Shinedown, Evanescence, The Struts & More Ignite Philly Concert Season

On what may have been a perfect spring day, Philly’s iconic rock station 93.3 WMMR held their 12th annual WMMR*B*Q one day festival at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, NJ kicking off the concert season, this year’s line up included Siravo, Bad Wolves, The Glorious Sons, Fozzy, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, The Struts, Evanescence and Shinedown.

The show got started around 1:30PM with Philaldephia’s own Siravo, who were chosen to open the show by WMMR’s DJ Jaxon. The energy from Siravo would be a prelude to what we were going to see on probalby the nicest day of the year so far in Philadelphia area. The band’s bassist, Andrew Cooper, was a ball of energy, his non-stop strutting, jumping, bending, and kicking all while slappin’ the bass made it hard to take your eyes of of him. They were the perfect choice to open what is sure to be one of the most memorable shows this year in the Philly area.

Bad Wolves were up next and were probably the heaviest of the bands to perform. Climbing to fame on the back of their fantastic cover of the Cranberries “Zombie” they now have another hit with “Remember When” being played on all rock stations across the country. While performing their final song of the day “Zombie,” Vext put on a Philadelphia 76ers jersey and thanked the fans and let them know he was celebrating 10 years sober and that they would be back later in the year at The Met with Papa Roach.

The Glorious Sons were up 3rd, this was their second time to the Philadephia area this year as they performed between periods at the NHL Stadium Series at Lincoln Financial Field back in February. Lead singer Brett Emmons, barefoot and all, belted out a 6 song set which included one of their most popular songs to date S.O.S (Sawed Off Shotgun). The band finished off their time on stage with “Kill The Lights.”

Chris Jerichos’ Fozzy ended the general admission part of the day by strutting his stuff around the stage in a studded leather jacket while singing songs like “Judas”, “Drinkin With Jesus” and “Painless.” Like jumping off the top rope, Jericho launched himself into the pit during the bands performance of “Burn Me Out.” We were just glad no one in the crowd caught a “Flying Elbow.”

-After a short intermission, the BB&T Pavilion was just about at max capacity and ready for the second wave of bands, any of which could have been the headliner.

Starting off this second wave and was one of the bands we at DNM were most looking forward to, was the rock n roll legend, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Still looking like the Joan Jett from 80’s, Jett captured the crowd’s attention with hits like “Bad Reputation,” “Cherry Bomb,” and “Do You Wanna Touch Me.” Watching Jett step away from the mic to perform some of those iconic riffs was amazing. She finshed off her 13 songs set with 3 of her top hits “I Love Rock’n’ Roll, ” “Crimson & Clover,” and “I Hate Myself For Loving You.”

Up next was glam rock band The Struts, covered in glitter, lead singer Luke Spiller strutted and gyrated around the stage like a young Mick Jagger. The Struts seem to come back to the Philly area multiple times a year and you can clearly see why. The fans in this area absolutely adore this super talented band from the UK. Some of them even firing off glitter bombs of their own during portions of The Struts performance. Their 11 song set included their hits “Body Talks,” “Kiss This,” and end with “Could Have Been Me.”

As the sun was setting on this beautiful day, Evanescence took to the darkened stage. Amy Lee, who still looked and sounded as amazing as she did when the band first burst on to the scene in the early 2000’s, started of their set with 2011’s “What You Want” which lead right into the riff heavy “Going Under.” As great as it was to see Evanscence perform with an orchestra last year at the same venue, there is something about hearing these songs as they were originally meant to be heard. The rest of the 13 song set included some of the best the band has to offer, like “Sweet Sacrifice,” “Call Me When You’re Sober,” and the set ended with “Bring Me To Life.”

Hitting the stage at a little after 10PM Shinedown was the “grand finale” in this day full of “fireworks.” With plent of pyro, explosions and friggin laser beams, Brent Smith and the boys commanded the stage and the Camden, NJ crowd right from the get go with the song “Devil” from their latest album “Attention Attention. ” A highlight of their set was a cover of Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Simple Man” which turned into a crowd sing along. The energy and stage presence of Shinedown, along with the number of hit songs the band has amassed over their almost 20 year career made them a great choice to end this year’s MMRBQ.