Enter Shinedown, the heavy rock outfit from Jacksonville Florida, I'm refraining from using the word support act, because on tonight’s performance they are far from that, they tear through the academy at ease, with hits like “ devour “ and “ save me “ heavily involved in their set the crowd rise to the occasion, to be honest, there’s one thing that’s making all this tick, front man Brent Smith is totally awesome, his integration with the masses, his stage presence, he gives all to please, orchestrates the in-time jumping, its more like a headliners performance.


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With the album “ the sound of madness” still gaining momentum there’s plenty for shinedown to be happy about, and when you listen to tracks like “cry for help”, ”sin with a grin” mixed with slower “second chance” which is amazing (for me the title track “sound of madness” takes some beating), they show a complete all-round game and without a doubt they have just won another full house of fans here, with the platinum selling “leave a whisper” and the 2005 “us and them“, the US has been their main success so far, however with a majority sell out European tour with Disturbed I'm sure the back catalogue will be researched and downloaded more this side of the water.

I can't say anything bad, its all impressive, big style! I can only say that the latest offering is fantastic and Im now listening to the others, studio and live I'm loving them, there's a new single planned to be released next month, lets hope they return in a headline tour on the back of that? ps, to the booking agents , no little ****ty venues, they are way above that !……..

Review by James Hope