The bitter Montreal cold and serious lack of parking at CEPSUM could not keep the fans away from seeing Canada's own Three Days Grace. Joining the Canadian rockers were Vancouver’s Default, and Utah's The Used.
Default
Unfortunately while they were performing, I was driving around looking for a parking space, so, no review on their set. Note to CEPSUM, get more parking spaces!
The Used
Before The Used even hit the stage, we knew we were in for a great show. You could feel the excitement of the crowd building, and when the lights finally went down, they erupted. Performing songs off of their latest release "Artwork", The Used were using the crowd to their advantage. Feeding off of the the energy from the moshers in the pit and the fans screaming their lyrics back at them, you could barely tell that they were one of the opening acts. Front man Bert McCracken told the crowd it wouldn't be the last time we (Montreal) would see the band and by the sound of it, he really liked us telling the crowd that he wanted to have sexual relations with all of us. Personal highlight of their set, the performance of "Pretty Handsome Awkward". Honestly, I was surprised at how much better it was live.
Three Days Grace
Using Johnny Cash's "God's Going to Cut You Down" as their intro music, Three Days Grace hit the stage with full force. "Break", their first single off of the recently released CD, "Life Starts Now" was a great start to the show. The show itself was a nice mix of all three albums with a great mix of fast and slow songs. Playing their well known hits like Pain, Riot, I Hate Everyhing About You and Home, they had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands.
Midway through their set, fans were treated to a drum solo by Neil Sanderson. It was definitely something to be heard. Sure it didn't have a drum kit that was lifted above the crowd a la Travis Barker, but it still definitely showed off his skills and had most of the crowd in awe.
The pleasant surprise of the night was when they played "I don't Care", a song that lead singer Adam Gontier collaborated on with Apocalyptica. It sounded amazing, even without the head banging cello players.
Towards the end of the set, Adams voice began to falter. It was noticeable during "Riot", but after returning from the short break before the encore, everything was back to normal with no signs of wear and tear.
All in all, it was a great show. Three Days Grace gave the crowd what it wanted, pyro, mosh pits and a gold old fashioned rock show. Click HERE for pictures of The Used and click on the picture below for pictures of Three Days Grace
