SPRINGFIELD – On the heels of it’s performance in Springfield Mass, Shinedown brought their rawk show to the Mohegan Sun arena on Friday, May 3. Shinedown is touring in support of their 2012 release, Amaryllis. Also on the bill were Bush and Airbourne.
Airbourne opend the show with a very energetic performance. This young band from Australia is led by brothers Joel O’Keefe (vocals) and his younger brother Ryan O’Keefe (drums). They are touring to promote the release of their third album Black Dog Barking which comes out May 21. This band has a similar feel to fellow Australians, AC/DC. Playing songs from all three releases the band was non-stop action, including when a roadie carried the lead singer through crowd on his shoulders during a guitar solo. For the few who showed up early, they were treated to a very exciting opening band.
After a brief set change, Bush came out to a roaring crowd. Opening with the song Machine Head, the band sounded great and seemed ready for the hour long set. Gavin Rossdale, the only original member from the bands heyday in the 1990’s, led the charge. The band ran through a number of their hits including Everything Zen, Little Things, Glycerine and Comedown. The songs that filled in between seemed to lack the necessary energy the crowd and the band needed. The set seemed to drag a little and the band looked like they were going through the motions. Bush has been around since 1992 and has five full releases of material, but curiously they played a Beatles cover song, Come Together to fill in the set. Sounds was good, band was ok, set list shaky…
The crowd waited patiently for the crew to change over stage sets and then fully erupted when Shinedown took the stage around 9:15. Opening with the song Enemies, lead singer Brent Smith was in fine form both vocally and physically after having lost some serious weight over the past year. Smith is now leading a healthier lifestyle and it definitely shows in his performance. I have never seen him with this much energy before. Back to the show… next up the band ran through Devour, Unity and The Crow & The Butterfly, before taking a breather that had Smith thanking the crowd for continually coming out and supporting them on their tours. Save Me was up next followed by I’ll Follow You and Diamond Eyes. Shinedown slowed things down a little with If You Only New and Amaryllis before ending the set with the rawker 45. The lights stayed off for a few minutes with the band reappearing for a four song encore that included, Sound of Madness, Second Chance (possibly their biggest hit), a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover of Simple Man and ended the night with Bully.
Shinedown has the rawk moves down, has the big rawk stage show, has the ballads, has the rawking sing a long songs…basically Shinedown has everything you would want for a great rawk show and they didn’t disappoint. I have seen them a number of times live and each time they evolve both visually and musically. Go see them live, heck go see anyone live and support musicians in general.
