Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2015
City: Bloomington, IL
Venue: US Cellular Coliseum
Opening act(s): Starset
Headlining act: Breaking Benjamin
Starset Setlist:
Rise And Fall
Down With The Fallen
Antigravity
Halo
Dark On Me
Carnivore
It Has Begun
My Demons
Breaking Benjamin Setlist:
So Cold
Follow
Angels Fall
Break My Fall
Unknown Soldier
Who Wants To Live Forever
Blow Me Away
Failure
Breath
Phase
Away
Ænema
Shallow Bay
Give Me A Sign
Polyamorous
Medley:
–Imperial March
–Schism
–Smells Like Teen Spirit
–Walk
Evil Angel
Until The End
I Will Not Bow
———————
Dance With The Devil
Lights Out
Intro / The Diary Of Jane
Notes:
- Second Breaking Benjamin concert, but the first with the new lineup following the hiatus.
- First time seeing “Follow,” “Angels Fall,” “Break My Fall,” “Unknown Soldier,” “Who Wants To Live Forever,” “Failure,” “Phase,” “Away,” “Ænema,” “Shallow Bay,” “Give Me A Sign,” the medley, “Evil Angel,” “Dance With The Devil,” and “Lights Out” live.
- Only the sixth play of “Angels Fall,” which was just played for the first time ever on July 14.
- Guitarist Keith Wallen sang lead vocals on the band’s cover of Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever.”
- Bassist Aaron Bruch sang lead vocals on the band’s cover of Tool’s “Ænema.”
- The medley consisted of snippets of “Imperial March” from Star Wars, “Schism” by Tool, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, and “Walk” by Pantera.
- Show #2 at this venue; first since October 28, 2006.
Videos:
Review:
I hadn’t been to the US Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington in nearly nine years… Not since October 28, 2006 for my 18th Def Leppard concert.
Tonight’s concert was Breaking Benjamin featuring Starset. The show was a half-arena show, so the stage was basically right in the center of the floor. There was a pretty decent sized crowd there.
Starset took the stage shortly after 7:30. I’d heard a couple of their songs on the radio, and while they share similarities to Breaking Benjamin, I did not like anything I had heard. Seeing them didn’t change that, especially when they got into their schtick of wearing ‘spacesuits’ and themes. I get that everyone needs their way to stand out these days, but I can’t take being lectured about the ‘dangers’ of technology from a group of 22 years olds seriously.
It’s also worth noting that, despite having seen Rush three times, this was the first time I have been suggestive sold a BOOK at the end of a concert.
It was quickly apparent that the half-arena set up was not going to do any favors for the sound quality in the arena. Arenas generally don’t have the greatest sound as it is, but when you put those speakers in the middle of the arena instead of at one end, it’s half the distance to travel but more echo.
Me and Britt sat there talking for a bit while waiting for Breaking Benjamin to take the stage. Things were sort of coming full circle, as the very first concert we went to together was Breaking Benjamin on December 13, 2009. That was somewhat of a festival show and featured a shorter set, so I was looking forward to seeing a lot of different stuff tonight.
Of course, another major difference was the band itself. After the last tour wrapped, the band went on hiatus and then fell apart. Lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley got full control of the band, hired all new musicians, and returned to action last year. Just under a month ago, the new lineup released the band’s first new album in six years, Dark Before Dawn. Since Burnley has always done a majority of the writing, the style remained fairly consistent and the band sounds great. The album has been on regular rotation since I got it and has several standout tracks.
Finally the lights started to go down and the band made their way to the stage, already strumming the opening cords of “So Cold” from 2004’s We Are Not Alone. The nostalgia hit me pretty quickly, as I played the hell out of that album back then.
One of my favorites from that album, “Follow,” um… followed. It was the first of many songs I would see live for the first time over the course of the night.
Next up was what I suspect will be the second single from the new album, “Angels Fall.” It’s a great song, perhaps one of the most commercial they’ve done, and it had only just recently been added to their setlist. Turns out this was only the sixth play of the song since its July 14 debut in New York.
It was already becoming apparent that the sound quality that was already bad for Starset was actually worse for Breaking Benjamin. The venue was certainly a big part of that, but I also think they just flat out had a poor, muddy mix.
Another song from We Are Not Alone, “Break My fall,” was played before Burnley gave a speech thanking our troops that served as an introduction for “Unknown Soldier” from 2006’s Phobia.
Guitarist Keith Wallen took lead vocals for the band’s cover of Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever.” The new lineup was vocally much stronger than the previous lineup, and they were allowed to exercise their talent throughout the night.
“Blow Me Away” was played next.
The band then performed Dark Before Dawn‘s lead single, “Failure,” before playing one of their biggest hits, “Breath.”
The band went all the way back to their first album, 2002’s Saturate, and played “Phase” before moving back up to We Are Not Alone and playing another one of my favorites from that album, “Away.”
Once again, the new members were handling more backing vocals than heard from the previous lineup. And once again, another member took the lead for a cover as bassist Aaron Bruch sang the band’s cover of Tool’s “Ænema.”
It was back to the debut album for fan favorite “Shallow Bay,” which led directly into the first song of the night from 2009’s Dear Agony album, “Give Me A Sign.”
Next up was “Polyamorous” from Saturate, and it got one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night.
Despite being a band with five studio albums, and having already featured two cover songs in the set… Breaking Benjamin insisted on treating the crowd to more covers. This time, however, it was in the form of snippets.
First up was “Imperial March,” best known as the theme for Darth Vadar. Then came yet another Tool song, “Schism,” which was followed by Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” They played it from the beginning all the way through the first chorus before segueing into Pantera’s “Walk.”
Then came “Evil Angel,” a song that seems to be played quite frequently for some reason. I’m not a fan of the song really.
Another Phobia song, “Until The End,” and Dear Agony‘s lead single “I Will Not Bow” closed out the main set.
After a brief encore, the band returned to the stage while strumming the intro to “Dance With The Devil.” I was only expecting a two song encore, and one obvious hit remained, but the band kept me guessing by playing “Lights Out” next.
Then came the extended “Intro” from Phobia with some goodnights, and the obvious closer, “The Diary Of Jane.”
We didn’t wait until the very end goodnights to leave, as we were ready to hit the road and get home since it was a work night.
Overall, it was a great concert. Wasn’t crazy about the opener, but the new look Breaking Benjamin sounded great. Performance-wise, that is. Sound-wise, both the venue and their front of house guy could use a little work.
The setlist was fairly well balanced, as it featured three songs from Saturate, four from We Are Not Alone, seven (including “Intro”) from Phobia, three from Dear Agony, and two from Dark Before Dawn. Plus two covers and a medley.
I think they could have dropped a couple of the Phobia tracks (“Unknown Soldier” and “Evil Angel”) and the covers and balanced the set a little better… Would have liked to see “Breakdown” from We Are Not Alone and “Crawl” (among others) from Dear Agony, along with MORE NEW SONGS. The album was just under a month old as of tonight’s show. Only playing two songs from it is crazy. They definitely should have included “Bury Me Alive” and “Hollow” at least.
But still.. For only my second time seeing them, I’ve gotten a good mix of songs and I’ll definitely check them out again when they come back my way. I enjoyed each of their first four albums more than the one that came before it, but started losing interest in the band after their hiatus. The excellent new album and this show have reignited my interest in them and I’m glad they’re back.
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