Daughtry Rocks The Greensboro Coliseum

There’s nothing like coming home, whether it’s after a long day at work or after visiting the in-laws. It’s even that much more special when you are a rock star travelling by bus from city to city and forgetting what your own bed feels like. Former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry brought his Break the Spell tour to the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC on April 7. Although Greensboro is not his hometown, it’s very close to the town of Roanoke Rapids, NC where he grew up.

Daughtry hasn’t been packing them in on this tour like he has done in the past. I’m not sure if it’s because of the economy or if it’s because his popularity is waning. The crowd of just over 5000 welcomed him with open arms and he was all business once he hit the stage. There coliseum did block off almost half of the coliseum with the stage being almost in the center of the floor to give the illusion of a bigger crowd than what was actually there.

The night’s set list focused heavily from his latest album Break the Spell as nine of the album’s twelve tracks were performed. It’s no secret that this newest album from Daughtry hasn’t sold as well as any of his previous releases. Was the set list a marketing ploy? Deliver the goods and hope that would encourage someone to buy the new album after the show? It was a bold move, especially considering that most bands only play a couple of song s from their new album that they are promoting.

The band opened with “Renegade”, not the classic Styx song, and “Break the Spell”, both from the new album. The crowd was really into the new stuff, but the night was early and they were all pumped up to see Chris and the boys. Next up was “Feels Like Tonight” and that really got the crowd fired up. They immediately went back to the new material with five songs in a row, including a very striking version of “Start of Something New”.

The next two performances were stripped down to just Chris at the end of the catwalk and an acoustic guitar. He poured his heart into very passionate and heartfelt performances of “What About Now” and “Home”.  The set ended with a rocking cover of Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream” followed by “September”. The encore consisted of a killer version of Billy Idol’s 80s classic “Rebel Yell” and Daughtry’s first single “It’s Not Over”.

Chris definitely puts his all into a show and he has a solid band to back him up. They sounded as good live if not better than the album. It’s a shame that more people didn’t turn out for this “homecoming” show. Maybe by ending the show with “It’s Not Over” was a message to everyone that even though record sales and ticket sales are down, Daughtry plan to be here for a very long time.