SEATTLE — 3 Doors Down weren't about to abandon their bread and

butter entirely — but they didn't mind dispensing with it as early as

possible.

Thus, during their show with Lifehouse and Tantric at the Key Arena

Wednesday, encore sure-bets "Duck and Run" and

"Kryptonite" were both knocked off before 3 Doors Down had been onstage 15

minutes.

"We get tired of hearing that old sh--, right?" singer Brad Arnold said at

one point, clearly speaking for his bandmates rather than the audience.

He looked relieved as soon as the final strains of "Kryptonite" died out and he began introducing the new song "When I'm Gone."

Opening on a thick wash of effects from guitarist Matt Roberts, the

slow-moving tune built to a tongue-twisting chorus: "Everything I am,

everything I need/ Wants to be the one you want me to be."

Arnold — the Escatawpa, Mississippi, band's original drummer — climbed

behind a second kit brought onstage for an aggressive new tune called

"Dangerous Game," which he said is "about stupid people killing one

another." Clad in a vintage Rush baseball T-shirt, Arnold focused on cymbals and hi-hat while full-time drummer Richard Liles rumbled across his toms during an interlude which was decidedly more brief than the typical double-drum duel.

The band, whose 17-month-old debut, The Better Life, has gone

five-times platinum, squeezed one other new song into its hour-long set.

The moody, throbbing "This Time" is about believing in yourself, Arnold said.

"Is it OK if we play a ballad for you?" Lifehouse singer/guitarist Jason Wade asked before launching into "Somewhere in Between" — as if any band with a #1 adult contemporary hit needs to inquire about the appropriateness of ballads. The women in the half-full crowd jumped, hollered and threw their arms toward the ceiling when the Los

Angeles group delivered its most impassioned performance of the night

with the chart-topping "Hanging by a Moment."

But Lifehouse's set was by and large reserved, as if the group were still

playing its old Friday night gigs at the high school auditorium. Wade,

bassist Sergio Andrade and guitarist Stuart Mathis wandered the stage

tentatively, almost like they were still getting acclimated to its

hugeness. The band eschewed all theatrics and showy solos.

Wade — a former Seattleite with a penchant for Eddie Vedder's

mushmouth enunciation — seemed most comfortable when discarding his

guitar, as he did on Lifehouse's latest single "Sick Cycle Carousel." It

was the band's penultimate tune and the first time Wade started jumping up

and down.

Tantric, otherwise known as Days of the New with singer Hugo Ferreira in

place of Travis Meeks, opened the night with a set that included the

singles "Breakdown" and "Astounded," which Ferreira dedicated to "all those

stupid f---ers that didn't believe in us."

Not that he didn't hand his critics grist on a silver platter. In a moment

right out of the Spinal Tap episode of "The Simpsons" ("Hello ... [awkward

pause] ... Springfield!"), Ferreira mistakenly shouted, "Alright,

Vancou— "

The audience seemed forgiving of the flub, though it probably didn't hurt

that he went on to shout "Seattle" no fewer than 12 times during the rest

of the show.