Shinedown & Papa Roach
Papa Roach/ Shinedown / After Midnight Project

12/06/2009 - Tullio Arena (formerly Erie Civic Center)

When this show was announced I was extatic. Then I was concerned.
The reason for the bipolar emotions was because of my daughter.
She is a huge Papa Roach fan. But she is also off at college.
So, her favorite band (and thanks to her, one of my top 10 bands) is playing locally.
But the show was a Sunday night during finals week for her.
So I got a hold of her to find out her test schedule.
JOY!
Her first final isn't until Wednesday.
So, it was definitely do-able.

So I got us GA floor tickets and we were all set.
Turns out we ended up bringing one of her friends with us again too (seems to be a pattern forming for shows in Erie)

We got to the venue just as the doors opened.
Had a very short wait in line, then we were in.

Going in, I knew I loved seeing P-Roach, I had seen them twice before this already and enjoyed them both times.
I liked what I had heard of Shinedown on the radio, but didn't know much about them. I had heard they were good live, so I was expecting a good show.
I had never heard of After Midnight Project before hearing they were opening this show. So I had no idea what to expect going in.

AMP was pretty good.
A little rough around the edges, and not exactly my type of music. But overall, they had good energy, stage presence, and handled themselves well.
They were a little wound up to start things off and the singer kind of screamed the lyrics at first, but after they settled in, the sound was pretty good. He did a good job of working the crowd.
Biggest problem they had was some of the intros to the songs. From about halfway through their set, each time he introduced a song, it sounded like it was the last one they would be playing. Which made the set seem to drag. You kept expecting it o end, and then it didn't.
All-in-all, a very good epening act. A few more years under their belt, and they could be a very good live performer.

After the set, I headed outside for a quick smoke. Then back in again, where I waited for my daughter and her friend.
Shortly after they came back in, Shinedown hit the stage, and that was the last I saw my daughter till the end of the night.

Shinedown really caught me by surprise.
They came out on stage while the house lights wer still on. Got in place and kicked off with Sound of Madness before the lights even went out. Very odd for a band to come out like that. Even odder for them to kick off the set with their big current radio hit like that. Usually songs like that are saved for later in the show.
It was kind of refreshing to have things shaken up like that though.

One thing I didn't care for though was the volume. They were playing a little too loud for the venue. Causing the sound to break up a little. It detracted from the music a bit.

They had a lot of energy, and a good light show. The singer spent a lot of time talking with the crowd and trying to connect with the audience. Which I liked, though my daughter thought that was a drawback.
At one point the singer even went out into the seats on the right side to introduce a song. Not sure if this is somthing they always do, or if they were just taking advantage of the set-up, as Papa Roach always goes out into the crowd somewhere during one of thier songs.

As you can see from the setlist, they had quite a mix of music and styles. Even doing some acustic, and had a piano on stage at one point.
I would see them again, if they were on a bill with some other good bands. Wouldn't go out of my way to see just them though.

I was sooooo glad I finally got to see P-Roach close a show.
Not a full headlining set, but still the longest set I have seen them do yet.
They hit the stage full of energy and all fired up. The light show was as bombastic as the music!
Thankfully they had a great volume to their set as well. Loud enough to feel it, but no so loud that it sounded bad..
They had a great selection of songs, and I really liked how they mixed them together. Some great rockers followed by a bit slower, sing-along type stuff so you could catch your breath.
I also liked that they mixed in some older stuff and didn't just play all their newer hits.
Halfway through the set, Coby made his trip out to the audience. This time it was out to the seats on the right side of the stage.
Then, during Hollywood Whore, he brought Jason from AMP out on stage to sing with him.

It was their last night on the tour, and they wanted to send them off with a bit of a bang.

Right after that, he set the crowd up for a Wall-of-Death.
For those that don't know, that is where they split the floor down the middle. Have everyone move over a few feet, one way or the other. Then when the music kicks in, both sides charge at each other and procede to mosh their heads off.
And that is exactly what happened.
From that point on, the PIT was rockin'
Though I was not exactly happy with some of the participants. Instead of going at the others in the circle, they were launching themselves at the wall around the circle.
But hey. What do you expect, when you have a bunch of kids all wound up on adrenaline and testosterone.
They were even moshing during the slower songs that followed like Forever.
They closed things out with a bang though. No enchores. Just finished up ther set, said goodnight, tossed some goodies out and the house light came up.

The boys seemed to be having fun, even if they had a few technical problems. At one point Coby's mic was cutting out and he's like "Don't mess with me. I'll come at you like a spider monkey on crack"
Then for the begining of Last Resort, Jerry got playfull. When the guitar was supposed to kick in, he just made the sounds for the notes with his voice. Which got a laugh out of Coby and most of the crowd.

Then it was over.
Time to fight through the crowd and get off the floor.
Found Brit and Devine easily enough. Turns out they were hanging in the back for the last part of the show anyway.
On the way out, we happened to stumble across the guys from After Midnight Project.
They were up on the concourse signing autographs, getting pictures taken, and just haning out with the fans.
It was pretty cool.
I got the back of my ticket autographed, and Brit and Devine got some pics.

As sad as it may sound. This was my first ever autograph.
All the concerts I have been to over the years, I never managed to get any, or talk to any of the bands.

We got out of there around 11:30.
And got Devine home around midnight.
And us, well, we had a bit of a drive ahead of us still.
Remember how my daughter didn't have a final until Wednesday?
Well, that was a bit of a mistake. Turns out she had one in the morning at 7:30 AM.
So I got to drive her back to Columbus that night.
I ended up getting home about 8 AM. Which included a quick 20 minute nap at a rest area to make sure I didn't fall asleep at the wheel.

My daughter's review can be found here.

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