Shinedown Made Us “Dance, Kid, Dance” at Little Caesars Arena
Shinedown brought their ‘Dance, Kid, Dance’ tour to Little Caesars Arena on Friday, July 25 to eager fans that were ready to rock. They were backed up by the rock band Bush, and country rock singer Morgan Wade.
MORGAN WADE
This was our first exposure to Morgan Wade, as we don’t partake a ton in the Country Music label, but with the southern-esque roots that Shinedown has, it’s not a surprise that they brought on someone who fringes country onto the tour. There’s not a ton out there on her other than her early days, but one of her notables is that she also opened for Alanis Morissette in 2024. She held her own with her backing band, but also walked the Shinedown-created stage that extended her out to the crowd as the stand-out performer.
BUSH
Bush always puts on a great performance. While there are many people who are rock radio single / surface-level Bush fans only, many of them spoke post-show online at how good Bush has maintained their sound while still sounding very current.
Frontman Gavin Rossdale strutted down to the end of the Shinedown-designed stage to perform close up to the fans, jumping and dancing along before retreating to the stage to collect his guitar. They performed an 11-song set, which included an a cappella and a solo performance from Rossdale of their hits “Swallowed” and “Glycerine.”
SHINEDOWN
Shinedown are the kings of performance. While you wouldn’t expect an arena rock band without a gimmick to be theatrical, Shinedown puts on the dramatics while still maintaining their rockstar flow. As we’ve mentioned in previous paragraphs, the staging for the ‘Dance, Kid, Dance’ tour was intricate, with platforms that went in a couple of different directions to create branches for each member to walk out to and perform at for specific songs. As photographers, we were not granted to be in this area during Shinedown’s performance, but we got to see how the sausage was made during the performance from Bush.
The band played their title track for the tour “Dance, Kid, Dance,” followed by “Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide,” which according to Setlist.FM is the first time they’ve played that live since 2018, and it was a debut for the tour in general. “Cut The Cord” was the final song the press was able to witness, with pyro on cue at the high spots of the song. If you’re a veteran of a Shinedown concert, you know when to expect the loud pops, but it’s never boring or predictable due to the performance itself, the fans, and more. From where we were allowed to photograph, fans were directly in front of us, and as you can see from the images, many people had their hands in the air, creating a more intimate experience for everyone involved.
Shinedown played 18 songs in their set, including fan favorites like “Second Chance,” “Sound of Madness,” “Monsters,” “Planet Zero,” and “Diamond Eyes,” leaving fans fully satisfied with consuming a career-spanning catalog. You can catch Shinedown on the road at other tour dates by heading to shinedown.com to find a remaining stop near you.