TULSA, OK– Since the BOK opened a year and a month ago, Tulsa has been graced by acts that normally wouldn’t give it a second look, and on Friday night, it was the turn of hard rock legends Creed and their opening act Staind.  If ever there was a musical one-two punch it would be these two bands. 

They rocked the house which we admit happens a lot in Tulsa because we are great fand, but they did well in major ways.

    The first band to take the stage was a relative unknown and unbilled band called “Like a Storm”  the quartet from New Zealand was only politely received by the crowd.  

They took to the stage playing a didgereedoo, a traditional aborigine instrument that sounded out of place once they kicked into the high energy heavy-metal guitar riffs.  They did their best and they have a lot of potential, but they need work to make their break in the business.  They performed 5 numbers, two of which were covers of other songs, and then yielded to the official opening act, Staind.

    Staind took the stage with a flourish of storbe lights and colorful spotlights.  The music was the audible equivalent of being the speed bag when a boxer is in training.  Where the crowd was mostly seated for the unbilled opening act, they leapt to their feet when Staind hit the BOK stage.  Leading the charge was front man Aaron Lewis who had the crowd by the throat from the very first number.  Staind has a high energy sound that gives sound a definite form.  It was as if the air in the BOK Center was solid when the guitars were wailing.

{gallery}/entertainment/creed/creed{/gallery}Stained yielded to Creed, and they took the stage hard and fast.  The visual presentation included lights, video imagery, and shooting flames from a number of gas jets around the perimeter of the stage.  The crowd, already charged from the Staind performance, came to it’s feet as before.  Scott Stapp showed that he hadn’t missed a beat during the band’s mid-decade hiatus and moved about the stage solidly in command of the musical experience.  Many times during the performance Stapp asked the crowd to sing along, and they eagerly complied during the group’s biggest hit “With Arms Wide Open.”
   
    Stapp was good about narrating the show between musical numbers.  That set their performance apart from Staind because it set the mood for each song before it was played.  The staging of each song was like visual thunder, with some songs featuring the lighting rigs, each mounted individually on retractable scissor-arms. moving up and down to a stunning effect.  That along with the video imagery on the hug screen behind the band really complimented the meaningful aspects of Creed’s music onstage.

    The connection between the performers onstage and the crowd was very evident. The crowd, which was approximately 9-10,000 strong, seemed to move with each song.  Interestingly enough, the crowd was of mixed age.  Some old, some young.  It really showed how many people listened to Creed’s music and helped them break out of the “grunge” label of the late 90’s into the super group they have become.  Al lot of that had to do with Scott Stapp’s command of his stage during the show.  

    Creed’s encore’s featured My Sacrifice performed semi-acoustically, and the final number of the night was “Higher” from the group’s best selling album “Human Clay.”  That song had all of the stops pulled out on it, with the fire effects, video and lights, it really closed out a memorable evening.

Click below to open special concert photo show.

Gallery provided by Kevin Pyle, Tulsa Today.