Shinedown

Live Review By Jennifer Pinckney

Tonight’s rock show was heard miles from the venue. It is February 1, 2022 and although it’s a Tuesday and snowing like crazy here in Denver, Colorado — that did not stop thousands of people from coming out to see these two amazing bands.

Fans arrived early to the Mission Ballroom to gather around in the parking garage before the venue opened its doors at 7 pm. Ayron Jones took the stage promptly at 8 pm. To cross the stage first was his guitarist, sporting a massive grin on his face. I recognized the logo on his backpack that brightly read “Shiprocked” from the cruise the band just finished last week (as well as myself and a few others in the front row). We got his attention and he came over with an electric smile and gave us all high fives, even in the middle of their packed tour schedule.

These guys have been busy. They played on Shiprocked last week, flew out from Mexico to California, and jumped right on tour with Shinedown. They have been working non-stop showing the world their beautiful words and performance. Their talent paired with their stage presence captivated their audience. Between the guitarist circling his head, the bassist jumping around and running from side to side, the drummer showing off all his big sexiness, and of course, Ayron winning our hearts with his voice and when he played his guitar with a drum stick, these guys are going to do great things. Based on their performance in Denver, they are already well on their way to being the next big thing.

Next up, we were presented with Shinedown’s amazing embrace and performance. Shinedown always has such an incredible set, complete with pyrotechnics, fireworks, lights, fog, a big screen behind them, and, of course, the incredible energy that makes it so hard to photograph them!

They opened their set with “Cut the cord,” which is the perfect opener purely based on its energy and the message it sends. They also included a number of their older songs and even brought some tears to a few fans in the front row. The room was euphoric — it has been such a long time since the band has been here in Colorado. A few other songs that we sang our hearts out to were “I’ll follow you,” “Fly from the inside,” “Simple Man,” “45,” and “Sound of Madness.” For the Shinedown Nation, tonight was nothing short of magical.