Shinedown in Gilford, New Hampshire – September 19, 2023

As Shinedown rolls through the final leg of The Revolutions Live tour, the band returned to the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford. Joining them on this run were Spiritbox and Papa Roach.

Papa Roach

The lights went down, and a huge screen at the back of the stage shows black and white footage of various roaches, while “Hey Good Lookin'” plays over the PA. The music and the screen fade, and an starry backdrop appears while the intro to “Between Angels and Insects” begins. The silhouette of frontman Jacoby Shaddix comes to the front of the stage, and the crowd begins to roar. He gets hit with a bright spotlight, and begins singing the first line of the song. Their set was full of their hits – though after nearly a half dozen times seeing them over the years, I’ve still yet to hear them sing 2002’s “She Loves me Not.” Songs like “Scars” and “Getting Away with Murder” were highlights. A cover of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” is a fun thing the band has been including in their set in recent years. As their set reached the end, possibly one of the loudest pops of the night came with the first line of “Last Resort.” The song that originally put Papa Roach on the map still rings strong, more than two decades later.

Shinedown

The four members of Shinedown came to the front of the stage to greet the crowd. With a burst of fireworks, the band kicked into “Diamond Eyes,” followed up by their recent single, “Dead Don’t Die,” off of last year’s Planet Zero. Shinedown’s record-breaking career features both rocking and emotional hits, and they gave us a ballad early on with a performance of “I’ll Follow You.” With 30 top-five singles in their career, the band can obviously never fit them all into a show. Staples from across their career, like “Devil,” “45” and “Sound of Madness” were all fantastic. The upbeat “Enemies” is always a joy, with frontman Brent Smith getting the crowd on their feet and jumping at the start of it.

Though they’re supporting Planet Zero with this tour, they didn’t go too heavy on songs from it. In addition to “Dead Don’t Die,” we also got the title track, as well as the recent, softer release, “A Symptom of Being Human.” We only heard a small portion of the ballad that was a number 1 hit last year, “Daylight,” as it was turned into a medley with ATTENTION ATTENTION‘s “Get Up.”

Over the last several tours, toward the end of the set, guitarist Zach Myers and bassist Eric Bass will give Brent a break, and the duo will do an acoustic cover. I’ve seen them do a Foo Fighters cover shortly after Taylor Hawkins’ passing, as well as a cover of TLC’s “Waterfalls.” This time around, they played Jimmy Eat World’s smash hit, “The Middle.” After the first verse and chorus however, their crew came on stage to fill the sound and play a full rock version of the song. Zach’s tech Drew Foppe, Eric’s tech Jeramy Donais (aka Hoogie), and Barry’s drum tech Ricky Sanders makeup “The Warmup Room” band, and while many in the crowd had no idea who the extra musicians on stage were, they all enjoyed the performance of the song.

After playing their hit cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man,” the show finished strong with the 1-2 punch of “Monsters” and “Cut the Cord.” The night ends, as always, with Brent reminding us all “It’s never goodbye, it’s just til next time.” As this tour approaches the end, we may be at the end of the Planet Zero album cycle. It’s always interesting to see what this band does next, and knowing them, it won’t be long until they step foot in New England again!