Staind at the Mystic Showroom

The crowd that packed the Mystic Showroom April 20 wasn’t the quiet type. As Staind ran through its 14-year career in less than two hours, an near-nostalgic crowd sang almost every word to each of the band’s post-grunge classics.

But when frontman Aaron Lewis came back onstage for an encore performance of “Intro,” the crowd went silent. Lewis performed the song completely naked – no microphone, no amplifier. An acoustic guitar was the only thing backing up his voice as it cracked its way through the lyrics – “Thank you to the people in my life, for putting up with me…” – all the while, audience members inched forward, trying to get their ears as close to the singer as possible.

It was an incredibly intimate moment for fans like Matthew Kizer of Hutchinson. Kizer had previously seen Staind perform, but said the band’s Mystic Lake Casino Hotel show was a totally new experience – in part, at least, because of Lewis’ encore.

“It was amazing,” Kizer said. “That was completely different. I still have goose bumps.”

The raw acoustic performance capped off a night that was exactly what Lewis promised in an interview last month: pure and unpretentious.

“We’ve always been a band that puts our amps and our rigs and everything else onstage and … let the music speak,” Lewis said. “You know, I don’t even really say much in between songs if I say anything at all. I don’t – there’s no reason to.”

True to his word, Lewis and his bandmates ripped through songs like “So Far Away,” “Outside” and “Mudshovel” with urgency and an intensity that many bands lose after playing their songs for as long as Staind has played theirs. (“Mudshovel,” one of the band’s earliest singles, was released in 1999.)

Throughout the show, Lewis and bassist Johnny April mostly just stood in front of their microphones as they played. There were no rock star antics or cheesy concert effects. A simple light show complemented the band’s set – dark reds and blues seemed to accompany Lewis’ more introspective lyrics, and light colors showed up around the more optimistic tunes.

The show’s highlights came during “For You” and “Mudshovel.” The crowd took over during each of those songs. Lewis’ voice was nearly drowned out while singing the “For You” chorus.

And during the last song of the set, “Mudshovel,” an intense energy seemed to sweep the entire room. Lewis put down his guitar and – for the first time – walked around the stage as he sang.

As Mike Mushok’s guitar swung wildly from side-to-side and Lewis growled through the song, the crowd chanted every word.

Band and crowd seemed to feed off each other throughout the night. In all, it was a raw, no-nonsense display of what rock ‘n’ roll shows should be.