Verizon Arena, North Little Rock, AR
Dec 18th, 2009
The first thing I noticed upon arrival to our seats was that Verizon Arena had the entire top section shut down and closed off with a big black curtain, meaning the maximum number of music fans that would be fitting in there was probably around 6,000. That's about my attendance guess as well as the lower section was pretty close to full. The 2nd thing I noticed was that the audience was about 75% female, with quite a few teen/tween kids as well. No surprise (excuse the pun).
Cue the first band right on time, Cavo, who is out of St. Louis and they've had 1 big hit on the radio, "Champagne", which they obviously played (last) but they also played about 4 other catchy, poppish little rock tunes as well. I believe they played 5 songs total and all were from the major label release "Bright Nights * Dark Days". They're pretty much post-grunge/pop rock with their look and sound and were entertaining enough to get the crowd going. I found the drummer particularly fun and energetic myself.
Next up was Canada's Theory of a Deadman, who I've always thought were a bit like Nickelback, which isn't a bad thing if you want to sell some records. They've got a lot of catchy, radio-friendly tracks and were well-received by the early arriving audience. The lead singer, Tyler Connolly, might have been sick or just had some throat problem because he didn't sound so hot, often just not even trying to hit some of the high notes. They could have benefited from some of the other band members stepping up and filling out the vocals on the choruses I thought. Still, it was a good 40 minute or so set with a lot of recognizable tunes like "Hate My Life," "So Happy," "Not Meant To Be," "By The Way" and "Bad Girlfriend." The crowd helped with a lot of the singing, especially on "Hate My Life," and they didn't overstay their welcome like a lot of bands in the 2nd slot tend to do. They left people cheering and wanting more. Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long.
After a fairly quick removal of TOAD's equiptment, the light dropped and huge curtains were surrounding the stage. After a bit of a build-up as you could see the shadows of the guys taking their places on stage, the curtains dropped, explosions went off and Daughtry was on stage tearing into "Every Time You Turn Around." The band looked good, like you would expect a "rock band" to look if they walked in to a place. I'm guessing they shop for clothes at an actual store called "Rockers Inc." or something, if there is such a place. Chris Daughtry himself does seem to be one of those guys who demands attention with his looks and presence. As he plays guitar and belts out vocals, he just seems like a rock star. From the way he strangles the mic stand like he's about choke it to death, to the way connects with the audience. He's not an Idol, he's a rocker.I was surprised they blasted through probably their biggest 2 hits early on, "It's Not Over" and "No Surprise," but there were still plenty of solid tunes left in their catalog to choose from. At one point Chris walked out on the catwalk to get more into the crowd and sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar and played "Tennessee Line" followed by a song he said was one of his favorites ever, Phil Collin's "In The Air Tonight." There were a lot of cell phone lights swaying to the music and a lot of people singing along and one thing became very evident, Chris Daughtry has serious pipes. He also seemed to really be putting his heart into it and it came across as a pretty emotional song. He wasn't just going through the motions, but was really caring about the music. Somewhere Phil Collins is smiling and nodding his head.
On the night they ripped through catchy rockin' tracks like "Feels Like Tonight," "Ghost of You," "What I Want," "Over You (my personal favorite Daughtry tune)," and a heavy version of The Beatles "Helter Skelter." They also brought it down at will with good slower tempo songs like "September" but then they pick things right back up. There are a lot of lights, explosions and fist pumping moments which all added up to a solid night of entertainment. By the time they returned for an encore of "Home" and "There And Back Again" I'd already decided I'd go see this band again in a second. They played for a good 90 minutes with a lot of energy to spare. Chris Daughtry seems pretty genuine with his love of music. He's definitely a good songwriter and after seeing him in concert I'd not be questioning his ability to nail any song vocally.
All 3 bands might be considered a bit on the generic side, as their music falls into that radio cliche' as of late that's been around since Creed, Fuel and more recently Nickelback or Puddle of Mudd, but all 3 are putting out recognizable songs and the crowd on this night enjoyed themselves it seemed. It's power-chords done well. You want a professional rock show? Here one is.
