Review: Daughtry

Photos by Jill Toyashiba/The Star

The folks who produce and sell modern rock are like the characters in  "Mad Men" who advertise cigarettes: Everyone is peddling the same basic product; they just come up with different names, logos, jingles and slogans to distinguish themselves from the other brands.

Tuesday night, Chris Daughtry brought his eponymous modern rock band (Daughtry) to the Sprint Center. Daughtry got famous four years ago when he lost in the final rounds of "American Idol," the star-making show that, coincidentally, was airing part one of this season's finale on Tuesday night. Maybe that partly explains the size of the crowd -- barely 6,000, give or take a few hundred. 

To squeeze everyone into a tighter space, the arena crew cut the room in half and curtained off the top sections so the floor and the lower sections looked nearly full. In other words, imagine the arena reduced to a space smaller than Starlight Theater. 

What they got was a steady diet of the same middle-of-the-road/by-the-book radio ready rock songs with sugar on top. The two openers were Cavo, a third-generation modern rock band from St. Louis, and the veteran post-grunge/alt-rock band from Los Angeles, Lifehouse, which turns 10 years old this year.

Lifehouse is touring on its fifth album, "Smoke and Mirrors," released in March, and it featured several of its tracks during its 45 minute set. All of them blended seamlessly with the older material because all of them follow the same formula: Write a tuneful pop song; alter its internal dynamics; play it loud and heavy. Their blend comes off as a mix of the Goo Goo Dolls and all those early 2000s bands that started knocking off Pearl Jam.

So "Halfway Gone" and "It Is What It Is," two songs off the new album, sounded akin to "Hanging By A Moment," the band's biggest hit, or "First Time" and "Whatever It Takes," Top 40 hits. To stick around for 10 years, you have to sustain a decent fan base, and Lifehouse has done that. Most of the crowd was in place for its entire set, and they gave the band a hearty hero's welcome for setting a good mood for the headliner. Too bad he spoiled it by  making the crowd wait for more than an hour.

All the pre-show numbers had Daughtry coming out around 9:15 p.m. It would be nearly 9:55 p.m. before the lights went down and the scrim around the stage lit up. The Sprint Center keeps track of all kinds of facts and figures; I'm guessing that's the latest any headliner has ever started. Nearly 10 p.m. on a Tuesday? Fail.

His fans were forgiving, even though he would play for less than 90 minutes. All night long they sang his songs, even the new ones and especially the straight-and-true covers of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell." Other favorites: "What I Want," "It's Not Over," "Over You" and "Home," from his first and multi-platinum album. The refrain of the Beatles "She's So Heavy," which was tagged onto "You Don't Belong," also got a lot of whoops and cheers.

The stage was equipped with a small runway and surrounded by a small pit, which he used to get closer to fans up front. The only big "special effect" were the sprays of green lasers, which gave a couple of songs an odd '80s-retro feel.

Daughtry had little to say except for a few friendly hellos and thank-yous, which included a couple of gratuitous mentions of "KC." That small-town warmth and friendliness and sincerity betrays his muscular, menacing look, which says "Get outta my way," not "How ya doin'?"  His "Idol" training taught him how to be telegenic, but not charismatic, proving you can coin a celebrity but you can't forge him into a star. 

Of all the modern rock practitioners, Daughtry (the band) has fashioned some of the catchiest and most accessible and well-crafted songs on record. On the genre's rather limited spectrum, he/the band would fall somewhere between Nickelback and David Cook. If you rearranged a few of its songs into roots rock, they'd sound like something from the camp of John Mellencamp. 

Thus, the crowd sang-along all night because it was hard not to. And because it all sounded familiar and good, like modern rock should.  

Daughtry set list: Every Time You Turn Around; What I Want; Ghost of Me; No Surprise; Life After You; It's Not Over; Learn My Lesson; September; In The Air Tonight; Supernatural; Over You; Feels Like Tonight; You Don't Belong/She's So Heavy. Encore: Rebel Yell; Home; There And Back Again.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[Dexter Morgan]

You can feel the disdain oozing from the screen here.

[Natacha VonBraun]

9,000? Maybe he was waiting the extra 40 minutes for reinforcements to arrive.

Still, if PIL had had that many at the Midland, that would have been a healthy house.

[so sad]

sadly another A.I. nitwit, what do you expect from these idoits?

They have ruined "modern rock"

[Mike]

The way the arena was set up had nothing to do with the number of tickets sold or the number of people who showed up at the show last night. They obviously had planned for the arena to be set up that way well in advance becuase those were the only seats avialable to purchase on ticketmaster, so no it makes no difference that Idol was on that night (ever heard of DVR). It wasnt as if they intended to sell the enitre arena out, they sold all the tickets they made avialable to the pubic and the concert was classified a sell out. The reason for the delay before the show was they were having sound issues and were trying to get them worked out, it just took a little longer than normal. And I'm not even a Lifehouse fan but if you are going to write a review about them at least get their current top hits name right. The song is "Halfway Gone" not "Halfway Down".

[OLD]

Main Entry: tele·ge·nic
Pronunciation: \ˌte-lə-ˈje-nik, -ˈjē-\
Function: adjective
Date: 1939
: well-suited to the medium of television; especially : having an appearance and manner that are markedly attractive to television viewers.

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the whole concept makes me sick.

[lmao]

Oh thanks for all the lil tidbits and factoids mikey....

actually mike,
Go suck an egg....

anyone who is such a daughtyryryryr fan and so "wired in" as to why this poser goofball is such a twerp, and making excuses about why this was "really a sellout" ( as you are ) is obviously no real music fan, so ass I said .... go suck an egg or daughttryryry, whatever the case may be.

The onlysellout last night was the poser TV A.I. nitwit boy on stage.

[MIke]

Im not by anymeans a Daughtry fan. I went becuase my company has tickets to ever event at Sprint Center and they were given to me. I just wish the people who wrote these reviews would take a little more time and base their reviews on facts (which since they are journalists they should be doing)and not just a bunch of random comments about how the arena was set up. Report on the actually show and at least get song names right. Is it really that tough?

[Adam Lambert]

"Report on the actually show." what's that mean?

[actually]

maybe he meant "reality show" .....
which some refer to "actually show" ...
but then again anyone with a (working) brain knows A.I. and all of it cookie cutter BS "winners" are "actually crap" and a waste of time, space and frequency.

[Cholo]

This guy is a poor man's Nickelback

[po]

hey!!
dont be insulting the poor man.

[Mike]

My comments had nothing to do with Daughtry himself or the type of music he plays but more how awful this review was and what it was based on with such incorrect statements and incorrect song titles. I read these reviews all the time and 90% of them regardless of the type of music slam the show, I just dont get it. Obviously people like this type of music otherwise the show wouldnt have sold out. I still dont see why people slam him when all he did was enter a contest that any of you could have entered, had success and is parlaying that into a career. Yeah lets trash the guy for that. I'm out!

[Green]

I think his playing time is about right, someone this new, I dont expect much more than 90 mins. What I dont get is his venue, Sprint seems kinda big for him, I would have taken this show to the Independence Event Center, might have helped the price and could have pulled more money to the band, it cant be cheap to play at Sprint. I think its good to leave would-be concert goers without a ticket sometimes, its a fine line, you dont want to many left without tickets in a sellout but if you leave just enough, those guys are gonna jump for tickets next time, as will the others who went the previous time. My thinking is you get people to buy early the next round, build a demand. Leaving the place half empty is not good. Start playing in smaller places and move into Sprint, you dont start playing at Sprint. Come on, bring some shows to the Independence!!! Niel Young, Daughtry, ... these would fit in just right, Phish, are you listening, swing by, okay, lots room in the parking lot to hang out, lots of restaurants in the area, cheap hotels too!

[Green]

Forgot one thing, your right tim, 10pm is way to late to hit the stage, your the main act, 9pm is showtime.