Creed/Sevendust/Three Doors Down

Amid rumors that all the beer was gone, which thankfully turned out to be untrue, Creed took the stage, accompanied by a burst of pyrotechnics that appeared to come dangerously close to the band. While playing "Torn" two numbers into the band's set, frontman Scott Stapp let the crowd in on a secret between verses. "I haven't felt the way I felt when I wrote this song a long time back, but tonight I do, and I hope you feel it too," he said, though you have to wonder whether he says that to all the cities.

Alternating between thrashing his long hair back and forth during the songs in which Creed rocks and perching one foot above a monitor and leaning forth for the supposedly introspective tunes seemed to be the extent of Stapp's rock-star choreography, but no one really seemed to mind. "I want you all to take a trip with me. A trip in our minds," he requested. "We're going to imagine the soul inside each of us is going to rise outside our bodies and hang out in the clouds for a while. Now look down at yourself and tell me what you see." For most of the set, crowd-surfing and even a mosh pit would have been visible, even though Creed seemed hardly the type of band to engender such behavior. Among the final selections were "My Own Prison" and "What's This Life For," to which the fans sang every word right along with Stapp. After the crowd started clamoring for more, the band performed "Higher" as its encore.

The bottom-heavy metal of Sevendust preceded Creed, and this was actually the only time that crowd-surfing and thrashing around the mosh pit were appropriate actions during the evening's entertainment. "We're going to do this song, but in order to do it, I need to see everyone dance," lead singer Lajon Witherspoon said, and if by dancing he meant hopping, the audience did. The members of Sevendust did a lot of hopping as well, with the aid of mini-trampolines that the guitarists never missed a chance to jump on. At one point, the group bounced into "Sweet Home Alabama" and then mercifully stopped after the first few bars. Going for the cheap cheer, Witherspoon asked, "How many of you all like to smoke weed? After the show, I'm going to come out there and smoke it with you." When Sevendust left, one of its two guitarists threw out some picks and, displaying what the munchies can do to you, lifted his shirt and let everyone take a look at his belly.

The earliest arrivals also got to see Three Doors Down, which actually sounds a lot like Creed for better or worse, but most of the kids didn't even acknowledge that there was a band playing. Some of that might have had to do with the band's stage presence, which consisted of lead singer Brad Arnold wandering about the stage looking for a nice place to get comfy. Near the end of the set, however, he did start running around more, taking advantage of the walkway that led out into the crowd to get closer to the fans. "Something in this front row smells good," he said as the unmistakable odor of marijuana filled the air, a good two hours before Creed lit into "Higher."