Review: Creed concert touches fans

The Shreveport Times January 21 2002

You could feel the heat from the shooting flames on stage. You could feel your CenturyTel Center chair reverberate from the heavy bass and drums. You could feel the deep despair, search for hope and passionate cries underlining each song.

And you could just sit back and rock out.

The rock band Creed came to town again, this time with a dramatic background of piercing white strobe lights, pyrotechnics and three mega-TV screens blaring scenes of barbed wire, police arrests and haunting sunsets.

Heads bobbed back and forth. Arms waved in praise toward the band, whose latest album, Weathered, kept its No. 1 status for the eighth straight week.

Lead singer Scott Stapp's vocals rang true for more than 12,000 fans with a passion they believe runs deeper than any other entertainer today. He'd crouch, pull his shoulder-length hair behind his ears, and the crowd would roar. He wore a black muscle shirt, exposing tattoos on both arms. He punched the air, and they screamed the lyrics to their favorites, including My Own Prison, the song that got the Florida band its start.

It was the second Creed concert at the Bossier City arena in a little more than a year. It was healing for Derek Finch of Shreveport. A week ago, he was lying in a hospital bed waiting for kidney surgery. All he wanted afterward was rest and his Creed CDs.

"Their music is so real," said Finch, who had an eight-inch incision made during successful surgery and spent four days in the hospital. "It can hit you. It gives you what you need."

Saturday was no different.

"It seems like a long five years since our first record came out," Stapp told the crowd. "We couldn't have ever gotten to this point without your help. (Sometimes) we felt a little beaten down. I know you've all been there."

Doors opened about 6:15 p.m. for the sold-out event, with lines extending well into the parking lot.

Those able to get tickets for the floor gathered expectantly, bunching up against the stage and letting out a cheer once the lights were turned off. The concert began, and out came opening acts Virgos and then Tantric, both warming the night up with pleasing hard-rock tunes.

Finch came with his older brother, Tigger, and sister, Amber, all members of Shreveport's Word of Life Center. They were drawn to Creed's spiritual overtones, they said.

"I think Creed knows who God is," Amber said. "God's pulled them through, and you can see God in their lyrics."

Area rock fans, even those who couldn't make the show, will have a chance to see and hear the band on cable television in about a week.

Scott Crane and three members of his Crane Video Productions worked with Creed to videotape two segments to air Saturday on MTV2.

"We shot with them four hours today and everything went well," Crane said just before the openers began their sets. "It will be good exposure for Shreveport-Bossier City to be on the program."

John Perkins, who did the audio for Crane, said they witnessed the backstage, pre-show tension between band members.

"It was real cool," he said.

For the thousands of fans present, the tension and energy transmitted well to what happened on stage. The Creed superhit With Arms Wide Open caused the audience to raise cigarette lighters, sway back and forth and practically drown out the band.

Ronnie Steward, 49, and his son, J.R., 23, came from Texarkana, Texas, for some family time together. Their last concert was Metallica at Texas Stadium.

For Ronnie, it was a study on generations. He grew up with the Rolling Stones and ZZ Top, he said, while revealing two ear plugs he described as a must.

"I just like to see the different ages," he said. "They're just a little bit more free than we were."

.Abe Levy