Pop Break Live: Shinedown with Ayron Jones at The Met in Philadelphia on September 11, 2021
The band Shinedown played the Met in Philadelphia on 9/11. The band is hugely popular in the tri-state area, partly due to its long time support from legendary Philly radio station WMMR. It also doesn’t hurt to have the reputation of being an extraordinary live band to see. You can always count on there being flames, lasers, strobes and other cool visuals at a Shinedown show. The band was ranked #1 by Billboard on their “Greatest of all Time” Mainstream Rock Charts so there is no doubt this crowd was fired up to hear almost two decades worth of their favorite hits.
The show opened up with Seattle singer-songwriter Ayron Jones. His genre blending set was filled with rock, soul, grunge and blues tinged numbers. His first major debut album, Child of the State, released on May 21st, was met with great reviews and landed him a #5 spot on the Mainstream Rock Billboard charts with his single Mercy. It’s not too shabby to have fans like Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses either. Jones is an incredibly talented guitarist and really impressed with his epic jam on Baptized in Muddy Waters.
It wasn’t just Jones that impressed but his backing band was right up there with him. They were wildly entertaining to watch. The big highlight of his set was on his last song, “Take Me Away.” He segued right into the “Star Spangled Banner” — Hendrix style — on his guitar. He made the audience stand up and it was such a moving moment since everyone had 9-11 on their minds. Now I see why the Seattle Times slated him to be Seattle’s next ambassador of Rock! From the crowds reaction, I think he and his band made a few new fans in Philly!
Shinedown started their set off with the scorcher, “Cut the Chord.” Lead singer Brent Smith, still as charismatic as ever, stood at the edge of the stage(hands waving) as if he was conducting an orchestra. They crowd ate it up. Their set was a nice mix of songs from all of the bands six studio albums. “Fly from the Inside” came early on and was one of three songs from their stellar debut album Leave a Whisper, released in 2003. With so many hits in their catalog it was hard to pick “just a few” songs that stood out.
I saw a lot of couples singing along to the chorus of If You Only Knew, one of a few of their songs that pull at your heartstrings. There were a few roof raisers too during the night like “Devil,” “Monsters,” “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay-Boom-Lay Boom)” and “Enemies.” Drummer Barry Kerch killed it all night long and watching guitarist Zach Myers and bassist Eric Bass running and jumping around on stage was so much fun to watch. There was such great chemistry between the band members.
It was a great crowd at The Met. They pretty much sang along, loudly, on every chorus of every song. Not quite sure I’ve seen that before. You could see there was a mutual love affair going on between the band and audience. You could just feel it too. A special moment of the night came when Smith asked the crowd to take out their cell phone and light them up. The crowd happily obliged and waved them around on the inspirational song “Get Up.” They couldn’t have picked a better song.
The band closed the night with the hard rocking fist’s in the air song, Sound of Madness. Shinedown delivered BIG at The Met. There is no doubt the fans are chomping at the bit on the recent news that the band will be delivering their 7th studio album in April of 2022. Stay tuned!
