GODSMACK
SHINEDOWN

XFinity Theatre
Hartford, Connecticut
August 24, 2018

Photos & Review by Tom Bogus at Kaos Photography

Godsmack and Shinedown brought their co-headling tour to Hartford Connecticut on August 24th 2018. Red Sun Rising was the opening support act. The show kicked off promptly at 8pm with Red Sun Rising doing a high energy set which got the blood pumping with the audience.

Shinedown took to the stage behind a big white curtain that covered the front of the stage. “Attention Attention” intro was being played over the house P.A., then the intro guitar riff began to play “The Sound of Madness” The curtain dropped as soon as the song kicked in, exposing the band and stage. Shinedown had quite an elaborated stage set up with three ramps that led to the drum riser and two more ramps that went around behind it. In the middle sat drummer Barry Kerch. The stage was lit with yellow and red lights. Bassist Eric Bass was to the left of the stage, guitarist Zach Myers was to the right and singer Brent Smith was center stage. They wasted not time in setting off the pyro, and there was a lot of it. Between the bands energy, laser lights and flames the crowd was pumped and sang along to many of the songs.

SHINEDOWN:

Their set list consisted of songs new and old, to include many fan favorites such as “Diamond Eyes”, “Enemies”, “Bully” and “Cut the Cord”. For their encore Zach Myers and Brent Smith went up to section 600 to perform “Simple Man” acoustically among the fans. They made it back to the stage and closed their set with the song “Devil” off their new release “Attention Attention”.

Godsmack made it to the stage in a more casual fashion. The stage had several tv screens in the back of the band. Drummer Shanon Larkin was positioned in the middle of the stage on a very low drum riser. The band opened up with the title track from their newest release entitled “When Legends Rise”. Not wasting any time, they kicked it up a notch by playing “1,000 mph” which was the title track from their 2014 release. Their set list spanned songs from their whole career. From their first album to their newest. They played many hits like “Whatever”, “Crying like a Bitch”, “Keep away”, “Awake” and “Voodoo”. Of course they did the drum duel “Batalla de los Tambores” between drummer Shanon Larkin and singer Sully Erna. Later in the set Zach Myers from Shinedown came out to perform “Highway to Hell” (AC/DC cover) and during the middle of the song Sully and Shanon changed roles. Sully went from singing to playing the drums and Shanon took over the role of vocals. They closed the night out with their hit “I Stand Alone”.

Both bands were incredible and had a crazy amount of pyro. Each band could have had their own successful headlining tour but I’m glad they decided to tour together. It made for one hell of a night. I have been lucky enough to see these bands several times throughout the years. This is the best I’ve seen them both. I would recommend seeing this tour because you will be blown away.