Shinedown - Sheffield O2 Academy 01/11/2012

[Rockingbear]

SHINEDOWN

Shinedown are doing things the old fashioned way: releasing an album and touring heavily to promote it. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, this was their second visit to our shores in less than a year.

The audience demographic was not the usual one that I am used to these days, being mostly made up of students of both sexes.

This was my first gig post Firefest, so Shinedown had a lot to live up to for the most part they managed it. First, the negative: the sound, and in particular the awful drum sound which was not helped by the terrible acoustics of the Sheffield O2 Academy. The volume level was just about right as was the mix had the drums been sorted out but, unfortunately, they were very “muddy” and frequently overshadowed Brent Smith’s fine vocals.

The intro-track of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” was a strange choice to say the least, however, things were soon rectified as the band hit the stage and launched into the title track of their seminal 2008 album “Sound Of Madness”. The crowd were going wild from the start and singing every word.

“Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” from this year’s “Amaryllis” album was up next. The jury’s still out on this album for me. I personally do not think that it is as good as the inspirational “Sound Of Madness”, however, there are moments when it comes close. This song, for me, is not one of those moments but the superb “Enemies” and “Unity” certainly hit the mark.

The audience volume levels seemed to increase with the introduction of the wonderful “The Crow & The Butterfly”.

Brent Smith does like his audience interaction between songs and makes no apology for the fact. As I find him to be quite genuine I did not think that this detracted from the show. The largely young crowd obviously lapped it all up…

The first of three songs taken from Shinedown’s 2004 debut came by way of “Fly From The Inside” where Brett’s commanding vocals came to the forefront and managed, on this occasion, to compete with the aforementioned “muddy” drums. The latter was a real shame as Barry Kerch is a powerhouse of a drummer who was clearly enjoying himself behind the kit.

The title track and “I’ll Follow You Down” from the new album “Amaryllis” slowed things down slightly. “I’ll Follow You Down” featured Eric Bass on the piano introduction. He and Zach Meyers provided excellent backing vocals as did the audience throughout the whole evening. There were obviously some backing tracks being used this evening but these were largely intro’s to several songs.

The latest single “Unity” stepped things up once again. This is arguably the most commercial track that Shinedown have written and the crowd responded to the lines “Put your hands in the air”.

After only an hour, “45” from the debut, brought the main part of the set to a close. This song is a real tour-de-force but this evening’s sound issues meant that it was not the highlight that it should have been. Zach Meyers on guitar really complimented Brent’s vocals but when the drums came crashing in they seemed to be too dominant.

The band only briefly left the stage before returning for a four-song encore that was worth the admission price alone. It was like the first ten songs had simply been the band warming up!

Naturally, “Devour” went down a storm and I was, fortunately, stood far enough away from the front of the stage not to get embroiled in the jumping up and down during this song – too old these days!

Zach then returned to stage with an acoustic guitar and, accompanied by Brent who stated, “Rock ‘n’ roll is not a genre, it is a lifestyle!” We were then treated to an epic rendition of Skynyrd’s classic “Simple Man” that the band covered on their debut album.

My personal favourite Shinedown song, “Second Chance” and many others judging by the reaction, should have been, in my opinion, the final song of the set, however, the band decided to finish with “Bully”. This was not a bad song, however, would have been better played earlier on in the set leaving the previous three songs as a fitting encore.

Set-List:-

1 Sound Of Madness - The Sound Of Madness 2008
2 Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) - Amaryllis 2012
3 Enemies - Amaryllis 2012
4 The Crow & The Butterfly - The Sound Of Madness 2008
5 If You Only Knew - The Sound Of Madness 2008
6 Fly From The Inside - Leave A Whisper 2004
7 Amaryllis - Amaryllis 2012
8 I’ll Follow You - Amaryllis 2012
9 Unity - Amaryllis 2012
10 45 - Leave A Whisper 2004

Encore:
11 Devour - The Sound Of Madness 2008
12 Simple Man - Leave A Whisper 2004
13 Second Chance - The Sound Of Madness 2008
14 Bully - Amaryllis 2008

Shinedown:-
Brent Smith – lead vocals (2001–present)
Barry Kerch – drums, percussion (2001–present)
Zach Myers – guitar, backing vocals (2005–2007, 2008–present), bass guitar (2007–2008)
Eric Bass – bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (2008–present)