Photo by Chuck Brueckmann
Audio By Carbonatix
Post-grunge band Creed has announced it will be celebrating “Creedmas” with two shows at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood on December 19 and 20. Hard rockers Sevendust will serve as the show’s opener.
Creed was probably one of the biggest rock bands at the turn of the century thanks to the group’s breakthrough album, 1999’s Human Clay. Songs like “Higher” and “With Arms Wide Open” were inescapable on rock radio. The band continued to see commercial success with its follow-up, 2001’s Weathered, which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Frontman and vocalist Scott Stapp perhaps received the most attention during the band’s meteoric rise. His baritone vocals in the vein of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder became both the band’s calling card and source of ridicule. (It also didn’t help that Stapp’s odd behavior over the years became a source of tabloid fodder.)
That put Creed at the epicenter of the genre now known as “butt rock.” The derogatory term has come to denote the type of post-grunge sound of the late 1990s and early 2000s, characterized by hypermasculinity and angst.
However, even bands that were equally as hated back then (see Limp Bizkit and Nickelback) are seeing critics and audiences come around. Chalk it up to nostalgia, or perhaps these bands weren’t as bad as the vitriol they received.
That nostalgia wave is part of what makes Creed’s newly released The Best of Creed compilation feel right on time. The collection spans all four of the band’s studio albums and includes mega-hits like “My Sacrifice” and “One Last Breath.” While some might write it off as a cash-in, it’s also a reminder that Creed was, for better or worse, the soundtrack to a specific moment in American rock history. The digital version is streaming now, and vinyl collectors can pick from a range of exclusive pressings.
Tickets for Creedmas are currently on sale via ticketmaster.com with prices starting at $79.80.
Creed. With Sevendust. 8 p.m. Friday, December 19, and Saturday, December 20, at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood; 954-797-5531; myhrl.com. Tickets $79.80 to $538.10 via ticketmaster.com.
