Chicago, IL – One half of Shinedown came to town as Brent Smith and Zach Myers hit the stage at Radius Chicago, a newer warehouse-style venue that opened up earlier this year that is state of the art and is already attracting a lot of top talent to perform at.
Prior to Smith and Myers taking to the stage, the crowd were warmed up with half of another band, Allen, Mack, Myers, Moore (AMMM) – which Zach Myers is also a member of – as Zack Mack and JR Moore (from Ingram Hill) put on a great show for the Chicago fans. Both Mack and Moore are excellent musicians and singers in their own right. The duo were great to watch perform up on stage. Their harmonies, harmonica and slide guitar playing are amazing. The duo closed out their set by covering the Eagles, “Heartache Tonight.”
Brent Smith and Zach Myers hit the stage opening up with “Coast to Coast”, a single from their Smith & Myers Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 releases at the end of last year, before turning to their version of the Billie Eilish song, “Bad Guy.” While the stage is set up for Smith to do the singing, and Myers to play the guitar part, they are both backed up by JR Moore and Zack Mack, on guitars, backing vocals, piano, and a small drum machine. A lot of the duo’s material are covers, though many Shinedown songs do make their way into the setlist. Which according to Brent, is put together by Zach and he gets told about 20 minutes before they go on stage what songs they’ll be performing that night. If you were to look up at the setlists of previous shows, no two are exactly alike. The pair keep it loose, free and very little, if anything at all, is scripted like a larger tour or stage production might be. This is definitely just 2 friends up on stage, playing songs that they love, putting their own spin on, and having fun.
The band covers every genre and artist imaginable. Performing covers from The Black Crowes, Silverchair and INXS, really showcases both the vocal range of Brent Smith and the guitar playing of Zach Myers. While Brent Smith handles the vocals in Shinedown, at one point in the evening Zack Myers took over on vocal duties, performing the Taylor Swift single “All Too Well.” Then having the audience decide between a 70’s song or a 90’s song. In the end, 90’s won out and Myers performed a simply amazing rendition of the TLC classic, “Waterfalls”, with audience participation. Myers also covered and praised a Chicago folk music legend, John Prine, who had passed away in early 2020 from complications due to COVID, performing “Angel From Montgomery.” At one point in the show, Brent Smith had to stop and thank everyone who had purchased a special single released right at the beginning of the pandemic. With the purchase of the single and t-shirt, all proceeds would go to Direct Relief, a nonprofit humanitarian aid foundation that worked on providing personal protective equipment and essential medical items such as protective masks, isolation gowns and gloves to health care workers in the U.S. and internationally. Smith mentioned about how during the recording of Shinedown’s Amaryllis, there was a song that meant a great deal to the band. And while it did not make the record, he always felt the world would get to hear it one day, and it was clear to him when the pandemic happened, it was now time for the world to hear “Atlas Falls.”
As the duo closed out their evening in Chicago with a cover of Nine Inch Nails, “Closer”, Smith & Myers let people know that a new Shinedown album would be released early in 2022, and just the day before this nights show, 2022 dates were already announced.
Zack Mack and JR Moore
Smith & Myers
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SMITH & MYERS SETLIST:
Coast to Coast
Bad Guy (Billie Eilish cover)
She Talks to Angels (Black Crowes cover)
I Still haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (U2 cover)
The Weight of It All
How Did You Love (Shinedown cover)
Atlas Falls (Shinedown cover)
Misfits (Shinedown cover)
Call Me (Shinedown cover)
GBL GBD
Angel From Montgomery (John Prine cover)
Not Mad Enough
Tomorrow (Silverchair cover, 1st verse)
Never Tear Us Apart (INXS cover)
Sound of Madness (Shinedown cover)
All Too Well (Taylor Swift cover)
Waterfalls (TLC cover)
Bad at Love
New School Shiver
Second Chance (Shinedown cover)
Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins cover)
Closer (Nine Inch Nails cover)
Show Date: 12/16/2021
