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It’s concert time again. Can you guess where I went? Saratoga Performing Arts Center, of course. Can you guess who I saw? Creed! 

My parents and I headed towards SPAC on Saturday afternoon for the Summer of ‘99 tour, featuring Creed as the headliner and 3 Doors Down and Finger Eleven as the supporting acts. I like to joke that Creed was the first band I ever really loved because my mom listened to the Human Clay album on repeat while I was in the womb. She likes to remind me that she listened to “With Arms Wide Open” when she was nine months pregnant and cried because she was going to become a mom shortly. 

Needless to say, we were all pretty excited for this show (despite the fact that I was not, in fact, even alive during the summer of ‘99). 

Finger Eleven 

Finger Eleven opened the show and started getting the crowd warmed up at seven o’clock on the dot. You probably don’t think you know a single Finger Eleven song, but in reality, I’d be willing to bet that you know at least two. Remember the song “Paralyzer” that was all over the radio in 2007? Yep, that’s them. “One Thing?” That’s them, too. 

I was pretty impressed with the band; they sounded exactly the same and brought quite a bit of energy to the stage. They played a pretty short set of seven songs – clocking in at about 35 minutes – before thanking the crowd and taking their leave from the stage. 

Then it was time for the mad dash to the bathroom in between sets. Now, this was a sold-out show, so I fully expected it to be crowded, but I don’t think I was wholly prepared for it to be this crowded. The lawn, which is where we were seated, of course, was completely full and people were camped out on the swathes of grass up by the merchandise vendors and the bars. 

The concourse was also full of people who didn’t have seats and who were unable to find space in the lawn. It was crazy. The line for the bathroom was also astronomical, of course, but thankfully SPAC has pretty expansive restroom facilities, so we were able to make it through the lines quickly and make it back to our seats before 3 Doors Down hit the stage. 

3 Doors Down 

I didn’t think that I knew very many 3 Doors Down songs, but they’re one of those bands that as soon as the song starts playing, you go, ‘oh yeah, I know this one.’ They opened their set with “Time” (which I did not know), followed by “It’s Not My Time” (which I DID know). I have to say, the lead singer sounded absolutely incredible and nearly the exact same as he does on the recordings. 

They played a good mix of classics that everyone knows – including “Here Without You,” “Kryptonite,” and “When I’m Gone” – and other, newer tracks, such as “Never Look Down.” 

The lead singer, Brad Arnold, was not one for chatting and he didn’t try to make conversation with the crowd. Instead, he thanked us after every song, said “God bless you,” and told us how great we sounded when we were singing. 

Just before breaking into “Away From the Sun,” Arnold finally took a moment to address the crowd. He noted that he doesn’t speak a lot during shows, but that he felt the need to share a message with the crowd. 

“I feel like I can identify with this song more than most of our songs,” Arnold said. “This world surrounds us with the message we’ll never be good enough, we’ll never be strong enough, we’ll never be beautiful enough, we’ll never be rich enough. Whatever the case may be. Social media surrounds us with those messages all the time. It’s driven down our throats every day, that we’ll never be good enough and nobody really, really loves us.”

“My friends, I just want to take a second to tell you, that’s an absolute lie,” he continued. “You are loved. You are enough, and you will win. Not only can you win, but you will win. You’ll always be enough for one reason. And that’s because Jesus Christ loves you.”

Arnold then went on to lead the crowd in a brief prayer of “I am the one that Jesus loves.” 

It was a lovely sentiment – so long as you believe in Christianity – but it did seem a bit out of place at a rock concert, where there were a bunch of rowdy people completely hammered and smoking weed in the lawn. But hey, who am I to say what should and should not take place at a rock concert. 

3 Doors Down does not identify as a Christian rock band (neither does Creed, despite the religious and spiritual imagery prevalent in many of their songs), but Arnold connected very strongly with Christianity during his sobriety journey, and he now uses his platform to spread the word during their concerts.

Creed 

Finally, just after nine o’clock, Creed took the stage. They opened with “Bullets” from their 2001 album Weathered, which was the perfect song to kick the show off with. Scott Stapp sounded absolutely incredible and the rest of the band brought insane energy to the stage. Coupled with the crazy pyrotechnics and visuals on the screen, I knew we were in for a damn good two hours of music. 

They followed up with “Torn” and “Are You Ready?” from the My Own Prison and Human Clay albums respectively. 

Then they performed “Never Die,” from the Human Clay album. The song is about how adults lose their youthful spirit and childish ways as we grow older and are weighed down by the world. On stage, Stapp said the song is about innocence and the struggle to maintain your youthful outlook in the face of obstacles and challenges. 

Unlike Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down who did not talk very much in between songs, Scott Stapp took breaks in between songs to give us dissertations on life. Prior to playing “My Own Prison,” Stapp lectured us on the dangers of creating your own prisons and staying there. He spoke for at least five minutes, sharing his own personal struggles in his life, how he created his own mental prison back in the 2000s, and how deeply it affected him. 

It was nice the first time that he was sharing details of his life with us, but I felt like each speech was underlined with this connotation that he was lecturing us about what we should be doing with our lives, and he would know the best because look at all he’s been through. It was kind of like when the worst guy you know tries to explain anything to you completely unsolicited. And it was then that I remembered that although he’s allegedly reformed from his younger years, he is in fact still Scott Stapp. 

From there, they went into “Weathered” from the 2001 album of the same name, and “What If,” “Say I,” “Faceless Man,” and “One,” all from Human Clay. 

Prior to performing “One,” Stapp once again stopped to give a speech about how the band wrote the song back in 1999 when they saw vast division in the world. Now, Stapp said, the song seems to mean more than ever before. He then went into a brief tirade about how “the enemy” – later identified as the government – wants us to be divided and focused on our differences, rather than our similarities. The best way to fight back against “the enemy” is to unite, said Stapp. To be fair to Scott, many of his points were valid, but once again, what are we even talking about here? Did I come to a rock show or to a conference for prayer and spiritual/political/personal testimonials? Turns out, it was a little bit of both. 

They then performed “What’s This Life For?” from the My Own Prison album. The song was written by guitarist Mark Tremonti about one of his friends who had died by suicide when they were in their 20s. 

To close out the show (before the encore), they performed “With Arms Wide Open,” (which obviously made my mom cry), and “Higher.”

The band did the obligatory leave from the stage for a few moments before coming back out to perform “One Last Breath” and “My Sacrifice” for the encore. We decided to make a mad dash for the parking lot during the encore in an attempt to beat the traffic, so we only heard the final songs. 

Overall, it was a bit of an odd experience. It was a great show; all of the bands sounded absolutely incredible, the visuals and pyrotechnics of the performances were off the charts, and they all played a lineup of their biggest hits. It was when the lead singers got the chance to speak that things went a little wonky, but what can you do. 

Listen to the setlist from the show at our Spotify below.