Shinedown Turns Up the Temperature in Their Return to Tampa
It was yet another Saturday night scorcher in Tampa, with temperatures approaching ‘uncomfortable’ and the humidity making the air more of a liquid than a gas. Despite how hot it was outside, Shinedown brought enough firepower for the inside of Benchmark International Arena to reach the boiling point.
This was my first time shooting inside Benchmark International Arena, which is normally the home to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it’s quickly obvious why it’s a favorite stop for some of the biggest tours in the country. After checking in and chatting with the other photographers, we were led out to the floor where we’d spend the night.
BLACK STONE CHERRY
Opening the night was hard rock outfit Black Stone Cherry out of Kentucky. I was surprised how quickly the arena had filled up at this point, as there is normally a slow trickle of late arrivals until the headliner starts, but there weren’t many empty seats to start the show.
Black Stone Cherry came out with a ton of energy with “Me and Mary Jane”, utilizing all of the stage real estate set up for the headliner, including a long runway out into the crowd that led to two branching B-stages. Lead guitarist Ben Wells was notably all over the place hyping the crowd up, which is pretty impressive considering he’s doing all that while ripping leads.
Overall, the band played a solid and fun set that brought enough energy to hype the crowd up. Their more southern rock sound wasn’t really my personal forte, but the crowd really enjoyed them, and they felt like a perfect fit as the opener to this tour.
COHEED AND CAMBRIA
On my cursory lap around the arena, it seemed like most people were here for the headliner, based on my very unscientific method of seeing what shirts everyone was wearing, but the Coheed and Cambria representation was still pretty solid.
My love for Coheed goes way back. Like, I own an original pressing of Second Stage Turbine Blade on vinyl, not because I’m some obsessive collector, but because I was the weird 14-year-old listening to records in 2003. Coheed is probably the first band I ever got weirdly nerdy for, so it’s pretty incredible that they are just as weird and nerdy more than 20 years later.
The band opened up with “The Pavilion (A Long Way Back)” before switching gears into “Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial)”. It’s really remarkable when a band has that “just like the album” quality, even more impressive that they have been able to keep that standard up as long as they have. The fact that guitarist and vocalist Claudio Sanchez can still sound as good as he does while hitting all those high notes is really special.
By the time Coheed and Cambria wrapped up their set, everyone on the floor was buzzing and ready for the headliner. Seats remained completely packed, and the energy of the arena was electric.
SHINEDOWN
As hot as it was outside, the arena was pretty comfortable throughout the night. The air conditioning used to keep that sheet of ice nice and frozen was pumping, and it was a nice relief from the horrendous conditions of the outside world. Little did I know that Shinedown was ready to crank the heat up in the building.
After a brief intro featuring an appearance by the TV Man, Shinedown made an explosive entrance with “Safe and Sound” and kept that energy up for over 2 hours. I’ve been to a ton of shows, and this was far and away the best-produced set from a mere production standpoint. The pyrotechnics employed during the set teetered between “ludicrous” and “we may have blown the entire tour budget on pyro”. The flashy pyro was the icing on top of an excellently designed stage layout that I mentioned previously, which the band used to great effect. The lighting was also super interactive without bordering on distracting.
After playing through a nice portion of their heavier material on the main stage, the band set up shop on the B-stage protrusion for a more intimate acoustic set with all of the fans in the round. A disco ball was lowered down over the band and reflected across the entire crowd, which paired nicely with the slower material. The band sang Happy Birthday to a fan, did a cover of “Boys of Summer”, and did a few acoustic tour debuts. The band really played up the hometown aspect of the show (Shinedown is originally from Jacksonville) and were super appreciative of how much love the crowd was giving them.
After a brief intermission, the band headed back to the main stage to continue the heavier songs, including fan favorites such as “Bully”, “Cut the Cord”, and “Monsters”, which featured vocalist Brent Smith’s son joining the band on guitar for a special moment. Brent paid a quick tribute to 3 Doors Down vocalist and good friend Brad Arnold, who passed away earlier this year. After a brief cover of “Kryptonite” (which got a big sing-along from the crowd), the band moved on to another cover: “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The band closed the night with arguably two of their biggest hits, “Sound of Madness” and “Second Chance”, both of which featured some of the biggest pyro spots of the night. It was an incredible cap on an amazing performance. Throughout the entire show, the band reminded you again and again why they are filling arenas night in and night out. Brent Smith's performance felt like he was cementing himself as one of the most talented rock vocalists to ever do it.
With everything else going on throughout the world, and other bands cancelling or downsizing their tours, this tour feels like a balls-to-the-wall exclamation point to make sure every fan attending feels like they are getting every dollar of their money's worth. It’s really hard to argue that fans aren’t getting exactly that.
Shinedown’s eighth full-length album, the appropriately titled EI8HT, just dropped on May 29th. The massive 54-stop, 11-country Dance Kid, Dance Act II Tour rolls on, ending November 22 of this year.