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CREED SETLIST Bullets Encore: 3 DOORS DOWN SETLIST (Star Spangled Banner intro) Train MAMMOTH WVH SETLIST Another Celebration at the End of the World CREED TOUR DATES NOV 08 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN Read More
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Kansas City was asked “Are You Ready?” and 17,000+ said a resounding ‘Yes!’
Much like the election results news that had been announced earlier that morning, Kansas City was definitively unified, but not considering a presidential choice; instead to see the return of Florida post-grunge rock band Creed continuing a reunion “Are You Ready Tour” that started last year.
It’s their first since back in 2012 and the reunion was first announced as a "Summer of '99" cruise with numerous guest bands, which led to adding a second cruise, and now this full-fledged international tour.
On this tour leg, the evening began with a too short thirty-minute set from Mammoth WVH, led by Wolf Van Halen and a band we caught live in 2022 (though couldn’t get in to their first ever proper gig… in Lawrence KS at the Bottleneck).
The Creed connection is that shortly after the Van Halen reunion tours, Wolf joined offshoot band Tremonti as their bassist and also supported Tremonti’s Alter Bridge on the road last year, so we assume he and Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti, are close buddies.
The band has been non-stop touring since last year’s release of their sophomore effort, Mammoth II (via BMG Records) though Wolf mentioned to a local radio station earlier this year, that their third album plans are also underway. The set began with the new album’s lead single and got very sentimental mid-set with the song dedicated to his father, the Grammy-nominated, “Distance”.
“Take a Bow” was the most stretched out song of the set, highlighted by a finger-tapping solo by Wolf that both brought memories of his famous father, as well as showed off his own unique guitar prowess, and the set ended with their anthemic, “Don’t Back Down.”
Mississippi post-grunge rockers 3 Doors Down were next, with an hour of favorites and also a new single, which is perhaps the first sign of an awaited new album, which would be their first since 2016’s “Us and the Night”.
The band got all 17,000+ to immediately stand by playing the National Anthem as their set intro music (with a waving flag located at stage right) and got underway with 2008’s “Train”, complete with locomotive sound effects, and a train crossing background on the video screens which also wrapped around the drum riser.
Hits like “Loser” and “Here Without You” kept fans on their feet and singer Brad Arnold shouted out early tour-mate and local resident Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust who was in the audience and gave the crowd some righteous testimony regarding his relationship to a higher power, before the band began Arnold’s favorite song to sign, “Away from the Sun”.
The new song they’ve been playing on this tour is “Never Look Down”, a track that fits neatly within their musical canon and their set wrapped with the stage lights turning all green and the band’s logo enclosed in a Superman “S” frame for big hit, “Kryptonite”. Their set would end with 2002’s “When I’m Gone”, a song which went Top 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and one that’s become strongly associated with active military leaving home, to serve overseas (though the lyrics don’t reference any of that).
Celebrating now thirty years as a band, Florida rockers Creed are truly living a second life, having reuniting again after being apart for the previous decade doing solo projects, and still managing to fill arenas even without a new record to support. The band's hit song "Higher" even helped propel NBC reality singing show “The Voice” contestant Huntley to a win, on the previous season.
The headlining set began with one of their heaviest songs, 2001’s “Bullets” and the pyro was on full display right away on the song’s choruses, though safely located in plumes behind the band. There were three riser platforms along the front of the stage for singer Scott Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, and bassist Brian Marshall, while drummer Scott Phillips mostly kept intently focused to his beats atop the back drum platform.
The second song from their third album, “Weathered” followed in sequence, “Freedom Fighter” with the pyro still blazing and fans cheering at Tremonti’s effortless-looking guitar riffs and Stapp’s dramatic posturing. The dueling vocals of Stapp and Tremonti on “My Own Prison” are always fun to hear, and the band does harmonize better than most probably give them credit for.
Tremonti has been proud enough of his own signature PRS Guitar model, that he’s been giving one away per concert, and following an incendiary “What If?”; for the Kansas City show, it only seemed appropriate that the band’s namesake and local hero, Chiefs center Creed Humphrey come out to deliver the prize to a young fan (in a bright red shirt, no less) to roars and cheers. (The band had also come into town early to catch the Monday Night Chiefs game).
Stapp paused to speak to touch on some religion mid-set, and both he and 3 Doors Down’s Arnold, took the middle ground when mentioning the election, saying it’s most important that it’s behind us (for the moment) and that we as a nation, should be as ‘one’...which of course, led into their big hit, “One” that found the crowd singing along on the choruses.
The hits continued with “What’s this Life For?” and “With Arms Wide Open” taking a very spiritual theme and the main set ended with the band’s biggest hit, “Higher”. The two-song encore began with 2001 ballad “One Last Breath” which began as a vocal showcase for Stapp, before he entire band joined in to fill out the sound and rise the volume.
Keeping in 2001, “My Sacrifice” with its lyric, “It feels so good to reunite, within yourself and within your mind, let's find peace there” seemed to sum of the spirit of this reunion tour and the effects team pulled out all the stops to end things; with pyro, smoke steam shots, sparks and strobe lights all on at once, like a fireworks finale on the 4th.
The band hung around following to take a group pic, flew paper airplane setlists out to the audience, threw guitar picks, and thanked the crowd for their continued support.
It’s clear that even after thirty years, Creed can still be received by Kansas City with ‘arms wide open’.
CREED at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2024-11-06)
CREED at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2024-11-06)
CREED at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2024-11-06)
THREE DOORS DOWN at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2024-11-06)
MAMMOTH WVH at T-Mobile Center Kansas City MO (2024-11-06)
| John C ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥X / twitter.com ♥ bsky.ap |
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