Staind By Andy Squire
By the time Staind take to the stage - late I might add - Manchester Academy One has emptied quite considerably following Seether’s support slot; and looking at the remaining fans, who are on average in their mid-thirties, you begin to wonder if Staind are just doing it for the old skool fans tonight.
Regardless, the crowd are screaming their heads off and going a little bit too crazy as Aaron Lewis and friends take to the stage, I find myself hoping that their hip replacements don’t give way as they shake their booties into oblivion and scream back the words to opener Suffocate.
I would like at this moment, to point out that despite during our earlier conversation which involved Aaron telling me that he thinks they sound nothing like Nickelback, - who I might have stupidly mentioned replaced Staind in my CD collection in recent years, - if you do close your eyes you really could be at a Nickleback concert.
But of course we are in Manchester Academy One, not the M.E.N Arena, where Chad Kroger and friends are lined up to play a few months from now; so I just don’t understand why they are so dead set against this comparison; I mean surely they would love to play an arena tour one day?
Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked by the awkward 15 minutes I spent trying to get something exciting out of Aaron pre-gig, and needless to say, it’s clouding my judgement over the whole shebang now. Bear in mind, before last night I was a major Staind fan, I loved singing along to them in my car at breakneck speed, whilst at the same time I could lie in the bath and happily sink a bottle of wine whilst Aaron droned along in the background.
What’s more, did they move around? No, did they bloody hell, the only action we got was from Mike Mushok, who essentially saved the whole night for me; his enthusiastic ‘guitar hero’ style moves were just breath-taking; he was amazing to watch, giving his all into each and every song with relentless energy whilst the rest of the guys looked on and trudged through each song.
Overall they played a good mixture of songs, mainly to keep happy the O.A.P’s that had turned out to relive the days when rock was belted out from the pit of the stomach and it was all about sounding great rather than looking like you just walked out of your local Topman store.
In all, the guys carried off the set well, Aaron’s acoustic ditty was a highlight, as was their classic hit, Outside from Break The Cycle which went down a treat; in fact, to quote Peter Kaye; “I thought it was a CD playing.†Meaning of course that they don’t lose a drop of their musical ability when knocking it out live, however, I’d sacrifice a bit of quality if it meant we’d get some charisma.
It’s like my mum always said; “Don’t meet your heroes…†How right she was… you really shouldn’t meet them before the gig anyway.
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Photos By Andy Squire - (flickr/acidtoast)
Keep your eyes peeled for my interview with Aaron Lewis on Monday, but until then, check out our gallery of incredible images from the night here