Having spent the last few months on the road offering glimpses of their new album, Break the Cycle, “It’s Been Awhile” since Staind returned to their hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Which helps explain why the estimated crowd of more than 4,000 fans waiting hours in line for an autograph session Thursday at the Westfield Shoppingtown Mall in nearby Enfield, Connecticut, gave the subdued quartet a hero’s welcome.
According to industry buzz, Staind’s second major-label album is perched to outsell last week’s Billboard 200 albums chart-topper, Tool’s Lateralus, by approximately 50,000 copies (see). A member of the band’s camp claimed to have heard that Break the Cycle sold 250,000 copies Tuesday, its day of release. If the prediction holds true, it would mark the second week in a row that a rock album debuted at #1, following months of pop and hip-hop titles in the top slot.
“I didn’t expect those first-day sales for sure,” singer Aaron Lewis said humbly yesterday while mentally prepping for a three-hour signing session. “I would have been extremely ecstatic for having that as first-week sales. For that to be our first-day sales is just unfathomable.”
Staind will spend the Memorial Day weekend performing at radio festivals in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and Washington, D.C., before resuming their Open Your Eyes Tour, with Cold and Puddle of Mudd, Wednesday (May 30) in Norfolk, Virginia.