I had the pleasure of attending the 3 Doors Down acoustic set right here at the Gallo Center in Modesto, CA. This was a particularly new experience for me being my first acoustic show to see and the theater did not have the usual photo pit front and center! It was a bit of a challenge to only use the sides of the seating area to shoot from, but the stairs were handy for good viewpoints.
Elvis Monroe
The night started with Elvis Monroe, a little charming country set that was quite enjoyable! They were very charismatic on stage, definitely a good opening act for the whole idea of a “back porch jam” tour. They hit harmonies well and had everyone on their feet to sing along at one point and at another there was a theater full of flashlights waving to the stage. “The Fight”, written for the Vegas shooting incident, was a very soulful song and meant a lot to the band as two members survived the ordeal. Both “Backyard Family Barbeque” and “Take We Back” were fun light-hearted songs that I enjoyed myself and will definitely be adding to my playlist. Elvis Monroe was pretty great all in all, I recommend giving them a listen if you like country. On top of that they were nice dudes!
3 Doors Down
The band took to the stage with “I Feel You” with such a relaxed pace, even stating that they enjoyed just talking about the songs in an acoustic setting instead of jumping around on stage to put on a show. They touched on the subject that their songs have a lot of acoustic riffs backing the sound so singing them all acoustically is no challenge. Their setlist was quite long with 21 songs total, of course including the big hits that everyone knows and loves: “Kryptonite”, “Here Without You”, “When I’m Gone”, and “My World”. This acoustic setting gave more opportunity to be very connected to the audience and share some personal history, such as Brad’s celebration of sobriety on the 19th (Congrats!) and how he got there by having his wife tell him he should listen to the words in the songs he sings. After singing “My World”, Brad explained that the song was originally meant for Spiderman 2, but when it wasn’t used in the movie it became a hit for them. And even though the song was popular it still was just chasing the heels of Gwen Stefani, of which we heard a lot of grumbling about and mocking “Bananas” lyrics from onstage.
While I did enjoy the acoustic set, the encore was more my style. The boys came back out with electric guitars to end the night with “Fell From The Moon”, “This Time”, and “When I’m Gone”. The finale was a burst of energy and everyone was on their feet, which honestly I didn’t know if it would happen with how chilled out the mood of the set was so there was a good dynamic.
Overall it was a nice change in pace to the typical jump n’ bump rock and metal shows I’m used to. Both Elvis Monroe and 3 Doors Down played great and the atmosphere was phenomenal.