Shinedown and The Pretty Reckless Bring Explosive Rock N Roll To Hershey, PA
The Revolution’s Live Tour
What’s better than a Friday night of rock ‘n roll at The Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania? That’s exactly what we got from The Revolution’s Live Tour featuring rock radio heavyweights Shinedown, The Pretty Reckless, and Diamante.
All three acts come with a purpose. Shinedown is out on the road in support of their upcoming 7th album Planet Zero which is set to be released on July 1st. The album’s first single and title track “Planet Zero” took over the airwaves landing the band’s 18th #1 on active rock radio. Shinedown’s second offering from the record “The Saints of Violence and Innuendo” is also making some noise around the globe.
Diamante is out in support of her sophomore album, 2021’s American Dream, which made waves with fan-favorite tracks “Unloveable,” “Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls cover featuring Breaking Benjamin), and of course the album’s title track “American Dream.”
Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless are back on the road after nearly four years off the stage with some of their new and best material yet courtesy of the band’s fourth full-length studio album Death By Rock And Roll which was released in February of 2021. The record exploded through the rock world with help from the album’s title track “Death By Rock and Roll,” “And So It Went,” “25,” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now.”
Fans packed the Giant Center in Hershey, PA, arriving early and making sure to catch each performance. The night began around 7 pm with a diva-driven and dazzling set by Diamante. Backed by a full band, the songstress owned the massive arena catwalk kicking up the energy which would set the tone for the full night.
Diamante interacted with the packed crowd as she opened with the American Dream track “Ghost Myself.” Her set included “Iris,” “Serves You Right.” and “Sleepwalking.” During the electrifying seven-song set, Diamante quite literally lit up the arena.
Next up was The Pretty Reckless, Taylor Momsen, Ben Phillips, Mark Damon, and Jamie Perkins. The four-piece brought tangible energy you could feel throughout the capacity crowd. It was easy to see the band was elated to be back on stage playing music together for their fans.
The set kicked off with some trickery as the vocals for “Death By Rock And Roll” began before kicking full gear into the Soundgarden cover of “Loud Love.” Momsen commanded the stage, strutting the catwalk like a fashion model twirling, spinning, and belting her heart out. Tracks like “Since You’re Gone” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now” were met with fans screaming the lyrics creating a musical echo that vibrated all throughout the Giant Center.
The Pretty Reckless’s approximately 45-minute, 10-song set featured material from all four albums making for a well-balanced career-spanning setlist that fans of the bands would find impossible not to love. For four years off stage, The Pretty Reckless didn’t miss a beat and Momsen’s vocals are as good as ever, definitely a highlight performance on this tour.
The Pretty Reckless will be back on the road this summer with Halestorm as well, so plenty of opportunities to catch these guys.
Finally, it was time for the night’s headliners, Shinedown. The rock titans made a massive entrance. Two screens started with simply 2019 before playing a video of the band rocking around the world. Then we see 2020, the pandemic, the world in chaos before returning to a black screen that simply stated 594 days later… and a video of the band and crew reuniting in the present day at rehearsals. The video was quite touching, as a photographer and journalist, I can relate. I was at shows 3,4,5 days a week pre-pandemic and then everything just stopped. It definitely impacted all of us at the arena seeing the joy of the guys back with their tour family.
Kicking off their set in an explosive fashion quite literally as the set began the guys walked down the catwalk before grabbing their individual instruments and rocking Hershey, PA with the opening track “The Saints of Violence and Innuendo” with flames galore.
It was hard to not be immersed in the band’s set which featured some of the band’s best production to date in the form of pyro, incredible lighting, and high energy all making for an incredible performance.
The 19 song set features a ton of fan favorites like “45,” “Get Up,” “Devil,” “Diamond Eyes,” and a really incredible cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” and also a special moment which included a Foo Fighters cover of “Wheels” performed acoustically in a touching tribute to the Foo’s drummer Taylor Hawkins who tragically passed away just weeks ago.
The combo of Brent Smith on vocals, Eric Bass on the bass, Zach Meyers on the guitar, and Barry Kerch on the drums make Shinedown some of the best performers of our time, and together they’ve created yet another captivating tour featuring some of the band’s best material and fantastic openers to have on the road with them.
The Revolution’s Live tour is everything you want it to be and has just under a month of shows left. Check out Shinedown’s website here for the remaining dates.
The band will also be returning to the U.S this Summer with Pop Evil and Jelly Roll in support of their July 1st release of Planet Zero.
