Three Days Grace

Feb 1, 2008

Commodore Ballroom

 

One band resurrected from the late 90’s, another prevailing over addictions, death, and personal attacks publicized in the press, and the third still turning out great music after 15 years together, hit the west coast for two sold out shows in Vancouver. Econoline Crush, Seether, and Three Days Grace brought one hell of an epic rock show to town Friday night at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom.

 

After an eight year hiatus to pursue different projects, industrial rockers Econoline Crush returned to the music scene with the release of their fourth studio album Ignite. With a smile plastered across his face front man-and only remaining original member- Trevor Hurst looked genuinely happy to be back performing old singles like “Sparkle and Shine” and “You Don’t know What its Like”, alongside tracks off Ignite like “Psychotic” and their latest single “Dirty”. Even thought they had to work a little harder, being the openers, it was clear from the response, Econoline Crush have been sorely missed.

 

Next up, after dealing with personal struggles within the band and the departure of one band mate, South African bred Seether, took the stage in support of Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces. They opened with “No Jesus Christ” with front man Shaun Morgan standing to the left side stage with his long hair masking the front of his face, singing into a mic stand decorated with intertwining lights and little baby living dead dolls. As eerie and creepy as the little dolls and the set up were, the audience was loving it. 

 

Morgan dedicated their second single “Rise Above This” to his little brother Eugene, who passed in August 2007. For Seether’s successful hit single “Broken” on walked Adam Gontier and Barry Stock of Three Days Grace; Gontier sung the duet with Morgan as Stock played acoustic guitar.  Seether returned the favor paying tribute to the headliners with a cover of “I Hate Everything about You”, before closing their set with “Remedy”.    

 

Headliners Three Days Grace have toured relentlessly since the release of One-X in 2006, with four trips to Vancouver in less than a year and a half. The hardworking quartet’s mantra seems to be if it aint broke, don’t fix it, as they used the same gimmicks, cover songs, and set up as previous tours.

 

The bass lines from “Animal I Have Become” flooded the speakers as the band kicked into the first single off One-X. Quiet on the in-between banter, the band kept the music flowing with tracks from both albums like “Pain”, “Wake Up”, “Just Like You”, “Drown”, “Let it Die”, and “Never Too Late”.

 

Gontier asked the audience for approval to slow the pace down, as he sat solo with an acoustic guitar to perform one of his favorite songs, Alice in Chains’ “Rooster”. Before plugging it back in for the track “Scared”, where Gontier whipped out a spotlight flashing it at cheering faces around the room. The track “Riot” was definitely a crowd pleaser, as the audience let loose pumping their fists into the air and chanting back “Lets start a riot!” The band closed their set with “Home”; the track Gontier explained as being “treated like shit, while you’re stuck at home with nothing to do”.

 

After touring for the better part of three and a half years, and overcoming personal struggles to become “stronger than [they’ve] ever been”, Three Days Grace will finish up their North American Tour in early April, and focus on their highly anticipated third album.