Papa Roach at Terminal 5

Jacoby Shaddix approached the audience

Papa Roach began in January 1993, when lead singer Jacoby Shaddix of Vacaville, California, and some schoolmates entered Vacaville High School's talent show, performing Jimi Hendrix's "Fire." In March 1993, lead guitarist Jerry Horton from nearby Vanden High School joined the new band. The band's name comes from Shaddix's step-grandfather, Howard William Roatch, who was nicknamed Papa Roach. The band started with a nu metal and rapcore sound and gravitated to a softer alternative rock over the 2000s, maintaining its fans and selling more than 20 million albums worldwide. Papa Roach's eighth studio album, F.E.A.R. (Face Everything and Rise), will release on January 27, 2015. Papa Roach presently is comprised of founding members Shaddix and Horton, bassist Tobin Esperance and drummer Tony Palermo.

At Terminal 5 tonight, Papa Roach performed almost all of the band's top radio songs; the only surprise was the omission of "She Loves Me Not" from Lovehatetragedy. Although the band has a new album, only the title track and the current single "Broken as Me" were in the set list. One surprise was starting "Broken Home" with the chorus from Eminem’s "Lose Yourself." The rest of the set was comprised of the more familiar songs, including "Getting Away with Murder", "Scars" and "Last Resort." The spike-haired and heavily tattooed Shaddix, wearing a t-shirt and a vest from his clothing line, Lovers Are Lunatics, took many opportunities to enthuse the audience by charmingly exhorting the fans about what a great audience they were or by asking them to bounce to the beat. This strong stage presence helped deflect attention away from his singing voice, which was not particularly strong tonight and frequently strained at the higher range. The band occasionally changed tempos and intensity, but Shaddix sounded consistently like Jon Bon Jovi -- commercial, catching and hard rocking without breaking any rules. Papa Roach brought energy and power to what essentially remained radio rock. For something a bit less standard, look elsewhere.

Visit Papa Roach at www.paparoach.com.