3 Doors Down is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their sophomore album Away From The Sun with an extensive U.S. headline tour. The tour kicked off on June 14, 2023 at Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore, Maryland and will run all the way through the summer, ending on September 23, 2023 in Sugar Land, Texas.
On night one, fans were lining up early in the afternoon, hours before doors were even scheduled to open, just to get close to the stage. Pier Six Pavilion is located in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore and is a beautiful venue right on the water. While it is a fully outdoor venue, most of it has a fabric roof to protect fans from the weather. A huge portion is seated, but there is an open pit at the front of the stage, as well as a huge lawn to spread out in the back.
3 Doors Down have brought Candlebox on the road with them to open every night for the duration of the tour. Candlebox is currently celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album, plus this will be their final tour ever. They have a few select headline dates scheduled through the summer, but this will be the last chance fans will get to see this incredible band live.
On opening night, Candlebox hit the stage right at 7:30. After a short recorded intro, which included a clip of none other than David Letterman welcoming the band to the stage (originally from an airing in 1994), the band hit the stage and dove straight into “Don’t You,” which is the first track off of their self-titled debut album.
Candlebox would continue for a full hour on stage, which included almost their entire debut album. The nostalgic fans loved every minute of hearing their favorite songs from this incredible album. There was loads of crowd singing heard on every track. Vocalist Kevin Martin was overwhelmed and thankful for the outpouring of love by cheering fans and could be found leaning over the stage shaking hands, giving fist bumps, signing drumsticks that he later launched into the crowd, and tossing out guitar picks by the handful. They also treated the audience to a brand new song off of their upcoming final studio album The Long Goodbye, which is due out August 25, 2023.
3 Doors Down wouldn’t hit the stage until right at 9:00 pm. The sun was down and when the stage finally lit up, the crowd erupted. You could only see solid blue lights streaming down and when the band first hit the stage and started in on the opening notes of the first song, everyone was clapping to the beat. Vocalist Brad Arnold was the last one to come out and began singing a song you may or may not have heard. The diehard fans definitely knew it. “Pop Song” was originally a bonus track on the international releases of Away From The Sun and later on the “When I’m Gone” single.
Next, the band went straight into “When I’m Gone” and then the title track for the album they’re celebrating, “Away From The Sun.” 3 Doors Down would play almost the entire album, plus about every radio hit they have had, which is A LOT! What do you do when you have this many hits honestly? It equals an entire night of absolutely everyone in attendance singing all night at the top of their lungs.
They really barely had time to pause and thank the crowd for their never ending support before hitting them again with another incredible track. I think a personal favorite for me was hearing “Be Like That” live, which was beautiful. It’s hard to choose though, really. 3 Doors Down ended up playing an incredible 2 hour set. When the lights went down after “Sarah Yellin’” the fans were definitely not ready for it to be over and quickly began chanting for the band to come out for an encore.
Only vocalist Brad Arnold along with guitarist Chris Henderson would hit the stage when the lights came back up. They began slowly into “Landing in London” before the rest of the band would chime in later. This track was originally a duet with Bob Seger off of 2005’s Seventeen Days. The band was again overwhelmed with the emotion from the crowd and stopped to thank everyone before performing their final song, which was mega-hit “Kryptonite.” Everyone stuck around to the very end and it was an incredible opening night for a tour you absolutely don’t want to miss this summer.
For a full list of tour dates and to purchase tickets, visit: https://3doorsdown.com/
I’m Music Magazine Writer Daphne McKinney
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