Shinedown
March 9, 2016
Mayan Theatre- Los Angeles, CA
American rock band Shinedown released their fifth studio album titled A Threat to Survival on September 18, 2015. Since then, they have been actively touring for the album. On March 9, 2015 the band made a stop at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles, California after an eight year absence. Fans were lined up a few hours before doors even opened in anticipation of seeing the band and doing so, earned the band a sold out show!
Shinedown came out on stage to a packed venue as they cheered and roared for them. Shinedown started the show with Fly From the Inside from their debut Leave a Whisper album. Guitarist Zach Myers and bassist Eric Bass were very active on stage as they would run and jump around. The band got a very positive response from the crowd as they were happy to finally get their chance to see them, whom possibly for a lot of people in the audience was their first time seeing the band. The band next played the songs Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) and Unity. Frontman Brent Smith took a quick break to talk to the audience for a bit. He had the audience turn to the people around them and give them and hug and high five them. He mentioned how this show isn’t a library and they have no need to be quiet during the show. He asked if the audience brought their singing voices. The fans cheered as they were ready to sing along to any and all songs.
The band played If You Only Knew from their The Sound of Madness album and Smith would allow the fans to sing the chorus. Save Me has quite a history with the band. Save Me was used as part of WWE’s 2005 No Mercy Pay-Per-View event and is their second most commercially successful single to date. I’ll Follow You was next and it features a keyboard intro and was one of the many songs that fans loved singing along to. Smith let the audience know that since the band has a new album out, it was time to play some of those songs. Smith had the crowd clap to the song as they played a song titled How Did You Love?. Smith had the floor split in two and asked the audience, “what is the west coast known for?”. On his count, Smith would have the split audience jump up and down while he asked, “what does the west coast know how to do?” and the audience responded with “rock!” as the band played the song Enemies and had the whole floor jumping. Cut the Chord was another new song they played and fans also enjoyed singing along. State of My Head is another new song and for this occasion, Smith had the venue turn off the lights and instead had the fans hold up their lighters and phone and use them to illuminate the venue as well as for fans to jump and dance to the song. Second Chance was one of the band’s most popular songs and everyone could be heard singing along. The show seemed to come to an end with 45, the final track from their debut album. The fans weren’t quiet ready to leave yet and stayed to cheer waiting for the band to hopefully come out again. The band listened and came out to play the first encore of the night which was their Lynyrd Skynyrd cover of Simple Man. This was an acoustic song and fans loved singing to the Simple Man chorus. Smith spoke to the crowd for a bit saying how the morning of the show, he had trouble speaking and wasn’t in top form for the show. He was also glad to be back in Los Angeles after not playing in the city for eight years. The show had to come to an end and the band picked their multi-platinum single Sound of Madness to end the show with. The members of Shinedown came out to greet fan members and threw drum sticks and guitar picks into the crowd as they left the stage and left their fans with huge smiles on their faces.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
