Chris Daughtry brought his band, Daughtry, to Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort Friday and put on a hell of a rockin’ good show. Their ‘Dearly Beloved Tour’ is currently scheduled to continue until Aug. 13, including some shows in Europe.
There’s no getting around the fact that this band has earned its stripes.
For those of you not in the know, Chris Daughtry was a runner up on season five of American Idol, behind winner Taylor Hicks and second place Katherine McPhee. In most cases being an American Idol runner up seems to be a better place to be rather than the winner.
Chris Daughtry is a very impassioned performer. He doesn’t just play guitar and sing. He gets wrapped up in the emotions of the songs and exudes passion throughout. With a powerful voice he brings his audience into the stories he tells.
In support of their new release “Dearly Beloved,” the set list included nine songs from the album. They started strong with three of them, “Desperation,” “World on Fire” and “Changes Are Coming.”
Their power and professional stage presence quickly got the crowd worked up and into the show.
I felt a nice, well planned flow to the songs. You can’t really keep the crowd on a non-stop energy high for 90 minutes without wearing them out. They need a transition to another place at some point.
Daughtry did that midway through the show by going to a mellower section of two acoustic songs, starting with a story. Chris shared a tongue in cheek story of being approached by his “biggest” fans who tell him they love that one song he does (crowd laughs). Then he said, “Here’s that one song,” and went into “Home.”
From here they ramped it up again to the show closer, “September.” They encored with “Over You” off of his first album and finished it off with an incredible closer, “Asylum” from the new “Dearly Beloved” release.
Earlier in the day Chris Daughtry and bandmates Brian Craddock and Elvio Fernandes stopped into the Musician Rehearsal Center in Sparks for the filming of the first episode of what owner Matt Reardon is billing as Live at Lou’s. I feel fortunate to be included in this event as a photographer. It was a blast. The plan is for this to be a monthly event filmed and distributed in a fashion similar to Austin City Limits.
I must admit that prior to prepping for this show, I knew almost nothing of Chris Daughtry other than American Idol and the loss of his daughter. After doing my homework and seeing this show, I’m very impressed with the whole history of Daughtry.
His first album provided six hit singles and was certified 4 times platinum in April 2008. Chris has written some great songs and put together a fantastic band.
In a time when it’s increasingly more difficult to stand out and succeed as a musician, and carve out a career in a world dominated by streaming, Daughtry has made its mark.
SET LIST
Desperation ~ World On Fire ~ Changes Are Coming ~ No Surprise ~ Dearly Beloved ~ Drum Solo ~ Evil ~ Home ~ Cry For Help ~ It’s Not Over ~ Heavy Is The Crown ~ The Victim ~ Lioness ~ September ~~~ Over You ~ Asylum
DAUGHTRY
Chris Daughtry – Lead Vocals, Guitar
Josh Steely – Lead Guitar, vocals
Brian Craddock – Guitar, Vocals
Elvio Fernandes – Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals
Brandon Maclin – Drums
