3 Doors Down

I could tell right away that Brad Arnold was fighting a cold or something because his voice lacked his characteristic depth. Later he said he had a sinus infection. He didn't postpone the show, however. So you could say he didn't back down and he didn't duck and run! Great show and fantastic music, always true to the original recordings. Wish I could see them on the upcoming Florida cruise where they open for Creed's first reunion in ten years.

Candlebox and 3 Doors Down were fantastic! I’ve been to a lot of concerts and this definitely ranks in the top five! My only complaints are the parking/exiting the parking afterwards and the frequent smell of cigarette smoke, which, I thought, is supposed to be a smoke free venue. Despite those issues, it was still an excellent experience.

This was a great combination, candle box and 3 doors down blowed simmons bank arena away. Only had a few problems with the VIP reps that unfortunately were late and several hundred people were left in the dark trying to figure it all out, after alot of confusion, it all turned out great. They did email back an apology, so that was nice. If you get the chance to see them, well worth it. Was on 2nd roll so pretty close, lol had to look up most of night,but it was great. Been to several shows, this was one of my favorites.

Other than parking in a wet, muddy grass area and no covered seating, especially for the front section of the seating.. was soaking wet the whole concert. It was an awesome show.. First time ever seeing Candlebox, and the 3rd time seeing 3 Doors Down.. sad to have read that Candlebox is "quitting". I hope they change their minds.

3 Doors Down/Candlebox 8/30/23 “Continuing my 2023 90’s rock journey the time machine brought The DAve Show to Simpsonville’s Heritage Park for 3 Doors Down’s ‘Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour’. Hurricane Idalia had made her threats but come Wednesday evening she had steered off course just enough, leaving us nothing more than a little light rain and a blessed relief from the heat. A side note but worthy of mentioning considering the name of the tour, Idalia is a name of Italian origin meaning ‘Behold the Sun’. Well into the tour, it was the band’s 34th date of their 46 scheduled appearances and my first time seeing either band live. Formed in 1996 in Escatawpa, Mississippi in the band who has encountered numerous set backs since their inception presently features only one original member, Brad Arnold 44 on lead vocals. With 6 studio albums and 24 charted singles including 5 number ones, the question at hand was how many songs on the set would come from the sophomore album from which the tour was named. With the help of LIVE NATIONS $25 all in I secured my reserve seats towards the rear, behind and to the left of the mixing board. Upon arrival the stage was set for Seattle Washington’s hard rock/alt rock/post grunge opener Candlebox. An American flag stood motionless in the stillness of the evening air stage right. Amplifiers were the primary ingredient of the stage set itself including all Marshalls on the right, the only other item of note would be the drumhead with the kit positioned on a small riser center stage. The drumhead was all black with the design of a ouija board, the numbers on the bottom spelled out 1993*2023. The planchette with the word ‘GOODBYE’ on it was dead center pointing upward toward the band’s name at the top. ‘YES’ and ’NO’ were on either side. It’s meaning begged the question, will this be their final album and will this be their final tour? 3 Doors Down’s drum kit was already set up behind and covered with a series of sheets sewn together. There were no video screens in place for either band. Seattle has birthed some of the greatest American bands of the era: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters and Soundgarden, as well as Queensryche & Heart, and Modest Mouse & Minus The Bear. Though Candlebox has only one original member since its first foundings back in 1990, I could only imagine the show would still feature that hard west coast drive that put them on the map. At precisely 7:30 p.m. the five members took the stage for a 1 hour / 11 song set beginning with ‘Don't You’ the first song off their debut 4X platinum eponymous album. Turned out this would be an set based entirely off that one album (though not in it’s original track order). Frontman and founding member Kevin Martin wasted no time interacting with the audience and would continue to do so introducing many of the songs. ’Sorry you’re so wet man. We made some calls, we tried to stop the rain, it wasn’t stopping. We’re Candlebox, we’re here to warm you up. We’re gonna play everything off that first record except one song as we’re celebrating thirty years of our debut album.’ The second song was ‘Change’, Martin letting us in on a secret, ‘This song was written under the influence of mushrooms.’ Given the lyrics, ‘I wanna fall asleep no longer no longer a part of your TV screen, a part of your TV dreams’, it’s actually no surprise! ‘Ladies where you at? Alright, this for all you foxy mama’s, I know you’re a little cold, a little wet, but you look good baby’ Kevin noted as he introduced ‘Blossom’ which he dubbed ‘a love song’. ‘We have a new record that came out last week, you guys mind if we play you a new song? Just one and we’ll go back to 1993, you might like this one’ lead into ‘What Do You Need’ the first single from 2023 ‘The Long Goodbye’. ’Arrow’ was next with band intros following. ‘Mother’s Dream’ was written about Kevin’s grandmother on his father’s side. Describing her as an angry evil Irish woman who came to America in 1898 and never liked his dad, he concluded the song with ‘See you in Hell Thelma’. The American flag began to furl mid-set as Martin told the story of a homeless Vietnam Vet just trying to get by who lived behind his apartment in Seattle, he was ‘a good man with a beautiful voice and a beautiful soul’. ‘I’d give him whatever I had in my pocket to help him out.’ One day Kevin came home and he was gone. ‘This is his song’—‘He Calls Home’. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen would you please put your hands together for the Veterans who are here tonight.’ ‘My father was born in 1922, he stormed Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 so every Veteran tonight you have a special place in my heart.’ I couldn’t help but notice that the sound quality was exceptional for an outdoor uncovered venue, and it stayed that way all night through both band’s sets. Maybe it was attributable to the thick cloud cover acting as insolation keeping the acoustics under the canopy mother nature had provided. It made the evening that much more enjoyable despite the light precipitation that continued on throughout Candlebox’s entire set. The band saved their best three songs for last, their three biggest hits, ‘Cover Me’, ‘Far Behind’, and ‘You’. Bringing on ‘the blond fox’ from 3 Doors Down—Chet Roberts for additional guitar Kevin honored those from Seattle who had gone on before. ‘This next song (Far Behind) is dedicated to some friends of mine in Seattle I don’t get to see no mo, they ain’t with us’. As he mentioned each name, the audience responded with a salute of applause: Andrew Wood (Mother Love Bone); Kurt Cobain (Nirvana); Layne Staley (Alice In Chains); Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees); Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots); ‘and the greatest rock and roll voice to ever come out of Seattle, a beautiful human being Mister Chris Cornell’ (Soundgarden). ‘I miss those sons of bitches. Sing this song if you know it so they can hear it up there.’ At the end of the hour set there was only one song missing from the entire album that the band didn’t play, ironically was Track #8 ‘Rain’! It didn’t seem to take much to turn the stage for the headliner and the half hour intermission passed rather quickly. 3 Doors Down stage set up was centered around an extra large 5 step rectangular drum riser with 6 sets of suspended light rigs above, each rig had two spotlights and two pivoting lights interspersed. Light bars that seemed to me to resemble a car grill and headlights (the tour’s logo) were above the kit which oddly enough had a sound shield. The drum head featured an image of the sun as if taken from space with solar flares shooting out from it. Most obvious was the emptiness of the stage itself, the absence of clutter provided ample mobility for the five person band to move about and do their thing. At precisely 9 p.m. and without fanfare the band took the stage for a 1 hour and 36 minute / 18 song set beginning with ‘Pop Song’ a b-side and bonus track from ‘Away From The Sun’. Meantime my friend Joe and I saw an opening to make a move. As a staff member stepped aside to guide some seemingly lost folk to their seats, strolling confidently, we made our way down to the second row from the stage and never looked back! Next up, ‘When I’m Gone’ a #2 single followed with a driving guitar solo. Chet Roberts and Chris Henderson both lead the charge. Frontman Brad Arnold addressed the audience, ‘It looks like it’s not to get wetter, that’s a good thing.’ ‘We gonna play the whole record for you tonight just about and sprinkle some other songs throughout there, we gonna take a little ride—not gonna talk a whole lot, we just gonna listen to some music, that sound like a plan?’ Looking around I suddenly noticed that the rain had ceased and a breeze began to pick up, the temperature was a pleasant 72° and folks began to pull down their hoods and take their ponchos off. The set list mirrored that of Apple Music Essentials playlist though not in the same order. If you knew the essentials you could sing along to every word. Three songs in was the title cut of the album and I turned to my friend remarking how strong the vocals were. Come to find out Brad was actually battling a sinus infection and in spite of it he determined he was going to give us everything he had. A half dozen songs in and prior to 2003’s #5 ‘Here Without You’ he paused to share some words that had been on his heart. ‘My friends I told you I wasn’t gonna talk a whole lot tonight. I think this is the most important thing that I can ever say from the stage… something that was laid on my heart a few months ago.’ He shared how they started out as a bunch of teenagers riding high off their first tour. They made them some money and should’ve been on top of the world. ‘We all had smiles on our face but we all had holes in our hearts.’ Being thrust into the music industry they didn’t know who they could trust, but it wasn’t just the music industry it was the world itself, ‘the world is that way’. ‘What I want to tell you my friends is you’re not alone. When you feel like nobody loves you, somebody does love you, somebody’s always been with you and He’ll always be with you. My friends Jesus Christ loves you, He’s always been there for you, He’ll always be there for you!’ His word brought a rousing cheer from the surprisingly filled amphitheater on what had the potential of turning out to be a rather dismal evening. Considering the fiasco that had happened the evening prior at the same venue with the band Ghost calling the show after 11 p.m. due to their equipment being damaged in the rain, it was a big win for CCNB. ‘This might be the truest song we ever wrote’ Brad remarked as an introduction to ‘I Feel You’. Then rolling through the hits and some deeper cuts the band moved from song to song with no talk and all rock: ‘It's Not My Time’, ‘Be Like That’, ‘Duck And Run’, ‘Dangerous Game’, ‘Changes’, ‘Loser’, and ‘Sarah Yellin’ which brought the regular set to its conclusion. As the band reentered the stage for an encore, folks were shouting for them to play their trademark song ‘Kryptonite’ but Brad quieted them down with 2005’s ‘Landing In London’. He had come out wearing a long sleeve shirt he had put on back stage, ‘Thank you for being here in this weather. I’m glad the rain moved away for us tonight. Actually turned out to be a great evening for a concert, feels good out here.’ ‘There hasn’t been a day in three weeks when it wasn’t at least ninety-five degrees when we went on stage. This is amazing. I’ve never had to put on a long sleeve shirt to come back out here, EVER.’ The moment came for 2000’s #1, written by Brad Arnold during a high school math class at just 15 years of age, and without delay Arnold called out, ‘We gonna play you one more song and I guess if we’re gonna play one more we might as well play….’ The opening notes finished the sentence for him! The only track from the anniversary album not played during the evening’s performance was ‘Going Down In Flames’. 3 Doors Down has powered through incredible tragedy, drug overdose, legal woes, and controversial performances, and has come back thanks to their powerful anthems and life changing lyrics. Arnold confided in an interview, ‘I’ll always tend to measure our success by how many people come up to me at shows and tell me this song or that song has helped them through a time or changed them in some way or helped them in some way. I would just much rather hear that than have a six million album plaque on my wall!’” Review and photo by DAve (Concert #813, #814)

The venue staff were really cool. Although it was a little early, they saw that I was starting to tremble and feel faint from the extreme heat 115 degrees. And they allowed me into the lobby sooner than doors opened. I really appreciated it. Everyone inside was very friendly, food vendor sold us food even though they weren't officially opened yet. Security at the front cared about us as fans and asked a photographer to leave who kept getting in our view in the pit. The band was great! 3 doors down is always a good time! And Brad came down after the show, and said hello to everyone! In the front row! It was epic!

What a blast! The Rose in Huber Heights is the best venue I've ever been to. I've wanted to see 3DD since the 90s! They did not disappoint. I met some fun fans there. Everyone was so nice! Candlebox also blew me away! Kevin sounds exactly the same as he did back in the 90's! Thanks guys! You made my SUMMER!!

3 DOORS DOWN with CANDLEBOX says it all - absolutely amazing :) & it the weather was beautiful. The only thing is, is that it went by to fast - trying to figure out when & where I can catch another show... Rock on you guys and have a blast. Can't wait for the new album from CANDLEBOX Aeroneil03

Man was it HOT in Texas in July! We of course enjoyed the show, and love the stories behind the songs. Brad is so humble and sincere. loved the one about playing pool with Bob seger for a week without knowing who it was. Band was great live.

Best concert I have been to in awhile. The overall band sound is spot on. The humbleness of the band is amazing. The vibe of the concert was fantastic. I’m not a big acoustic fan but Three Doors Down changed that well for them anyways. I highly recommend seeing them if you get a chance. I’ll be seeing them again and again every chance I get.

The show began with sound issues and two songs were totally silent. The rest of the show was good but not great. That’s a moment when you can give a little more - a longer jam, an acoustic song not on the set list or something to make up for losing the intro. Honestly Collective Soul stoke the show. They had energy and hit the crowd into the show.

It’s always no nonsense with 3DD. They played an hour and a half straight of awesome rock n roll without stopping. It’s all about making it a great time for their fans that came to see great music. Their songs are amazing already but Brad and the boys bring something special to all their music when they play it live.

The concert was excellent! All 3 bands gave it their best! I was surprised with how well I liked Soul Asylum! I only knew 1 song, and I liked everything they did!! I will be buying there CD’s! Collective Soul was amazing and gave out a lot of energy! They were all over the stage! They really rocked it all 1 hour and 10 minutes!! The 3 people I was with thought Collective Soul was the best out of the 3 bands! 3 Doors Down was my favorite and the best band of the night!! Brad Arnold out did himself last night!! His vocals were outstanding and sounded great! The whole band looked and sounded excellent! I would see these bands again!

3DD is one of my top 3 most favorite artists. I'm so happy I finally got to see them and I was so impressed with their performance. My biggest disappointment was with many of the fans that came. They were disrespectful to those around them by talking loudly and constantly getting up and down in front of people. I only hope this did not deter 3DD from coming back. I want to see them again!

This is a beautiful venue and, as always, 3DD put on a wonderful show. I love that Brad Is back to sharing his stories with the audience. I truly missed that last time I saw them. The back porch idea made for an enjoyably intimate evening with this talented group of rockers. Their music lends itself to the style. That said, I was also happy to hear the last couple of songs that really rocked the house. Keep it coming!

They ROCKED the house!!! I’ve been to 100’s of concerts and I’ve never experienced one like 3 Doors Down. Absolutely FABULOUS!!! And, the opening band ELVIS/MONROE was OUTSTANDING!!! They were the perfect band to open. OMG and the story telling by both bands. BRAVO!!! Just an AWESOME Concert!!! Thank you to the bands!!! 😐

This show was great. We had balcony seats and as much as it would have been cool to be on the floor level the way the stage sits was great. It was very intimate. The only thing that I could say bad about the experience would be that the lobby was really loud. But not loud enough to ruin our great time. I loved it and would/will do it again if they come back to Salem.

3 doors down did not dissapoint. The band put on the kind of energetic show that a fan would come to expect. The 2 new songs performed left us looking forward to the new album. On the other hand, Seether were overbearing and seemed like a poor fit to share the same stage. It's a shame that we didn't get Collective Soul as the opener, which has been 3 Doors down's touring partners for most of this particular tour. But in the end of the day, this show was a high energy affair that rocked.

I give it five stars because of the last half of the show but the first half of the show only gets one star cause the beer was cheap. The seating arrangement is bad the people pull their phones out to film n take pictures and it blocks your view, the rows are entirely to wide compared to the stage if u have a seat like me from 1-6 then u can't see the whole stage. The only reason the second half was so good is because we left our seats and walked to the stage and nobody made us go back to our seat. We got a hand shake from the whole band and it was my wife's birthday n the bass guitarist gave her a pick n the whole band wished her happy birthday.

Great set, great vibes. Band is awesome. Performance was wonderful. Ran into a band member after the show, outside and he was so nice, friendly, patient and let us take photos with him even though I'm pretty sure he simply wanted to walk to a quiet spot to take a phone call.