Shinedown HOB Review

Thursday, May 17, 2012
By Aaron Keker

Shinedown rocked and knocked the blues out of the Chicago House of Blues.

Brent Smith looked leaner than previous years and make have taken a page from John Candy’s character “Ox” in Stripes when Ox remarked, “I’m gonna walk out of here a lean, mean, fighting machine.”

Brent Smith vitalized the audience by screaming “Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom!” on “Diamond Eyes.” Brent fired up the audience further with his high fives and hand shaking with the audience on “Nowhere Kids” to getting the audience to raise their hands in the air on “Unity.”

The unified madness of the House of Blues actually occurred on the “Sound of Madness” and continued until Shinedown’s brilliant performance ended with “Fly from the Inside.”

The most shocking event of the evening was that a large percentage of the audience has never seen Shinedown, but they showed their appreciation for the band. The appreciation was mutual as Brent Smith thanked the audience on numerous occasions and remarked, “It’s really good to be back!”

With Chicago’s admiration, Shinedown might want to consider “Sweet Home Chicago” as their band anthem. Maybe they should consider covering that song instead of “Simple Man.”

Shinedown has been performing “Simple Man” for at least the last two years in Chicago. The first time was August 2010 during the Carnival of Madness tour at Charter One Pavilion and the second time at the Chicago House of Blues.

Although “Simple Man” is one of the best covers ever, Brent Smith remarked to Always Acoustic in 2008, “The reason [that] we don’t [perform] ‘Simple Man’ anymore is you don’t want to make something stale.” Don’t expect Shinedown to continue to perform this cover. It will once again get stale for them.

Almost 65% of Shinedown’s set list was derived from Amaryllis and The Sound of Madness. They performed “Sound of Madness,” “Enemies,” “If You Only Knew,” “Devour,” “Nowhere Kids,” “The Crow & the Butterfly,” “Unity,” “Amaryllis,” “Adrenaline,” “Bully” and “Second Chance.”

There were two additional highlights that will not be forgotten. One was the floor shaking profusely on “Nowhere Kids” and Brent Smith graciously giving several high fives and hand shakes to audience members. Brent wanted the audience to look to their left and right and  shake people’s hands.

The other highlight was when someone tossed what appeared to be red roses on stage during “Unity.” Someone from Shinedown’s crew quickly grabbed the flower arrangement and whisked it backstage.

From the “Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom!” screams, to the blissful audience, Shinedown’s current tour is a must see performance! The lean, mean, rocking machine, Brent Smith, and Shinedown will be hopefully be coming to a city near you.