896 souls collected in a cage

Dan Hoffman Arizona Summer Wildcat Collective Soul lead singer Ed Roland mesmerizes a sold-out crowd at The Cage Sunday night night. Despite delays, 896 fans enjoyed the show.

There was only one problem. Evening Star Productions, had sold more than 800 tickets, and radio stations had given dozens more away, but The Cage has an occupancy limit of only 499.

It appeared that someone had really screwed up Ä no one was giving a straight answer.

About 15 minutes after the opening act was to go on, the crowd, now fervor fermenting, had yet to be let in. KFMA disc jockey Kathy Rivers said she had been told if she went in, one of her contest winners would be S.O.L.

"There might be a riot tonight," Rivers said.

But an unlikely hero would emerge - the city of Tucson. At 8 p.m., just one hour before show time, a city engineer was called and informed The Cage was interested in raising their occupancy limit.

The engineer and a fire marshal quickly headed down to the club and said they were willing to allow an increase to 900 if the club made more properly identified exits available. The Cage staff quickly painted a couple of make-shift signs.

As promoter Tom put it, "The show will always go on."

Someone else said that once, I think.

And it did, albeit a little late, but everybody was happy and the vastly eclectic crowd packed in for the all ages show.

With kids young enough to be Hanson fans in attendance contrasted with the many who looked like original Fleetwood Mac members. Collective Soul's name seemed fitting for the wide range of people.

Assigned the task of lubricating the tightly wound crowd was the New York-based trio Darlahood. The band is lead by Luke Janklow, a cross between Howard Stern and the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson, who sounds like INXS's Michael Hutchins.

"He's hot," two high school girls told me.

By the third song, they were playing some sort of Poison-like love ballad, which led me to believe these guys were schwag.

However the band's first radio single "Grow Your Own" and the song "New York City" where Luke substituted in Tucson for one of the verses, excited the crowd. A girl outside said they kinda sounded like Collective Soul.

The band was finishing their three-month tour with Collective Soul, and said they were heading to Salt Lake City to rock out with the Mormons.

Bassist David Sellar said the band's name is derived from the girl on the Little Rascals. He said the band wanted a name that would keep people guessing and would not easily reveal their style.

A guy told me Collective Soul's success could be attributed to their ability to crank out happy-riffed top-40 pop-rock mixed with more emotional slow down touchy-feely songs.

Their third effort, Disciplined Breakdown, was inspired by the recent personal and management problems the band has battled and played a significant role in the band's healing process.

Before playing "Everything," Roland told the audience the song was written after he went through a deposition, which he said was one of the most difficult experiences he has ever gone through.

Roland also said the stage's carpet was messing up his James Brown moves.

During the band's radio hits, the crowd attempted to mosh, not a great idea when you're stuffed up against 900 sweaty people. You would think people living in the desert might invest in a little deodorant. Someone on the way out said, "This is what air feels like."

The encore included the lighter thing for "World I Know" and the most poppy version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" I've ever heard. A stumbling guy in a Black Sabbath shirt said, "I've been around a long time man and that was the best."

The final crowd count was 896.