| Breaking Benjamin / Staind at T-Mobile Center (2025-06-01)
BREAKING BENJAMIN TOUR DATES (Acoustic tour with Lacey Sturm) Aug 29 Thunder Ridge Nature Arena Ridgedale, MO* (* = Three Days Grace and Return to Dust) STAIND TOUR DATES Sep 5 Choctaw Grand Theater Durant, OK Read More
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Consider the “fallen” fully “awakened” …
...and who are those two smaller additional musicians on stage- had someone finally succeeded in actually ‘Breaking Benjamin’?
The "Awaken The Fallen Tour" came to a roaring end in downtown Kansas City MO at the T-Mobile Center, featuring Breaking Benjamin and Staind, along with Wage War and Lakeview. The 20-date tour kicked off in late April in Mississippi, and all came to fruition, to wrap things up right here in the middle of the country.
The four-act evening began with Lakeview, a country-rock Nashville (by way of Pittsburgh) duo made up of Jesse Denaro and Luke Healy, in support of their Small Town Famous EP and self-titled debut.
On paper, they may seem like the odd act out, but the pair flipped the script on any boundaries, starting the evening off at high volumes and leaning more into the ‘rock’ portion of their ‘country rock’ description.
The duo do have metalcore roots and have worked that into their music (“Ya’llcore maybe?) in terms of riffage, and many first heard of them on last year’s collab single with Gideon, “Money Where Your Mouth Is” which they played mid-set. They revealed a favorite and/or influence by covering Hinder’s “Lips of an Angel” and finished the set with their biggest single to date, “Home Team”.
Next up was some true metalcore, delivered courtesy of Florida’s Wage War, in support of last July’s Stigma full-length and celebrating fifteen years on the scene as a band. The group features Briton Bond’s screams against Cody Quistad’s clean vocals and the newest album was ably represented, beginning with opener, “Nail5” which was its second single, “Tombstone", its final single, and “Magnetic” the lead song which came out ahead of the new record.
Most of the set stayed recent, going back only as far as 2017 for “Stitch” from their Deadweight album and the band’s fans seemed happy to hear a couple of tracks from their pandemic-era release, Manic- “Godspeed”, and the 2021 title track, which would end their energetic set with an oomph. (note that a delay with our credentials made us unavailable during their set to provide photos).
Speaking of anniversaries, Springfield MA band Staind has been in the game now for a full three decades and are touring in support of their latest record, 2023’s Confessions of the Fallen (on BMG Records), their first studio album in 12 years (though singer Aaron Lewis has pursued a solo Country career in-between).
The band got an early break when Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst signed them to his Flip Records label, also associating them with the nu-metal movement of the day, but the band has always been more alt / post-grunge, than any sound considered more of a fad.
And as Lewis has continued on his solo path, his politics have become more outspoken as well, but he mentioned a few songs in, that it’s better off if he didn’t comment at all, which seemed to be for the collective best.
As the logo curtain dropped, guitarist Mike Mushok and bassist Johnny April were already anxiously shuffling on their respective sides of the stage, while Lewis stood, center stage, head down and smoking, as the opening track from the new record, “Lowest in Me” was played (complete with stylized car crash visuals), followed by a rewind back a decade and a half, for 2011’s “Eyes Wide Open” played under red lighting and with some Blair Witch-esque images on-screen.
The group has more familiar songs than you think from radio airplay, and the crowd was often found singing along with at least the chorus of most, whether a longtime or milder fan. “Fade” found us inside a virtual clocktower and 2011’s “Something to Remind You” was performed starkly by just Lewis and Mushok taking the song to its skeletal core.
“Wannabe” was dedicated to, and is about every hater that criticizes everything online facelessly; but themselves, have accomplished nothing- “What is it that you do? I’m selling records!” Lewis exclaims.
2011’s “Paper Wings” was written about their former drummer Jon Wysocki’s departure with Lewis admitting “the brotherhood was crumbling” and was made even more emotional with Wysocki’s early death last May, from a liver-related disease.
“Outside” featured archival footage from the Family Values Tour showing Durst joining Staind to perform the song nightly, and their hit, “So Far Away” was performed as images of mini-TV screens each showed clips of simpler times and friends lost along the way.
Lewis paused to recall them taking Breaking Benjamin out on their first big tour and saying that this run was a full circle moment. He mentioned only the band having the strongest belief in releasing “It’s Been Awhile” as a single, only to have it top the Billboard Rock Charts for twenty weeks- as a result of its success, basically everyone in the arena knew every lyric, so sang it back with cellphone lights held high.
The still-grinding “Mudshovel”, the song that started it all for the band, would end their evening and be their last played for this tour with Lewis’ growling vocalizing of the title, still all very intact.
For Pennsylvania rockers Breaking Benjamin, they have also found themselves with BMG Records as well, having signed a deal last October, and releasing single, “Awaken” (which also helped name the tour), their first new song in five years. A new album is expected soon and the band’s most recent full-length is 2018’s Ember, though they did release a compilation of re-recorded songs, Aurora, in 2020... which comes into play later.
Lights dimmed in the arena and the taped intro of 2015’s “Dark” prepared the crowd for what was to come. The curtain fell with the beginning riffs of 2015’s “Failure”- a song about the themes of resiliency, struggle and overcoming adversity. Themes that are not only relatable to most but also sum up the band’s continued fight for sustained success over the last couple decades.
On the left of singer/guitarist Ben Burnley was his younger reflection, his mini-me, and perhaps the version 2.0 of the band’s future – his ten-year-old son Ben IV, aka “Cheech”, who sang and played guitar at his dad’s side for the duration of the show (so, that's one extra person ID’d, but there was still another….?).
The lead single from Ember, “Red Cold River” raged under red stage lighting, as the complex story line of the music video played out on the screens behind, and “Follow” which dates all the way back to 2004, saw both guitarists switch sides and head up the stage platforms to showcase their playing from the higher vantage point.
The screens during “So Cold,” from the same early album, mixed live cam shots with the eerie music video, set in Salem Witch hunt-era times. “Dance with the Devil” saw the silhouettes of band members forming and disappearing on-screen, created into shape by flickering flames.
The new single “Awaken” was performed with more on-screen magic, as a distant kingdom appeared and effects made it look like the band was performing nearby, in a whipping blizzard. Burnley would mention following that it’s his son singing on the end of the studio version and thanked the fans for allowing them to play their music for over twenty years.
“Polyamorous” from 2002’s Saturate, saw that album cover come to life on-screen, its shapes twisting and winding along to the rhythms, and it was during 2009’s “Dear Agony” where we saw that second mystery musician (who happened to be about the same size as Cheech, ha). Flyleaf vocalist Lacey Sturm was the one to jump onstage and join the band (still as tiny as we remember when seeing Flyleaf in the ‘90s), which was a delightful surprise and one she repeated from her appearance in Cincinnati, the week prior.
This made sense because Sturm sang on the 2020 Aurora version of the song and they must all enjoy each other’s company, as an 8-date summer acoustic outing with Burnley and Sturm has just been announced. 2009 radio hit “I Will Not Bow” from their fourth album, found the crowd singing along again and the set, evening, and tour would end on the lead single from 2006 album, Phobia, “The Diary of Jane”, about finding one’s place again, in the context of a love lost and a search for the self.
So, mission accomplished – anyone happening to consider themselves “Fallen” were duly “Awakened” by the volume and ferocity of this four-act “Awaken the Fallen Tour” and the two mystery additions were of course, Ben’s son, and a special guest who happened to foreshadow the next short tour they’ll embark on. Breaking Benjamin, Staind, Wage War and Lakeview came, saw, and rocked, and put a fun (and loud!) exclamation point on the tour end in Kansas City.
(Wage War not photographed due to credentials issues; click on any image to enlarge and to see in full)
LAKEVIEW at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City MO (2025-06-01)
| John C ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥X / twitter.com ♥ bsky.ap |
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