3 Doors Down + Seether @ Birmingham O2 Academy – 12th March 2012
Being brutally honest, when I agreed to cover this gig I had no idea who 3 Doors Down were and didn’t know who was supporting. Purely from the name alone I was expecting some fairly bland, slightly twiddly pop (2 Door Cinema Club), however upon arriving at the Birmingham 02 Academy, I was pleasantly surprised to see a large and eclectic queue of rock fans.
It turned out the support act was Seether, who I have heard of and, who were getting decent radio play last year. A large portion of the crowd were clearly here as much for them as for 3 Doors Down, evidenced by the chants of “Seether, Seether” for about five or ten minutes before they took to the stage.
Despite a lack of energy, the South African trio had no problem in getting their fans jumping around. Hits were sung/screamed along to and horn salutes were waved wildly in the air, no more so than to ‘Tonight’ which was definitely my favourite song of the evening.
Sounding like Nickleback but less poppy and Nirvana but less grungy, with a bit of Puddle of Mudd thrown into the mix, it’s not hard to see why Seether have done so well in the US and are quickly gaining fans on this side of the pond.
In a polar opposite to Seethers performance, 3 Doors Down burst on to the stage in a hive of energy and the 5 piece stood never still for more than a second for the rest of the show, apart from of course drummer Greg Upchurch who was hidden behind his drum kit on a raised platform at the back of the stage.
Their energy was infectious and the crowd somehow managed to find another gear going crazy for the bands antics and the ferocious pace they rattled through song after song, particularly when lead singer Brad Arnold dived into the crowd and was carried around whilst still belting out vocals.
To my ear 3 Doors Down played cheesy power ballads spiced with a slight nu metal edge, and were technically, and lyrically inferior to their support act. However the large crowd who’d paid good money to see them, were more than satisfied, though I did catch a couple of shouts of “this is not a rock song” when Arnold did an out of place A capella version of Phil Collins’ ‘Another Day In Paradise’.
Words & photos – Alex Dean