View the original article here.
Godsmack, at the Tweeter Center, Mansfield, last night.
The hometown crowd gave as good as they got last night at the Tweeter Center as Boston-spawned hard rockers Godsmack played a tight and energetic 80 minute set.
Whether empowered by the newly platinum status of its third album, "Faceless'' - it reached the million-sales milestone in a short five weeks - or the cheering crowd of 13,000 - which included the band's families and was one of the biggest of their current tour - the quartet had energy to burn to match its copious onstage pyro.
The critical rap on Godsmack has always been that its noir-ish post-grunge metal sound is too derivative. But hearing echoes of Alice in Chains or Metallica or Led Zeppelin in the heavy riffs didn't detract from the impact of the set.
Beginning with the current jackhammering hit ``Straight Out of Line'' and all the way through the final encore of the eruptive ``I Stand Alone'' the band seemed to be enjoying themselves cavorting on their simple industrial-themed stage.
And no matter how dark the sentiment or spleen-bursting the rage, even the scabrous ``I (Expletive) Hate You'' never got scary.
Lead singer Sully Erna literally threw himself into the show with both physical and vocal gusto and his menacing growl was in fine form. However, it was new drummer Shannon Larkin who stole much of the spotlight with his manic grin and wild gesticulations as he threw his long arms into the air and came down with a satisfying crunch, imbuing many of the songs with a heretofore unheard splash of funk.
Erna and Larkin teamed up for a late-set drum solo. The duo managed the unbelievable feat of making the banal concert staple both funky and fun and highlighted both their skills at tasty fills and some eye-popping synchronicity. Erna played on a kit above Larkin and a pair of percussionists joined them at the side of the stage.
A pair of scantily clad bellydancers appeared for the undulating, snake charmer grooves of ``Voodoo.''
There were a few lulls in the set, notably during a tedious, spacy jam and a short run of indistinguishable, midtempo ragefests but the band wisely kept the set short enough to keep yawns to a minimum.
Openers Cold toed the nu-metal line and did little to distract from the actually very chilly temperatures in Mansfield.