SHINEDOWN!!! Blogged by N8

As many of you know I am a rock and roll junkie. One of my most favorite bands is Shinedown. I've followed their career very closely ever since I saw them for the first time when they opened for Van Halen in Denver in 2004. So, when I saw that they were coming to Europe on their current tour and that on November 19th Frankfurt was scheduled, I did everything possible to be there for it.



They opened their show with their hit single "The Sound of Madness" which is the title track from their newest album. I love the lyrics to this song because it rags on people that think that life is so hard and that everyone is out to get them when they have no clue how bad things really can be (I created the sound of madness, wrote the book on pain, somehow I'm still here to explain that the darkest hour never comes in the night. You can sleep with a gun. When you gonna wake up and fight?)



They then went on the play "Save Me" which is off of their second album Us and Them. This song discusses the dangers of drug addiction (I've got a candle and I've got a spoon. I live in a hallway with no doors and no rooms.) Notice singer Brent Smith's "crazy eyes" in the picture below...



After that, they played their hit single from their debut album Leave a Whisper ".45". It's a very emotional song and brings out a lot of feelings about struggling in life.



The next song was "Heroes" off of Us and Them. I love it because of the heavily distorted bass riffs throughout the song.



The next song was one of my personal favorites. It was "Fly From the Inside" off of Leave a Whisper. It's a song about realizing your personal potential and what you can accomplish on your own (I found a way to steal the sun from the sky. Long live that day that I decided to fly from the inside.)



The next song was their newest single off of the Sound of Madness album "If You Only Knew." I love this song because it reminds me of my JME that I miss so much! (It's 4:03, and I can't sleep. Without you next to me I toss and turn like the sea.)



The next song was "Cyanide Sweet-Tooth Suicide" also on the Sound of Madness album. It's probably the most hard-core song on the album. It got the crowd pretty riled up!



The next song is JME's favorite Shinedown song. It's "Call Me" also from Sound of Madness. This song reminds me a lot of my life being deployed so much (I kept my whole life in a suitcase. Never really stayed in one place. Maybe that's the way it should be. You know I live my life like a gypsy.)



They then played "Left Out" also off of Sound of Madness.



After that came "The Crow and the Butterfly" which is a softer song off of the Sound of Madness album.



Next was "Cry For Help" again, off of the Sound of Madness album.



After a brief wait. They came out and started an encore. The first song was "Second Chance" which is probably their most successful song yet. It is also off of the Sound of Madness album. This song has been kind of a theme song for my current deployment. Last time around I made a lot of mistakes that I can't take back and I think that God has given me one more opportunity to do it right (sometimes goodbye is a second chance...)



Their final song was their first single from the Sound of Madness album "Devour". I love this song! It is probably the best going-away song for old "Dubyah" (Devour! Devour! Suffocate your own empire! Devour! Devour! It's your final hour!)



All in all it was a great show and I'm so glad I got to be there. It really cured a small part of my homesickness. What's really cool is that during the show I got to shake Brent, the lead singer's, hand. Also, when they were exiting the stage, their guitarist Zach was handing out picks and was bending down to give me one. I took a command coin from the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center with me and gave it to him when he handed me the pick. You see, Shinedown has done several USO shows both in and out of the war zone and I really appreciate their support for the troops. I hope he sees it as a token of the U.S. Forces' appreciation.