On the way to this venue I realized that I hadn't seen a show there since last August. I forgot how awful the traffic can be... especially when a show is sold out as it was tonight. Any anxiety about making it to the show on time only served to heighten the level excitement in anticipation of what was to come.

We had to rush to make it to see Daughtry in time... and I'm glad we did. Chris Daughtry and band sounded like they've been playing this material together for years (in a good way). It's not often I've seen a crowd so familiar with the opening act's material... many were singing along to most of the songs, not just the hits... further proving just how far this star has risen in such a short period of time.

In the days when so many cover songs are brutalized by mediocrity, or just plain poor renditions, Daughtry's acoustic performance of Soundgarden's Fell On Black Days was refreshingly superb.

After the Daughtry set, I went to get something to drink. A few people standing near the concessions line were having a lively conversation, when one of the women carelessly spilled about an once of her beer onto the ground. Her boyfriend cried out, "You spilled a dollar!" I laughed. At eight bucks a beer, he was probably right.

Staind's set was an interesting mix of their faster, hard-driving songs and their slower more melodic ones. They sounded great. So many of the songs Staind performed are instantly recognizable, even to the casual fan.

It seemed like the crowd erupted into cheers at the start of each song, and then proceeded to sing along. During the set, Aaron Lewis expressed his gratitude to the fans for supporting the band for so many years. Hopefully they will release some new material in the near future.

This is probably Nickelback's last touring effort in support of their 2005 release All the Right Reasons. After nearly two years of being on the road, if they were road weary, they didn't show it. The entire band looked like they were having a great time. The sound was nearly flawless and the energy was high.

Early in the set, some fans handed up a (large) box of Twizzlers for drummer Daniel Adair. Chad Kroeger asked Daniel if he would share, but he just grinned and shook his head.

The Nickelback show uses a lot of cool pyrotechnics. Much of it was for aesthetics rather than punctuating explosions. The stage setup was also very cool with some interesting arrangements of video screens and lighting. They really used the video screens to their advantage and enhanced the audience's experience. This was certainly one of the better show setups I've seen in a while.

It is no surprise that this performance was sold out. How cool it is to see not one, or two, but three multi-platinum selling bands on one stage, on one night. I want to close this review by thanking the folks from Live Nation. Every time we work with them they prove to be an organization with some very professional people in their employ.

| 07.13.2007 | Review by J. Pierson |