More and more success seems to be piling up for, the once unheard of, Chris Daughtry. Well all saw him back on the fifth season of American Idol, and many fans have watched him rise to mainstream success in the following years. Swiftly dropping his first name and creating the group “Daughtry”, releasing their 3rd studio album and relentlessly touring, Daughtry is quickly becoming a big name in the rock industry.

Building on the handful of albums Daughtry has released and limited touring, they’ve come a long way from where they were, especially Chris himself. Growing up in a small town, Chris really rose to success mostly because of his personal will to do so. Over the years he and his band have progressed very much and it will only get better from here on out.

The Waukegan show on the “Break the Spell” tour featured openers Mike Sanchez and SafetySuit. Mike Sanchez was a simple two piece act consisting of keyboard, guitar, and some catchy vocals. I’d have to say that Mike Sanchez was actually pretty good for an opening act. He and his keyboard player cranked out some great original music as well as a few covers that got a few people off their feet.

SafetySuit really got things started due to the fact that many people had not heard of Mike Sanchez…until now. The Nashville group quickly brought the energy of a full band to the crowd and fired things up like you’d expect a headliner to do. SafetySuit’s upbeat and sometimes gritty songs got the majority of the theater out of their seat.

Singer Douglas Brown interacted with the crowd very nicely, even jumping out in the crowd for the last song to take pictures, give hugs, and just run around and have fun. It makes the whole experience more enjoyable when artists you admire come out and run around rather than just stay confined to the stage. I would’ve liked to see more attention on the rest of the very talented band. Most of the time they were poorly lit and when that happens they go unnoticed to the crowd.

The quick transition from SafetySuit to Daughtry was rather impressive. Usually the crowd is left waiting for the headliner more than they would like, but this show was much different. A mere 20 minutes passed and the sold out crowd welcomed Daughtry with a roar of screams and applause.

Starting strong, as we see with many rock bands, with a “Renegade,” a song from their recent release “Break the Spell,” Daughtry woke up the rest of the crowd that SafetySuit. A few more hard hitting songs and Daughtry was well into their set. Most everyone seemed happy with the song selection, but there were a few that seemed less than impressed. Fighting the crowd for some photos proved to be a bit hectic and frustrating at times thanks to the rows of heads and hands all the way to the front of the stage.

A quick sit down for a few acoustic songs seemed to wind things down a bit. Chris Daughtry got a little more personable with the crowd, especially with songs like “Start of Something Good” and “Home,” one of his earliest hits. One of the sit down songs seemed really special to Chris, special enough that Daughtry would be donating one dollar from each ticket sold to help fight malaria in Africa. Click here for more information on “Malaria No More”.

Although Daughtry played for a good amount of time and included and nice mix of old and new hits, it seemed like their set flew by. Though fans would’ve been happy with the sizable set they got from Daughtry, they were pleasantly surprised when Daughtry came back out for a two song encore.

From the looks of things, Daughtry is doing very well on their current tour. The sold out Genesee Theater only solidifies the spot they’ve earned in the music industry and showed me there are great things to come from this group.

Daughtry’s current tour will span the continental United States and then will continue on to Europe. Check out some additional photos from 2011′s Rock USA in Oshkosh, WI here.

Daughtry

SafetySuit

Mike Sanchez

Daughtry Setlist: Renegade – Break the Spell – Feels Like Tonight – Crawling Back To You – Losing My Mind – Out of My Head – Crazy – Start of Something Good – What About Now – Rescue Me – Home – Spaceship – Louder – Over You/No Surprise – Running Down A Dream – September – Rebel Yell – It’s Not Over