Creed Live In W. Palm Beach
By
Sefany Jones,
Contributing Editor
Friday, December 20, 2002 @ 10:47 AM
| Creed Live at the Coral Sky Am
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Review by: Jack
I can think of only 2 reasons why no one has sent in a review to KNAC for Creed from their current tour. (1) no “true” metal fan will go see Creed or (2) people have seen them but won’t review it for fear of the backlash. Since I listen to BLS, Down and Pantera on a daily basis I figured I qualify; so here is the review. Creed rocks and here’s why…
I saw Creed in Washington, D.C. on this tour back in February (I was on business) and was thrilled when they announced their date for South Florida. I scored 13th row to boot. Enlisted my contingent (my sis, her boyfriend, his sis and my “boss”) and off we went. Got to the venue around 7:00 and knowing that I’ve never heard of the 2 opening bands (nor did I care to), we had plenty of time to get a few Jack & Coke’s and chill out. From what I heard, the opening bands were average. Around 8:50 we headed to our seats…which were perfect.
I always make sure to strike up a conversation with the people next to me at shows. You never know when “back up” will be needed. Around 9:15 the lights went down and Creed opened with Bullets, the killer riff-friendly opening track on their latest album Weathered and continued their riff onslaught with Freedom Fighter and What If. THE SHOW WAS ON! All in all they played 15 songs (7 from My Own Prison, 4 from Human Clay and 7 from Weathered) and included all their hits, Torn, My Own Prison, What’s This Life For….every one you would want to hear. The sound was excellent (at the right level) and the stage setup was cool…a roman type theme with Pillars and just enough pyro without overdoing it. Now I’ll get to why they rock….
The energy is by far the best I have ever seen. I’ve seen Pantera, Black Label, Maiden, Crue…Creed puts them all away with their energy. Mark Tremonti (the guitarist) plays mostly Drop-D tuning and yes, while it is basically power chord after power chord, its heavy and it crunches. The albums do not do his live show any justice. Granted, he is no Zakk, Satch, or Dime but he doesn’t hold himself out to be. This guy grew up listening to Zep, Halen, Crue, Metallica…you can just tell by his playing. The fact that he uses a George Lynch riff in the middle of the Weathered solo (think “Just Got Lucky”) is phenomenal. And I’ll also mention that he doesn’t play the album note for note live, which is refreshing since any new band since 95 needs to look up improvisation in the dictionary. He plays with passion and it shows.
Lets turn to the lead singer, Scott Stapp. I’ll tell you this…..I don’t really give a @*#& if he seems to be preaching cause at least his lyrics actually mean something. Being a guitarist, I never really cared what the lead singer was saying and this is the first band in a long time that actually sings about real life. Does anyone care that this is Papa Insects “Last Resort” or that P.O.F. is “Alive”? Wow! What revelations and what crap. The bands today stink (I don’t think anyone will disagree with me on this one) and outside of BLS, you tell me a band that has made anything good since 89. Not many. Lets also remember that Pantera was a hair band in the 80’s before they figured they needed to change their image so they wouldn’t be classified on the same level as Trixter and the Bullet Boys. Scott Stapp sings with a force that I have never seen before. The drummer and bassist are solid, but they clearly play backup to Stapp and Tremonti.
The crowd was nuts the entire time and knew every word to every song. That is the amazing thing about this band; people know every word. I visited my sister and her boyfriend at their seats towards the back and the crowd was as into it there as they were in front.
The one negative to the show…..kids under 10 should not be at concerts. I’ve seen this before but it is getting ridiculous. There was one 6-7 year old behind me on their Dad’s shoulders with some gun range type hearing protection on. I saw the kid leaving the show 40 minutes in and he looked like he was going to pass out. Having kids, I actually felt sorry for him but it was still amusing. Notice to parents who want to go to shows: Leave your kids home if they are under 12. If you can’t get a babysitter then stay home yourself.
For an encore, they did Higher and My Sacrifice. Great songs to end a show. And while they did the obligatory “giving pics and drum sticks out to the crowd” they did it in such a way that they actually seemed to be giving thanks to the crowd for being there and supporting the band…unlike most other bands who use it to gloat and show off. It was “real”.
All in all, this was the best show I’ve ever been to. And like I said before, I was at Halen in 84, GNR in 87, Metallica in 88…and countless others to date…I’ve seen them all. This band blew all the other shows away. Hands down. Go see it!
[The Editor apologizes for the delay in posting this review]
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