Shinedown w/ Bush, Morgan Wade at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)

“A lot can happen in a year”–

Make that just shy of two, as Jacksonville, FL hard rock band Shinedown last visited the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City in September 2023, but they’re back- bigger and better- and armed with several new singles, ahead of a brand-new album, expected out in March 2026.

The evening began with a direct and focused seven-song set from Virginia singer-songwriter Morgan Wade, in support of a new 11-track album, The Party Is Over (recovered), just out this same week via RCA Nashville and is a follow-up to last year’s acclaimed Obsessed.

The record is a collection of new songs, demos, and previously unreleased tracks and an ideal jumping-on point to experience her Country Rock sound. We say Country Rock, but Wade is labeled as being mostly Country, though she leans much more into her guitar-heavy rock influences for this tour, and played three songs from the new release.

The set began with the new “High in Your Apartment,” about a loveless hookup, she worked in a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” that found Wade starting the song vocally in an almost unrecognizable lower tone before raising her voice as the song progressed, and the set would end with Wade exiting, as the band continued playing, seguing into Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” as their tribute to the recently lost Ozzy Osbourne.

Ten studio albums in, London’s Bush has proven to be one of the most resilient and steadfast bands of the mid-90s grunge and subsequent post-grunge eras. The new album is I Beat Loneliness (released July 18 via earMusic) and in terms of original members, singer-songwriter Gavin Rossdale is the last man standing in terms of original members, though the long-haired bearded guitarist friend to his right, Chris Traynor, has been at his side for over two decades.

Rossdale is a veteran live performer, evidenced by him spending longer on the B-stage, elevated platforms, amongst the front pit, and then racing throughout the arena during “Flowers on a Grave”, than standing out front on the main stage. When he was there, guitar in hand, playing those mid-90s hits like “Machinehead” and “Everything Zen” that still get regular airplay, the crowd was right there with him, cheering the band on and dancing from their seats.

“Glycerine” was especially poignant, beginning with a solo Rossdale and only his own guitar, before Traynor, bassist Corey Britz, and drummer Nik Hughes joined to finish the song with full energy, and their near-hour set ended with hit, “Comedown”, something their most loyal fans didn’t want to come back down from this cloud, either.

Almost twenty-five years into the game, mainstream hard rockers Shinedown keep pushing boundaries and have been presenting a show that’s uniquely theirs and stretches the definition of what an arena-headlining band can or should be.

Case in point, the house lights dimmed to the intro music of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and a mystery person in a dark suit with a lit TV on his head, stumbled about the stage before getting some assistance to regain his balance and start to dance. Vintage TV clips like broken transmissions flashed across the large, curved back screen and a countdown provided the transition between the concept opening, and the entrance of the band.

The band emerged to start their headlining set with new single, “Dance, Kid, Dance” as pyro blazed from the stage edge, along the back behind the drum kit, at the center of the B-stage, and even from above the main stage- it may have felt like triple-digits outside in the humidity, but the blasts of warmth from the fireballs threatened to exceed that inside, on just the opening song.

The main stage runway was used often, as singer Brent Smith reveled in connecting with the fans, and guitarist Zach Myers and bassist Eric Bass often dashed out front as well, to land on right and left that split from the B-stage in a Y-shape. In addition to the pyro, the band typically brings another type of ‘heat’ to their live show- the power to relate and connect with their audience, who is composed of an age range from pre-teen kids to retirees, which is an impressive feat in itself.

Things got emotional early as Smith asked in a heartfelt way, for a moment of silence for someone lost in each of our lives, to try and collectively conjure them all back, if just for a moment.

The video wall became filled with faces from old photographs as the band launched into new single, “Three Six Five” with Smith doing his part lyrically to help them return: “Even though I said all of the things that mattered most, while I held on tight to the end of the rope, I could keep you close but I couldn’t keep you here, A lot can happen in a year.”

He also would mention the band’s commitment to $1 from each ticket to benefit Musicians On Call and their mission to bring the healing the power of music to patients, families and caregivers in healthcare environments, as they have to over one million people and counting.

He connected further with the audience, singling out a girl who held a sign high that it was her seventeenth birthday and had the crowd sing to her, and was often seen autographing fan-made signs as he and the band made their way to and from the center B-stage.

A short acoustic set from that B-stage brought drummer Barry Kerch in closer to the audience as well, banging on a secondary kit and bassist Bass switched to piano for 2008’s “Call Me” which ended with a Tears for Fears’ “Head over Heels” chorus of crowd ‘na-na-na’s’.

“TV Boy” from the show’s beginning, would make a brief second appearance, dancing on a platform at the back of the arena and now wearing a Mahomes Chiefs jersey. But, we didn’t quite connect the dots on the overall concept, which should make more sense once the new record is released.

Moving back to the main stage, 2008’s “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)” featured more pyro, flash bangs, and actual indoor fireworks (all bringing the ‘boom’ to the song) and that was followed by their recent massive song, “A Symptom of Being Human” from 2022’s seventh studio album, Planet Zero (Atlantic Records).

That song has notched well over over 100 million streams and crossed over (with the help of a remix) to chart on the Pop Charts as well as Rock and Alternative, to resonate its unifying theme of human connections mattering the most above all, making for the band’s widest audience to date.

Guitarist Myers declared KC to be the “best Tuesday night crowd we’ve ever had” to even more noise of course, adding, “If a crowd sucks, I’ll let them know.” Played the night before in MN, Myers reprised his cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain” from the B-stage for a second night, with the entire band (and all 10,000+ in the crowd) joining in for the Lynyrd Skynyrd cover of “Simple Man.”

From there, it was back to the main stage, with all lights, effects, and fire blazing for the triple threat ending of three of the band’s biggest hits, 2018’s “Monsters,” and 2008’s “Sound of Madness” and “Second Chance.” And then, it was ‘sometimes goodbye’ until their next stop in the area- look for Shinedown to undoubtedly return again on a full tour for the upcoming record, to mesmerize and amaze once more, to prove again that a lot can happen in a year.

BELOW PHOTOS BY JASON DOMINGUES (click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)

SHINEDOWN at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)

SHINEDOWN at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)

SHINEDOWN at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)

BUSH at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)

BUSH at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)

MORGAN WADE at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-07-29)