WANT TO GO?

Three Doors Down and Daughtry

WHERE: Big Sandy Superstore Arena, Huntington

WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28

TICKETS: $25, $39.50 and $49.50

INFO: 800-745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Rock 'n' roll has seen better days. Three Doors Down guitarist Chris Henderson acknowledged that there's no way around it: rock music as he knows it has kind of been on a downswing.

"Everything is synthetic and programmed," he said, bemoaning the recent wave of electronic dance music and dubstep.

"There's nothing you can do about it, but kind of ride it out," he added. "It's not like I have any choice. It's not like I'm going to write a rap song anytime soon."

 Three Doors Down, he said, will be sticking with rock. The band, best known for more than a decade of hard rock hits, including "Kryptonite," "Here Without You" and "It's Not My Time," comes to the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington Wednesday night for a co-headlining show with fellow rockers Daughtry.

Henderson sounded glad to be back on the road. He said the band is trying out some new things in different cities.

"In Huntington, we're going to give away two tickets  -- or maybe two tickets and two passes to the show via Twitter."

Tickets for the show, he explained, will be hidden somewhere in Huntington. The day of the show, the band will tweet pictures and hints about where to find the tickets from its account: @3doorsdown. (You'll also be able to find them on Henderson's account, @Chris3DD, and Chet Roberts', @croberdog.)

"I think it will be kind of fun," he said.

This late fall tour for 3 Doors Down is kind of a warm up for 2013, which promises to be a lot busier.

"2012 was a slow year," he said. "We went to Europe, but took a lot of time off, had some changes in the band and really spent a lot of time getting ready for this greatest hits record."

The record, "The Greatest Hits," was released Tuesday. Henderson sounded a little baffled about.

"It was one of those things where the record label went, 'Do you want to?' And we said, 'Sure?'"

Still, he agreed, it made more sense for the band to release the compilation, which is a little more than just a collection of hits. The record contains nine songs that have been remixed and re-mastered, plus three new cuts.

"The remixing was a little tricky," he said. "When you remix a record, you don't want the songs to sound the same as before."

The new mixes have a more modern edge, and some of the songs just sound better. The remixed version of "It's Not My Time," for instance, has a much stronger guitar component, which Henderson said he likes much better.

He said, "That was always one of the things I've had issues with. You record all of these beautiful guitars, and then they take them and crush the crap out of them. It just doesn't sound like when you recorded them. I was always a little disheartened when I'd get the mixes back."

Some of the new mixes sound much stronger.

"They sound a little more alive, and that's because of the technology," he said.

Still, the remixes were mostly studio creations, a different way to present some of the band's best-known work. In concert, 3 Doors Down will be sticking to what their fans know.

Other bands, Henderson knows, are changing things up. Some, like Canada's Three Days Grace, are even trying out dubstep.

"I don't get dubstep," he said. "I can't wrap my head around it. It seems like pretty much for one dubstep artist to the next, it's the same."

Henderson acknowledged that maybe that sounded a little closed-minded. Just the same, as far as electronic music goes, those other bands can probably just keep it.  

Reach Bill Lynch at ly...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5195.