All right, much like Disturbed in 2019 which was the first concert of the year in 2019 for me, I think Shinedown set a very solid standard for the year as my 1st show to watch for this year. It was at the Wiltern Theater. Probably my favorite indoor venue. The parking lot that's like a 5 minute walk away still thankfully costs $16.00 and when I got there at like 5 PM, doors wasn't opening until 7PM, I was like 15th in line. I don't know if I was thinking that I should aim for a rail spot, but I thought if I have a shot at it, I'm going to take it and I'm really thankful that a spot was open. As mentioned, I feel like the fact that I got a GA Pit ticket for this show for $50.00 on Tickpick and ended up on the rail is the biggest bargain I have ever accomplished.
First band of the night was Ayron Jones. I actually heard a few songs from him on a Spotify radio playlist. Not overproduced and more stripped rock. but still pretty loud and packs a punch. His bass player had ran into some technical issues where it went out at some point and given how close I was to that guy, his bass sound was really audible, so you know when it's not there. Ayron made a comment saying, "Apologies for our technical difficulties, but at least you know that these aren't tracks." I say he was good and the people appreciated the set.
Onto to Shinedown, nothing too different about the set when I saw them in 2019. I think they played like three different songs this time around. They played Fly From the Inside from their debut album which I greatly appreciate. Played State of my Head from an album I don't really care much for, and one new song called Planet Zero for an upcoming album also called Planet Zero which sounded pretty heavy than what they normally would bring nowadays. Everything else was still done very well. Everyone was singing along to every word and Shinedown always has a wide range of demographics for these shows ranging from couples, kids, families, ladies, and the single bloke that wants to rock like me. Visuals looked nice. Band always brings great energy, spinning and jumping around. Brent Smith still gives his long long repetitive banter in between songs. What surprised me the most was that they were able to incorporate pyro and flames in this small 2000-people capacity theater show and being up close, the flames were much hotter and the pyro was really loud up close. It was like a show they would normally do if they were in an arena or outdoor amphitheater. so the fact that I was able to experience all of that on the rail for relatively cheap is something I am extremely fortunate to stumble upon on that day. I almost caught a pick at the end of the show, but it went over the rail and the security guard was nice enough to pick it up and handed it to me. One day, I'll get better at that.
So overall, almost a perfect show. Once again, Us & Them (my favorite album from them) gets no love in any of the three shows I went to and it's not like there aren't songs that they can play that wouldn't fit the setlist. There are. It's just they choose not to play them. Also, I would have liked to hear a song that they released at the beginning of the pandemic when they were trying to raise money to help front-line medical professionals during these times, called Atlas Falls, but that's a minor gripe. This was a great show to start the year.
After the show was over, I found that there was a place across the parking lot I was in that sold sushi at a reasonable price and was still open before midnight. Got me a California Roll, a Chicken Katsu roll (which sadly wasn't as good as I hoped), and a Baked Salmon roll for $16.00 overall. If those prices remains the same, I may have a regular spot to eat after shows at the Wiltern (which I actually do have another one of my list so far, going to see Mammoth WVH and Dirty Honey).
Topic: Concerts for 2022 (Read 37418 times)
