10 Years opening for Shinedown

went to watch 10 Years open for Shinedown at the newly opened House of Blues in Boston, opposite the fabled Fenway Park - home of the Boston Red Sox. some band called Halestorm curtain-raised for both, but i'm glad we missed them - i checked out their Myspace page and they sounded way too much like Flyleaf who i detest passionately.

anyways.. i must say i do like how the House of Blues have done up the Boston location.. it looks fantastic, and is very band-oriented & crowd-friendly. three levels, with the main floor being the biggest and pretty good sightlines from almost anywhere on the floor. the lower and upper balconies are smaller but have great views too. lots of bars sprinkled all over the place so that you're never more than a few yards away from an overpriced drink. the sound system is pretty good though, loved the small club feeling you get there, even though i believe it holds close to 5,000 people.

10 Years have developed quite a bit since i last saw them a few years ago. they have definitely improved their stage presence and played a nice, tight set. they could do with a little more crowd interaction, but then again, they have never been a band that needed audience participation to play their music. they focused primarily on their new album 'Division', which has some excellent tracks on it. musically they have developed from their 'Wasteland' years, and you can hear the progression on songs like "Actions & Motives", "Beautiful", "Russian Roulette" & "11:00am (Daydreamer)".

now Shinedown is one of those bands which is basically the lead singer and a procession of people filling in the other positions. fortunately, Shinedown is one of the better bands in that category, and also have had some continuity in the drummer role too. singer Brent Smith is a showman par excellence - his vocal range is stunning and it appears he has been learning about stage presence from one of the greatest showmen of all time, Ozzie Osbourne. he was full of stories and encouraged the crowd to get into it between songs

i prefer Shinedown's older songs to their newer two albums, but since they are promoting the new album 'The Sound Of Madness' one had to plow through some of the mushier stuff - yes i said mushy, since Shinedown does an equal number of ballads, a few of which are tolerable. all in all a good show, and both 10 Years and Shinedown are worth going to see.

had to leave before the end because of the vagaries of the Boston commuter rail system by which the last train home to the suburbs on a Saturday night is at 11:30pm.. go figure?!