Concert Review: Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback, and 3 Doors Down

I just got back from the concert a little while ago, and since this is my blog and there's nothing else to post at the moment, I'm going to review it. I am a writer, after all. I have to keep practicing. Anyway...

If you've been reading SIT for...well, more than 5 minutes, you know that one of the reasons I blog is to rant about things that bother me, so let's get all the negative stuff out of the way right now so the review will be a little less tedious. I'll just make a list:

1. Everybody there was smoking. I'm serious. I think I was the only person at this concert who didn't light up at some point. I'm asthmatic, so that...bothers me just a tiny bit. And it wasn't all tobacco, either. I definitely caught a couple whiffs of the wacky weed, if you know what I mean. Particularly from...

2. ...The guy in front of me, who had to be at least 50 years old, but had long hair, no shirt (he didn't even bring one), and a lot of cigarettes and alcohol. I'd be willing to bet a large sum of money this guy was at the original Woodstock. He was friendly, but still...that's just a bit scary. And like I said, I'm pretty sure he whipped out a joint at one point. Of course, Chad Kroeger kinda told him to. I'll get to that later.

3. There were a lot of rednecks. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but MAN, there were a lot of fuggin' rednecks at this concert! If you've never been to Pittsburgh, you'd be surprised how many rednecks we have (we sometimes just call them "trailer trash" around here, since not all of them are from the South). One of the people next to me was a good example. Before the show started, he called someone on his cell phone and had the following conversation:

"Hey! You there? F**K TONY STEWART! TONY STEWART SUCKS F**KIN' @SS!"

Also, a couple guys behind me were yelling "YEAH!" after every song, except they split it into two distinct syllables, so it sounded like "YEE-AW!" Not yee-haw, but "YEEAW!" I wanted to punch them so very much. But there would've been too many witnesses.

4. Here's a message for women over 40: Putting your hands in the air and swaying back and forth during a rock concert does not make you look cool. It makes you look like you're on drugs. I know some of you probably were on drugs, but that's still no excuse. Some of us are rather short and enjoy being able to see the freakin' stage.

5. Children should not go to rock concerts. I can't stress this enough. I saw way too many kids under the age of 12 at this thing. That's just bad parenting. Especially when bands like Nickelback are playing. They are not a kids' band, okay, people? Dang it.

I think that's all the ranting. I'll put the actual review in the extended entry.

Hi there! Glad you could join me here in the extended entry. Let's talk rock (have I typed the word "rock" enough times to annoy you yet? Rock rock rock rock rock rock rock. Heh heh).

The show started at 6:26 PM (I checked) with a band called Thornley. They were okay. They're very similar to Nickelback, but they really need to put a little more energy into their show. And clean up their guitar playing, which wasn't spectacular. My favorite part of their show was when the lead singer said this:

"Here's a song that I wrote about something...(5 second pause)...then I listened back to it, and I realized it was about somethin' else."

Doesn't that sound like something John Kerry would say if he was in a band? "It was about this thing before it was about something else." Actually, the same thing happened with one of my songs ("Turning Point," specifically), so I really shouldn't criticize.

After a quick break, Puddle of Mudd came on. These guys are pretty good (okay, their new CD is 60% crap, but most of their other songs are fine). Wes Scantlin looks eerily like Kurt Cobain onstage, especially since he also sounds like him. They opened with "Control," which is an awesome song, and for some reason, they decided to stick a passage of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" near the end (Money quote/lyric: "Satan, laughing, spreads his MOTHERF**KIN' WINGS!!!). After that, they played the following songs (not in this order):

"Drift and Die"
"Blurry"
"Bring Me Down"
"Away From Me"
"Bleed"

They closed with "She Hates Me" (nothing like thousands of people screaming "SHE F**KIN' HATES ME!" at the top of their lungs. See what I mean about this not being for kids?) and "Spin You Around," and then before we knew it, they were done. They put on a decent show overall. They seem to know what the crowd likes, at least. After this, it was time to play the waiting game (or, for most of the people there, the "Smoking and Drinking Game").

Nickelback came on next. These guys are awesome live. They opened with "Flat On the Floor," one of their best songs, to a ton of applause. And fire. Did I mention the fire? There were a lot of pyro effects at this show. I don't think I've ever seen as much fire and explosions as I did tonight. And I've seen Creed. Their show consisted of the following songs (again, not in this order):

"Leader of Men" (this is when Chad told people with weed to smoke it, and the old guy in front of me complied)
"Never Again"
"How You Remind Me" (they would be booed off the stage if they didn't play this one)
"Woke Up This Morning"
"Too Bad" (I love this song. Good snare drumming.)
"Someday"
"Hero" (The Spider-Man song)
"Sad But True" (Metallica cover)
"Feelin' Way Too Damn Good"
"Because of You"
"Figured You Out" (This was their closer)

HIGHLIGHTS: Chad Kroeger knows how to work the crowd. He does a lot of yelling, and he likes to check and make sure everyone's having a good time. At one point, he said something like, "Hey, if you guys want us to light something on fire or blow something up, just let us know. We have the power and the capability to entertain you." He also beat an audience member in a drinking contest. Plus, near the end of the show, Ryan Peake and Mike Kroeger threw beer onto the people below the stage. Another good Chad line: "Know what time it is? It's BEER O'CLOCK!" Basically, he's a stereotypical rock star. The rest of the band really played well, and the pyrotechnics were a nice touch. When they left, we were all wondering how 3DD was going to follow them. It seemed like an impossible task.

...It was about 9:15 at this point, and it was just getting dark when the lights went out and the ones on the stage started flashing. 3 Doors Down was getting ready to start. Now, I saw them in January of 2003 with Theory of a Deadman (if you haven't heard TOAD...hehe..."toad"...you should check 'em out as soon as possible), and I was interested to see how they'd changed their show since then. I was about to find out.

They opened, predictably, with "Duck and Run," but they were a lot louder and more energetic than last time. There's a huge difference between indoor and outdoor shows. Outdoor is definitely better. The rest of 3DD's set consisted of the following:

"Kryptonite" (this is one of my 2 favorite songs, the other one being "Downfall" by Trust Company)
"Be Like That"
"Better Life"
"Away From the Sun"
"The Road I'm On"
"Running Out of Days"
"Sarah Yellin'"
"When I'm Gone"
"Father's Son" (a new song)
"It's Not Me" (another new song)
"Changes"

After "Changes," they left the stage, but we knew they would be back. For an encore, they played "Here Without You," followed by an extended version of "Loser" that rocked the f**kin' house. After several seconds of explosions, Roman candles, and flames, they finished up and left.

HIGHLIGHTS: Brad Arnold had a bit more stage presence than the last time I saw 3DD. His moves still basically consist of "standing there like a statue" and "writhing around like a heroin addict," but he seemed a lot less nervous. He even came up into the audience during "Be Like That" and stood about 5 rows away from my seat for most of the song. That was cool. He needs to interact with the crowd more, though. Between songs, the only dialogue consisted of "All right" and "Thank you, ma' friends!"

"When I'm Gone" was memorable, since they shot the video on an aircraft carrier, which somehow made them rock music's official patriotic band. During the song, they showed more footage from the military on the screens behind them, and at the end, the center screen displayed an American flag while Brad got everyone chanting "USA! USA!" for about 15 seconds. Very unusual for a rock show, but a good thing nonetheless.

I would be a disgrace to drummers everywhere if I left this out: Daniel Adair played a killer drum solo during the second part of the show. If you follow that link and go to the "Video Galleries" section, you can see it for yourself. He plays the same one every show. This guy is one of the best drummers I've ever seen. He could even compete with Josh Freese, who did the drums for 3DD's last record and is also my favorite living drummer (my favorite dead drummer is Buddy Rich, who was quite possibly the best drummer ever to walk the Earth). This solo reminded me just how desperately I need a double bass pedal. But they cost about 200 dollars, and I'm in college, so do the math.

One last observation: I think the sound technicians were gradually raising the volume during 3DD's set. They started off at about the same level as Nickelback, but by the time they went into the hard rock portion of "Loser," I was almost getting knocked over by the sound waves. They really had the bass cranked up. Basically, 3 Doors Down is a lot heavier and more exciting when you see them live. They've gotten more comfortable on stage since I last saw them, too. Their playing was better, and Matt Roberts didn't look at the floor the whole time. They also had lasers, which NB didn't use because it was still too light.

Overall, this was 4 hours of awesome rock music. All the bands put on a good show, although Nickelback undoubtedly owns the stage. I'm really glad I got to see this. And as you can probably tell, I'm out of things to say about it, so that's the end of the review.

(I'm still looking for a band, by the way. I've already got the lyrics and the drums covered. All I need is a singer and a couple guitar players. If you fit this description, and you're ever in Pittsburgh and/or Syracuse, let me know if you want to get together for a jam session sometime. Seriously.)

Posted by CD on July 12, 2004 02:40 AM
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