Carnival of Madness Tour 2010 Review
- by Shane
For those of you that do not know, the Carnival of Madness is a tour with five absolutely great bands, 10 Years, Sevendust, Puddle of Mudd, Chevelle, and the band that I would consider the ring leader of the Carnival, Shinedown. Even though all of these bands have toured together at one point or another, these bands have never all shared the same stage on one epic tour before. So, as soon as I found out about the existence of this tour I knew I had to witness it.
After a couple of months of waiting for this tour to come around, the July 23rd finally came. It was a simple three hour drive from Nashville to Knoxville on three hours of sleep, nothing Miranda and I couldn’t handle. When we finally made it into Knoxville, it was hot as hell already, and it was time to get to work on our interviews and then see the show.
The first band to take the stage for the night was Knoxville, TN’s very own, 10 Years. This was 10 Years’ first time to take the stage at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. They ended up playing a lot of their older, popular stuff such as Iris, and Wasteland. I didn’t know a lot of the other songs that they played, but that didn’t change the fact that they had a great performance and they put on one hell of a show. They closed out their set with the song “Shoot it Out” which is the first single off of their upcoming CD, Feeding the Wolves. This song was definitely harder than the other songs that they performed and it was also my favorite song of their set. I definitely am going to have to pick up Feeding the Wolves when it comes out on August 21. 10 Years has all the love in the world for their home town, and Knoxville loves 10 Years right back.
Sevendust was the next band to take the stage of the Carnival. They played a nice mix of their older and newer stuff. Even though Sevendust has been around for a long time, they show no signs of slowing and still feed off of the energy of the crowd just like a band that is just now making it big, it never seems to get old for them. One of the coolest things that I had never realized before is their drummer, Morgan Rose, puts in a lot of lyrics throughout the songs. It is amazing that he can keep the beats going, drum his ass off, and still have the breath left over to put out some vocals. They make sure that all of the people that took time out of their day to come and see them feel the love. To them, these people aren’t fans, they are friends and family. By the end of their set, everyone knew that “Sevendust has arrived” for those that have seen them live, you know what I’m talking about, and for those that don’t understand, it’s something that you have to be there to feel for yourself.
The third band to grace the stage was Puddle of Mudd. PoM had a truly amazing performance. They started off with Control which has always been one of my favorite songs by them, and it was awesome to witness live. They performed a lot of their other great songs such as Stoned, Spaceship, and Blurry. They also played one amazing cover of “TNT” by AC/DC. They put a ton of energy into the song and it sounded great. After “TNT” Wes Scantlin’s son, Jordan, came on stage with his guitar and finished off the last two songs “Psyco” and “She Hates Me” with the band. It was great to see Wes helping form some amazing memories for his son during his summer vacation. Even though Wes screwed up “She Hates Me” at the beginning of the song, Puddle of Mudd had raised the bar even higher for the night and had so far stolen the show for the night. I was wondering if either Chevelle or Shinedown was going to be able to top Puddle of Mudd’s performance. Puddle of Mudd not only feeds off of crowd participation, but demand it from the crowd, which does nothing but add more enjoyment from the show.
Next up on the list, was the trio that sounds like a quartette, Chevelle. Before I saw this band at Buzzfest last year, I didn’t realize that it was only composed of three people. But I enjoyed them tremendously at Buzzfest last year, and I was hoping for at least as good as a show again this year, fortunately I was not disappointed. Chevelle’s stage setup wasn’t as basic as some of the other setups, it had more of a cosmic feel to it, which worked pretty good with their image. They opened up with one of my favorite songs by them, Vitamin R. They sounded great throughout the long set, and they even played my favorite Chevelle song, “The Clincher”. They finished off their performance that night with a powerful song, “I Get It”. Overall, the band did a fantastic job, although they didn’t reach the bar that Puddle of Mudd had set before them.
Four bands have come and gone, and only one was left to play, Shinedown. I had seen the band once before, and they were great but I was thinking that Puddle of Mudd may have stolen the entire show with their performance earlier that night. But you know what, I was wrong. From the moment the curtain dropped, and they started off with “Sound of Madness” I had a feeling that their performance that night was going to be absolutely epic. Not only did they sound amazing, they were entertaining to watch, and I loved Brent Smith’s outfit. After a few songs, Brent took a moment to thank us all for coming out tonight, and that this was the first sold out show on the Carnival of Madness tour. He also asked us not to think of this as a simple concert, not as a show, but as an event, not only that, but The Event. And I agree, this was so much more than a show so far, and was only getting better.
Shinedown not only played the singles that get radio play such as “Devour”, “Save Me”, Heroes” and one of my all time favorite songs, “45”, but they did their movie soundtrack songs, “Diamond Eyes (Boom – Lay Boom – Lay Boom)”, and “Her Name is Alice” from the Expendables and Alice in Wonderland. Then they ended their set with a song that I love, but it never gets radio play, “Son of Sam”. But it didn’t end there, when the lights went out after “Son of Sam” Brent made his way to the middle of the GA near the sound booth, where his Mother and Grandmother were at, and he played the first encore song acoustically and dedicated it to them, “Simple Man” because they were two women that helped mold Brent into the man he is today. While I’m usually not into acoustic music, the song sounded great, and it was a real honor to see Brent being able to play that song for his mother and grandmother at the same time, for the first time. It’s something that you usually don’t see from musicians anymore. After that very touching song, they went back on stage for some more music goodness. They ended the night off, with their final two encore songs, “Fly From the Inside” and “Second Chance” both of which were fantastic performances. Brent ended the night off by telling us his all time favorite quote, “Without music, life would be a mistake”. And the more I think about it, the more I believe the quote. While I don’t live in a world where I accept many absolutes, I can say, that everybody left the arena that night, feeling a lot of love from all of the bands that played.
Shinedown's Set:
Sound of Madness
Devour
I Dare You
Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide
If You Only Knew
Diamond Eyes (Boom - Lay Boom - Lay Boom)
45
Heroes
Left Out
Crow and the Butterfly
Her Name is Alice
Save Me
Son of Sam
Simple Man
Fly from the Inside
Second Chance
Every band that played that night was amazing, and even though I thought that Puddle of Mudd may have stolen the show, I was wrong. Even though I’ve probably seen hundreds of performances, and I’ve seen my favorite bands in action, I can honestly say that Shinedown showed me the best performance that I have ever seen in my life. If there is only one tour that you are able to catch this summer, make it the Carnival of Madness, because it is worth every dime that you spend on the tickets.
