SHINEDOWN – THE PRETTY RECKLESS – DIAMANTE

The party started early for this one! 7.5 hours before Shinedown took the stage they were awarded a star on Mohegan Sun’s Walk Of Fame. Hundreds of fans gathered to watch Brent Smith (vocals), Zach Myers (guitar), Eric Bass (bass, production), and Barry Kerch (drums) get inducted in an exceptionally quick ceremony. Some diehard SD fans got in line for the show immediately afterward. This gig was Shinedown’s sixth performance, its fifth sold-out, at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Their extensive resume includes more than 10 million albums and singles sold, 14 platinum and gold singles, 6 platinum and gold albums, and chart shattering achievements, including just having notched their 18th #1 at Active Rock Radio with their lead single and title track “Planet Zero”  from their forthcoming album. The Planet Zero release date was pushed back until 7/1 due to a delay in production.

DIAMANTE GETS IT STARTED

I only knew her from Bad Wolves – “Hear Me Now” and “Iris” with Breaking Benjamin, and that beautiful blue hair. So she comes out as a blonde in a show-stopping long sleeved jumpsuit that sparkled and dazzled from neck to feet. Her feet were adorned with sneakers which made me think “thank you girl, for keeping it real!” “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” she announces in her sultry voice before kicking her set off with “Ghost Myself” (my personal fave) & “Haunted”.  She mostly used the front of the T-Shaped stage, where she worked a box with a fan to blow her hair around and perch closer to the audience. The crowd at this point is pretentious and lame (albeit I did see 4 superfans that knew every word to every song).

She performs “American Dream” further back at the drum platform, then back up front for “Serves You Right”. I know she agrees with me on the crowd vibe when she tries to get them going with “Who’s ready for TPR? Shinedown?” To their response she states “My outfit is better than that”. She starts “Iris”, requesting our singing participation, and reminds us we “Can do better than that” halfway through. She finished her set with “Sleepwalking”  and “War Cry”, finally grabbing the audience’s attention when she jumped down and walked on the side of the stage (the opposite side of the stage from me, of course).

I thought she sounded great, had decent choreography. All eyes were on her, so I found the band fine but forgettable. Seeing her live did make me listen to more cuts off of her 2 albums, Coming In Hot and American Dream. She wrapped up her set by announcing a meet & greet at the merch booth where she offered to sign male and female titties.  So this writer hightailed it over there, but was unable to locate said booth. I may have run into her later though, so you should keep reading. I checked in with one of the diehard Diamante fans, who saw her several times, and she gave the show positive feedback while looking like an emoji with diamond eyes (boom-lay boom-lay boom).

THE PRETTY RECKLESS POPS MY CHERRY

Prior to this performance, I had never seen The Pretty Reckless live. I was familiar with their hits and lead singer Taylor Momsen’s acting history. I’ll put it out there for those who are unaware, but it’s really unrelated to her current career. Taylor Momsen portrayed Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey and Jenny Humphrey in the teen drama series Gossip Girl. Now she is the bewitching frontwoman of TPR. Curious how one goes from child star to someone that could be on In This Moment’s Maria Brink’s 23 and Me results, but rock fans are the better for it. More concert goers had spilled in so thankfully we had a bigger and more excited crowd.

I had read a review a few years back that stated Taylor didn’t sound good live, but may have been sick, so my expectations were not high. The Pretty Reckless sound was impressive from the first note. Taylor slayed the T-Shaped stage like a top model on a catwalk. They primed us with the Soundgarden cover “Loud Love” before ripping out “Since You’re Gone” and the title track to their 4th studio album (yes, 4th) Death By Rock and Roll. The band is tight and extremely talented. Taylor hangs back for “Death” while exercising her strong pipes, it’s hard to see her back there.

Next up was “Only Love Can Save Me Now”,  where she pauses and won’t continue without a crowd reaction. She gets it and follows up with “And So It Went”. Taylor then declares that it was their “first tour in 5 years” and that they missed us and our beautiful faces. They took us back with “Make Me Wanna Die”, everyone got into it and a guy near me proclaimed his love to Taylor. It went unrequited. “Witches Burn” and “Going To Hell” followed. Taylor asked for participation during GTH, first fists in the air (looked like only a few of us complied) then she went on to have us scream “I’m Going To Hell”. Our pit crowd finally joined in but I noticed the people in seats were still lame.

There was a better response with the crowd clapping during “Heaven Knows”. I observed that Taylor had legs for days and wore a super short leather dress and there was not one malfunction. No way my uncoordinated ass could keep everything hidden in that outfit. They wrapped up their too short set with “Take Me Down” and left us wanting more. I was impressed, their sound translates well live and I respect Taylor’s unapologetic attitude. I spoke with a fan afterward and he also divulged his love for Taylor and was blown away by the band’s skill. To explore TPR, here are the titles of their 4 studio albums: Light Me Up, Going To Hell, Who You Selling For and Death By Rock and Roll.

SHINEDOWN LAUNCHES US TO PLANET ZERO

I fell in love with Brent Smith’s voice when I saw SD live in support of their debut studio album Leave A Whisper back in ‘03. I distinctly remember how young they looked and how awesome they sounded. No big production back then, just raw talent. I’ve watched them go from first on stage to headlining sold out arenas. Their stage presentation grew as well over the years, each tour bigger than the last, with “The Revolutions Live” tour keeping that pace. The sold out crowd had arrived anticipating the start of the SD set. My fifth SD show kicked off with opening intro music that was a bit too long before it morphed into a video collage of previous performances on a towering 2-wing screen that split in half to reveal the band. The four members of SD walked the gangway together and greeted the audience at the front of the enormous stage.

They wasted no time and hit us with “The Saints of Violence” and “Innuendo” peppered with tall shooting flames and fireworks. Next up was “Devil” with no pyro (even though the song screams for it in my opinion) followed by the title track off of their upcoming 7th studio album Planet Zero – this song did earn more pyro. It’s my understanding that the Planet Zero concept is referencing that we have one planet so we should try to work together to not fuck it up instead of going against each other with hate. They wear these coveralls on this tour and I’m unsure if they’re the uniforms on Planet Zero or are they planetary mechanics? Regardless, the song was a hit, even the fans in seats were on their feet.

Brent greeted fans more formally, thanked us all for coming out. “You could have done anything this Saturday night but you chose to spend it with us”. He then asked that we greet our neighbors, shake their
hand, influencing us to meet people and be kind. Some lucky fans in the front of the pit shook hands with Brent, before breaking into crowd favorite “State of My Head”.

Next year is the 20th anniversary of Leave A Whisper, and Brent proclaimed that “CT has been there for us since the beginning 1000%” while 2 rigs of lights came down low to set off “45”. Fans complied with Brent’s request to sing the chorus. I felt the high notes on “45” were toned down a bit, but we got more pyro!

A very long bass note was held in between “45” and “Get Up”, learning from a fan later that a guitar pick had gotten stuck in the axe. Brent’s preamble for “Get Up” was the world is hard to navigate, can be devastating or triumphant. You have a purpose on this planet, you won’t be defined by failure but the fact that you refuse to give up. “Get Up” was a crowd fave, even fans in the rafter seats were grooving. “Fly From The Inside”, a track I never get tired of, was up next. Slightly disappointed that Brent had the crowd hit the highs, but it was released two decades ago.

During “”Bully” I had a good sight line on Eric Bass and his purple hair matched his purple coveralls perfectly. I was Impressed by the height Zach and Eric achieve on their jumps. Brent’s introduction to “Daylight” explains the delay in the release of Planet Zero  as they want to release it on all listening platforms at the same time. This incurs an unfavorable response from my area of the pit. They. Want. It. Now. Fans light up the arena nicely at Shinedown’s request. All cell phones and my glow sticks. No one uses lighters for this anymore?

Everyone was jumping for “Enemies” and I noticed they kept it up for at least half of the song. Weird futuristic intro to “Cut The Cord”, but the song gained excellent fan response. Onto a random Casey Kasem lead in for “Second Chance”, Brent’s vocals shined on this one, and another dose of pyro. A break from the flames for “Unity”, double dose of pyro for “Monsters” and “Diamond Eyes”. Touching rendition of Foo Fighters “Wheels” with Zach on vocals and pics of Taylor Hawkins up on the gigantic screen. Acoustic versions of “Call Me” and a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” had the whole arena in an unprovoked sing a long.

The band announced that this was their first ‘3 in a row’ on the tour and shared with us that Zach Myers complained that his shins hurt.and that he’s the youngest. Eric Bass piped in “He’s the youngest by 20 years!” Brent declared that Eric was the oldest but in the best shape, the best looking and best talker. Zach clarified that the age difference between him and Eric is actually 10 years. I appreciated this intimate knowledge because I felt that Shinedown did not really bond with fans in prior concerts I’ve been to. They finished us off with “Sound of Madness” with a massive measure of flames and fireworks. This being the fifth time I’ve seen them live, I can attest that they do not disappoint. Look out for the release of Planet Zero in July. .

POST SHOW NOTES

I was stationed in the pit for this show and the sound quality was fine by me. However, I chatted with some fans afterward and all of the ones in seats complained about the sound. Said it was too loud and overpowered the band. One person with a long history of concert going, was only 3 rows up from the pit and said if he didn’t know ahead of time that Diamante was singing “Iris”, he would not have been able to decipher the song. I don’t know if they bring their own sound person or use one provided by the venue, but I saw the same complaint in reviews of prior dates on this tour.

Speaking of Diamante, I ran into her after the show. I apologized to her for the uptight CT crowd during her set and she said she has faced worse and did a great imitation of an unimpressed snob. I told her she had a great set and deserved better, so she autographed my titty. Fun, unforgettable night!

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To learn more about Shinedown, Check out the Website!

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Stream music:  Spotify / Apple Music /  Soundcloud

Purchase: Amazon / Bandcamp / Direct

To learn more about Diamante, Check out the Website!

Follow on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram  / YouTube / TicTok

Stream music:  Spotify / Apple Music /  Deezer

Purchase: Amazon  / Direct

To learn more about The Pretty Reckless, Check out the Website!

Follow on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram  / YouTube 

Stream music:  Spotify / Apple Music /  Soundcloud

Purchase: Amazon  / Direct

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