Daughtry show included Idol cover
by June 20, 2012 2:20 pm 130 views
FAYETTEVILLE — It would be interesting to know how many concertgoers at the Daughtry show Tuesday night (June 19) know or remember that lead singer and frontman Chris Daughtry was an unsuccessful contestant on an early season of American Idol.
Well, that was 2006, and Daughtry — the man and the band — have been on the rock ‘n’ roll fast track ever since. Besides a recording contract with a major record label and Grammy nomination, Daughtry has garnered a devoted following, as evidenced by the enthusiastic crowd that turned out to see the band at the Arkansas Music Pavilion.
With help from openers Mike Sanchez and post-grunge rock stars Candlebox, fans got their fix — and their money’s worth — with roughly three hours of music. The AMP show was scheduled for the first leg of Daughtry's Break the Spell tour.
The night got underway with Elvio Fernandez and Sanchez, who has written several songs for Daughtry. Veterans Candlebox cranked up the volume and cranked out the edgy tunes to ready the crowd for the main act.
Daughtry appeared amidst a big flash of lights on stage at sunset and made short work of a 16-song setlist. The band opened with “Renegade,” followed by “Break the Spell,” “Feels Like Tonight,” and “Crawling Back to You.” The show also included two well-executed covers: Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream” and Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell,” the first song of the two-tune encore. The crowd went home humming the last song of the night, “It’s Not Over.”
In between tunes, Chris Daughtry built a rapport with audience, introducing numbers and talking to the crowd. After the song “Rescue Me,” he explained his recent partnership with DC Entertainment’s We Can Be Heroes campaign, an initiative to stop hunger in the horn of Africa. Daughtry recorded an acoustic version of “Rescue Me” for use in the campaign.
Perhaps he was too nice a guy to be the Idol winner.
Take that, Simon.