Shinedown will bring “the biggest show of 2019” to Buffalo on Sept. 27.
The performance, taking place at KeyBank Center, is part of Shinedown’s “Attention Attention World Tour” featuring a setlist composed of the band’s sixth studio album.
At its peak, the album hit the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Alternative, Top Rock and Hard Rock Album Charts. All three of the album’s singles have reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs Chart.
Shinedown’s 18-year history is packed with statistical success. They have accumulated 13 platinum and gold singles, plus five platinum and gold albums.
Wecaught up with Shinedown’s frontman and lead vocalist Brent Smith to talk about the band’s new album, their expectations for the upcoming Buffalo performance and the band’s future projects.
Our full interview, lightly edited for style and length, follows below.
The Spectrum: Can you talk a little about your latest album “Attention Attention?”
Smith: It's a concept record but not in the traditional sense. When I think of a concept record, I think of Pink Floyd’s “Off the Wall” or even “Operation Minecraft” by Queensrÿche or even The Who when they did “Tommy.” “Attention Attention” is a story album, but it’s a story about all of us. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, or whether you’re younger or whether you’re older, the color of your skin, that’s irrelevant, your religion, that’s totally up to you. But it’s about humanity. And it’s about the fact that we don’t want people to lose empathy for each other, or their communication with each other.
But it’s really a record trying to convey the message that you shouldn’t be afraid to fail. You’re going to need to fail sometimes. You’re going to need to fail in life to know what to do next time, but you’re not going to be defined by your failures. You’re going to be defined by the fact that you refuse to give up. And that’s really what the album encompasses.
TS: Can you talk a little bit about the “Attention Attention World Tour” and how it will be different from any performances your fans may have witnessed in the past?
S: The show that you’re going to see in Buffalo is by far the largest production that we’ve ever put together. It’s a big, giant show and there’s a rhyme and a reason for everything. We want to ensure that everybody leaves the venue floating on just pure joy because of what they’ve just experienced. We feel like it’s going to be the biggest show of 2019. And that’s what we built. It’s going to be everything that you want a big, bad, giant rock show to be.
Oh, and we’ll probably have dragons. That’ll be like a little cherry on top. Since “Game of Thrones” is over they’ve lent us the extra dragons.
TS: Papa Roach, one of the openers for your tour, currently has a song ranked No. 14 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs. What’s it like to have another powerhouse band on your tour?
S: There’s this unspoken, healthy competition where we high five and hang out with each other until it’s time for our sets. Then both of us are always looking at each other like, ‘I’m coming for you, dude.’ There’s no malice involved in that, just this very healthy competition and just respect for one another and just making sure both of us bring our A-game.
TS: How long should fans expect to wait until you release your next album?
S:You will probably see some new material start to surface around the fourth quarter of 2020. For now, we'll be releasing more singles from Attention Attention and we just shut down two city blocks in Los Angeles and filmed something really amazing in LA that we haven't announced yet. So there's a lot more to come.
Julian Roberts-Grmela is an assistant features editor and can be reached at julian.grmela@ubspectrum.com and on Twitter @GrmelaJulian.
Julian Roberts-Grmela is a senior news editor for The Spectrum and an English and philosophy major. His favorite book is “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith and he hopes that one day his writing will be as good as hers.
