15-11-2009 Shinedown

Supports: Counterpoint, SOil; Venue: Melkweg, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Shinedown is on tour in Europe and they brought two supports with them. Tonight they were in Amsterdam in the Melkweg venue which got close to sold out.

First band of the evening is Counterpoint. The guys are from the UK and announced that they enjoyed the things of Amsterdam that they could not do at home. Now gives Amsterdam a couple opportunities and they did not announced what exactly they had been doing, but whatever it was, it did not do much good to their performance. The four Brits were performing without a soul. Musically it was not that bad, the guys touch the classic rock, quite riff built and driving on the raw vocals of vocalist jay Bartlett. It could have been brought with some more enthusiasm, the band was hardly making connection with the audience, trying to look over them and they seemed to be a bit shy. They did talk to the audience, but most of the time any form of contact with the audience was lacking. The guitars of the band are saving the band from an audience that gets disinterested as the moments that the guitars come up front, the band shows that there is certainly something in them. The audience did not seem too interested in them, but rewarded them with a polite applause.

SOil was up next and they seem to brought a more heavy attitude. A bit more aggression comes to the venue which sets the tone for the headliner right. SOil seemed to be appreciated much more as some of the audience seemed to be familiar with the songs of the band. Just as Counterpoint these Americans told us they enjoyed some specialty’s in Amsterdam. Wafles with cream to be exactly and with telling this they got the audience even more on their hands.

The band played a varied set, where they changed from fast songs to slower songs back to the more aggressive side again and they only had 30 minutes in which they did not waste any time to convince the audience of what they do. The band seemed to have a good connection with each other which came really forward during the performance. The guitarist and bassist extend each other quite well and all of this was done with a visible amount of joy. The band made a better impression on the audience than Counterpoint, they actually got asked to play more by the audience, which they unfortunately could not do. Nevertheless the band asked the audience how they liked it if they would return and they seemed to find that a good idea. The band is definitely an energetic live band and now they only had 30 minutes, but who knows what a show they can do when being a headliner their selves?!

Shinedown started off with one of their most catchy and yet energetic songs to wake up the audience. The rockers from USA were quite talkative and talked quite a lot in between the songs. Singer Brent Smith could get everything done, a request to jump results in 1000+ people jumping. But it is not only the energetic rock songs that are mostly loved, the band plays some calmer songs as well. “45” is one of them and they played it quite early in their set. A keyboard and an acoustic guitar get involved with the performance as well when a song asks for it.

The band played songs from all the three albums that they released since they formed in 2003, hit songs like “Devour”, “If Only Knew” and “Sounds of Madness” included. The power of Shinedown seems to be the catchy, easy to pick up songs in combination with Brents vocals that he can easily turn from very clean to a bit more raw in a bit. Brent has the support of an energetic guitarist and maybe even more energetic drummer who seem to find a challenge in playing a little game with each other on stage, make each other even more hyperactive. Bassist Eric seems a bit more introvert, but he is not afraid to claim his own space on the stage and the rest of the band respectfully gives him this space.

Overall the band played for about 80 minutes including encore and played a good show, to be honest: definitely in my top list of best gigs this year due to their energy and performance quality.