Unfortunately, no Florida sun was shining down on the Forum last Wednesday night. In fact, it was pouring down buckets. Thankfully though, it was a different story inside the venue, for Florida-based rockers Shinedown delivered a truly captivating show.
The evening kicked off with Counterpoint and Chigaco rock band Soil as support act. Soil did a fair job as far as support bands go, though the audience got a little impatient and called for the main act to come on stage. After a half-an-hour pause that seemed more like an hour, Shinedown finally appeared and got straight into action with their biggest hit Sound Of Madness. This was followed by Save Me and the melodious 45, a wonderful track with poignant lyrics that resembles slight echoes of Pearl Jam. In between songs, frontman Brent Smith interacted with the audience – sharing thoughts and anecdotes and whatever else he felt like sharing with his fans. It proved to be somewhat of a mixed blessing, however. While some fans appreciated his spoken-word-intervals, others wished he would stick to singing.
The rest of the band - which are guitarist Zach Myers, drummer Barry Kerch and bassist Eric Bass – gave an equally energetic performance. Other songs from the repertoire included the hard rockin’ Cry For Help and Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide.
Shinedown have so far sold over six million albums worldwide. Given their talent for penning meaningful lyrics, those figures shouldn’t come as a surprise. The band’s song-writing skills are especially evident in tracks like the emotionally charged The Crow And The Butterfly or the touching Call Me.
Throughout the night, the atmosphere was charged with a high voltage vibe and the audience danced along, clapped along and yelled along till the show was over.
Shinedown weren’t left off the hook that easily and were called back for some bonus songs. 'We look forward to see you in 2010' promised Brent. It’s a safe assumption to make that Shinedown’s British fans look forward to it just the same.
(gig pic by © Kari Culver)
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