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03/07/2009 Shinedown, Saliva, Halestorm (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
By Eric | March 9, 2009 9:58 am
Back at the Armory for another show, and this one was much easier getting in, and there were far less people there. I was surprised they even had it at the Armory, I figured it would have been at someplace like Harro East, but no matter. Karl and Kelley arrived not soon after I did, and we drifted off to the left side to watch the openers, Halestorm.
A female-fronted four piece, Halestorm captured and held our interest throughout their 1/2 hour set. Lead singer Lizzy Hale has a set of lungs on her, and the rest of the band did an able job accompanying her on their heavy rock tunes. The drummer was especially expressive behind the kit, and actually had some chops to back it up. They sound pretty radio friendly, so I wouldn’t be surprised to be hearing more about them in the near future.
Saliva was up next, and I haven’t seen them since December of 2001 when they opened for Nickelback. They’ve put out four more albums since then, and have kinda flown under the radar. Seeing them live again was pretty cool, but even with knowing all of the songs, they all sounded a bit plodding and slow. Like everything should have been a half-step faster. The contingent of the crowd that were going to “get into it” did, and everyone else kinda stood around and bopped their head. Personally, I think it would have been more fun if they’d played the songs a bit faster, but that’s me. People seemed to recognize most of the songs, as the set was heavy on “hits”, although surprisingly, Saliva *didn’t* play anything off of “Back Into Your System”, including one of their bigger hits, “Always”, which I thought was kinda odd. And three of their eight songs were off their first album. It was enjoyable, it was entertaining, but it didn’t bring the house down. Saliva Setlist: Survival Of The Sickest, Click Click Boom, My Own Worst Enemy, Family Reunion. Superstar, Hunt You Down, Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Disease.
After the set change it was time for Shinedown. I haven’t seen them headline since Syracuse in 2005, and given their performance at KRock this summer, I was excited to see them again. The band band really pulls out the stops on their headlining shows, weaving the songs in with a couple of instrumental interludes, and a fairly rockin’ intro as well. The band sounded fantastic, the song selection was excellent (if not similar to what I saw over the summer), even throwing a B-side/bonus track in there (“I Own You”) ,and the pacing, while lulling at certain points, was overall okay. BUT. The same “but” that there always seems to be with Shinedown. Brent Smith can’t seem to hack all of the high notes on the songs. As was the story in that ’05 headlining show, and the ’05 KRock show, he takes anything close to the top of his range either down the octave, or lets the crowd sing. Nowhere was it more apparent than on “Call Me”, where it was more solo singing with less accompaniment, and it didn’t quite have the feeling that it does on the album. Again, the band sounded awesome, and when in range, the singing was fine too, but there were just a few too many times where I wanted to hear him belt some notes out, and it didn’t happen. Shinedown setlist: Cry For Help, Heroes, I Dare You, If You Only Knew, I Own You, Burning Bright, Call Me, Left Out, Sound Of Madness, The Crow and the Butterfly, Cyanide Sweet-Tooth Suicide, 45, Fly From The Inside. Encore: Second Chance, Save Me, Devour
I Own You
45
Second Chance
Topics: Concerts | Tags: 2009, Halestorm, Main Street Armory, rochester, Saliva, Shinedown | Comments Off on 03/07/2009 Shinedown, Saliva, Halestorm (Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armory)
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