Review 6
Date: Saturday June 6th, 2026
Venue: Giant Center
City/State: Hershey, Pennsylvania
Subjects: SHINEDOWN, Coheed & Cambria

After being at Rock on the Hill most the day our arrival was a bit late so we missed opening act Black Stone Cherry and only managed to see the last 2 songs of Coheed & Cambria. The last song was my favorite of theirs “Welcome Home”. Claudio was running the stage like a sprinter during the song and playing his guitar behind his head. Legends they are and one day I’ll see a full set by them.
After they played DJ Rockfeed popped up and played a bunch of songs for the crowd to sing along w/ such as “Rollin” By Limp Bizkit, “Don’t Stop Believing” By Journey, Bon Jovi, Backstreet boys and many more. The crowd was fully warmed up for the eventual Shinedown sing alongs. after about 15 minutes the stage lights dimmed, and two pink masked men began to take the stage along w/ a man wearing a television for a head all while peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” played over the loudspeakers. The intro for the show then played on the big screens up above and on the TV on the mans head which was pretty cool. Shinedown took the stage and lit right into brand new track off “Eight” called “Safe and Sound”. Pounding Drums, fluent basslines, powerful guitar, perfect vocals and lots of explosions and fire are the bands forte. The crowd was hooked with the first few notes. Lead vocalist Brent Smith as usual was all over the stage and again he was a sprinter as well. Upon the completion of the opening song Brent nonchalantly said “Welcome to the Show” as is his customary welcome. They followed that w/ a trio of “Sound of Madness” Tracks; “Devour”, “Diamond Eyes (Boom Lay Boom” and the more ballad like “If You Only Knew”.

Brent Smith of Shinedown Performs at the Giant Center in Hershey on June 6th.

This is the point of the show where the eyes begin to fill w/ liquid. Brent goes on a long talk about Death, our relationship with it and then he encourages all to close their eyes and imagine a loved one who has passed recently. As they then kick into new track “Three Six Five” you can look around and see half the crowd crying. It’s a very touching and almost surreal moment. He’s got the perfect voice to hypnotize someone. You truly do laugh, cry and rock at a Shinedown show. Now I’ll say I didn’t see as many tears as I did at Sonic Temple but they surely had the audience by the palm of their hand in Hershey. They also showed much appreciation for the fact that this particular show had sold out in 14 minutes. Zach would later say “You have no idea what that means to us, there is not words to express how appreciative we are of you guys, we’ve been at this awhile and you still show up night after night”. He’s not usually the serious type so his words were strong.
The band would then setup shop up on the long runway type stage they had. They put drums and everything up front for a “Stage 2” sort of set that included some real deep cuts and tour debuts. They met a child from the Children’s Miracle network earlier in the day and he requested the song “Get up” so they played that for them. “Save You” and “I’ll follow you” were nice surprises for the night. There was lots of banter during this segment as well with lots of jokes and Zach mentioning they are way off the setlist as well as before “Amaryllis” telling us Brent hates singing that song, but they will do it anyway.
It was back to the original stage set up and right into “Bully”, then the only “Planet Zero” Track “Symptom of Being Human” preceded by a list of charities the band has worked with the past 20 years. The Fire was hot and plenty during “Monsters”. I’m very inclined to think Brent is an Alien as he stood right in between two huge flames during the chorus of that song and did not get set on fire.

Zach would come out to the front of the stage to do a quick version of “Kryptonite” by Three Doors Down. Many people know that Brad Arnold, lead vocalist of 3 Doors down passed away recently after a battle with Cancer and Shinedown were very close to him. So, each night on this tour they are playing that song in tribute as well as during “Simple Man” Brent tears up talking about what an amazing person Brad was, and he encourages us all to sing a chorus for him. It was another touching moment. The band also posts his picture on the screens numerous times throughout the night. They ended the night with a double bang “Sound of Madness” and “Second Chance”. Many fireworks and a wall of sound ended the evening with Brent saying it’s never good buy only until next time and with Shinedown’s relentless touring schedule there is always a next time. One other note for the night that I found to be very cool was they took the time to read nearly every sign the fans brought. One asked for a High Five to which Zach obliged and a few others I’m sure got their wish.

SHINEDOWN SET LIST (PER SETLIST.FM)
“Sledgehammer” (Peter Gabriel)
01. “Safe and Sound”
02. “Devour”
03. “Diamond Eyes (Boom Lay Boom Lay Boom)”
04. “If You Only Knew”
05. “Three Six Five”
06. “Devil”
07. “Searchlight”
08. “Enemies”
Front Stage Setup:
09. “Get up”
10. “Call Me”
11. “I’ll Follow You”
12. “Save Me”
13. “Amaryllis”
Main Stage Set Up:
14. “Bully”
15. “Symptom of Being Human”
16. “Cut The Chord”
17. “Monsters”
18. “Kryptonite” (3 Doors Down Cover, Zach Solo)
19. “Simple Man” (Lynyrd Skynyrd Cover)
20. “Sound of Madness” (w/ Chris Robertson of Black Stone Cherry)
21. “Second Chance”