Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace Bring Double the Fire to Fresno

Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace co-headlineed a sold-out show in Fresno ahead of their Aftershock performance last weekend. Rock fans that didn’t make it to Sacramento for Aftershock flocked to the valley for a epic night of rock hits aging back as far as 20 years.

Before these two rockstar bands entertained their fans, a band called Return to Dust opened the night. I am not too familiar with this band, but they had a great sound — and there was a lot of hair flowing and headbanging.

Save Mart Center completely sold out this night — and fans were extremely excited to “Riot” to Three Days Grace. The band members walked from the back of the arena through the audience dressed in gold boxing robes as if they were about to enter the ring and knock out the crowd. They kicked off the set with one of their big hits “Animal I Have Become” before heading into “So Called Life” then “Break.”

The stage was perfectly lit up with many colorful visuals displayed on the large screen drop back. With a catwalk and very deep stage, Three Days Grace were all over the place getting the crowd on the floor to form mosh pits. The crowd was so alive for the entire set — it was incredible to be able to witness firsthand. While hearing the crowd all sing along to “I Hate Everything About You,” you could feel the energy completely taking over. After playing their oldest hit, they played the newest called “Apologies.” The band exited the stage, leaving lead singer Adam alone with his guitar (plugged in) to give us an incredible cover “Rooster” by Alice In Chains. Once he finished, the band returned to slam out a few more tracks before ending their set with “Riot.”

Breaking Benjamin was up next for this incredible co-headliner night. For this set, the lighting did a complete 180 — things weren’t too lit up for the most part. There was a mix of dark colors, except around the edges of stage there are very bright LED lights that change along with the music and lots of smoke. “Awaken” is played first, but song three “Blow Me Away” is when the crowd really went crazy.

After each song, things went dark and quiet for a few seconds before launching into the next track. Towards the end of the set, Benjamin took a moment to speak a few words to the fans about how much it has meant to him being able to do this over the last 20 years. For the final stretch, “Evil Angel,” “Dear Agony,” and “Dance With The Devil” are in the mix, but it’s not until the end that we got all of the big fan favorites. The last four songs were definitely the ones most people were waiting for: “Until The End,” “Breath,” “I Will Not Bow,” and ending with the hit “The Diary Of Jane.”

As the last song played, fans sang their lungs out — confetti fell from above and Fresno left feeling its own little Aftershock. This tour has a few more stops — if you’re looking for a great rock show in your city, this is the one to see. Personally, this show took me back to 2006 being 14 years old when Three Days Grace released the album One-X and Breaking Benjamin released the album Phobia. There was so much great rock/alternative rock being made around that time — it was a memorable night being able to relive that time and photograph this show. Big thanks for having First III No Flash out!