A Screaming Review: Daughtry Live in Toronto

Well, I'm only two weeks late getting this up, but on the eve of the David Cook concert I thought I would review the show that Daughtry put on 2 weeks ago in Toronto at the ACC.


The short review would be that Daughtry sucks live.

However, since I am a man of the people, I am going to treat you to the long review. My inner-most thoughts. Yes, I will bare my soul simply so that you, my dear reader, are entertained.

Ok, ok, I'll just tell you about the flippin' rock concert.

Two weeks ago the Future Mrs. Meanie and I took my daughter Martina to see her absolute favourite band (that's Daughtry for any of you having a hard time following along). It was her first rock concert.


Daughtry played the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and in my humble opinion it was the absolute wrong venue for them to play. They attracted a crowd of around 6,000 people in an arena meant for 18,000. When you only attract enough people to fill a building to one third capacity it really looks empty (are you listening Toronto Blue Jays?). I can't help but think that Massey Hall or Hamilton Place would have been a better location for their live show.

Despite what I said off the top about Daughtry sucking, the show wasn't a complete disaster. The good - Daughtry sounded great. Actually they sounded awesome! Chris Daughtry is an Uh-May-Zing singer!! How the hell did Taylor Freakin' Hicks beat this guy on American Idol?? The sound mix could have been better though as the instruments easily drowned out Daughtry's vocals (much to my dismay).

But there was plenty of bad. The "show" was awful. Honestly, somebody needs to find Chris Daughtry a personality! Yeah, the man can sing, but he is no frontman. After every song there was a long delay as he ran to the back of the stage to wipe the sweat from his brow, chug down some water, and change guitars. And then he would walk up to the mic and say something astonishing like, "yeah". He really needs to learn to engage his audience. Tell some funny stories, or tales about life on the road, or an anecdote about the song he's about to sing - hell, say anything for cryin' out loud!!.

And then there was his song choices. There were two notable gaffes that I noticed, one on a song he did play, and one a song that he didn't play.

First, he chose to cover a song for the "children of the 90's". The problem was the song he chose was an obscure one that nobody seemed to know (I'd tell you what song it was but I still don't know). Secondly, he chose to omit 'What About Now?' from his setlist. Are you kidding me?? What About Now was only one of his biggest hits and he chose to dump it so he could sing some lame art house song that no one cared about?!?? Terrible mistake as far as I was concerned.

Having said that, he did a great job covering Phil Collin's In The Air Tonight.

Their use of pyrotechnics was embarrassing, the stage was way too big for them, and even when the President of Sony Canada presented the band with a platinum record (Canada is the first country where their record has gone platinum) the only thing Chris Daughtry could think to say was, "well that doesn't suck". Uhhhhh, how about "thank you" you ungrateful jack ass??

*sigh*

Look, I'm a fan of the band and I love their music, but I would never pay to go see these guys again - their live show is terrible. Perhaps it's just too early in their burgoening career to be headlining an arena tour?? I don't know. But they're going to have to make some changes to their live shows if they hope to have a long and lustrious career.

That being said, my daughter loved the show and that's the most important thing. When my little girl is happy, I'm happy.

I can't wait to see David Cook tomorrow night - having already seen him in concert before (twice if you count Idols Live 2008) I know he will put on a good show. Stay tuned for my review.