Shinedown rocks Hi-Fi Buys, Southern style

Shinedown rocked the Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheater on Wednesday, Aug. 30, opening for Rob Zombie and Godsmack.

The night featured three solid acts who all share in common the heavy rock music they play, and it provided the unusual opportunity for concert-goers to see three successful rock acts, all at different stages of a rock band career.

Shinedown is a young band, fresh off of their second album, 2005's Us And Them.

Despite their huge success on the radio and the charts, particularly with the single "Save Me" which reached number one on the Billboard rock charts, Shinedown is still looking to become a household name like the way the other acts in this show have.

"We've had seven singles on the radio. Eight now," said Barry Kerch, Shinedown's drummer.

"I can still go into a mall, and when we walk into a mall together, it's obvious that we're in a band, and they go, 'What band are you in?' and we tell them 'Shinedown,' and they go 'Shine who?'. It's very frustrating for us, the band, because we want to be bigger, we want to grow," Kerch said.

The Amphitheater is an outdoor stage with a large pavilion for fans to sit comfortably underneath, with an expansive lawn surrounding the outside facing the stage.

By the time Shinedown took the stage at 7p.m., the crowd was relatively sparse, likely a consequence of the humidity and the Georgia sun still brightly shining down.

This combination of environmental factors didn't exactly lend the open-aired Amphitheater to being the ideal location for a bunch of music fans to pack in densely, dance and scream.

But those who were around early were given an outstanding performance by an unsung band with few theatrics but with some good, pure rock music.

Shinedown went through hits from their debut album Leave a Whisper such as "45", as well as songs from their latest album like "Heroes" and "I Dare You".

"I think this one's a little more stripped down. A little more straight ahead rock, not as many overdubs, and a little more classic rock style," Kerch said.

Shinedown ended their performance with the smash hit "Save Me." For the finale, singer Brent Smith left the stage and headed straight for the grassy fields, far away from the stage, with a wave of screams following his path as he made his way through the crowd and hundreds of cell phones snapping pictures.

"It's all about putting on a show. All these kids pay so much money to see a rock show. You gotta give them everything you have, night after night. If I'm sick or not in the mood, [I] still have to give it, because to them it's the first time they've seen [our] show...I might have just got in a fight with my wife, or my mortgage is late, or all these other things, but [I] still have to go out there and kill it," Kerch said.

Godsmack broke through in 1998 with their self-titled album and hasn't looked back since then.

Their fourth album, 2006's IV, has been tremendously successful like each one before it and will likely be their fourth record to go platinum in the near future.

Kerch, with an undertone of self-deprecation, explained why the band was on the tour.

"Godsmack, for some unknown reason, is a fan of ours. We love it. They said 'We want Shinedown to be the other band on this tour,' and God forbid we be the ones to deny that to those guys," Kerch said.