The 5 O’Clock Shadow: September 11, 2019
Today’s Shadow is a tribute to all the lives we lost and the loss of innocence we all experienced on 9/11/01
I scoured through dozens of blog threads and articles and found the original band and their music is by far the most mentioned in conjunction with 9/11. Perhaps it was because of their raw, candle lit closing performance on America’s Tribute to Heroes – September 21, 2001 or maybe it is because they performed during Super Bowl halftime less than 6 months after the 9/11 attacks. Many may have questioned the choice to have non-Americans play the Super Bowl Halftime Show just a few months after 9/11, but the set they chose accompanied by a screen showing the names of the lives lost in our national tragedy somehow managed to harness the excitement of the football game while still acknowledging the pain the country was suffering in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. Today’s Shadow was the last song in their 3 song post 9/11 Super Bowl set.
The Shadow artist opened for the original artist when they played Fed-Ex back in 2009. Prior to that they, surprisingly to a lot of people based on the fact they were already headlining sold out shows in Europe, opened for My Chemical Romance at Merriweather in 2007. They now headline their own arena shows all over the world. They are a very loud trio.
The song’s hook is a repeating guitar arpeggio using a delay effect, played during the song’s introduction and again at the end. It was produced by Brian Eno. The song was performed on a Los Angeles rooftop for the filming of its music video.
Bonus clue: The original bands lead guitarist also plays on the Shadow version.
