Date: Sunday, December 13, 2009
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: Scottrade Center
Opening act(s): Brookroyal, Sick Puppies, Papa Roach
Headlining act: Breaking Benjamin
Sick Puppies Setlist:
War
Cancer
Survive
My World
Odd One
All The Same
Riptide
Pitiful
Say My Name
You’re Going Down
Papa Roach Setlist:
Getting Away With Murder
…To Be Loved
Lifeline
Scars
I Almost Told You That I Loved You
Had Enough
Hollywood Whore
Time Is Running Out
Forever
The Last Resort
Breaking Benjamin Setlist:
I Will Not Bow
Until The End
Had Enough
Blow Me Away
Sooner Or Later
Dream On
So Cold
Polyamorous
Into The Nothing
Fade Away
Breath
The Diary Of Jane
Notes:
- First time seeing all bands on the bill. Brookroyal was unannounced.
- Sick Puppies covered Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name.”
- Breaking Benjamin covered Aerosmith’s “Dream On.”
- First time seeing a band cover a song that I’ve seen the original band perform live.
- Show #1 at this venue.
Review:
After a walk through the cold, we found our seats inside the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. I’ve been there plenty of times for St. Louis Blues games, but this was my first visit for a concert.
The concert was ‘The Ho Ho Show’ sponsored by 105.7 The Point in St. Louis. The station apparently pulled a fast one on us by adding a local band to the lineup… The band was called Brookroyal and sounded like damn near every other ‘nu-metal’ band out there. Very annoying and nothing to make them stand out from the rest.
Next up was Sick Puppies, best known for their rock radio hits “Odd One” and “You’re Going Down.” They were actually pretty good, and surprisingly from Australia. Amusingly, they played an alternative cover of Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name.”
Then came Papa Roach, a band that I was not looking forward to seeing. I liked a few of their songs back in my ansgty-youth, but I’m annoyed by many more of them, especially as I get older. But I do have to say they had the best mix of the night, and they sounded pretty good as a live band.
Then, finally, came Breaking Benjamin, who didn’t hit the stage until around 10:15 or 10:20. I had to wonder about the length of their set due to the late start time, which I had to assume came from adding the first band to the mix. Then I really had to doubt things when the singer, Ben, said he had a bad throat. He sounded fine while singing, but sounded like absolute shit while talking.
They played a short, but really good set. It only featured three songs from the new album and one from their first album, which sucked as I would have liked more from each.
The biggest surprise of the night came in the form of a cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which Ben introduced as a classic and one of his favorite songs ever. It started with just him and the other guitar player sitting down playing it, then the full band came in for the end.
It was the first time that I’ve seen a band cover another band’s song that I’ve actually seen before, having seen Aerosmith live four times.
Overall, it was a really good concert. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen newer bands in a large venue, which was cool. It started rough with the unknown, but got better with each band. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see Breaking Benjamin again soon as a proper headliner so they can play a longer, more varied set.
Links:
TurnToDust86 