The opening strains of carnival music began as the new summer tradition, the Carnival of Madness tour, rolled through town at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. This year’s show featured the mega superstars of Shinedown along with a host of exciting hard rock acts.
Opening up the festivities was the up and coming band, We As Human who put on a solid set. Skillet frontman John Cooper even joined them onstage to help out with the vocals on their single, “Zombie.” I look forward to seeing and hearing more from this young band.
Next up was Maria Brink and company, In This Moment, who have had monster success with their “Blood” album. They are an extremely fun band to watch with a more elaborate stage setup which included lots of skulls, smoke, and two masked dancers. Their exciting set featured the hits “Adrenalize,” “Whore,” and “Blood.” They received a huge response from the crowd that was just beginning to gather as Maria worked them into a frenzy. The showmanship of every member of this band is simply amazing.
Following up was the Christian rock band Skillet. Their set kicked off with images of band members on the video screens as strains of their song “Hero” were playing. The real band joined onstage and launched into the full song. Skillet is a tight knit unit onstage and new guitarist Seth Morrison fit right in with guitarist Korey Cooper spinning all over the place and drummer Jen Ledger giving it her all behind the kit. But make no mistake about it, the star of this band is bassist and lead vocalist John Cooper who has a commanding presence as he led Skillet through a solid set of both old and new songs. A real crowd pleaser was the moment the band’s violinist and cellist came out to begin the song “Comatose.” They are a talented bunch and never disappoint live.
Papa Roach was next up and everyone was glad to see them on the bill for the Charlotte date after having to miss several shows due to lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix’s illness. Rest assured Shaddix was in top notch form as Papa Roach launched into “Burn.” The light show was out of control with reds, purples, and heavy smoke with Jacoby heading out into the audience during “Still Swingin’.” The one thing you can always depend on with Papa Roach is having a good time and this night was no exception.
After Papa’s set, the crowd was amped up and anxiously awaiting the headliner of this mad Carnival, Shinedown. Once the curtain dropped, there was a real carnival onstage with the band surrounded by flames and circus performers for the opening “I’m Not Alright.” In recent years, Shinedown has become the biggest rock band in the land and tonight’s performance showed why. Their set list was jam packed with hits and they are definitely at the top of their game. Shinedown has not let superstardom get in the way of delivering what the fans have come to love and expect. Frontman Brent was spot on vocally and the band sounded super tight. Highlights of their set included an acoustic snippet of “45” and an exquisitely touching version of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Simple Man.”
It was a terrific ending to a great evening of rock and roll madness. Carnivals are one of my favorite things about the summer season and Carnival of Madness is one you won’t want to miss!
Shinedown Set List:
I’m Not Alright
Enemies
Devour
Unity
The Crow & The Butterfly
Adrenaline
I’ll Follow You
Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)
If You Only Knew
Amaryllis
Encore:
Sound of Madness
Second Chance
45 (snippet)
Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
Bully
Papa Roach set list:
Burn
Blood Brothers
Give Me Back My Life
Between Angels and Insects
Where Did the Angels Go?
Still Swingin’ (Jacoby in crowd)
Forever
Leader of the Broken Hearts
Scars
…To Be Loved
Getting Away with Murder
Last Resort
We would like to thank Amanda Cagan from ABC-PR for the credentials to cover the show.
