hard rock

Staind

2 festivals played

Aaron Lewis-fronted Massachusetts band whose heavy, confessional post-grunge dominated late-'90s and 2000s rock radio — reunited and playing loud again.

Staind formed in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1995, with Aaron Lewis on vocals, Mike Mushok on guitar, Johnny April on bass and Jon Wysocki on drums. The band came up alongside the nu metal wave of the late 1990s, and its early records paired downtuned, heavy guitar with Lewis's plainspoken, often bleak lyrics about addiction, family and self-doubt.

The 2001 album Break the Cycle brought the band to a much wider audience, led by the ballad "It's Been Awhile," and several further albums followed through the 2000s. Staind went quiet in the mid-2010s while Lewis pursued a solo career in country music, then reconvened at the end of the decade and returned to touring and recording. Live, the band's set tends to move between the heavier material and the acoustic-leaning songs that became radio staples.