Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin Started a Riot in New Jersey

Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin are four weeks in on their co-headlining US tour and made a stop last week at the home of the New Jersey Devils, the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

After the opening band Return To Dust got the New Jersey crowd's blood pumping, the first headling band Three Days Grace was up next. Three Days Grace is a rock band from Ontario, Canada that was formed in the early 2000's. The band received instant popularity with the release of their debut single "I Hate Everything About You" in 2003 and have released a total of eight studio albums; the first four, Three Days Grace, One-X, Life Starts Now and Transit of Venus with founding lead vocalist Adam Gontier and then three more, Human, Outsider and Explosions with their second lead vocalist Matt Walst. Just last month, the band released their eighth studio album Alienation which features both lead vocalists at the same time. The whole band is made up of Adam Gontier (vocals/rhythm guitar), Matt Walst (vocals/rhythm guitar), Barry Stock (lead guitar), Brad Walst (bass) and Neil Sanderson (drums) and are signed to RCA Records.

Three Days Grace made their way to the stage from the crowd wearing yellow boxing robes to the LL Cool J song, "Mama Said Knock You Out" which slowly transitioned into the intro the One-X song "It's All Over". It wasn't long after where members Brad Walst, Neil Sanderson and Barry Stock appeared on stage and the fans got hooked the second Walst played the iconic "Animal I Have Become" bass intro. Everyone was off their feet and sang every single word with co-lead vocalists Adam Gontier and Matt Walst. Both Adam and Matt shared verses and sang together on the chorus and gave each other, as well as the other members, a standing ovation. The next song was the Matt Walst era song "So Called Life" from the 2022 album Explosions and Matt largely took center stage vocal-wise but that didn't stop Adam from throwing some vocals here and there. The band pulled out all the stops when it came to their hits, with songs like "Home", "Pain", "The Mountain", "I Hate Everything About You", "The Good Life" and "I Am Machine", "Break", and "Time of Dying". Throughout the whole night, Matt was leading the crowd into "THREE DAYS GRACE!" chants while the logo flashed on the LED Screen. On certain songs like "Break", "I Am Machine", and "Riot", Adam and Matt sang their own separate verses and sang together on the chorus while also seeking the help of the voices from the crowd as well who were happy to assist. For the performances of "Home", "I Hate Everything About You", "Pain", "Time of Dying" and "The Good Life", Matt picked up a guitar and provided rhythm guitar and backup vocals, allowing Adam to take the spotlight, only for Adam to return the favor and pick up the guitar for the Matt Walst era songs "The Mountain" and the first song Three Days Grace released with Matt; "Painkiller". Before getting into "The Mountain", Adam gave a brief history of the band and the albums they released over the years, leading into him explaining he left the band in 2013 which was met with boos from the crowd. He then explained, and praised, how he saw the band kept going and thanked Matt for helping keep the band afloat and introduced "The Mountain" which was what the band kept climbing all these years.

In August, the band released their eighth album Alienation and it was the first album to feature both current lead vocalist Matt Walst and returning/founding lead vocalist Adam Gontier following his shocking return to the band last year. Adam was Three Days Grace's original vocalist from 2001 to 2013, where he would leave the band in January of that year, just three months after the release of their fourth album, Transit of Venus, for various reasons. Since then Matt Walst, the younger brother of Brad, took up vocal duties initially as a fill-in before joining the band full-time in 2014. Matt would then appear on the band's next three albums; Human, Outsider, and Explosions while Adam performed in his band, Saint Asonia. I remember getting out of class in high school when I first heard the news of Adam's departure and I was shocked as they were gonna kick off the Transit of Venus Tour in February of that year. I wasn't sure how I felt about them continuing with a new singer because Adam had such a unique voice but Matt blew away my expectations. I was equally shocked when they announced his return to the band and that they were keeping Matt as a lead vocalist as well. It's not unheard of for a band to have more than one lead vocalists but in this case, this was something special and not heard of before but I knew it was gonna work when I first listened to "Mayday". The band played three songs off the new release; "Mayday", which was the first single they released that featured both vocalists, and "Apologies" and "Kill Me Fast". For the majority of "Mayday", Matt got up close and personal with the crowd and got up to the barricade to sing with the fans up front. Some crowd surfers took this opportunity to surf to him to get their chance at singing with him and Matt closed the song out with a raspy scream. The chemistry between Adam and Matt is amazing and their vocals bounced off each other perfectly and were having a blast sharing vocals on the songs. No egos, no pride, just two friends singing songs and performing together.

To give everyone a small break from all the chaos and energy, everyone from the band exited the stage except Adam, who took center stage with a guitar and performed a slow, solo rendition of Alice In Chain's "Rooster". The whole arena stood still and sang every single word with Adam. Three Days Grace's set was coming to a close but there was one very important song that they haven't played yet. One that has touched so many people and has saved so many lives of people going through dark times and it's off the band's signature sophomore album One-X. Before getting into it, Adam talked about how fortunate it is to him and the band that people keep telling them that their music has gotten them through tough times. He also pointed out to the fans that their support has gotten THEM through dark times as well and the crowd roared in response. Three Days Grace has the reputation of making music that helps people get through whatever it is they are going through in life and creating personal, relatable lyrics and this next song was no exception. In fact, it's the one song that gets brought up the most and it's evident why. We all knew what song he was talking about but those that didn't, knew once Barry played the iconic opening acoustic line. The whole room got their phone lights out, lighting up the whole arena and sang every single word to "Never Too Late" with Adam. It's been almost twenty years since the song came out and it still hits hard every time the band plays that song. "Never Too Late" never fails to bring the emotion out in people and the moshing had stopped because everyone on the floor was too busy singing with sheer emotion and letting out all of their feelings. After making everyone emotional, the band had one more song left and it was set to end their set with a bang. Matt led the crowd into chanting the last song "Riot" before Stock played that iconic opening riff which took me back to my WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 days. Matt called for more moshing and more crowd surfing. The pits on both sides of the floor opened back up and the crowd surfing kicked up to 11 as soon as Adam and Matt shouted "LETS START A RIOT!". The fans were singing so loud, it almost over took Adam and Matt's singing completely. Matt made his way back into the crowd but climbed up the steps on the other side to sing with some of the lucky fans sitting in those seats and made his way back to the stage while letting out one last growl to close out "Riot" and Three Days Grace's explosive set. The band thanked New Jersey and took one last bow before walking off while Matt had the crowd chant "THREE DAYS GRACE!" one more time.

It was now time for Breaking Benjamin, the well-renowned 2000's rock band that has been killing it since 1999. The band is from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and was formed by frontman/rhythm guitarist Benjamin Burnley with the rest of the lineup consisting of Jasen Rauch (lead guitar), Keith Wallen (rhythm guitar), Aaron Bruch (bass/vocals) and live drummer James Cassells (Asking Alexandria, drums).

The lights went out and Prudential was filled with the sound of Gregorian chants from the speakers. Eventually, the red lights that lit up the curtain slowly formed into the band's logo which the crowd erupted to in response and then, the curtain dropped and Breaking Benjamin kicked it off into full gear with their 2024 single "Awaken". The whole room started singing along the second Burnley sang the first word and it was electrifying. It was at this show that I found out, despite Breaking Benjamin being from Pennsylvania, Burnley himself is actually from south New Jersey, thus technically making this a hometown show. Guitarists Jasen Rauch and Keith Wallen then played the opening riffs of the next song "Follow" from the 2003 album We Are Not Alone, and the crowd continued to 'follow' the band in singing along to the words. The next song was one Halo 2 fans would recognize and they got excited immediately once the Halo 2 montage was shown on the screen. The energy then picked back up once Benjamin played the opening riff of "Blow Me Away" and the singalongs haven't slowed down either. The crowd surfing began to commence on one of the band's biggest hits "So Cold" and Rauch took center stage to play a mind-blowing guitar solo. Throughout the performance, scenes from the song's music video played on the massive screen above Cassells which I thought was really cool. The band then played a deep cut off of the Phobia album, "You". This song has not been played live since 2015 so this was a nice little treat the band gave us.

Cassells led into the next song "Evil Angel" with an extended drum intro and if you are familiar with his work in Asking Alexandria, then you'll know how incredibly talented he is. It's no wonder the band chose him to be their live drummer going forward. The next two songs were two of my favorite songs, "Failure" and the heavy hitter "Red Cold River". The performances of both of these songs were astonishing and I joined the crowd in singing every word. Bassist Aaron Bruch has these harsh screams that really come out on a few songs and "Red Cold River" was one of them, making that chorus one of the band's heaviest chorus'. Other songs Breaking Benjamin played included "Blood", "Dear Agony", "Dance With The Devil", "Polyamorous", "Without You", and "Until The End".

Before getting into the final songs of the night Burnley took the time to thank the fans for their support and showed gratitude that Breaking Benjamin can still do this after 20 years which the crowd roared in response. The band then sent love and thanks to former drummer Shaun Foist who was forced to retire from touring because of health issues that have impacted his drumming and gave James Cassells a standing ovation for filling in and killing it every single night in his honor. Foist had been playing drums for Breaking Benjamin since the band's return from hiatus in 2014 and has appeared on the albums Dark Before The Dawn and Ember as well as the band's latest single "Awaken". We will miss him and wish him a speedy recovery and hope he returns to the kit in some form or fashion in the near future. Burnley had the fans make some noise for the opening band Return To Dust and reflected on the 20 year friendship they have had with fellow co-headliners Three Days Grace before having the crowd scream as loud as they could for their Canadian brothers.

Burnley praised the fans for singing loud and proud the whole night and wanted them to get even louder and they knew the next one would motivate them to do just that. The next song was "Breath" and New Jersey did exactly what he expected them to, take the singing up to 5 notches. The band even paused for a brief second in the chorus just so they could hear the masses sing. This continued into the next song "I Will Not Bow". Breaking Benjamin had one song left and yes, it was THAT song. Because why wouldn't they save their best song for last? Once Rauch played that iconic opening guitar line, New Jersey knew that they were now in "The Diary of Jane". This was where the crowd was at their loudest, once again singing along to every single word but with the remaining energy they had left from start to finish and helped close out Breaking Benjamin's hometown-ish show.