Shinedown Shines Bright at Boardwalk Rock 2025

By Dave Parsons

On Sunday evening, May 18, 2025, the Atlantic Ocean calmly existed a few feet away from the mammoth stage erected in the sand along the inlet beach in Ocean City, Maryland.  In this arena of surf and soul, the inaugural year of the Boardwalk Rock festival, Shinedown found the perfect crucible for their brand of melody-meets-intensity rock.

From the first chord of Dance, Kid, Dance, hearts raced, and by the time the second track glowed into Asking for It, the crowd gathered in the sand before the stage was locked into the performance. The beach transformed from seaside pleasure to a shared catharsis.

Starting out in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2001, Shinedown grew from hard-rock hopefuls into one of the most resilient and adaptable bands in rock. Brent Smith fronted them from the beginning with his raspy highs and sincere messages.  The same messages that carried hope through five studio albums. Hits like Second Chance, Sound of Madness, and Cut the Cord spoke to a generation battling burnout and distrust.  Live, they’ve always balanced ferocious guitars with open sincerity.

When Smith opened with Dance, Kid, Dance, he lurched into the mic like a preacher at a revival. His voice is as unstoppable as ever. He moves deliberately, cocking his head as a conversationalist might. Guitarist Zach Myers mixed bubbling power chords in Asking for It, and a delicious solo in Cut the Cord.  The man with the perfect name for his instrument of choice, Eric Bass, was locking them all together, and drummer Barry Kerch played with human precision.

When Smith asked fans to get their cell phones out during If You Only Knew, it was a sight that hit differently outside than in an arena.  I’m not okay, I will always be okay…. sung with a 50,000-voice choir holding their cellphones in the air, is when electric and emotional collided. 

With the crowd locked in and hearts already a little more open, Brent Smith lowered his voice and let the moment breathe, and then came the familiar notes of Devil and How Did You Love. Smith slowed his pace around the stage and he let the crowd finish entire lines, especially the heartbreakers: No one gets out alive.  

The band 3 Doors Down was supposed to have been on Boardwalk Rock right before Shinedown, but they announced May 7 that lead singer Brad Arnold has Stage 4 kidney cancer.  Shinedown dipped into Kryptonite, a 3 Doors Down cover that was an ode to the band, and the crowd went ballistic. It was delivered faithfully but with Shinedown’s polish.  Kind of like a borrowed suit tailored to fit perfectly.

And then the lights dropped again as they did an acoustic version of  Simple Man, a nod to Lynyrd Skynyrd, but more of a life of its own.  The grand finale opened with Sound of Madness,  THE song that Shinedown had on every rock station in 2008.  It still sounded fresh and furious. The crowd screamed “I created the sound of madness…” as if they truly had. And then came Second Chance.  Bands have hits, and some bands have hits that define eras. Second Chance is one of them. The opening piano notes fell like soft rain. Smith didn’t sing right away. The audience started it. By the time the band joined in, it was a full-on community moment. 

I’m not angry, I’m just saying… sometimes goodbye is a second chance.

And tonight, Boardwalk Rock didn’t want to say goodbye to Shinedown.

Setlist – Shinedown, Boardwalk Rock, Ocean City, MD (May 18, 2025)

1. Dance, Kid, Dance
2. Asking for It
3. Cut the Cord
4. If You Only Knew
5. Devil
6. How Did You Love
7. Three Six Five
8. Enemies
9. Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)
10. A Symptom of Being Human
11. Fly From the Inside
12. Planet Zero
13. Monsters
14. Kryptonite (3 Doors Down cover)
15. Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)
16. Sound of Madness
17. Second Chance