Papa Roach
DATE: Monday, February 12, 2007
VENUE: First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
WEBSITE: www.paparoach.com

Before I begin, I am going to say this: besides last year’s Beloit RiverFest which featured Shinedown and Trapt, this show was the best rock concert in the past 14 months. The shows the rest of 2007 will have their work cut out for them.

From the very beginning of the show, the band set the place off, starting the show off back-to-back with two of the most aggressive songs, “…To Be Loved” followed by “Getting Away With Murder.” If that wasn’t enough, the band then went into “Alive”. By this point the crowd is worked up beyond belief. But frontman Jacoby Shaddix doesn’t stop there.

Next up is “Time Is Running Out” (my personal favorite), a track from the band’s newest album The Paramour Sessions. Shaddix gets off stage and comes into the crowd. Right in front of me, looks me into the eye, and puts the mic in my face and I belt out part of the chorus into the mic. Not Shaddix, not the crowd, but me. Then Shaddix slaps my hand and starts heading back to the stage. He begins to climb the amps, jumps up to the balcony, ends the song there and begins the next track while still up on the balcony. There is not a better frontman in rock and roll right now than Jacoby Shaddix. Not alternative, not R&B, not rap, just rock n’ roll. No one is better than Shaddix.

After spending more time in the crowd, Shaddix introduces the next song “Not Listening” as his favorite from the band’s album Getting Away With Murder. Before playing the song “Scars”, Shaddix tells the crowd that the song saved his life. You’d think that song would be the song that the crowd participated by singing the most in – right? Wrong. It was the band’s newest single “Forever”. The sellout crowd had their lighters and cell phones out and were almost louder singing than Shaddix was on the mic.

After ending the set with the mega-hit “Last Resort”, the band momentarily left the stage then came back on for their encore performance. The 15-song, 70 minute set was wrapped up with the song “Between Angels And Insects”.

If you have never seen Papa Roach before, you are missing out on seeing a fabulous rock show and not seeing the greatest modern frontman in rock n’ roll, Jacoby Shaddix. If you’ve seen these guys, you know what I’m talking about. Try to catch them on this tour – if not, whenever the band comes to a town close to you. And if you have seen the boys before, you’ll probably agree with me that they worth going to see over and over again.

The set list from the show included the following 15 songs:
…To Be Loved
Getting Away With Murder
Alive
Time Is Running Out
Not Listening
Crash
She Loves Me Not
Dead Cell
Broken Home
Forever
Reckless
Scars
Born With Nothing, Die With Everything
Last Resort
ENCORE
Between Angels And Insects

PHOTOS: Asif