As a huge Three Days Grace fan, I’d been anticipating this show for quite some time. But for some reason I was by no means blown away.
They chose a great opening song, “The Good Life”, which sent the audience whirling into a frenzy with the beginning guitar riffs. Lead singer Adam Gontier was full of wonky quirks to pump up the crowd, but fell short with some awkward rambling. When asking for a respectful silence in honor of 9/11, he instead received the vain chanting of “USA”. Nevertheless, they got back on track with “Never Too Late”, the 2007 hit which everyone knew the lyrics to.
I was disappointed to not hear other ballads like “Lost in You” or “Last to Know” off their newest album, but the boys surprised everyone by playing “Home”, an oldie but goodie off their first album. This was also complimented by “Just Like You” and “I Hate Everything About You”, some of the band’s first very bitter, yet very compelling hits.
Somewhere in the middle of this blast from the past, Gontier launched into an excerpt from Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”. The crowd was absolutely thrilled, fingers stabbing at the air for emphasis. The cover was interesting to say the least and even though it didn’t exactly work, majority were captivated by the segue. None of the previous intensity and energy was lost with the fun mix of genre. Of course they played “Break”, currently their most-popular song, an uplifting call to engage in life and fulfill one’s dreams.
From this they contrasted with “Pain”, a salute to the power of feeling emotion, especially gleams of pain. Guitarist Barry Stock had some fancy over-the-shoulder playing and the crowd indeed went insane for “Riot”. They wrapped up with “Animal I Have Become” where Adam mumbled to himself about the true source of the animal inside himself. This was by far the most beautiful moment of the show in my opinion, referencing the heavy emotion that goes along with most of the band’s songs.
The main disturbance was seeing five-year-olds on the stage with guitars during the last song. This action seemed quite irrelevant and distracted from the actual concert. Although the band graced the stage with a great, energized performance, it didn’t have nearly the power of their overall philosophy (living life as though you have only three days left).