Live: Daughtry in Greensburg

It was on the eve of the biggest snowstorm to hit Pittsburgh in a long while that Chris Daughtry was set to play. As the snow came down you might have thought that in would turn people away, but much to my amazement the show, which was sold out, was truly sold out and everybody that braved the elements to get to the show would get one of the best shows in all of rock today. The lights dimmed as his back-up band slowly took the stage and the volume slowly increased. Chris took the stage with the hood of a hoodie sweatshirt pulled close around his face and was hit with two giant spotlights. He belted out a new song called “Just Found Heaven” to the uproar of the crowd. This was going to be a fantastic evening despite the lousy weather outside, which was now just a distant memory. He lost the hoodie and grabbed his guitar and proceeded in rocking our asses off. He ripped through old songs like “Feels Like Tonight,” “No Surprise,” “Baptized,” “Home” and “September,” along-side newer ones like “Deep End,” “Back Bone” and “Back In Time,” but it was his out of this world cover of U2”s “With Or Without You” that dove the crowd utterly insane. He played song after song and hit after hit. He also talked to the crowd a lot- telling them stories about the songs and where they came from, quite frequently making the fans all bust out laughing. He really knew how to work a crowd. Another thing that made the show so great was the lighting show. It was breathtaking to behold. It was like a 3D lighting extravaganza that engulfed the entire stage and let your mind wonder. He was frequently greeted with the comment “Take off your shirt!” from a drunk woman in back. To which he replied “No one wants to see that,” which got another big laugh, but that wasn’t the end of her. She yelled it all night long, so much in fact that he just shook his head at one point said something under his breath and walked away. By this point the whole band was making jokes about her and the crowd ate it up but Daughtry himself still had one more surprise. The stage was bathed in a shower of purple lights as he delivered a version of “Purple Rain” that made the hair on your neck stand up, it was truly amazing. He closed out the night with “Over You.” All that was left to do was to brave the elements home, where we found Chris signing stuff outside of his tour bus. A true showman and a gentleman! -Eric Hunker