Skillet and their cohorts fried up the stage at Rockford’s Coronado Theatre on Tuesday, April 1st.
Hot on the heels of the release of their fifth album, Comatose, the hard-rock band has been hitting the road with fellow rockers Decyfer Down and Thousand Foot Krutch as part of the promotional tour for their new CD.
The opening act- Decyfer Down- kicked off a high adrenaline show with several new songs from their upcoming yet-to-be-named album, then finished the set with songs from their debut album End of Grey.
As far as most opening bands go, Decyfer Down warmed up the still piling in crowd with their powerful lyrics and the hard to miss stage presence of their front man/bassist Caleb Oliver kept the audience on its feet with their hands waving. Songs like “Burn Back the Sun” and “Break Free” had new fans rushing the merchandising tables for CDs, and shirts.
The next group to perform was the Canadian rock quartet; Thousand Foot Krutch. Out in promotion of their new CD The Flame in All of Us, released in late 2007 the album has already been hailed by fans and media as the groups best CD to date. Playing the title tracks “The Flame in All of Us” and “My Own Enemy” along with several fan favorites such as “Rawkfist,” “Move” and the ballad “Breath You In” kept the fans screaming/singing along with lead vocalist Trevor McNevan all evening.
Breaking into the music industry in the late 90s the band has seen three of its five albums reach the top 100 in Billboard sales.
At one point during the set McNevan snuck off stage and ran into the audience with a search light that was segued by various audio clips from news reportings of school shootings beginning with Columbine’s tragedy and ending with the recent NIU shootings audio. The intimacy created by the song and the heartstrings that were tugged by the beginning tracks drew a somber hush over the previously roaring audience.
Finishing off their set with a few more songs from their new CD TFK filed off stage after a short curtain call.
Then in a single moment all the “Panheads” (fans of Skillet) erupted when the entire amphitheater went dark. With a single spotlight fading up on a cellist, on top of a stack of amplifiers, strumming the opening lines of the albums titled track “Comatose” with the band running onto the stage to kick off the beginning of their set.
Never being ones to deprive their fans of an entertaining show Skillet frontman John Cooper told the audience that he was “going to shut up and just play some rock and roll.” Which was followed by a set of songs that entailed an awesome light show and lots of fan interaction with high-fives being thrown out by all mobile members of the band-the drummer obviously couldn’t get up and give high-fives.
Having toured with bands like Breaking Benjamin, Saliva, Seether, Three Days Grace and Staind, Skillet has created a large fanbase, but remains loyal to their roots as an inspirational rock band. With songs like “Comatose,” “Whispers in the Dark,” “The Last Night” and “Rebirthing” offering new hope, instead of a lot of hard rock’s more prominent bands “emo,” self-pitying lyrics.
In her first tour with the band, Skillet’s newest drummer- 18 year-old, Jen Ledger- proved to be a great addition as she not only performed the songs flawlessly, but also came out from her behind her set to sing a solo and a duet with pianist/guitarist Korey Cooper (John’s wife) during the song “Yours to Hold.”
Originating as a Christian band and breaking into the mainstream airwaves with their album Collide has given the band a whole new market to share their style of rock and roll. The Tennessee natives have earned national recognition with songs like “Savior” and “Collide” from the 2003 hit album Collide.
Formed in the late 90s Skillet has seen several members come and go, but they have never stopped doing the two things that give them sold-out venues: always focus on the fans, and always write about hope and faith.
Having gone through several different sounds such as a style of techno/electronic rock, the group has adapted their music help them reach a group of young music lovers with their unique and personal lyrics.
As another way to get the fans more involved in the show, local radio station 101QFL was running a text message based contest where fans would text a specific word to a number and prizes would be issued to the 101st texter.
One of the prizes was a chance to hang out with opening band: Decyfer Down- along with QFL and band merchandise and the final contest that was announced during Skillet’s set which had a grand prize of two free week-long passes to the Cornerstone Music Festival in Bushnell, IL from June 30th- July 5th.
While the series of concerts and potential of winning the prizes in the texting “raffles” were well worth the admission price of $22 the merchandise was extremely overpriced at $30 for t-shirts and $50 for hoodies for all the bands.
The Comatose Tour will be concluding in Lancaster, PA on May, 11th. If you missed them this time around, you can trek down to see Skillet perform along with hundreds of other bands in Bushnell, IL on July, 2nd at the Cornerstone Music Festival.
To check out more on these bands you can check out their websites at DecyferDown.com, ThousandFootKrutch.com, TheFlameinAllofUs.com, Skillet.com or MySpace.com/SkilletMusic
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