[Justify]

Let me start off by saying that I have been a die hard Creed fan since they first came out. I am now a die hard Scott Stapp fan. That being said I would not have been afraid to say if this concert did not meet my expectations and I would not be afraid to point out things that went wrong in the concert. Now for the review…



Wow!

I thought about what I would say in my review all weekend but the only word that kept coming to my mind was WOW. I have almost been dreading writing this because I know I won’t be able to put into words how GREAT the show was.

I last saw Scott/Creed in 2000 and I was blown away by their concert. I went into this concert telling myself not to expect what I saw in 2000. Well I must say that it definitely wasn’t what I saw in 2000. IT WAS SO MUCH MORE. Scott’s vocals were dead on. Gone Blind did an outstanding job. I was shocked to see how well they did on the Creed songs. I only noticed a few differences in the music. And they performed all their new music perfectly. I did notice a little change to the beginning of Let Me Go… I’m not sure if that was intentional or not. I don’t think he could have chosen a better band to use on his new album and tour. They seemed to really love what they were doing.

(By the way, I will no longer refer to them as Gone Blind. With the unity they showed with Scott on Friday I would say they are now The Stapp Band.)

The concert began with Reach Out, Fight Song, and Bullets. I actually liked their version of Bullets better than Creeds. Scott sang incredibly on every song but he really belted it out on these. You could see how much he was into these songs. His voice sounded better on Reach Out in the concert than it does on the Album. I think he has really been taking care of his voice more lately than he did with Creed.

The setlist was the same at the Roxy that it was in Orlando which is as follows: Reach Out, Fight Song, Bullets, My Own Prison, What If, Hardway, One Last Breath, Let Me Go, Great Divide, Higher, Sublime, My Sacrafice
(encore) Arms Wide Open, Surround Me, Justify

Every song was performed with as much intensity as the prior.


When Scott and “The Stapp Band” came back out for the encore they did an acoustic version of Arms Wide Open. Scott, John, and Artie were all on stools. No drums, no bass. They couldn’t have chosen a better song to do acoustically. Also they couldn’t have performed it better. After WAWO they performed Surround Me and then ended the concert with Justify. Justify was a great song to end the concert with. At the end of Justify the stage went dark all except a spotlight on the bass player which slowly faded as he finished the song out. It was great!

Stapp had energy in this concert that I have not seen him display since Creed’s early days. I actually heard someone in the audience say “He’s back… He is definitely back!” And I have to agree. He is back and better than ever. His excitement to be back was catching. He kept showing the audience the goose bumps he was getting because of our excitement. The audience sang along with every song. Sometimes the audience was singing so loudly it was hard for me to hear him singing. He spoke to the audience at the beginning of almost every song. Scott was so personal in this concert that once it was over I felt like I had a better understanding of who he is. I wish the people who love to hate Scott Stapp would take the opportunity to go to one of his concerts. I think most would leave with a different opinion.
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