Creed breaks from its own prison
Group put out a high-energy performance despite guitar problems
By MARK CARPOWICH
Staff Writer
As
guitar-driven rock band Creed found out Wednesday night, living by the
sword usually means dying by it as well.
Playing before
an enthusiastic, sold-out crowd at the acoustically challenged Hollywood
Palladium, the four-piece group from Florida saw a 90-minute show filled
with emotion and energy crash and burn, the victim of an unlikely and
ironic culprit: a guitar.
The very
instrument which captivated and enthralled audience members all night
turned out to be Creed's own prison, as guitarist Mark Tremonti could do
nothing but strum idly along as his instrument dangled over his shoulder,
made mute by a lost connection and, later, a broken string during the
band's grand finale. Still, it would take more than a faulty connection to
ruin Creed's night.
Having had to
cancel two shows earlier this month due to singer Scott Stapp's strained
vocal cords, Creed took the Palladium stage following a solid set by
Sacramento's Oleander and a long-winded, unsatisfying performance by Our
Lady Peace.
Stapp and
company launched into "Are You Ready?", the lead track from its new album,
Human Clay. Sounding like a cross bet-ween Led Zeppelin and
Soundgar-den, the song saw Stapp move easily from a rich baritone to a
formidable, angst-filled chorus and set the tone for the rest of the
evening.
Stapp's cheesy
greeting - "Hey, Los Angeles. Are you ready to rock?" - was forgivable in
light of the sincerity with which he and his band entertained their fans.
Stapp, whose bullseye vocals could pass for a younger, less-worn version of
Eddie Vedder, showed no signs of the vocal troubles that led to the
previous cancellations, stalking the edges of the stage in order to get as
close as possible to the fans who had crunched against the barricade at the
front of the crowd.
While carrying
slower songs like "Beautiful" and "With Arms Wide Open" nicely, Stapp was
most effective on the band's harder-hitting material, such as "Torn" and
"Illusion." Though a lack of variety in song tempo plagues much of Creed's
catalog, Stapp's vocals carry the slack that a band with a lesser singer
might have emptied the room with.
Instead, the
concert indicated that the band's high energy and Stapp's impenetrable
voice are rawer than their records would indicate. Wednesday's show made a
strong case for Creed making its next studio album with famed producer
Steve Albini, whose style (seen in Nirvana's In Utero and Bush's
Razorblade Suitcase) shows off a band's most basic strengths.
Creed has lots
of them, and as it prepared to cover the Doors' "Riders On The Storm," the
band welcomed Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, who played on the cover as
well as the following song, "What's This Life For?", which ended the band's
regular set. By the time it had finished its two-song encore of "One" and
"Hi-gher," being one instrument short on the latter number wasn't enough to
shatter an otherwise impressive evening.
Oleander, which
started the evening, played a disappointingly short set, offering six songs
from its underrated debut, February Son. With its "I Walk Alone"
having been a part of the previous night's finale of MTV's The Real
World, Oleander's songs seemed recognized by only some but were greeted
spiritedly nonetheless. Missing from its set was its cover of the Cure's
"Boys Don't Cry," which would have made for a better finish than "Down When
I'm Loaded."
Our Lady Peace,
meanwhile, meandered through a lengthy tenure filled with noise and singer
Raine Maida's hit-and-miss vocals. Sounding like Billy Corgan without the
versatility, Maida led his band through a decent show, but Our Lady Peace's
eccentricity seemed for-ced and insincere.
Copyright 1999 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 138, No. 52 (Friday, November 12, 1999), beginning on page 5 and ending on page 6.