Shimon More
Screaming at Demons Tour
December 11th, 2014
Omaha, Nebraska
The Waiting Room
I don’t think anyone really knew what to expect from Shimon Moore’s acoustic set. There was still a lot of drama floating around the fan community due to his departure from Sick Puppies, but Moore still has fans that know there are two sides to every story. Personally, I was there to support a friend who’s also been supportive of me and who’s music has helped me get through some really ugly times. Omaha’s The Waiting Room was the perfect venue for tonight’s show. It was on this exact stage that Sick Puppies were introduced to Omaha and the world almost a decade earlier.
The Screaming At Demons show would also a chance to have Moore answer some of their questions and give us the opportunity to hear the stories behind the songs that inspire us. Kind of like story time.
Without a word from Moore, the man walked on stage, guitar in hand, as the fans cheered, and played Riptide. Moore admitted that he wasn’t sure how tonight would go, or even what he’d be playing but Riptide seemed like the right song to open the set with. The fans, now pushing to a sold-out capacity, sung along with Moore during There’s No Going Back and Connect.
Moore told the crowd that he didn’t practice hardly at all for tonight’s show and that we could expect more than a few raw mistakes. He would however take a page ot of Chris Cornell’s book for the next song. “This’ll be a quiet jam,” he told the crowd before playing a cover of Michael Jackson’s Man In The Mirror.
Moore then opened the floor to a question.
“Are you excited to be a father?”
“I’m Fucking terrified,” Moore replied. “It’s a little girl and I’m terrified. I’m going to be like butter with her. She’s gonna set fire to the house and I’ll be like ‘It’s ok. Now we know for next time'”.
The next question was about his writing style. For Moore it feels great to write after Sick Puppies. “You write your first songs in your bedroom because it’s safe. This has always been safe,” he told the crowd. “A lot of the songs we wrote were based on fan interaction and what the fans are going through. The only reason for this music is so we don’t feel so fucking alone.”
Moore then introduced his current writing partner, Russell Ali. Moore met Ali years ago on a plane from Australia to Los Angeles, and the two promised to stay in touch and that one day they’d work together.
Ali joined Moore on All The Same, and the crowd continued to sing along to every word. For a lot of us, this was the song that first introduced s to Sick Puppies, and has the most meaning.
Moore introduced Don’t Walk Way as a song that he’d written about Sick Puppies as a whole. There were trobles brewing back then, and he says that subconsciously it was his way of dealing.
Give Me Love was one of the first songs Moore wrote with Ali. A few of the fans even knew the words. Moore was a bit shocked by this since it was only the second time he’d played the song.
He then told us the story about Maybe and how some of these songs’ meaning have drastically changed since he left Sick Puppies. “You really hear them from a new perspective when you play them like this,” he told the crowd.
Poison followed, as did a very funny story about Sick Puppies early years. Jokingly Moore told the crowd “I’ve done so many sexual favors in my career. It’s the music industry after all. I sucked so much cock in California.” The crowd burst into laughter and cheers.
Healing Now was up next, but not before Moore refused a shot from a fan, saying that he wants “the show to be great and if I have this shot it won’t be.”
The crowd sung along with Moore and Ali during Maybe. Moore was literally speechless and teary eyed at the crowd’s response to the show thus far.
“I don’t want this night to ever end. Ever,” he told us, choking up.
Moore continued his set with a story about Odd One. The band’s label at the time, Capitol Records, wasn’t convinced that it was single worthy. It took the band demanding that the execs attend a show and see how the crowd responded to the song for the label to agree to it being a single.
Asshole Father, a fan favorite during the band’s first US tour followed, and blended seemlessly into War.
After some story time from the crowd, because a lot of people didn’t understand that a Q&A meant asking questions, Moore opened up a little deeper to the fans. “I didn’t really know what I was writing about when I was writing these songs. I had a big ego because I was a rockstar. Listening to the songs now puts things into different perspective.” Moore closed his acoustic set with another original track, One Little Beat.
Moore didn’t have to return to Omaha to play this acoustic show. He could have stayed in Los Angeles or done a stint in New York. It’s because of Omaha’s love for his music and respect for him as an artist that were blessed to be a part of tonight’s historic set. Sick Puppies history started in Omaha, and it was in Omaha that Moore started the next chapter to inspiring career.
Setlist;
Riptide
There’s No Going Back
Connect
Man In The Mirror (Michael Jackson cover)
All The Same
Don’t Walk Away
Gimme Love
Poison
Healing Now
Maybe
Odd One
Asshole Father
You’re Going Down
White Balloons
Encore:
One Little Beat
