Front-man Shimon Moore keeps the crowd going with his on stage antics, while bassist Emma Anzai keeps most of the guys attention focused on her, I have yet to see her play in anything other than a very short skirt and tight corset top. To top off her looks, she is actually a pretty awesome bass player. The Puppies ran through an hour set hitting most of the singles such as “All the Same”, “My Word” and closed it out with their current radio play “Your Going Down”.

Next up was Shinedown, who came to the stage hard and kept it that way till about mid-set. They opened with current single “The Sound of Madness”  with just the opening drum beats the crowd was going crazy. With this being the third time for me to see Shinedown it was no surprise that the guys would really bring it to the fans. Vocalist Brent Smith has by far one of the loudest voices in rock today and has no problem using it.

His voice carried throughout the Verizon as they hit song after song of fan favorites such as “Save Me” and “Hero’s” were both pretty stellar . Smith is also one of those types of singers who likes to tell stories about songs before they play them. Which is at times very cool to get an idea of how a song came to be, but Smith can at times over do it a little. But story telling aside Smith also knows how to get a crowd to its feet. Before playing “Fly on the Inside” Smith asked the crowd to help with the opening vocals of the song. As he laid the vocals out the crowd would follow suit. Being at as many shows as I have been to, this was one of the loudest I have ever heard a crowd when it came to singing along.

After rocking it out for about an hour Shinedown toned it down and did a few slow jams. Their acoustic version of ” I Dare You” and “45” killed, 45 is a personal favorite of mine. I have always seen it as such a strong song that deals with losing things in life and contemplating your own death. Afterward the guys did a few new ones off of the new album “The Sound of Madness” . They rolled out “Second Chance”, “Sin With a Grin” and while I never been much for some of their softer songs I really dug the song “Call Me” I could definitely relate to the song’s lyrics of ruined relationships, cause I like most have had my fair share.

After the barrage of sadness, Shinedown kicked it back up with the rock as they pulled out a few old ones like “Burning Bright” and Better”. Before I knew the set was coming to an end and the guys couldn’t have finished it any better. Shinedown closed it out with their hard hitting single “Devour” from the new album, Brent Smith and the guys of Shinedown have yet to let me down at one of their shows. There are plenty of bands who just plain suck live, Shinedown isn’t one of those bands. In fact I think you can’t truly appreciate their sound until you see them live. Their softer tunes you can feel the emotion in Smiths vocals and with their harder songs, they have so much more power to them in a live setting with Smith pushing every word out to pour himself into the music.