Shinedown outshines main act

We all wonder how rare events happen, like miracles, underdogs overcoming the odds or President Bush not saying something stupid. One of these rare events took place on Feb. 24 at the Electric Factory: the opening act out shined the main act.When Shinedown, the opening band for the Snocore Tour, came on stage, it felt like the main act. They came out with full force, getting into fans faces and just rocking the house. Most people seemed to forget that headliners Seether still had to come out and play.Shinedown singer Brent Smith connected with the crowd unlike any other singer did that night. He would give the crowd a compelling meaning of one of his songs, or would curse out all the people outside the venue that weren’t taking part in their magic.One of the most poignant parts of Shinedown’s performance was during the band’s cover of “Simple Man” by Lynard Skynyrd. The band exposed their country rock roots while also giving an emotional speech dedicating the song to the late legendary Dimebag Darrell Abbott, the former Pantera guitarist who was violently killed in December of 2004.When Smith sang the song it was almost as if Ronnie Van Zant had been resurrected from the grave. Smith’s voice is arguably one of the best in hard rock today, and all those rocker guys on American Idol should take a listen to Shinedown so they know how a good rocker should sound.It was a performance that took the energy right out of the crowd, so Seether had a lot of work ahead of them to get everyone moving.Seether delivered a far from stellar performance, and more people seemed to be heading to the exits than they were to the stage. At this point the concert, a period called Snocore, became “Snobore.” Seether lacked enthusiasm and were just plain boring. It honestly seemed like they didn’t even want to be there.It was pretty clear that Shinedown deserved to be Snocore’s feature band. The group completely stole the show, and if it wasn’t for their performance the show would have been a huge bust.Shinedown brought old southern hard rock back to Philadelphia and completely took over from there. From now on Snocore should consider changing its tour lineup and have Seether play before Shinedown. The change would definitely please the crowd.Dan Cappello can be reached at daniel.cappello@temple.edu.