Photos and Review by Jim LaValley
Galleries: Shinedown, Papa Roach, Spiritbox
Shinedown’s Revolutions Live Tour featuring Papa Roach and Spiritbox stopped by the Xfinity Center for the final show of the year for this venue. Xfinity Center had an awesome year packed with great music and numerous fan packed killer shows.
Spiritbox is one of those bands that the fans show up early to make sure they don’t miss them and they weren’t disappointed, they opened with “Jaded” which on their new EP, The Fear of Fear, that was set to be released on November 3, 2023. Courtney LaPlante on vocals put on an awesome performance bringing her vocal range from deep growls to nice high pitch singing that blended with the music and created hooks that burn in your head all day. I have been listening to Spiritbox for years on SiriusXM Octane and have never seen them live.
Papa Roach took the stage following a stellar opening performance by Spiritbox. On a rainy fall night in Mansfield, MA they opened their set with one of my personal favorite songs, “Between Angels and Insects.” If I had to summarize their whole performance into one word, it would be energy. The whole mood of the crowd changed once they took the stage, everyone instantly became more engaged than they already were. The next two songs kept that same energy, “Kill the Noise” and “Getting Away with Murder.” You could tell the crowd was engaged because Jacoby gave the audience numerous opportunities to sing the lyrics during the songs, and when those moments happened it was so loud it felt that everyone in the Xfinity Center was singing along with them.
Papa Roach threw a curveball and performed edgy covers of “California Love” by 2Pac and “Firestarter” by Prodigy, which they did a great job covering and the crowd was vibing to every second of them. Next on the list, was the hit single “Born for Greatness” off their album, “Crooked Teeth.” During this performance, Jacoby took his performance into the crowd and at the soundboard performing to the fans in the upper tiers so that they could get a closer view of the performance. At this moment, the crowd was going absolutely nuts being able to engage with Jacoby.
Next to bring down the crowd from fully erupting was their softer songs, “Scars,” “No Apologies,” “Leave a Light On,” and “Forever.” It was incredible to see how much the tempo changed, but the crowd was still engaged, singing their hearts out to every one of those songs. Finally in preparation for the Shinedown, Papa Roach switched up the tempo for their last 3 songs performing, “…. To Be Loved,” “Help,” and their most popular song “Last Resort.”
If you ever catch yourself contemplating going to see Papa Roach, maybe because you’re not sure you’re a big enough fan, spend the money and go see them, they will make you a fan just by their live performance alone.
Next up was Shinedown, they took the stage with an energized crowd thanks to the opening performances from Papa Roach and Spiritbox. Shinedown started off the night with “Diamond Eyes,” which kept the energy following Papa Roach with fast paced lyrics and rifts compiled with loud explosive pyrotechnics. Next was their hit single from the newest album “Dead Don’t Die,” which got the new and old fans engaged singing along to the words. Keeping that same energy Shinedown followed up that song with lighter songs, “I’ll Follow You,” “State of My Head,” and “Amaryllis”. Next came one of my personal favorites by them “Devil” off their album “Attention Attention,” this was a nice tempo switch from the slower songs and got the metal crowd engaged. Brent Smith’s voice hit every note and Barry Kerch on drums totally killed it, it was like I was listening to the album with my eyes closed.
Prior to singing “45,” Brent took a few minutes to get the crowd ready for the song highlighting it was 20 years since their debut album “Leave A Whisper” was released and took the time to thank Boston for being with them since the beginning. After thanking the fans, he asked them if they brought their singing voice and asked for their help singing along to the song which he got all the Xfinity Center singing along with him. After a beautiful performance of “45,” Shinedown followed up with more fast paced songs “Enemies” and their biggest hit off their new album, “Planet Zero,” followed by the intense new song “A Symptom of Being Human” off the same album.
Shinedown wrapped up the night with some fan favorites, “Simple Man,” “Monsters” and “Cut the Cord”. Shinedown put on one hell of a show and what a great way to close out the season at the Xfinity Center.