Sully Erna is doing sporadic solo shows before the Mass Chaos tour starts with his primary band, Godsmack. Sully’s show at the Riviera Theater, located in North Tonawanda, NY, was a story teller’s type of show featuring him on acoustic guitar and playing various songs on a piano and talking with audience members.
Western New Yorkers might remember back on May 1, 2008 when Sully performed his first show of this kind at the Bears Den inside the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls. This show was very similar to that initial one, when comparing stage set up and set list. What was different on this occasion were the 4 songs he performed from his 2010 solo album called “Avalon” and a brand new song called “Falling Though This.” This was the first time it was performed live by Sully.
After the second song “Re-Align,” Sully took the time to talk about his entry into music and where it has taken him to this point. The only failure of the evening was the audience participation. Sully wanted to hear stories on how his music personally touched them. Unfortunately, all that was offered were bland statements like “Sully is great” and boasts of how many times each saw Godsmack live in concert. This was the same result the last time I saw him as well, so he might want to consider tailoring this part of the show.
The performance touched on several somber and emotional topics. The message of HIV awareness was discussed as a video accompanied the song “Broken Road.” “Until Then” was about families who are missing their loved ones and are currently serving in the military, and during the Alice in Chains song “Nutshell’ the video screen showed images of former musicians who passed away before their time.
However, the main focus of the show was when Sully talked about how music touches all of us differently. He explained about how it is broken down from music to frequency to vibration. His thoughts and messages were all derived from this single concept.
Sully is an immensely talented musician and I personally prefer him to perform on an intimate level like this, with him and an acoustic guitar and piano, rather than the big stage. I feel this is where he can shine the most!
Set List:
Awake (Godsmack)
Re-Align (Godsmack)
Running Blind (Godsmack)
Nutshell (Alice in Chains cover)
Hollow (Godsmack)
Serenity (Godsmack)
Sinners Prayer
Broken Road
Eyes of a Child
Falling Though This
Nothing Else Matters(Metallica cover)
Voodoo (Godsmack)
Keep Away (Godsmack)
Piano intro/Until Then
Encores:
Dream on (Aersomith cover)
Hey Jude (Beatles cover)
We would like to give special thanks to Frank Cannata of the Riviera Theater for taking care of BackstageAxxess for the show for tickets. Thanks to Jodi Emond from The Collective for the photo pass.
