Hinder/My Darkest Days: Hard Rock Live, Biloxi, MS 1/22/11

Going to a live concert is like fresh blood to a vampire: it feeds the life back into you just when you are about to give up. With the state of music in somewhat of a pop overload, getting a dose of straight ahead in-the-gut rock & roll might seem to be getting fewer and further between. But it is out there. And on a recent Saturday night, it was living and breathing at the sold out Hard Rock via an unapologetically honest-to-goodness rock & roll band called Hinder.

No outrageous frills, no pyro, no crazy-ass costumes; just fun rock & roll shooting from the hips of vocalist Austin Winkler, drummer Cody Hanson, bassist Mike Rodden, and guitarists Blower Garvey and Mark King. Influenced heavily by the likes of Guns N Roses, Aerosmith and Motley Crue, they have stirred these big enchiladas into their pot to become the band they are today. Explained Austin, “It’s who we are, it’s us growing up and watching bands like Guns N Roses and Motley Crue and we were like that before we were in a band together; just kind of fueled each other even more once we got in the band”.

Fresh out on the road to promote their new album All American Nightmare, they lit a fuse under the crowd in Biloxi right from the beginning with the opening track, “2 Sides Of Me”, followed by “Up All Night”, “Use Me” and one of Austin’s current favorites to sing live, “What Ya Gonna Do”. “It’s one of my favorites on the record,” Austin told me a week later, calling from a freezing cold Providence, Rhode Island. “Its fun to see a lot of people singing that song that is not out yet.”

The CD, a moodier but still fun compilation of songs ready and raring to be played live, is selling quite well, despite not having much backing from most critics who see the band as ego-filled party boys with immature songs. When asked about this, Austin laughed. “We get ripped on a lot of stuff in the press and CD reviews and stuff like that but a lot of them kind of make me laugh sometimes. I mean, it’s you love us or you hate us; that’s the kind of band we are. But I definitely don’t care. It doesn’t bother me. I’m definitely not going to listen to a critic and then go in and write my CD based off somebody who doesn’t like our music. It doesn’t affect me in any way as far as what I’m still going to write about and how I’m going to write it”.

“A lot of people may just come for the softer ballad hits and then once they get there they realize we’re a rock band. We throw a big party and then leave. I think people get pleasantly surprised what they get into with a Hinder show”. And Austin was definitely right. The crowd at the Rock were packed like sardines on the floor to get as close to the music as possible. Working the stage like a cross between Steven Tyler with his flowing scarves and a sassy Perry Farrell, Austin reached out to the fans both physically and musically. Always touching hands and smiling, he brought them in and then let his band slam bang them. “All American Nightmare”, “Room 21” and “Hey Ho” had the place vibrating with the sounds of audience vocal participation.

Slowing things down a bit with the power ballads “Better Than Me” and “Lips Of An Angel”, Austin yelled out, “You guys sound beautiful”, before tearing into the autobiographical “Waking Up The Devil”. “Get your fucking devil horns in the air!” With Blower on a double-neck guitar and a strong bass and drums, the song took on a life of its own.

Hailing from Oklahoma, Hinder were selling out thousand seaters before they were ever signed. “We just did straight up rock & roll”, proclaimed Austin. “We built a big fan base … and a lot of bands there hated us cause we could do that.” Getting back to their harder roots with the new CD, Hinder plans on staying on the road for quite a while. “For the summer, we’re going to headline some fairs and do the outdoor thing; a lot of that stuff going on,” Austin told me about the band’s 2011 agenda. “We’re keeping busy for sure.” They will also be headlining clubs across the country.

Opening for Hinder was the Canadian band My Darkest Days. Featuring songs from their debut CD, they did their best to rev up a crowd anxiously awaiting the headlining act and I’d have to say the fans in attendance liked the band, especially their cover of Duran Duran’s “Come Undone” and their own popular hit “Porn Star Dancing”.

Ending their Biloxi show with two rip-roaring rockers, most people were not ready for the Hinder experience to end. “Put That Record On” is a paean to loving music from your past. “Do you guys have a song that you can put on now that can take you right back to the first time you heard it?” Austin asked. It definitely was a feel-good summer song in the middle of a cold winter. And “Get Stoned” was just rock & roll the old-fashioned way, with Cody tearing it up on the drums.

Having already been inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall Of Fame a few years back, the band has no intention of slowing down. With the new CD, Hinder hopes their fans will notice the slight adjustment to their music. “Definitely a better sense that we have grown as musicians and as people,” Austin reiterated. “I think it kind of reminds them a little of the first record, which I think they liked … Every song on the record is based on how we feel and true life experiences. I think the whole record and everything reflects on who I am and stuff”.

And what Hinder is, is a balls-to-the-wall fun-loving poster band for rock & roll in a time when pop has too much face-time.

My Darkest Days Setlist: Save Me, Stutter, Every Lie, Can’t Forget You, Come Undone, Fucked-Up Situation, Porn Star Dancing.

Hinder Setlist: 2 Sides Of Me, Up All Night, Use Me, What Ya Gonna Do, Striptease, Better Than Me, All American Nightmare, Hey Ho, Lips Of An Angel, Waking Up The Devil, Room 21. ENCORE: Put That Record On, Get Stoned.

Photos by Leslie Michele Derrough

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