Creed - "Say I" (RARE debut)

Creed - "Say I" (RARE debut never before seen footage).

There's always a defining moment in the history of every band. In my mind, Creed's performance this late night in August 1997 was theirs. The first couple of singles off "My Own Prison" had been receiving heavy radio play and you could feel the momentum building locally and for the first time, nationally. As Creed's debut album was flying off the shelves, the band was already working hard on material for "Human Clay".

The local venue where Creed usually played sold out in minutes so it was decided to move the show outside, into a large parking garage underneath a McDonald's of all places. Nobody was to realize what would happen that night. A small 3 foot tall stage was built the day before, little to no security the night of the show and a couple thousand Creed hungry fans had gathered early with great anticipation.

This is the first public performance of "Say I". It was the last song of the night, well past 2am and the police were threatening to shut it all down. There was no standing room whatsoever and no barricade between the crowd and the stage. The only place I could find to shoot the show was right on the stage trying to be as discreet as possible behind the stack of speakers.

Unfortunately, the guy hired to run the sound was not cooperative. I was unable to multi-track the show and all I had was an awful, distorted sound track recorded right off the camera mic. Looking back on it now, it seems to add to the realness of that night, much like an old scratched up 45 vinyl record.

The performance that night was the most intense and hard rocking show that I had ever seen from Creed. There was electricity in the air and you could feel the intensity of the crowd. The stage almost fell over several times from the eager and rowdy crowd pushing forward just to get an inch closer to the band. Yet once the show was over we all knew that something very magical had just happened and this band was going a very long way.

All music © Creed, Bicycle Music Company. All images and video © copyright, filmed, produced and recorded by Ron Ranew. www.ronranew.com

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