation you don’t notice until you realize nothing would stand without it.
Late in the set, “The World I Know” landed like a collective exhale with its soft, reflective, and haunting chorus. And then came the closer: an extended acoustic take on “Run,” stripped down to its bones. Just Ed Roland, a guitar, and a room hanging onto every word. It felt like a confession.
For a band that’s been at this since the mid-‘90s, there’s no sense of slowing down, no nostalgia act coasting on memory. If anything, Collective Soul feels sharper, more present, more alive than ever. With their new album on the horizon, Touch and Go, releasing only at independent record stores next week for Record Store Day 2026, they’re reminding everyone why the music still matters.
Some bands play songs. Others build moments. This was the latter.
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