The guys from Shinedown stepped down off their bus in Lancaster, PA at the end of 23 months of nonstop touring. They were all sick with the flu, tired from the journey and barely able to keep their eyes open because of the bright winter sunshine.
On their freshman tour they played with Velvet Revolver, Van Halen and 3 Doors Down among others, and performed the same songs from their debut record “Leave a Whisper” for the entire trip, ending up with a near-platinum selling album.
Four of their songs received moderate airplay on college and commercial radio stations all around the county and by the end of the tour they were selling out most venues.
In spite of many rookie accomplishments, however, as they disembarked from their bus in Lancaster that cold February morning all the guys wanted to do was go home.
A few months earlier and several hundred miles away in Addison, TX, their interests were very different.
By they time they got to Texas their fan base had grown so significantly that this was a sold-out show.
Smoke from an on-stage smoke machine wafted into their dimly lit dressing room as they waited for tour openers No Address and Theory of a Deadman to finish their respective sets.
Pre-show rituals for the band include last minute practice exercises and stretching – a Shinedown performance is very physically demanding, especially on lead singer Brent Smith.
As excitement builds, Smith paces around the room before breaking into a jog and finally a running jump to the back of a sofa.
With their intro music thumping in the background, the band huddled together for a short prayer before rocketing out on stage and slamming into their first song.
The crowd is with them from the get go and Smith asks that they keep the attention for the entire set. If excitement is what powers their pre-show activities, energy is what fuels their shows.
According to Smith: “the shows are based on pure adrenaline and emotion, and for that hour-and-fifteen minutes, [you] let go of everything.”
Smith makes it a point of directing the audience and this show was no different.
“I want you to forget all of the people outside of these walls because right now they don’t exist,” he bellowed.
This is a favorite practice of his - instructing the audience – especially to direct all their negative energy to the band on stage, particularly so they can clear their minds and enjoy the show.
It might sound cliché, but it works. The energy at most Shinedown performances is unsurpassed and it’s clear that all the guys in the band feed off of pure energy in general – from fans and each other.
Smith is so successful in his command of the audience that he developed a nickname – “the preacher” – particularly for the various stances he assumes on stage as he delivers his “sermons.”
Smith himself is a true dichotomy – in photographs and on stage he has an imposing presence. He looks tall and built and scary as hell, with strong facial features, muscular arms, and occasionally, shocking dyed-red hair.
In person, however, he’s smaller, softer and more comfortable flashing a smile than a growl. On stage he’s a big, sweaty mess of a rocker but before the show, he’s just a guy in a pea coat and brown flip-flops.
During the show, however, it’s his intensity that comes through more than anything else. He feels that he needs to touch as many people as possible during a performance, as if touching them acts as yet another conduit for their energy.
That energy is so important to Smith, that it sometimes leads him to do some crazy things.
A month before their show in Texas, the band put on the same energy for screaming fans at the Trocadero in Philadelphia.
This time, however, Smith gave in to one of his biggest touring temptations – crowd diving.
During the show, Smith climbed up to a balcony and with all eyes on him, dropped backwards into the crowd.
The fans were so enthused that they swallowed him up and carried him away from the stage from delirious excitement.
It’s hard to believe his body is capable of absorbing the shock that crowd diving from so high must give it, but this is no uncommon feat for Smith.
“I started jumping off because when I would see a balcony, I thought the shows were intense, but I didn’t think they were getting intense enough,” Smith said. “This one night we were at the Big Easy in Boise, Idaho, and that’s a good, that’s a good 30 feet. I did it the other night in Norfolk, VA and I think everybody was, like, freaked out cause it was a really far jump, but I did it.”
When you see him do it, you get the feeling that you care about his wellbeing more than he does.
“I thought it was fun actually. I felt like Morrison for a minute,” he said.
Crowd diving is just another example of the tug-of-war Smith plays with the audience – you give me more energy, I’ll give you more of a reason to.
The crowds are usually game to play along, and the energy sustains throughout the entire show.
As the band finished their encore, they floated one-by-one down the ramp to their dressing room, sweaty and exhausted, but energized. As a thank you, they held a meet-and-greet and autograph signing after the show, just to show their appreciation.
Intensity and dedication are some of the band’s many unique characteristics, but what makes Shinedown most fascinating, is their ability to slam on the heavy-metal breaks and switch to a slower, more introspective tune for a refreshing change of pace.
If you had to attribute the bulk of their success to anything in particular, it would probably be their cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” – a perfect example of personal, quiet storytelling.
At a recent charity event in Mississippi, Shinedown performed their mix of metal and blues in front of a more proper, middle-aged group who came to dine on expensive meals, bid on rock memorabilia and listen to some good southern rock from charity sponsors 3 Doors Down and perpetual mainstays, Skynyrd.
Smith and guitarist Jasin Todd performed “Simple Man” acoustically long before Skynyrd ever took the stage, partly as a notice to all the cowboy hats and leather boots in the room that they were dedicated to their southern roots, and partly as a dedication to Smith’s recently slain friend, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott.
This band, which not five minutes before had people holding onto their tablecloths because of the intensity of their performance, now had everyone in tears because of the sincerity of it.
To catch Shinedown performing anything acoustic is to get a real sense of how talented these guys are. Whether they’re cooling down with “Simple Man” during a show, or performing another single, “Burning Bright,” as Smith and Todd have done over the past year at several radio stations, you learn quickly that this band has intelligence and a pure voice behind the intense demeanor.
Shinedown is nothing if not a mix of really different individuals all combined for a common cause – to entertain. They are good southern gentlemen who exude hospitality and added enthusiasm for all who come to see them play, and they relish the opportunity to play for their real fans.
“I hate more than anything to go and see a rock band and all they do is stand there. It pisses me off,” said drummer Barry Kerch. “Entertaining - that’s your job. If you’re in a jazz band or a jam band, you’re playing so many notes, you can’t jump around, I can understand that. If you get to be in a rock band you better get up there and scream bloody murder.”
After a radio appearance in Baton Rouge, LA, Smith spent the better part of a day trying to get an adolescent follower and her father into an 18-and-over show, only to lose the fight because of corporate policy. Regardless, she still went home a fan, even if she could only see her favorite band play occasionally on MTV. That’s the kind of dedication that the entire band puts into their followers.
At the end of the day though, media outlets like MTV may be part of the problem. Shinedown’s biggest song next to “Simple Man” is their depression-addled “45” which TV networks changed to “Staring Down…” in order to avoid getting fined by the FCC because of the song’s reliance on gun imagery.
According to Smith, “45” isn’t about suicide, but about all of the things a person faces in life.
“Even though the chorus of that song is very blunt, ‘45’ metaphorically is a representation of the world,” he said. “The world is the 45, and when I say ‘staring down the barrel of a 45/swimming through the ashes of another life’ what I’m trying to get through is that everything that this world is gonna give you, it’s not always gonna be pretty, it’s not always gonna be something that you’re gonna want to deal with, but you’re going to have to if you’re going to better yourself as an individual. If you’re gonna get through your hard times, your insecurities, all those things, you have to figure out a way to move on with it.”
Perhaps that’s the mentality Shinedown held on to as they stepped off their bus in Lancaster, because the lives these guys have chosen are undeniably tough.
Some of them like Kerch put very expensive educations and careers on hold to pursue the dream of playing in a rock band.
Todd, Kerch, and bassist Brad Stewart, have families that they’ve barely seen during these past two years on the road.
Their tour bus is comfortable but expensive, and these guys aren’t bringing in the big rock bucks yet - on average, they make less than a minimum-wage checkout clerk.
Smith has lived out of a suitcase while on tour and now that it’s over he’ll be taking up residence on someone’s couch for a while.
He’s been pushing for some kind of monetary deal for his band mates because he doesn’t want to see anyone upset, and he wants to make sure everyone will be back for round two.
After touring for so long, they’re only taking a three-week break before going back to work. They’ll be recording another cover for a Queen dedication album and almost immediately after, going back into a studio to start recording their second album.
It’s clear that night in Lancaster that they need the time off. Smith’s voice has been weakened by the long tour and the flu, which the guys picked up recently in Michigan. You could tell that the entire band was exhausted and their performance, while still strong, had an almost reserved feeling to it, like they were holding back.
Are they worried that Shinedown might be a one-hit wonder?
Smith says it’s not his biggest fear.
“Even though we’ve been able to sell as many records as we have, and we’ve been able to start a fan base, I think what I’m most afraid of is not getting the opportunity to have a career. I’m not one of these guys who wants to do one record and go away. I wanna be around until I’m put in the ground. I think I’m most afraid of not getting an opportunity for the people out there in the world who haven’t seen Shinedown – they don’t get an opportunity to decide whether they like this or not. You used to get five albums. Now you get five minutes.”
Truer words have never been spoken but there’s no doubt that for Shinedown, their fifteen minutes are nowhere near up.
