I have to say after having watched all of the live videos i can of the guys playing with the new lineup I am super excited so them live again. Shinedown has never sounded this good live before. I love the fact that the guitar isn't sloppy live anymore and Zach if you read this you are alot better guitarist than I originally gave you credit for. I'm very excited about this album again after "Devour" crushed my excitement at first. The other new songs sound amazing. Anyone who keeps saying that this new lineup isn't better than the way it used to be is being very closed minded.

this is all very true. The guitar live is so much more now, both zach and nick are tearing it up out there. Jasin had a connection with brent nobody will ever duplicate, but to be totally honest, his playing was never awe inspiring live. he has some good free hand solos here and there but most of the time the solos were a little sub par.(par being on track with the cd)
for instance he barely ever finished the save me solo, and the teh only difficult part of I Dare You he would usually not even try.

I'm not saying nick is a better guitarist because ive also seen some shows where jasin is right on top of his game. but for a night to night tour nick is just doing an outstanding job stepping in

I don't even know where to begin......Just curious, would you say all of this to Jasin's face?

I don't know if either of you two play or know about music, but generally speaking, Rock music isn't difficult. Usually its only 3 or 4 chords and in jasin's own words, a solo "if the song calls for it." So in this case... Just because a man CAN, doesn't mean he SHOULD. It's like the discussion of inspiration and styles, just because that's where they're sound comes from doesn't mean thats what the band is looking for sound-wise. I just wanted to give my opinion about everyone saying that jasin isn't that great of a guitarist, and i'm not saying that that's what is being said here.

But about sloppy play, I've watched a lot of videos of them, and being as much, if not more, of a fan of jasin's music as brent's i generally watch Jasin more when i'm at a show, and i have to say that i've never seen any sloppy play from him and, in my opinion, he's pretty damn inspiring. But if you have videos of it, link them, i'd like to see them.

From the beginning, Shinedown was about raw, stripped down performances, not carbon copies of the record. They've talked about it in interview before, maybe on Live from the Inside. So if the difficult parts of I Dare You you are referring to are the fills, then perhaps that would be why they are skipped. Or maybe it's because they are behind the main riff or the chorus of the song, because when Zach was on stage with them, those parts were played, or at least versions of them, like here

And NO, i'm not being close-minded when i say that my opinion is that the new lineup isn't better, it's just different. It's your own opinion that it's better. Some people may like that things that Nick throws into the songs. But for those of us who are fans because of the raw, stripped shows, this lineup is just different. I'm not saying its worse tho either, because Nick is a great guitarist. I just know that what he did in Silvertide is far and wide different than what Shinedown is, and seeing as the videos aren't that high in quality, i'll withhold my judgment of how well he meshes until I see them live, and i would suggest you do the same.

Well said, M.

i would say every word of that to jasins face, mainly because i would like to see what his response would be. its much different voicing your opinion about someone to that person then it is to fans of that person.

Jasin has always played the core of the songs perfectly. I know that, he knows that everyone who knows anything about shinedown knows that.

If jasin played Save me with this quality guitar playing every time there would be no argument.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jo203iTX7vg

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1729198
thats how he usually plays it live and if you ask me its a chopped down version for no good reason that i can see.

for right now doing full band live shows i dont see a single down side of nicks guitar playing, and if you do please tell me, because last time i checked a lead guitarist should play lead guitar everywhere its required.

the acoustic shows will more then likely take a slide down hill but for now the tour isnt acoustic so im not going to worry about it.

p.s. theres not a single thing i say on these boards i want to hide, i would prefer for every member of the band read what i write but its not going to happen.

Really man really? I never argue but lets think about this. It was a TV apperance for the guys of course its not going to sound like a show at some other venue. They take the time to set that shit up to perfection. Different venues different energies different crowds different sounds. Just saying man Jasin is one hell of a guitarist. When they put on a real show to give the kind of energy they do that we all love, not everything is going to sound so TV perfect.

you make it seem like he chopped the solo in half or something. Lets not get all riled up because he took artistic license and replaced that last 3 or 4 notes with a large bend. It's giving the performance something different, giving the fans something different. Its something he talked about in a vid that he picked more while on tour with Van Halen. And if thats what you consider to be a sub-par performance then Eddie Van Halen must be about the worst soloist ever to pick up a guitar.

I'm well aware of that interview Jasin had. but Jasin really doesnt change songs a whole lot from night to night. EVH would literally create 10 minute solos on the spot and we all know jasin doesnt do that, not that he cant he just doesnt... so lets leave eddie van halen out of this conversation for good.

and yuke put a tv performance to show how he does solos live... and like you said its set up there to be higher quality but less energy.

seriously you guys pretend youve never heard of shinedown before ignore the names, pretend that you dont love jasin for a minute here. what would you rather see, a band with a guitarist tearing it up, putting all sorts of lead guitar in the songs, or someone playing the songs the way they were meant to be played then the solo coming and him not even finishing the solo... sure its 2 or 3 seconds but who gives a fuck if you wrote a 10 second solo keep it that way you dont have to play it the same every time but dont just hold one note for the last 3 seconds so you dont have to play the fastest part.

I love the way jasin played, i really do and i know hees a great guitarist but i just dont think hees proven himself to be a consistantly awe inspiring musician, ive seen amazing work by him like here
http://www.wrif.com/video/

but so much of the other videos ive seen are sub par and i just don't understand why.

Nick has proven himself to me in 2 weeks that his guitar playing is incredible and Jasin only did this on rare occasions for 7 years.

you dont like my opinion thats fine just dont expect to find anything to prove your point because there isnt a video on youtube i havent watched and as far as i know ive seen everything online shinedown related so put it this way if you find something that shows off jasins guitar playing more then wrif ill be just as amazed of jasin as i will be of you.

"can you feel the love tonight....?" --- sorry, i had an elton john moment. but i guess that wouldn't fit here.

apparently the new trend is to hate jasin. not that i care either way - but why didn't we hear more of these arguments against his playing when he was still in the band? or maybe i just missed it. aside from the "i hate shinedown altogether" bashers i never noticed any of this singling out before. i could be wrong...

im doing my best not to bash jasin, im trying to just say that nick has proven in 2 weeks that he is just as good a live performer if not better. and from what it seems you guys just cant take the cold hard facts, so i have to explain my reasoning and im forced to bash him to prove a point.

I dont want to bash any current or former member of the band. nobody is perfect its just when someone points out a few flaws some people over react to it.

first off, no, i didn't put the tv performance up just to show how he plays it live, because we know that when he's the only one on stage he only plays the main solo. I put it up to show that when he has another guitar on stage that continue playing through the chorus, he'll add those little fill pieces in, but hey, whatever. You probably like this better anyway, and to your comment about playing lead everywhere it's required, most of the stuff Nick's playing while zach plays the main riffs is background fill stuff on the record behind the main riffs, not lead. theres a lot of that in SD's music where another guitar comes in and adds little stuff.

and you're right i don't like your opinion, just as much as you don't like mine, and just like i won't be able to prove my point with anything i find, the same goes the other way, there's no way for you to prove your point to me, no matter what you find. So lets just agree to disagree

I just dont understand why everyone has to get so mad everytime someone likes the new lineup, its kinda ridiculous. Jasin didn't play the end of the solo right because he cant and I would tell him that. And to whoever said it yes I do play music and to say that rock music isnt hard and its 3 or 4 chords is an ignorant statement. When you write technically challenging riffs, and play in odd time signatures and play difficult solos that is not easy. Not every rock song is as easy to play as "Save Me" so dont generalize. By the way, Im driving 4/12 hours on june 17th to see these guys put on a real rock show.

Oh, such fickle, fickle boys........

you're right, not every song is as easy as Save Me, thats why i didn't say that. But i should have been more specific, but i had other things i wanted to say and that didn't come out like i had intended. What i was trying to get at was that the style of rock, the sound, the band was going with isn't all that difficult to play, and a lot of other rock is the same way, i wasn't talking about sitting down and writing, and what i said kinda made it seem that way, i understand that, and i know solo's aren't easy. And to keep the words from being put in my mouth, i'm not saying that there aren't a lot of difficult and complex rock songs out there. and if you still think that's ignorant than thats your issue.

But if we're gonna talk about ignorant statements, you know that Jasin CAN'T play it? Please explain how you could possibly know that.

And i'm not sure why you think that anyone's mad, you guys expressed your opinion, i expressed mine. you guess made statements, i threw out counter ones. I'm sorry if that makes you think i'm angry.

Leesa, you make a great point.