3 Doors Down will be just down the road from MSU students when the national rock band plays at Breslin Center on Saturday night.
The band is currently touring in the wake of their debut album “The Better Life,” which spawned the hit singles “Kryptonite,” “Loser” and “Life of My Own.”
3 Doors Down didn’t have an opening act scheduled for the show, so promoters scoured the area and invited local band Aventine to perform.
The band hasn’t played recently because drummer Chris Ploeg left the band for unknown reasons. Aventine friend Donnie Brown, who is also the drummer for the Verve Pipe, will fill in for the band’s performance on Saturday.
“We’ve been working for three years for this night,” Aventine guitar player Allen Needham said. “It’s going to be really cool when we get out there.
“It’s definitely our biggest show to date.”
Needham said this will also be a big show for all local bands.
“Anything like this is a big boost for home grown bands,” he said. “It says something very good about the area.”
Needham said he thinks Aventine will fit in well at the concert and hopes people like what they see.
“We’re not just going to hack out songs and stare at the audience,” Needham said. “We’ve got some fun things we want to do.”
Breslin Director Scott Breckner said they are always looking for new bands to bring to campus, but it takes a lot of planning.
“We are contacting record companies on a daily basis,” he said. “But a lot of bands, like Creed, are looking for a different style of seating than we can offer.”
Breckner said Breslin is trying to develop a curtain system where it can seat 5,000 in a more intimate venue.
“There are more and more bands looking to play a venue that seats between 3-6,000,” he said. “There aren’t very many bands left that will come to a city smaller than 150,000 and play an arena.”
Despite those problems, Breckner said he is confident Breslin will be hosting concerts similar to Saturday’s in the future.
“We are hoping more bands will follow (3 Doors Down’s) lead,” he said. “We’ve been very aggressive in our search and students can look forward to more concerts in the future.”
For more information, call Call (517)432-5000, (800)968-BRES or (517)484-5656.
