I can appreciate a good acoustic performance

The last two shows I've seen have been acoustic shows. Normally, which is like 99% of the time, I'm attending shows with stacks of amplifiers and speakers so loud the bass reverberates in your chest. As a lover of music and live performances, I can enjoy a good acoustic show as well.  How well a band can perform and sing without being able to hide behind thrashing electric guitars and thundering drums is a real testament to just how good they really are.

On October 23, 2010, I saw Aaron Lewis at The Pabst Theater. Some of you may know Aaron Lewis as the lead singer of the band Staind. Aaron has an amazing voice. This was really my first full acoustic show. The show turned out to be more of a jam session. Aaron sang many of the favorite Staind songs such as "It's Been Awhile", "Outside", and "So Far Away".  He mixed in requests for covers from the audience.  The crowd got to be a little annoying with all of the requests for Aaron to sing other people's songs. In the end it was a good show.  Here are pictures from the Aaron Lewis show.

More recently, on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, I had the privilege of seeing Shinedown perform an acoustic show at The Riverside. This was going to be interesting. I already knew the lead singer had a great voice and thought an acoustic show would showcase his vocal abilities. I was right. Fantastic show! Let's be clear though...It's not an unplugged show. It was an acoustic show but they were plugged into amps. Definitely a step or two down from a full on metal performance.  They did not disappoint either.  

The show was kind of like those Storytellers shows on VH1 where the band tells a story about the songs they sing. Each song was introduced with a bit of an explanation about the song and what influenced it. It's interesting to note that sometimes what you think the song may be about is not what it is about at all. By far my favorite song performed was "Devour". On the album this song is fairly fast and heavy with lots of guitars. This night they had two acoustic guitars, a bass, drums, and two guys banging on boxes to get a deeper bass sound. It was dark and moody. Excellent!

Setlist:

• Heroes
• Save Me
• If You Only Knew
• Sound of Madness
• Shed Some Light
• 45
• I Dare You
• Times Like These (Foo Fighters cover)
• The Crow & The Butterfly
• Devour
• Burning Bright
• Call Me
• Fly From The Inside
• With A Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker cover)
• Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
• Second Chance

Check out pictures from the Shinedown show.