Shinedown - O2 Academy, Sheffield

The Academy is one of my favourite venues. Reasonable ticket prices, not too big, three bars downstairs and two upstairs, good atmosphere and some fantastic bands. If they didn't take the piss with the beer prices it would be perfect.
I'd fancied seeing Shinedown ever since hearing the Sound of Madness album and thought £16 was a very reasonable asking price for a ticket. This proved to be even better value than I thought as support bands Exit Ten and Redlight King both turned out to be excellent.
After the supports doing a fine job of warming the crowd up Shinedown hit the stage rocking with the title song from the Sound of Madness and went on the keep the crowd in the palm of their hands with a selection of songs covering their four albums to date.
Considering how good these guys are I'm amazed they're still only playing small/medium venues and haven't got a bigger audience yet here in the UK. If you get a chance to see them do it now because I don't think it's gonna stay that way for long. Next time round you could be paying inflated prices to watch 'em from the back of a packed arena.

 http://www.shinedown.com/