Joe

that was definately Brett that was out of tune last night, i was sitting (standing) on the left side of the stage and saw Brett go down and talk to his guys, he sounded so much better after that!!

Sherri

  Joe Earles <jearles@BERKSHIRE.RR.COM> wrote:

This is going to get personal...I'll give fair warning....

First, the concert:

Virgos: Okay band, but I've heard better bands playing in clubs with 50
people. It was one of those things where it was nice hearing them, but I
can't even hum a couple bars of any song they did. Listenable but
forgettable.

Tantric: Another band I can take or leave, but they had a little better
stage presence.

The concert itself: All I can say is that I have a lot of respect for any
band that puts themselves out in front of that size crowd as an opening act
these days. People were not enthused, and that's putting it lightly. Also, I
wonder whatever happened to rock shows that left my ears ringing for hours
afterward. The Christian bands I used to go hear during the mid and late
80's were generally louder than anything I heard tonight. I brought earplugs
with me. I didn't need them.

Creed: Okay, this band is incredible. Of course you already knew that, but
it bears repeating. Why? Because so little of their sound gets lost in the
transition from studio to stage. Creed makes music that is...well...it's
honest. And not just lyrically either - what you hear on their CDs is a
clear representation of what these guys are capable of and it shows in their
live performance. Brett Hestla...well, his style is different than Mark
Tremonti on bass but that's all right. He did an excellent job of carrying
the bass lines and contributing some vocals. *Someone*, I'm not sure if it
was Mark or Brett, was WAY out of tune during the first couple songs. Either
that or the mix was really bad. Either way, the problem got solved pretty
quick. Creed played a good long set for us and while I can't remember the
order I can tell you that the songs they chose for this set were perfect. I
would have liked to have heard "Say I" and "Faceless Man" but I guess you
can't have it all. I'm also not complaining about a 4-song encore. I thought
Scott was going to keep rockin' all night. But of course, as all good things
do, the show came to and end - a very strong and energetic end.

And now for the personal stuff...

I guess for a long time I've looked into the mirror and seen an old man
staring back at me. I'm 30 years old, I've been married almost 9 years and I
have a 2-year-old son. While I don't regret any of those things it's been a
while since I really felt like I had a place in today's world what with the
male pattern baldness, the occasional aches and pains that I didn't have at
16 and the common yet no less debilitating disease of invisibility to
teenage girls. Last night was important for me. When I looked around at the
people at this concert, the rowdiest most enthusiastic fans were people that
were MY AGE. The 30-somethings knew every word to every song and there was a
whole bunch of us in our section that were still dancing and jumping around
and banging our heads long after most of the teenagers in the place had
grown tired and were SITTING DOWN IN THEIR SEATS. Honestly, who sits down at
a rock concert??? The two most exuberant fans were two ladies who were in
their late 30's or possibly pushing 40. They had a huge poster with the
CREED crest logo and took great delight in showing everyone the autographs
on the poster and on their shirts. They clearly were hanging out waiting
while the crews loaded in and managed to meet the band! There were parents
there WITH their teenagers (Metallica fans, does this sound familiar?) and
the kids didn't seem to mind being there with their parents. The fans were
lively but generally well-behaved and I only ran into two or three drunk
idiots, one of which almost fell down an escalator. That would've been bad,
too because that escalator would've ripped that mullet right off his
head....

I guess what this is getting at is that being there last night brought me
back to a place where even though I was always mindful of the fact that I
was still the responsible husband and father, it was the first time in a
long time that I really felt...well....young. I felt young and it felt
wonderful to wake up my inner teenager and bang head with him for a couple
hours. And seeing so many 30-somethings all knowing the words, all rockin'
to put people half their age to shame made me feel for the first time in a
while like I wasn't totally out of the loop; that my generation knows what
good music is and that we know how to have a good time. After all, we're
CREED fans! We have good taste. One song that they didn't do last night had
its meaning pounded into me on the way home, and the bulk of that message is
found in the bridge:

I won't let go of that youthful soul
Despite body and mind my youth will never die!

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