Rock 'n' roll, pyrotechnics and audience immersion on tap at Shinedown concert
“Being in Shinedown is like being in the third grade forever. You never lose the kid inside you,” said Brent Smith, 44, the Jacksonville-based band's lead vocalist and songwriter.
That means that those attending the Shinedown concert at Value City Arena on Saturday can expect plenty of visual as well as auditory stimulation.
“We use a lot of pyrotechnics. We incorporate fire in very unique ways,” Smith said, speaking by phone from Florida, as he prepared for the tour, which started on April 1.
“We look at pyro as an extension of the shows and also of the songs. Pyrotechnics are an art form. It's not just a big blast and some kind of fireworks. We're known as a band that really pushes the envelope visually, and we're going to push it even further than we ever have before, with video, the way we do lighting, the staging. It's very avant garde.”
Shinedown to be center stage
Audience members can look forward to being immersed in the action.
“One of the things with this new staging is that we're out in the audience, the thrust goes all the way to the center of the arena. We're a lot more inside of the audience. The audience wraps around us, as opposed to the audience is watching us onstage. We're right in the middle of everybody, in the hot seat,” Smith said.
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The tour will showcase songs from the band's beginnings 20 years ago as well as some from its newest album, “Planet Zero,” which will be released on July 1 (it was originally scheduled for release on Friday).
Visuals have always been important to supporting the band's songs. The band transformed their previous album, “Attention Attention,” into a one-hour feature film of the same name. And now, they've released a mysterious video, directed by Belgian director Charles De Meyer, to go along with the title song of the new album.
“When the video opens, we are waking up in this dystopian place that looks to be a house,” Smith explained. “Each guy (in the band) is being born into a scenario where they're going where am I? What is this? What's happening?
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Then these interesting things start happening, because each guy is drawn near this woman, or really, this individual. This isn't male versus female. This is about what is real and what is false. This individual begins to communicate with the guys. Over the course of the video, you start to figure out that she's not real. She's been created by code. It has to do with social media and media in general and what it is real, what is not real.”
Like each of their albums, “Planet Zero” takes the band in a new direction.
“When we started 'Attention Attention,' we weren't planning on putting out a conceptual album. It just became that. It's an inward record, with a lot about the four of us as individuals. 'Planet Zero' is more of an outward understanding about what the world has been through in the last three years, and about what kind of future we could be heading towards if we don't start focusing on working together, for real.”
Shinedown wants to bond with the audience
For now, that future hinges on forming a bond with the audience, and having the disparate individuals who make up the audience form a bond with one another.
“There's a lot of technology you can make use of when you're recording,” Smith said. “Technology in regards to recorded music is just spectacular. But the thing is, you either know how to play, or you don't. When you put the four of us into a room, something happens. The four of us together make a noise. There's a difference between making a noise and just going through the motions.
"When you put the four of us on a stage, there's something unexplainable that happens.”
At a glance
Shinedown will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at Value City Arena, West Lane Avenue and Olentangy River Road. Tickets start at $36.50 (614-688-3939, www.schottensteincenter.com)
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Shinedown to perform Saturday at Value City Arena in Columbus
