On Black Friday when many people were out binge shopping, and a couple of people were actually getting trampled to death, my daughter and I and her boyfriend Seth decided to go to the Shinedown/Five Finger Death Punch concert. Overall we made a great choice! AS LionThe night started out with a whimper. I think it was me waiting for the first band to get done! The first band up, AS Lion, seemed more like a bar band than an opening band at an arena. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they were the worst opening band I have seen in quite a while! The band is from England, and they really didn't seem to know how to get the crowd going. Their sound system was poor and the only thing I really heard clearly was the lead singer cursing a lot. About half way through their set, I actually started hoping that the lead singer would fall off the stage as he pranced dangerously close to the edge. Unfortunately, he never did, and we suffered through about a half an hour of their nonsense. They have a new album coming out next week. I think I'll skip that one! I think a better name for this band would be Ass Lyin! Sixx A.M.The next band up was Sixx A.M., a group led by Nikki Sixx, the original bassist for Motley Crue. These guys put on a great show, and had the crowd out of their seats early. At one point, the whole arena was lit up with cell phones and lighters as the band sang their biggest hit, Life Is Beautiful. The group has a good stage presence, and rock hard, but at this point only make as a good opening band. I just don't think they have enough solid hits under their belt to be a main headliner yet. ShinedownShinedown put on the set of the night! These guys came out and rocked hard. They have a large number of hits, and they played all of them! I had heard from a number of people that they put on a good show, so I had high expectations. And the band far exceeded them. Although I am a big fan of Five Finger Death Punch, I thought they would have a tough time beating Shinedown's performance... and I was right! Unfortunately, the lead singer for Five Finger Death Punch was very distraught. He had just found out that his mother had died that evening and he was waiting for a plane home. Amazingly, he came out and tried to sing a few songs. The band did a short set and then called it an evening. I give him a lot of credit even coming out on stage after hearing that news. I have seen Five Finger Death Punch in the past, and I know they put on a great show. My condolences to Ivan and his family. Below, are two pictures of Five Finger Death Punch, and then three more from Shinedown. The large picture that opened this blog post is also a picture of Shinedown. For the record, My favorite song of the evening was Simple Man by Shinedown. They did a great job with the old Lynyrd Skynyrd classic. At one point, they had the whole arena singing the chorus and it sounded awesome. All of those people (myself included) connecting with the band on that one song really was something to experience!
Two other songs worth mentioning were Life Is Beautiful by Sixx A.M. (The crowd also tried to sing this one, but it seemed to have a little less feeling behind it) and Cut The Cord by Shinedown. I have short clips up on my Facebook page of Simple Man and Life Is Beautiful, so if you have nothing to do, go to my page. Just search Wayne Nef (I live in New Hampshire, just in case there is more than one person with my name). Enjoy!
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