Before 3 Doors Down took to the Riverbend stage Monday night, a Keith Richards album played over the public-address system. The music cut off, and when the band appeared, lead singer Brad Arnold was wearing a black T-shirt with the Led Zeppelin logo spelled out in silver sparkles. As Mr. Arnold sang through the night, appropriations of familiar lyrics could be heard: a phrase from a Pink Floyd song in “Kryptonite,” a little Jimi Hendrix in “Life of My Own.”

        It was a classic-rock kind of show, and not only for the Zep shirt and Hendrix lyrics and such. There's a feel to 3 Doors Down's music that's timeless — not nearly on the level of those big-names, but something familiar sounding.

        The five-piece rock band from Mississippi formed in the mid-'90s, and they've been making hits for only a year and a few months. Already they're headlining Riverbend and reeling off a bunch of songs even a non-fan would recognize from infrequent radio listening.

        The greatest of those hits was “Kryptonite,” with its sing-along chorus and the clever double-time cadence of the drums.

        Best about the song is it sounds like no other rock-radio hit these days. That can't be said about all of 3 Doors Down's material. They're a better band than either matchbox 20 or Creed, but too often when they played their softer material they sounded like the former, and when rocking out they sounded like the latter.

        Maybe 3 Doors Down's sound isn't so timeless after all. Or maybe that timeless sound comes from borrowing from all rock eras, no matter how lame the era.

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