Norfolk, VA — Fans filed into Chartway Arena at Old Dominion University on a hot 90-degree summer day on June 5, 2026 anticipating the intense heat that only Shinedown brings. The stage setup was built for maximum fan reach and included a catwalk, B-stage, and platforms that thrust the band into the audience for an up close and personal experience.
Arriving in Norfolk barely a week after the May 29th release of their eighth studio album, Ei8ht, the band was clearly itching to get the new songs in front of the Virginia crowd, and fans were excited to hear their favorites off the new album. Shinedown masterfully threaded brand new tracks through two decades of rock (as you can see in the setlist below).
When Shinedown hit the stage, they hit hard. “Safe and Sound,” the lead single from Ei8ht, opened the night in a storm of pyro, flames, and gut-punch concussion blasts. “Dead Don’t Die” and “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” kept the fireworks coming, each detonating with its own barrage of pyro and concussion that you could feel in your chest.
From there the set unfurled like a single continuous narrative rather than a checklist of eras. “How Did You Love” and the Ei8ht track “Three Six Five” provided an emotional experience — the latter being a tribute to friends and family we’ve lost that Smith handled with the kind of sincerity that has become a hallmark of these shows. “Devil” roared back into full-throttle territory with flames, pyro, and concussion shaking the rafters.
Next up, fan favorite from Ei8ht, “Searchlight”, had the crowd waving cell phone lights and singing every word. The new album’s country-tinged ballad is now featured on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, which is the first time a Shinedown song has appeared on a Billboard country ranking.
Migrating to B-stage, the band stripped things down for an intimate run through “Call Me”, the aching “The Crow & the Butterfly”, “Misfits”, and “Get Up”, turning the arena into something that felt, for a few songs, like a living-room gathering. It was here, amid the night’s most direct and human moments, that the show’s lighter side also surfaced — a now-infamous bit of stage business involving butter that was left on stage. They wouldn’t share the whole story, so the crowd started chanting, “Butter! Butter! Butter!” It was a fun, unscripted, moment that reminds you these are four guys who still genuinely enjoy being up there together. Another funny moment was when Eric and Zach brought up a local venue “The Norva’s” hot tub. In an Instagram post they joked that they were “The Norfolk Norva Hot Tub Swim Team.”
After “Asking for It” and “A Symptom of Being Human” — the iHeartRadio Rock Song of the Year — “Cut the Cord” and “Monsters” hammered home with pyro and concussion that the party was far from over. Zach Myers changed the tone and stepped to the front for a stripped, just-him rendition of the first verse and chorus of 3 Doors Down‘s “Kryptonite”, a heartfelt tribute to the band’s recently departed frontman, Brad Arnold. The arena fell into a reverent hush before Myers slid seamlessly into the band’s long-running cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Simple Man.”
As the night was coming to a close, Black Stone Cherry’s Chris Robertson strode out to join the band for “Sound of Madness”, lending extra muscle and grit. And then, fittingly, the night closed with “Second Chance”, the 2008 mega-hit that needs no introduction in a room full of believers — a final singalong that had every voice in Chartway Arena united.
The two-hour experience was a near-perfect representation of everything the “Dance, Kid, Dance Act II” tour set out to be: a production that punches you in the chest with fire and fury one minute and holds your heart the next, a fearless embrace of brand-new music alongside the classics, and a band that, more than twenty years in, still knows exactly how to make a room full of strangers feel like family.
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Shinedown Band Members
Brent Smith – lead vocals
Zach Myers – Lead/rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Eric Bass – Bass guitar, piano, backing vocals
Barry Kerch – Drums, percussion
Shinedown Setlist
Chartway Arena Norfolk, VA 6-5-2026
- Safe and Sound (with pyro, flames, concussion)
- Dead Don’t Die (with pyro, concussion)
- Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom) (with pyro, concussion)
- How Did You Love
- Three Six Five
- Devil (with pyro, flames, concussion)
- Searchlight
- Enemies (with pyro, flames, concussion)
- Call Me
- The Crow & the Butterfly
- Misfits
- Get Up
- Asking for It
- A Symptom of Being Human (with pyro, flames)
- Cut the Cord (with pyro, flames, concussion)
- Monsters (with flames, pyro)
- Kryptonite (3 Doors Down cover) (First verse and chorus, Zach only)
- Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
- Sound of Madness (with Chris Robertson from Black Stone Cherry) (with flames, concussion)
- Second Chance (with concussion)
Coheed and Cambria, an American progressive rock band, brought their heavy guitar-driven intensity and emotionally charged performance to their devoted fanbase. Thousands in the audience sang every word. Their setlist included fan favorites “Welcome Home”, “A Favor House Atlantic”, and “The Pavilion (A Long Way back)” which set the stage for headliner, Shinedown. (The fog was so dense, it was hard to get any photos.)
Coheed and Cambria Band Members
Claudio Sanchez – lead vocals, guitar, keys
Travis Stever – lead/rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Josh Eppard – drums, percussion, backing vocals, keys
Zach Cooper – bass, backing vocals
Black Stone Cherry kicked the night off by bringing the heat with their signature explosive energy. The Kentucky four tore into a set of riff-heavy Southern hard rock that hit with the muscle of a headline act.
Black Stone Cherry Band Members
Chris Robertson – Lead Vocals and Guitar
Ben Wells – Guitar and Vocals
Steve Jewell Jr. – Bass and Vocals
John Fred Young – Drums and Vocals
Between bands, DJ Rock Feed — the on-stage alter ego of Rock Feed co-founder Brian Storm — kept the energy going between sets and primed the audience for the next artist.
Show Date: 06.05.2026
