It would be really easy to rip Chris Daughtry apart, frontman for the band Daughtry.
First of all, he was an “American Idol” contestant. Next, during the October 14 Phoenix concert at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, he was wearing a T-shirt that read “Corporate Retail Still Sucks.” Daughtry wouldn’t even have the all-time fastest selling rock album debut without corporate retail. Then there’s the fact that he has to flex his biceps every time he grips the microphone.
The truth is however, Chris Daughtry, along with his band consisting of Josh Paul, bassist, Joey Barnes, drummer, and Josh Steely and Brian Craddock, guitarists, put a really fine show on. As could be seen when Daughtry was the opener a few months ago for the sound alike band Nickelback , the brooding rocker does know how to captivate his audience. During the show on Sunday, however, Daughtry wore a Boston Red Sox cap pulled down low, starting out slow and not sharing much of his personality with fans. However the audience didn’t care. They were more worried about singing along with hit songs such as “Home,” “It’s Not Over,” and “What I Want.” It seemed like Daughtry, however, was going through his motions until about half way through the show when he mentioned that it was the last date on the tour. After saying that, he seemed to have a newly found sense of energy.
The show was kicked off by playing a long instrumental which then led into “Crashed.” Daughtry used a megaphone for distorting his pure vocals. After they played the song from the soundtrack “Spider Man 3,” Daughtry asked the crowd coyly if they knew who they were. The almost capacity crowd feverishly responded by screaming in sync “Daughtry.” When he took his baseball cap off and tossed it to the side, the noise level of the audience went sky high.
During the show several times he urged the audience to sing the lyrics along with them. On “It’s Not Over,” Daughtry told the crowd that they sounded beautiful. When he spoke the lyrics of “can we make this something good,” fans responded as if he couldn’t do anything wrong. When he introduced “Over You,” the band’s latest single, Daughtry suggested to the audience that if they weren’t sure of what the words were to make them up to annoy the people sitting around them. However, the fans wasted no time showing Daughtry they knew the song very well.
With Daughtry having only one album for them to draw from, the show was filled mostly with songs from the self-titled debut of the band, except for a few licks from “Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crew and “Hey Man Nice Shot” by Filter, which is something he also did in his Nickelback opener.
Clearly Daughtry knows how the rock game is played. He rubbed the microphone stand seductively and climbed up on the speakers while the crowd sang the lyrics for “Crashed.” On “Breakdown” he performed on acoustic guitar, which was something he wasn’t able to showcase during “American Idol.” Daughtry added in a dramatic pause, ending with him once again grabbing the megaphone. During “It’s Not Over” he punched his head while yelling the lyrics from the song, “this love is killing me.”
For the solo on “All These Lives” Daughtry slowed down a little and on “What About Now” the band rejoined Daughtry halfway through the song.
Chris Daughtry, who seemed to be unimpressed with the enthusiasm coming from the crowd, during “Feels Like Tonight” yelled the lyrics “it’s time to wake up.” If fans had been any louder they would have all gone hoarse. You just have to wonder where the fans were on the night he got voted off the show “American Idol” during the fifth season.
