Staind And Godsmack Lit The Maine Savings Amphitheater Stage On Fire Tuesday

The Maine Savings Amphitheater was filled to the brim Tuesday night, as thousands of fans gathered for a double bill of hard rock n roll.

New England Bands Godsmack and Staind first shared a stage at the Warped Tour in 1998, and have toured together before.

Having amassed over 30 years of hits, both bands drew massive crowds for a weekday concert, and the venue was hopping early, as fans started pouring in around 5 PM.

Taking to the stage first was 53-year-old, San Francisco-based, Mix Master Mike, a turntable DJ who has worked with everyone from the Beastie Boys, and Cypress Hill to Metallica.

Mike's high-energy mash-up skills were on full display when at one point he had a four-way mix of the Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane" into Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" into Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" into one of the many Beastie Boys tunes he spun throughout the evening.

The DJ got folks up and out of their seats, dancing to the driving beats.

As the sun went down over the Amphitheater, the temperatures cooled a little from the sweltering almost 90 degrees Bangor had experienced that afternoon.

But the energy inside the amphitheater was just heating up.

Staind hit the stage promptly at 7 PM, with almost no warning. They just came out and started to rock.

Starting their set with "The Lowest In Me" bandmates since 1993, Aaron Lewis, Mike Mushok, Johnny April bass, Sal Giancarelli, and John Wysocki, went right through a long list of their hits including "Eyes Wide Open", "Right Here", "Outside", "Wanna Be", "So Far Away", "It's Been A While" and ended with "Mudshovel."

Arron Lewis kept the talk to a minimum, keeping it to a few greetings and explanations of songs, but mostly kept the music rolling.

Switching from cool graphic backgrounds to clips of the band from their early days in the 90s and early 2000s, fans ate up every minute of it. The band took multiple moments to pause and listen as the crowd sang their songs back to them.

At 8:15, Staind finished their set and left the stage, and a large crew of masterful roadies lowered a huge sheet over the stage and got to work changing out sets and instruments to prepare for Godsmack.

Around 8:45, Mix Master Mike took a spot over on the side of the stage and started to hype up the crowd again.

And as the big curtain was dropped, and Godsmack took to the stage, you could tell people were primed for their second dose of rock.

Right out of the gate, Godsmack frontman, Sully Erna, started to work the crowd.

Hailing from Lawrence Mass, the band consisting of  Sully Erna, Tony Rombola on guitar, Robbie Merril on bass, and Shannon Larkin on drums, this was not the first time Godsmack has played in Bangor, Maine.

But Erna took time out of the set to comment on how proud and impressed he was that we had "finally gone legit" and built an actual amphitheater. He commented on how great it was to be back in Maine and on the road following "the last 3 years of Hell" coming through the pandemic.

Kicking their set off with "When Legends Rise" the Godsmack set when through many of the band's newer tunes, before taking fans back a bit with hits like "Bulletproof", "Voodoo" and "Under Your Scars".

At one point, Erna joined Larkin for a driving drum battle, complete with rotating drum kits and all.

Accompanied by blazing pyrotechnics, Erna really worked for the crowd, and at one point even encourage the "handsome, muscular lumber-jack looking" men of Maine to hoist their ladies up onto their shoulders so he could get a better look at the beautiful women of Bangor.

Their set ended with "I Stand Alone."

I have to say, I've been to quite a few concerts at the Maine Savings Amphitheater so far this season, and this was by far the most full I have ever seen at the venue. From the pit to the floor seats, into the second and third levels, and even back on the lawn, that place was packed.

The Staind/Godsmack Tour wraps at the end of August in Austin Texas.

It was nice to see folks enjoying themselves. It was amazing to see the Waterfront Concert Folks run that place as well as they did. And even the management and crew of the performers displayed exceptional professionalism.

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That show was run efficiently and on time...and for bands that have been doing this for over 30 years now, you can tell everything is tight and well put together. They knew how to rock!

The next big show coming up will be Santana on Wednesday, August 2nd.