Disclaimer: The following is a very long, sweary, excitable review of the entitled concert.

On the 8th of October 2008 I attended my very first concert. Ever. That’s right, before said date, the closest I’d been was having purchased tickets for Live, but failing to attend due to unwilling circumstances. Whilst some may have started younger and with softer acts, I was lucky enough to begin my concert going ways with none other than Shinedown, the greatest act in the history of the world. In my eyes, of course, and fortunately, they’re the ones that count. Here’s the story…

I arrived at the venue relatively early, two and hours before the door were scheduled to open. I had street teaming to do, see, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to do my duties. It was easier to hand out the freebies than I thought it would, and I also got a decent amount of people signed up to the newsletter, so I was happy with that! I met another couple of street teamers (though they were there just to team, not for the gig), who informed me that I was only supposed to work for about 30 minutes. I’d done plenty more, but I kept going for a short while.

At one point whilst I was taking a break during the line, we (me and Mum; coolest little Shinedown rocker woman ever) heard the sound check through a side door. It was Shinedown alright, and the music sounded fantastic. After a few moments of instrumental work, I began to hear Brent sing, and I smiled. I was like “wow, they’re just on the other side of that door. They’re in there - I’m REALLY going to see them!”

Fuelled with excitement I went back to work, operating further down the line where the newest bunch of people had turned up. After a short walk the wall of the venue building disappeared, replaced by the vista of the car park. The car park consisted of, well, cars, but also three huge buses. The general advice when trying to meet the band is GO TO THE BUSES, and what the hell do you know, who comes strolling into view? None other than Zach frickin’ Myers, rhythm guitarist, dog owner and all around bad ass.

I’m not sure where he was initially going, but I pointed to him and kind of made a “hey, it’s you” face, so he walked right over to me as I went up to the rail. I think the first thing I actually said as I lent on the rail was “hey I know you!”, or “hey I recognize you!” I really wish I could remember the exact conversation, but much of concert is a blur. However, I know that I shook his hand, I asked where were the other guys / how were they (he said they were eating), and he also knew my name. Yes, after informing him that I was the one who once compared him to Chuck Norris in the Shinedown chat room, he replied with “Ray…right?” Damn right, Zach my man, Ray is my name. I think he knew who I was for more than that though, due to my dealings with Mel and Leesa from the Shinedown forums. It was totally cool that he knew my name. I know it might not seem like that big of a deal (s’only three letters, easy to remember, right?), but I was totally thrilled. The guy (and the rest of the band) take an interest in their fans, a big interest, and it was just totally AWESOME. I also showed him the street team stuff I had (noting that I ran out of memory sticks, he said he had one, I said I was going to offer the band them if I met them), and he thanked me for street teaming which was cool. And oh yeah, top guy that he is…



Yup. That’s a keeper right there, me and Zach Myers. All in all, fucking great guy!

After this meeting, I zipped back down the line to tell my story and show off the picture, dead proud I was. And still am. Around about this point a drunk guy moved into the line next to us. There was me, Ma, and a 16 year old girl who I’d chatted to a bit, she was friendly, so conversation was made, as you do. This drunk guy told her how gorgeous she was, and asked her if she wanted a drink once inside. It was creepy as shit, he was middle aged, small, fat, bald; a damn creepy bastard. He kept asking the same questions over and over. Now, usually I hate drunk people, but in this situation I kind of played with it. He asked me if the young girl was my girlfriend “cos she’s fuckin’ gaawgeous”. I said no, then yes, then she was my sister, then my cousin etc. Great fun. He also tried to shake my hand a few times, the first I rejected because of my hand rash LOLZ, then I had eczema. He then started throwing his hand in the air and shouting “METAL!” really loudly. A few times he did it, then I raised my own hand and shouted “DRUNK!” A decent laugh waved throughout the surrounding crowd. Yeaaah, I made a funny. He didn’t let up, eventually doing metal squeals, and continuing to make idle conversation. I made note of how big his pupils were, a fact that kind of unnerved me. I mean yes, I was having a bit of fun at this guess expense, but he’d obviously done more than knock back a few. Tried to ignore him after that, and we thankfully lost him as we started going into the gig…

The venue, Rock City in Nottingham, was quite nicely sized. Not too big, not too small, quite homely. We got situated about four or five standing rows back, so we had an awesome view of the stage. There was still about 20 minutes to go before the gig, so we stood, looked around, listened to the music that was playing…and then….oh my fucking God….the lights went dark to much applause. The floor was packed, and I was soooooo psyched. THIS WAS IT! SHINEDOWN! OM-FUCKING-G!

The first band members I saw was Barry. Well, I saw his swinging dreads. Then I noticed Eric (looking awesome in his Victorian vampire type outfit - really cool!), and to his left Zach! Nick was on the other side of the stage, and then a guy in front of me in the crowd kind of shifted to the side and AAAHHHH IT’S HIM! IT’S HIM! IT’S BRENT! LIKE, IN REAL LIFE, THERE HE IS! In the centre of the stage, long hair flowing (Yes! It looks cool down) was the man himself, Mr Brent Smith.

From there…the concert began, of course. Much of it is a blur, but I do know that I spent most of the concert fixed in the same position, not on the floor, I mean my hands…my face…everything. Whilst others were happily moshing, I remained still, my hands gently rubbing together just under my face, my eyes wide like a young child, my mouth slightly open. Seriously, I was like that for most of the concert, in complete awe of what I could see. Shinedown, this band that I like - neigh - love, idolize, now playing no more than ten feet away. I watched as Barry pounded the drums like a awesome angry beast, smiled slightly wider as Eric opened his eyes so freakishly wide I thought they were going to pop out of the sockets, saw Zach expertly rock the rhythm, backing Brent on vocals as his Michael Myers masked looked eerily on. Sadly, I couldn’t see a lot of Nick, but from what I saw he moves around non stop and he can PLAY that axe. Gotta admit now, I’m a Brent Smith fan boy, I just love his look, his voice, the message that he spreads, everything about him is just so god damn cool. And I watched him sing. Yeah, a simple fact, nothing amazing to you concert hounds, but to me it was just wooooooooooow, there he is. I can hear him. Fuck I can hear him - he is LOUD!!

Have to admit, and this is going to sound a bit pansy/weird or whatever but I don’t care, whilst watching the band in that awed state, I wasn’t too far away from welling up. Yeah, totally, I was THAT happy to be seeing them, I could’ve actually formed tears. I didn’t, but I did look like a big kid I reckon. Not sure whether any of the guys saw me just gawping. Eric might have, he was dead in front of me, and I’m not sure whether Zach looked at me at one point or not, I dunno, but if they did, I’m sure they’ll have though “someone slap that kid, he’s frozen!”

The setlist was as follows (* indicated correct set list position)

*Devour
*Heroes
*Cyanide
*Sound of Madness
Save Me
45
Left Out
Second Chance
*Fly

Overall, the vocals were immensely strong, on song in every which way. You know how Heroes has that awesome intro and then his vocals are just BOOM. Well I knew it was coming, but fuck, after being raped by the bass (Eric, dude, you’re insane with that thing), it was like a nuclear bomb DROPPED when the vocals came in. Like, BOOOOOOOOM~~!~!~!~!! Reattach your limbs that just got BLOWN THE FUCK OFF!!!! It was amazingly crazy, just wow. WOW. WOW. WOW.

It was like that all the show, the bass tore everybody’s balls off, the guitar work was like face meltingly perfect, everything was just - like - how can Shinedown NOT be the number one band in the eyes of everyone ever ever ever? With a show like this, Jesus H Christ!! The ONLY thing I could pick out that could have been better was the volume for Nick’s solos, maybe it was because I wasn’t on the right side for him, but I couldn’t hear them as well as I’d have liked.

What else, oh yeah, Smith is a showman. A hell of a show man. He knows how to work the crowd, he does it like someone who’s been doing it all his life. I loved the arrangement of Left Out, with the lead ups to the jumps, just perfect. JUST like they do in this long 7 minute Left Out video I found on YouTube days before the gig which is REALLY cool. It was just like that. Super stuff.

About halfway through the gig, someone was leaning on me a bit TOO much, and I looked around. Who is it? The drunk man, of course . I couldn’t believe it. I moved to the other side, and he kind of left us alone. Funnily enough, before the gig he exclaimed how he planned to booze through Shinedown, as he was only interested in Disturbed. What was he doing now though, just about halfway through the set? Rocking out like Shinedown were in his blood. The irony wasn’t lost on me, and I had to laugh a bit, but yeah, he was a fucking tosser.

The lights were really awesome, especially in Fly, the closer. Eric jumped on top of the drums right at the end, then jumped right up and off for the final BAM! from the instruments. Totally cool ending, leading to a mini jam as Brent thanked the crowd (who, if justice exists, should all be Shinedown fans by now).

They then began throwing their stuff into the crowd. I managed to snag a black Shinedown guitar pick, one of Eric’s I think. Well actually, I missed it, but it found a home under one of Mum’s big old Doc Martins, nice one~! Knew I brought her for something - kidding!

We went for a drink, then found a place nearer to the back for Disturbed. They sounded really good, but we decided to leave after Land of Confusion. We went out where I bought a t-shirt (the really cool coloured Sound of Madness one), and then out to the buses! You know, THOSE buses? Welp, we were joined by a few other Shinedown fans, and chatted happily. One of the venue workers said Shinedown had gone to the “Speak Easy” a local pub. We followed the other fans who decided to check it out. Sadly, there was no sign of them, and anyway, being the youthful looking guy I am, I was I’d and booted out almost straight away!!

Back at the buses then, and after a long while Disturbed came out. Credit to them all, top guys, really nice with the crowd. Said hi etc to David Draiman, who signed both the tickets we had! Tiny guy, actually, but really nice. The dreadlocked one said hi to us, how are you doing etc, and Dan Donegan shook our hands which was cool.

Not actually sure if the Shinedown guys went out for a drink or if they stayed in one of the buses or had come out and gone by the time we got there but we didn‘t see them, and different workers said different things. The one who led us to the speak easy was adamant they’d left and all the buses were for Disturbed. Another said one of the buses was for Shinedown. And another said the same, neither mentioning that they weren’t there. Some other fans also said they’d seen the guys going in and out…so….don’t really know, but no worries, waiting by the buses isn’t a guarantee of a meet, and although yeah I was hoping to meet the rest of them, I still got to meet Zach which not everybody did. So I count myself very lucky.

We waited till about ten to midnight before calling it a night, after every Disturbed fan had left, and all the Shinedown fans had left too. We were the last I think, finally…and slowly…plodding off into the night, back to our hotel…...thus ending my first ever concert. And what an amazing concert it was. Thank you Shinedown.


PICTURES:

I'm so glad that you had a great time . Just too let you know all of the emotion that you described feeling I have felt every time I've seen them . I actually did cry !!! My first shinedown show I was so far away and couldn't see the stage , but I still had those emotions and I think I left a better person.. Start counting the days to your next show !

This is like the best Shinedown story ever!! I can imagine what you felt... OMG This is Zach... and he knows my name...
awesome.

Ray, I loved reading your review. I could just feel your excitement! Glad you had a chance to see them.

That was awesome, Ray!

What made me smile even more though was the mention of the "dreadlocked one" from Disturbed. That's my other "brother"! I've known that man for YEARS and he is honestly one of the nicest, sweetest, most genuine people you will ever meet. Seriously.

It sounds like you had a blast though!

I just realised that this is in the wrong forum. Can it be moved to the "From The Road" forum, please?

Thanks for all the kind words, people! Glad you enjoyed my review, ha!

..Ray...you should be a writer..that was awesome!

..I hope the guys read this..I know they'd get a kick outta of it.
..very cool..

Great review Ray....you'll remember it forever...I remember my first gig,Deep Purple 1973 Ritchie Blackmore smashing his Strat up right in front of me. Shinedown were awesome, I was at the back, in front of the mixer desk,sounded great