Creed
Creed Live
DC3 Music Group
Released December 8, 2009

Love them, loathe them, regard them with a shrug of indifference — whatever it is you do when it comes to Creed, it is impossible to deny the credentials of this band. Its first three albums have gone multi-platinum and the latest, Full Circle, is on course to follow suit. Formed in 1995, Creed split in 2004 under a blaze of furious egos. Actually it was more like under a soft blanket of withheld apologies. Which makes this concert and new album a Creed reunion. Now this reformed rock group has released its first DVD, Creed Live.

Creed’s popularity lies almost entirely in North America and during its most successful period earlier this decade they remained relatively unknown elsewhere. My North American friends, I must tell you: the rest of the world was on to something.

I listened to a couple of Creed’s albums not long after they were released but I never really connected with them. Maybe there was too much pain to deal with and at the time of 1999’s Human Clay and 2001’s Weathered, there was a wave of new rock/metal bands that dealt in misery. Even when the lyrics were not dealing with tough emotional issues they still sounded like they were complaining about something. But on listening to these albums I could tell that drummer Scott Phillips and co-songwriters guitarist Mark Tremonti and lead singer Scott Stapp (the band had bass player issues) were obviously capable musicians so maybe with the help of this Creed Live DVD I would finally complete my Creed puzzle.

I didn’t.

The band opens with “˜Bullets’, and so the problems start. They have a handful of radio-friendly songs, a kind of emotion-by-numbers collection but mostly the songs blend into one wall of noise and at 1 hr 45mins, not even the most ambling prog-rock band on the most potent psychedelic trip would do such a thing. Visually it lacks any atmosphere and a lot of the time it looks like the band is miming to the songs. There is about 30 seconds or so of Stapp talking at around the 50-minute mark where the vocals and visuals are way out of sync. Sadly this occurs when Stapp is asking the crowd to make some noise in appreciation for the U.S. troops at war. This is thanks largely — although I’m not convinced, entirely — to the sound mix. If you have 5.1 surround and a fancy setup you will notice less disturbance. The sound however is a bit too polished for a concert, apart from Stapp’s between song audience thanking, and it seems to me like someone has been busy with the overdub software.

The makers of this DVD boast of the four world records that were set making it. However, the band and the press release only tell you about one of them! The one world record was having the most cameras present at a concert recording: 239 HD cameras. This meant they could do The Matrix bullet-time shot (Big Freeze Technology to give it its proper title from the Deluxe Promo trailer in the extra features). Why? I have no idea. Surely a band that has sold so many millions of albums does not need to rely on gimmicks. But if you really want to see that you have to wait until the Deluxe Edition of this comes out.

Stapp does his over-active best to try and affect some atmosphere and response from the fans and in the viewer but to no avail. It is clear that the band are very aware that this show — originally broadcast live on TV, filmed at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston on September 25th — is being filmed and the other band members suddenly start smiling and headbanging whenever Stapp goes near them maybe because they know that most of the 239 cameras will follow him.

It has been said that Stapp sounds like an Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) impersonator and he does, with a bit of Bruce Springsteen. Or more accurately, an Adam Sandler SNL impersonation of The Boss. Sometimes it’s impossible to decipher what on earth he is singing.

During the surprisingly boring 45-minute behind-the-scenes documentary it’s clear that Eric Freidman is living every rock fans’ dream: he met the lead guitarist of one of his favourite bands at a guitar show, the two became friends, and now he is their touring guitarist. The only time any showmanship is displayed is when Friedman takes it upon himself to roam the stage to undertake soloing duties (which, it has to be said, he is very good at). On stage, the rest of the time the band members are all fairly static — apart from Stapp who loves to perform and twice taking his shirt off suggests he’s not shy either. Very sweaty though.

One of the biggest problems is that it’s shot like a rock and roll concert. “˜Well, duh,’ you might say, but Creed is not a rock and roll band. KISS and AC/DC are rock and roll bands; songs full of energy and about having a good time, the stage is a hive of activity: it’s a performance. Creed is not that kind of band.

Sure it looks nice, there’s a cool screen at the back — when we finally get to see it — but there’s no atmosphere. They all make the right noises, pull the right poses but it all feels too staged, too much like an advert for itself. There’s no soul. This is one of the very few rock concert DVDs where I did not wish I was part of the audience. I began to dare myself not to skip songs, to give it a try. I was not enjoying it. Then something strange happened.

I turned away from the screen for a few minutes. Suddenly without the visuals it was transformed into an OK live album! Not a great album but I’ve heard worse. The sound issues now added an atmosphere to the live recording instead of being a distraction. “˜Never Die’, “˜A Thousand Faces’, and “˜One Last Breath’ really stand out and I began to like songs I didn’t before.

So that’s the secret to enjoying this DVD: Don’t watch it.