E Center gets Staind

Don't grab the Shout -- being Staind turns out to be a good thing.

That is if the Staind you speak of is the heavy-rocking band from Massachusetts. The band's 2008 release, "The Illusion of Progress," is still shedding hit singles, with its third, "This Is It," currently climbing the hard-rock radio charts.

The band just got off the road from a solo tour, and now partners up with Creed for a run that brings them both to Salt Lake City today.

Mike Mushok, guitarist and founding member, is pleased with the success of the album and with the joint tour. Mushok has not worked with the full Creed lineup, a band only recently reunited. But he has worked with the metal offshoot of Creed, Alter Bridge.

"We have toured with Mark (Tremonti), Brian (Marshall) and Flip (Scott Phillips), back when they were (also) in Creed," said Mushock, calling from a West Palm Beach tour stop.

He laughed. "You do this long enough, you end up playing with just about everyone, I guess. It's a small world."

Help from Bizkit

Staind first came together when Mushok and the band's lead singer, Aaron Lewis, met at a Christmas party in 1993.

"I was super-sick that night, had like a 102 fever," said Mushok. "I didn't even go to my family Christmas party, but I have a friend who had this thing every year, and I decided to go for a few minutes, just to get out. I'm glad I did, because I met Aaron."

Lewis did not even have a phone at the time.

"I think he called once, but we did not get together," Mushok said. "Then, in October of the next year ... Aaron ran into my roommate at the time's girlfriend. He called me a week later, we got together with a bass player, had a practice, wrote tunes and went from there."

The band had a fortunate moment when it crossed paths with Limp Bizkit in 1997, when Staind was opening that band's show.

"We were playing wherever we could, at that point," Mushok said. "Their first record had just come out -- they weren't a huge band yet. But after Fred (Durst) heard us, he said, 'I'll get you a record deal,' and gave us his number."

They called, but didn't hear back from Durst.

"At that point, we thought, 'Whatever.' But then, they (Limp Bizkit) were opening for the Deftones in our town and we had some new songs we'd recorded. We didn't even see Fred there, just left the tape for him. Soon after that, he called at 3 in the morning -- I was asleep -- and he had the tape playing in the background. He said he loved it. And a month later, we were driving down to Florida to stay at his place to work on songs. Right after that, we had a record deal."

Higher tone

Staind's latest album features a somewhat higher sound than previous efforts. Mushok had long played a baritone guitar, an instrument that lies in tone between a conventional six-string and a bass -- sort of like the cello of the guitar family. The sound is deeper and moodier than a conventional six-string.

Mushok said he originally switched to baritone to give him a different sound from others playing his style of music. But recently, he got a hankering for a change.

"There were a couple songs I was working on. I used a standard guitar, and they sounded kind of cool. It allowed me to do some solos on the record, on some of the songs that called for it."

Just as reaching for the higher-toned instrument seemed natural, Mushok said the writing of the album came about organically as well.

"A couple of the riffs I had, I thought, 'These will never go anywhere.' But Aaron heard me playing, and he was like, 'What are those?' And the next thing you know, an hour later, it's a song. There was a lot of that going on, writing this.

"Mainly, I try to come up with things Aaron wants to sing over. When he is happy and wants to sing over it, I get excited by it, too, and want to pursue it."

PREVIEW

• WHO: Staind, with Creed
• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. today
• WHERE: E Center, 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City
• TICKETS: $29-$85, available from Ticketmaster, (801) 325-7328