Delaware State Fair. Harrington, Del.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
For my third show at the Delaware State Fair this year, I headed over to see 3 Doors Down. (Stay tuned for the previous two.) This was the last concert of the fair's 2013 series. On a day off from their co-headlining tour with Daughtry, 3 Doors Down took the stage with quite a few empty seats. Seems like the country acts do a lot better here. Anyway, with just a huge curtain with the band’s logo on it behind the band, they opened with "Time of My Life", from their latest release of the same name. It may have been a less than full house, but those in attendance were up on their feet from the opening of the song. At the end of the song, singer Brad Arnold said, "thank you, my friends," as he did at the end of just about every song. With most of the night’s songs coming from their Greatest Hits compilation that released in November 2012, next was "Duck and Run", and the group’s platinum hit "It's Not My Time." After playing "Away from the Sun", Brad said, "this is probably my favorite song I've written," and then said not the ‘thank you my friends,' but with a clenched fist in the air said, "That's what I'm talking about".
After playing "Behind Those Eyes" and "Loser", Brad said, "In the next day, week or month, find the opportunity to be the one light in someone's life," and then went into "One Light". Following "Here Without You", we were given a little surprise during "Citizen/Soldier" with a drum solo in the middle of the song; a second drum kit was wheeled out on stage and drummer Greg Upchurch and Brad Arnold had quite a drum duel! At the song’s end, Brad said, “they would like to thank all of our men and women who serve our country every day here and abroad,” which brought thunderous applause from the crowd.
Through most of the night guitarists Chet Roberts and Chris Henderson and touring bassist Justin Biltonen constantly moved from side to side on the stage giving the crowd a view of each band member. As I heard a very familiar guitar riff, the band launched into Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction", which segued into "Better Life" to end their set. The stage went dark and the crowd waved cell phones and lighters and chanted, “3 Doors Down.” They returned to the stage and started playing their most well-known song, "Kryptonite", with all the stage lights now green. Their encore ended with "When I'm Gone", which Brad dedicated to American Troops. The band lined up at the front of the stage for the entire song, then took their final bows of the night. Sad there weren’t more people there that night to enjoy a really good rock n’ roll concert. Thumbs up to them; they put on a great show.
– Gary Crouthamel, concert photojournalist
