Shinedown Visit Small Town Festival

The McHenry Music Festival did not disappoint with this years lineup. On September 10th,night one was all about the rock, the lineup included Nonpoint, Yelawolf, Daughtry and Shinedown. I was on assignment for Shinedown and was getting ready for an awesome show.

I arrived towards the end of Daughtry's set, the crowd was already full and I was able to tell it was a long crazy packed day for everyone. I'm very familiar with McHenry and the location of the festival, but have only heard about it. I was not expecting it to be as big as it was! I was blown away by how that small park was turned into this massive music festival. I was able to enjoy the last 3 song from Daughtry and he sounded amazing. I've never seen him before and just hearing those few songs brings hope that some day I'll get to photograph one of this shows. He sounded amazing over the crowd as I made my way to my designated spot.

I found my way through the crowd and into my spot, the fans were filling in even tighter. The anticipation was growing as everyone patiently waited during the set change. Out of no where there were a few characters that made their way onto the stage, they messed around for a bit and then turned towards the crowd to hype them up. We all the knew band was about to hit the stage. Shinedown started their set with "Safe and Sound", kicking the show off with a bang....literately, with pyro and what sounded like a canon!

The crowd was packed at this point, everyone singing along. The band was full of energy, all over the stage and working the fans. Hands, fists, kids in the air! One little girl who looked to be about 3 was on her dads shoulders, it was so great to see. The entire set was full of pyro and a few canon's going off here and there, I mention that again because I have never heard that at a show before and it caught me off guard, in a good way. It definitely added something new to the set. Once my job was done I joined the less rowdy crowd a little further back to enjoy the rest of the show.

Brent Smith's vocals are phenomenal on stage, one of my favorite things about attending concerts is being able to hear these voices outside of the radio. Not every singer/band sounds as good on stage, Shinedown is definitely one of those bands that kill it live! I left a little early to beat the insane crowd and was listening to Brent's singing as I was walking out and he has such a clear, crisp, but raw voice.