Daughtry, 3 Doors Down and P.O.D.
Live at The Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan
Wednesday 5th December,
2012
On a chilly December evening, rock fans ventured out
to downtown Detroit, to check out Daughtry, 3 Doors Down and P.O.D.
The venue, the magnificent Fox Theatre built back in
the 1920’s is fantastic inside, great carvings and painted details throughout
and a great concert hall, not too large but not small either, with a capacity
of just over 5,000.
I had only ever visited the place once before and
remember being impressed then, it really is a great place to see a show.
We arrived as P.O.D. were getting close to wrapping up
their set.
I’ve never been a fan of theirs, a little too heavy
for me, plus they have that rap / rock / reggae kind of thing going.
We caught the last 3 songs and clearly there were
still a number of people rather impressed by them. Boy, were they loud too!
Maybe the last studio album has not sold as many
‘official’ copies as previous gold and platinum certified releases have, but
clearly here in Detroit they still have some very passionate fans.
For whatever reason, the way this show had been
advertised and what I’d heard, I had expected 3 Doors Down to be the headline
act, so was kind of surprised when we arrived to see the sign outside showing
Daughtry as the headline act and no disrespect to Chris Daughtry and his valiant
troopers, who were great on the night and I like both acts, so was looking
forward to the evening.
3 Doors Down
Top: The opening video screen, then bottom Brad Arnold and Chris Henderson onstage - Photo's: Alun Williams
The great thing was, both 3 Doors Down and Daughtry
had the same full stage area and the big screen monitor behind
the drum riser, with images from the start capturing elements for 3 Doors Down of the last
studio album, ‘Time Of My Life,’ which in fact the title track was what opened
tonight’s set.
It’s a great strong opening number without question
and the band laps up the Detroit crowd pleasure to see these guys!
‘It’s Not My Time’ next starts gently with Chris
Henderson’s gentle guitar easing in, then the band cranks it out and bassist Todd Harrell is
all over the stage, Brad Arnold too is making sure fans are not ignored as
he’s moving all over the front of the stage.
I love the point right before the second chorus where Brad says the line, “Listen to
this, ‘My friends this life we live, it’s not what we have, it’s what we
believe in …”
Well said Brad!
‘Thank you so much my friends, God Bless you,’ from
Brad which is a line he uses a lot tonight!
Then they go back to the first album for ‘Duck and
Run’ next.
These guys are great players, from Brad’s great vocal
delivery and stage presence, through great guitar work from both Chris
Henderson and Chet Roberts and solid backing from both Todd’s bass and Greg
Upchurch’s drumming, just a class act!
Top: Brad Arnold in front of Greg Upchurch's drums.
Bottom: Todd Harrell and Chet Roberts, raising their guitars
Photo's: Alun Williams
Next up is ‘The Road I’m On’ from the wonderful ‘Away
From The Sun’ album before the title track of the same album, brilliant stuff.
I’m in heaven here, loved this band for such a long
time and this is the first time I get to see them play and they really are,
right on their game.
The whole show, from sound through lighting and
interaction with the crowd, through both guitarists and bassist Todd too,
giving out guitar picks along the way is just really enjoyable.
I’m just asking myself, why is Daughtry headline?
Don’t these guys deserve it?!
To the ‘Seventeen Days’ album next for another hit in
‘Let Me Go’ and there is just no denying the real songwriting and presentation
talent in this band, in transposing the studio performance to that of a live
setting. This band is really on their game they are looking and sounding great!
Brad takes a moment to talk to the crowd an says,
‘Detroit rock city, how you doing out there my friends?’ Huge cheers!
‘Man you guys are looking great out there tonight! We
just so happy to be here with you this evening, thank you so much for coming
out tonight and being a part of this show. We’re gonna have some fun, right?!’
More loud cheers!
‘Well, as surreal as it is to us in this band, we just
put out a 'Greatest Hits' record …’ More cheers …
His next statement shows just how humble these guys
are, seriously!
“It’s unbelievable to us all, if you’d asked us twelve
years ago when we started touring, do you think you’ll ever have a 'Greatest
Hits' record, I’d have said ‘Sir, I don’t believe I’ll ever have a hit!’ But it
all worked out and here we are!”
Massive cheers from the crowd!
He goes on to talk about the new songs included on the
'Greatest Hits' release and ‘… that the first song we want to play for you is not
necessarily the most happy song but it’s a song that I feel like you ….. The
song is called ‘Goodbyes’”
It’s certainly an emotional track and you know I’ve
said this before about some of the band guitar sounds reminding me of my
favourite band, Thin Lizzy. The short lead moments here and there certainly
bring some of that Lizzy sound to mind for me for sure.
Nice moving track guys, put across well and yes, I
hear what you mean in your lyrics.
Perhaps keeping things in a sombre mood, the band
plays ‘Loser’ next from the first album, a song the crowd has no problem
recognizing, as the first few chords are played.
Top: 3 Doors Down trio shot, Todd, Greg and Brad.
Bottom: Chet Roberts.
Photo's: Alun Williams
‘There’s a Life’ is next from the three new songs on
‘Greatest Hits’ and it’s certainly catchy and it comes across well too.
I’m beginning to think the crowd here tonight is like
me, more behind 3 Doors Down than Daughtry!
Brad Arnold doesn’t ignore this either and is
constantly thanking the crowd again and again.
When the first chords to ‘Landing In London’ start,
I’m wondering since this is Bob Seger's turf, whether he’ll come out to join the
band, as he did when they recorded the song. Didn’t happen …
Next up is the final – third - new song is the first
single from the ‘Greatest Hits’ in ‘One Light’ and Brad explains that “this song
is about coming together and making the world a better place. It’s about
leaving more than you find and it’s about giving more than you take. I hope
this song inspires someone out there tonight, to do that very thing and be a
light for someone else and in turn I hope that person inspires another person.
The song is called ‘One Light.’”
It’s a great new song from the band, as are the other
two new ones on the ‘Hit’s’ package.
‘Here Without You’ next of course needs no introduction,
beautiful track and from the first chords I got goose bumps.
It’s really moving and gets huge cheers of course.
Top: Brad Arnold behind a drum kit once again!
Bottom: Two drummers together!
Photo's: Alun Williams
Next they up the ante with ‘Citizen / Soldier’ and its
excellent rhythmic drum patterns, then a second drum kit is brought out on stage
and Brad originally being a drummer gets behind it to accompany Greg Upchurch
for some duel drumming and at the end of the song, Brad says ‘God Bless every
one of our Citizen Soldiers.’
Class act indeed!
Next up is perhaps a bit of a shock, as the band
launch into Megadeth’s ‘Symphony of Destruction’ that then merges into the
title track of their first album, ‘The Better Life.’
This closes the set as the band ease off into the
darkness …
The crowd is cheering and clearly they want more and
back they come for ‘that’ first breakthrough single ‘Kryptonite.’
Final track of the night for these guys is ‘When I’m
Gone’ which Brad dedicates to ‘every man and woman that has served this great
country …’
Great closing track, no question and my evening is complete …!
Daughtry
Seriously, I could’ve left right then and been happy,
but I like Daughtry’s sound, so here we stayed for the artist that for me, is
the best thing to have come out of TV’s American Idol and Chris Daughtry didn’t
even win the series that he featured in!
3 Doors Down of course didn’t need that to get them
started …, but I’m pleased that it got Chris Daughtry noticed, as it turns out
the guy certainly knows how to entertain and please the crowd with his bands
songs.
Chris Daughtry onstage in Detroit - Photo: Alun Williams
Opening the set with the title track from his third
and latest release ‘Break The Spell,’ it’s strong and I have to say, I had
heard nothing from this latest album released in November of this year, before
tonight’s show, so I was at a disadvantage … Fortunately, Chris told us many of
the titles that I didn’t know, so there wasn’t too many I wasn’t too sure of.
Phew! LOL!
No question about next song, which was the hit ‘Feels
Like Tonight’ which is such a strong, hook ridden track, the crowd is lapping
it up. OK, he’s not doing so bad …
Chris has a tight band too and variety as well in two guitarists
(Josh Steely and Brian Craddock), as well as playing more than a little himself most of
the time, the rest of the band bass – Andy Waldeck – drummer Robin Diaz and a guest
keyboard player … Who’s name I didn’t catch or couldn’t make out when Chris
introduced him! - Sorry dude?!
Ed's note: Why wouldn't the 'official' website say who is playing in the touring line up, especially since they are playing so many dates? That's bad if you ask me ...
Next is another new song in ‘Outta My Head’ and Chris
grabs a Gibson Explorer guitar to jam the track with his band too and he switches
between various different Gibson guitars for each subsequent song when he joins
in. Must be nice …
Then another new one follows in ‘Crawling Back To You’
and then he says, “This next song is the one we’ve had on the radio, it’s
called ‘Start of Something Good.’”
I have to say, the new songs on first hearing don’t
sound bad at all which is encouraging, although in a live setting perhaps we’ve
been put in the mood for it to sound good!
Top: Daughtry band shot.
Bottom: Chris Daughtry.
Photo's: Alun Williams
‘What I Want’ from the first album rocks out next,
this was the song that originally on that album, featured a guest appearance
from Slash on guitar. It rocks out well.
Chris explains that, “This next song is about when
you’ve been in a situation when you lose someone too soon and this goes out to
those who have lost someone too soon it’s called ‘Gone Too Soon.’”
It starts
with just Chris and his keys man on a piano that’s been rolled out beside Chris
and it’s a really moving track as the title suggests and then it picks up
towards the end, where the band comes back out to join in.
3 Doors Down's Brad Arnold joins Daughtry onstage - Photo's: Alun Williams
Big hit time with ‘Over You’ next where Chris actually
played some of the lead break on, which went straight into another hit in ‘No
Surprise,’ enjoyable stuff!
Chris shouts out, ‘Hey, you guys want some free
stuff?’ He and he keyboard guy throw rolled up t-shirts out into various parts
of the crowd and not just one or two, quite a few!
The band jammed on while they were throwing the shirts
out, nice one guys!
‘Every Time You Turn Around’ from the ‘Leave This
Town’ album is up next and really highlights some nice shared lead guitar work.
It’s good stuff!!!
Chris Daughtry and his band - Photo: Alun Williams
Chris says next that, “This song Is all about race,
religion and all that … You know, if we all just stand strong, then ‘We’re Not
Gonna Fall!’”
Midway through the song he gets the band to bring it
all down and he asks the crowd, ‘Do you believe the words of this song? Do
you?! I want you all to stand up, raise your fist and sing these words …’
The lyrics come up on the screen behind him and he
encourages the crowd to get behind him and join in and for the most part,
everyone is into this.
He’s certainly won some new fans tonight with this
performance. I’ve seen some reviews from this tour elsewhere where people have
said they were more present to see 3 Doors Down than Daughtry, but said at the
end that Daughtry surprised them but they for the most part were still behind
their 3 Doors Down … I have to agree, but I was impressed by Daughtry’s
performance.
Confetti bomb time - Photo's: Alun Williams
The mega hit ‘Home’ close the main set, with most of
the crowd knowing the lyrics and singing along.
We had confetti bombs too, so anyone looking for
guitar picks that were thrown out throughout the night, that weren’t caught …
Forget trying to find them now!
The band leaves the stage, but not for long.
With some rumbling sound effects like thunder as a
lead in, the band then plays ‘September’ from the second album, before closing
with ‘It’s Not Over.’
Overall, a great night, but I was there to see 3 Doors
Down, a band I have wanted to see for a number of years now and I was not
disappointed!
Yes, 3 Doors Down won the night for me, but Chris
Daughtry and his band surprised me, playing like seasoned pro’s.
I’ll look forward to seeing both bands again sometime
in the future I hope!
Go and check these guys out, check out the below weblinks
as they just announced this week that the tour will continue in the New Year,
through into March!
Recommended!
Official websites:
