New Jersey’s own rock radio station WDHA threw a rock party for it’s listeners at the state’s biggest sports arena Prudential Center with special guests invited including Ayron Jones, Candlebox, Seether and Shinedown. This was the first post pandemic rock show at the venue, and hungry fans packed the arena. Additional relief for the music lovers was that they were able to attend the closed door event without masks.
First one on stage came talented American songwriter Ayron Jones from Seattle, WA. While I was not able to witness his performance I did listen to his music, and it delivers. It has that little bit of Seattle grunge taste to it. He has released three studio albums to date and the latest one Child of the State is getting quite good recognition.
Next were another turn for musicians repping Seattle – Candlebox. The band forming in the 90’s and later went on a few years hiatus, have released six studio albums with the seventh called Wolves slated to be released later this month. While they played only six songs, half of them were from their self-titled first studio album which is four-time platinum certified. To the delight of the crowd, they played their biggest hit from that time called You, which to date is the song that defines the band’s music. Mixture of grunge, alternative and hard rock filled their set and left fans wanting for more.
The guests from South Africa called Seether followed. While I missed out on their performance a few weeks ago when the band had to cancel their set while on tour with 3 Doors Down in Philadelphia, I was not to miss them this time around. As I mentioned before, personally, Seether is one of my favorite bands and my opinion here might be very subjective. Their lyrics hit hard just as their music does. They may not be putting up a show for eyes to behold, but rather for your ears and soul. The stage was set in dim lights, with few screens behind the band and some red and blue spotlight dominated the setting. The focus was not on appearance but the substance. On many occasions singer and guitarist Shaun Morgan stepped away from the microphone during the chorus and fans sang it for him. The bands hit song Broken was sang all together by fans and Shaun, it was performed as acoustic version, and even a small technical glitch for Dale Stewarts acoustic guitar did not spoil anything. They performed most of their hits in their twelve-song set, including – Gasoline, Nobody Praying for Me, Fake It, Let You Down, Bruised and Bloodied. They finished their evening by blasting Remedy, the song that topped the Billboard rock chart back in 2005.
Shinedown was the evenings main course. They are undoubtedly one of the most popular mainstream rock bands, having sold over ten million records. They have released multiple number one rock hits in America and around the world. The bands heart and soul is the lead singer Brent Smith and is one of two founding fathers left in the band together with the drummer Barry Kerch. Though Zach Myers on lead guitar and Eric Bass on bass have been with the band since 2008. So, the bands chemistry on the stage is magnificent. It was clearly visible through the show.
Shinedown came out on the stage with a blast, performing their chart topping, blood pumping, hair rising energy laden hit song Cut the Cord. It was so loud and such a raucous atmosphere that arena workers must have thought that local NHL team New Jersey Devils must have won the Stanley Cup again. More mayhem followed with Unity, Fly from The Inside and State of My Head. After that the band took a little break from all the hard and heavy rock and played their romantic ballad If You Only Knew, followed by an indescribably amazing rendition of their early hit song 45.
Accolades for their performance can be written for every single song they played. Without saying you must understand the atmosphere when they blasted Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom), the song that was featured and written for the Sylvester Stallone movie The Expendables 2. Before the grand finale they played their cover of American Classic rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd song Simple Man, and then went into The Sound of Madness to finish things up.
This was one hell of a rock show. All bands and their fans rocked The Rock (arenas nickname). Too bad it was a standalone show, if this would be tour it would be one of the best.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Andris Jansons
