Daughtry plus support from Ayron Jones

Having not heard of Ayron Jones before, it was a pleasant surprise to have this Seattle native open tonight. Playing some fine guitar and catchy rock to a packed-out Rock City, to say he went down well would be an understatement. They loved it, so did we and we will certainly not be surprised to see this band grow in popularity.

Now for Mr Daughtry, having been a fan since his first self-titled album, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to play the easier corporate route to superstardom, because a man with his talent could and should be a massive household name. But that doesn’t mean he is short of fans worldwide, as witnessed tonight in the very packed and warm sold-out Nottingham Rock City. Having seen him a couple of times, it occurred to me that his vocals are even stronger than before, simply awesome. And in a set largely weighted to the new album ‘The Dearly Beloved’, nine in total, even saying to the crowd, about hitting them with a lot of relatively new music, that he should do some old stuff, which of course received an almighty roar. Playing an acoustic rendition of ‘Waiting For Superman’ from ‘Baptized’, before returning to ‘Dearly Beloved’, which he said to the crowd is his most personally satisfying album to date, for ‘The Victim’ and live the tracks from it went down just as big as the more well known tracks. And finishing the main set with the classic ‘It’s Not Over’, and returning alone to perform another acoustic number, the perennial ‘Home’, followed by ‘September’ from the debut. We were by now very sticky with sweat, before Daughtry came on again to rapturous applause, and dragged out the last ounce of energy that the crowd may have had left with the classic Journey tune ‘Separate Ways’, which he recently performed on YouTube with the fantastic Lzzy Hale, which is absolutely superb. No Lzzy tonight, more’s the pity, but you can’t have everything. And if that wasn’t enough encouraging the sold out crowd to jump for the final tune, ‘Asylum’, duly they dragged their worn out bodies up and obliged.

What a gig this was. It’s just a pity we have to wait too long between UK visits. We need a return asap, please.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe