Away Team

Sunday, November 27, 2011 – Rams Head Live, Baltimore, MD

Photos by Marcy J Royce

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Setlist:
Spleen
Falling
Right Here
Eyes Wide Open
Fade
Crawl
Failing
So Far Away
Throw It All Away
Country Boy(Aaron Lewis song)
For You
Paper Wings
Outside
Not Again
It’s Been Awhile
Mudshovel
Encore:
Something to Remind You

On the heels of their self titled and seventh release in September 2011, STAIND kicked off their current headlining tour just 2 days before they pulled into my area in Baltimore, MD. I own several STAIND cd’s, but it’s beyond my comprehension as to why I had not yet caught them live. Other things in life keeping me busy I guess. So here was my chance.

I learned it was a sold out show a few weeks earlier so I just knew Baltimore was licking its chops to dig into STAIND on the Rams Head Live stage. One of the BEST places to catch a live, intimate performance. Albeit the place holds around 1600-1700, so it’s not too intimate but not a arena. We arrived just 30 minutes before Egypt Central jump started the night. (Read Egypt Central’s show review under their photos). Next was Adelitas Way. And finally at 9:45pm, STAIND took the stage to a crowd frothing at the mouth. The energy was high and the screams deafening. I was anxious to see new drummer, Sal Giancarelli, but not my luck from the pit. The drum riser was too high for this short gal. But I would get my chance later during the set. But before the band came out I was entranced by Aaron’s mic stand and the plethora of picks on both sides. See my first photo. Pretty cool, and entertaining to see what some of them had to say. Ha Ha!

STAIND dove right into the night with Spleen, followed by Falling, and then Right Here. Fairly good choices to start the set. I was okay with it. I snapped off quite a few photos in the pit during those first three songs. Interesting LEDs had me waiting for the good light. Red is not a good color for photos, as I tell my husband all the time since he’s an LD himself. I was captivated my Mike Mushok, that man can groove. And he’s really feeling the music he plays. And I thoroughly enjoyed Johnny April. Loved his bass and the way he played with the crowd and me. He smiled for me a time or two and I captured that. BONUS! Next I made my way to higher ground, in the stadium seating area. From there I FINALLY got to witness new drummer Sal. Not bad, he’s still getting used to his new shoes though. I will wait and see what he does in his future with STAIND before I have a full opinion of him. I do have a thing for drummers and will follow what he does in the coming months.

As I finished off my last photos from the second floor, I decided it was time to place my camera in my bag and go back down to the first floor and enjoy the show as a fan. I really enjoyed Throw It All Away, Paper Wings, Eyes Wide Open, Not Again and Failing from the newly released album. I need to listen more to this cd. It takes me about a dozen times to truly give a cd a fair assessment. So Far Away and Mudshovel were perfect for the set. But I do question why Mudshovel was not the encore. Seems to me it would be a better fit than Something To Remind You. But this is just my opinion. The band has its reasons. I respect that. But I hope they do give some thought to changing it. All in all the show was fabulous. So glad I had the opportunity to catch it this time through my area.

Special thanks to Kymm Britton of 60 Cycle Media for making it all happen for me and the Away-Team.