To start everything off, one thing that resonated with me quite deeply after last night’s concert is relevancy. Throughout each of these bands’ sets, various members would share a part of their life with the audience that some may be able to relate to or members would share something that’s going on in the world today that many of us have heard about or could be dealing with in our day to day lives. Some of the instances these individuals touched on were homelessness, politics, suicide, depression, high-action career fields, and this is just a few to start. There aren’t many shows that I’ve attended where something like this is so prominent, and I think it’s important to recognize and give credit to as it forms a connection between the day to day population and the stardom.
Ivan Moody, lead singer for Five Finger Death Punch, wanted to give back to the community for the holidays by helping those in need in the Twin Cities. After consulting with 93X Minneapolis about shelters in the area, Moody decided to donate 50 sleeping bags to the homeless through the Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The sleeping bags were presented to the reps of the organization before the show.
From Ashes to New started the night around 6pm opening with “The Future”, “My Fight”, “Broken”, and “My Name”. Throughout their set, lead vocalist, Danny Case, shared stories from his life to bring meaning and reasoning to his songs for crowd members. Additionally, the group played “Crazy”, “Forgotten”, Linkin Park cover “Heavy/Papercut”, and “Through It All”. Overall, I really enjoyed their set and I thought they performed very well. Given that we had a long night ahead of us, this group did an excellent job setting the precedence for the evening as well as keeping the crowd entertained and excited.
Bad Wolves came onto stage after a quick changeover around 6:50pm opening with “Officer Down”, “Learn to Live”, “No Masters”, and “Remember When”. This group was one I had been looking forward to seeing as they have excelled greatly since the start of their musical journey in 2017, and are best known for their cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” which they concluded their set with. Prior to playing their cover, the group also included, “Better the Devil”, “Hear Me Now”, and “Run for Your Life”. Lead Vocalist, Tommy Vext, has a gift for entertaining the crowd which was enjoyable to watch. He made sure to engage with the crowd pretty much any chance he could get, and encouraged fans to participate in the music however they best felt fit.
I would definitely go see both of the opening bands perform again. Hands down.
Breaking Benjamin began their portion of the evening around 8pm, and their set length ended up being a little over an hour. The group started off with, “Red Cold River”, “I Will Not Bow”, “Never Again”, “Breath”, and “Sugarcoat”. Lead vocalist, Benjamin Burnley, had announced that he was dealing with a cold towards the beginning of their set, but their performance showed nothing less than impressive. Burnley didn’t seem to let his ailment affect his performance in the slightest which is memorable. About half way through their set the group performed a mash-up of the following musical numbers, “The Imperial March/Cowboys From Hell/Smells Like Teen Spirit/Bohemian Rhapsody/Enter Sandman”, and at the conclusion of this compilation, drummer, Shaun Foist, gave the crowd a drum solo. The group continued with an assortment of songs from various albums throughout their musical careers including, “Sooner or Later”, “Blow Me Away”, “So Cold”, “Angels Fall”, “Psycho”, “Failure”, “Until the End”, and “Torn in Two”. After bringing a group of individuals up on stage to enjoy their last song, they finished the evening with “The Diary of Jane”. Having never seen Breaking Benjamin, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but after last night I would say it’s definitely an enjoyable performance. I had forgotten how many songs I knew, and found myself singing along to just about every song that made it on the docket.
And finally, what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for. Five Finger Death Punch started to amp the crowd up again around 9:45pm opening with “Under and Over It” from their 2011 album, “American Capitalist”. Moody took the time to speak to the audience whenever necessary, shared stories and experiences, and gave shout outs to those he felt necessary. Throughout the first part of their set the group played, “Trouble”, “Wash It All Away”, “Lift Me Up”, “Sham Pain”, and “Bad Company”. It was enjoyable seeing the costume changes Moody partook in, and experiencing the crowd’s reactions as well as overall hype for this musical group. Five Finger Death Punch continued their evening with “No One Gets Left Behind”, “Wrong Side of Heaven”, “Remember Everything”, “Coming Down”, “Burn MF”, and Offspring cover, “Gone Away”. At the conclusion of their regular set, the group exited stage, and appeared again for an encore featuring, “Jekyll and Hyde” and “The Bleeding” to finish off the night. Having previously seen Five Finger Death Punch, it was everything I had remembered. I think this group is full of talented individuals, and they make their performances enjoyable for all walks of life that may attend.
93X Minneapolis put together an excellent line-up for a Pre-Thanksgiving show, and I hope all that attended enjoyed their experience as I much as I enjoyed mine. Though it will likely be a little while before any of these bands come through our area again, I recommend checking them out if/when given the opportunity.
