On the night of September 15th, 2019, at the Ak-Chin Pavillion, 5 bands came together to put on a spectacular show: DIAMANTE, Dorothy, Three Days Grace, Chevelle, and Breaking Benjamin. Although the Ak-Chin is an outdoor venue, it was still packed to the fence with sweaty, die-hard fans.

I arrived at the venue a bit late, so I only saw DIAMANTE’s last song she did and overheard her new song, Sleepwalking, as we were waiting in line. I could feel her energy from outside the venue, and even more so when I saw her headbanging and her electric blue hair flying everywhere. I’ve gotten into her music more recently and she is a very powerful artist with lots of meaning behind her music. From what I saw, she has a lot of strong talent that hasn’t been discovered by many people. I would love to see her as the main act in a big venue, like the Talking Stick Resort in Phoenix.

The next artist was Dorothy, a band with another woman lead. I’m not fond of the band at all, but their music isn’t half bad. Unfortunately, their sound quality wasn’t great because of the venue being outdoors and being a smaller band, they haven’t been able to adapt their live sound to a venue as big as the Ak-Chin. Besides all that, they performed with liveliness and made it appealing to watch.

After that was Three Days Grace, which I have never seen before and was looking forward to seeing live. One funny thing is that the lead singer, Matt Waslt, was wearing his own merchandise. They put on a great performance with really cool lighting, good sound, and lots of energy on the stage. Plus I knew all the songs they played, which makes the experience even more enjoyable because I got to sing along. One of my favorite songs they performed is Animal I Have Become. I would love to see them again.

Then, right before the headliner, Chevelle came out swinging. I only recognized two of their songs from their hour-long performance, but I liked the sound of everything else a lot! I could feel their energy from the 300th row, where my seat was. They got the crowd very excited and it was as if their energy transferred to everyone in the venue. On stage, they had really bright LED lights that kept blinding me, off and on, though their performance has convinced me to listen to some more of their music.

Last, but not least, what everyone was waiting for, Breaking Benjamin took the stage. Their sound quality was the best of the five artists. They played all of my favorites, Rain, Simple Design, Blow Me Away, Polyamorous, and So Cold. They played them all with passion and enthusiasm.

Not only did they play all their popular songs, but also covered popular songs of other famous artists. This included Imperial March, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Enter Sandman, Bohemian Rhapsody, and more. As cool at that was, I felt as if they spent a little too much time playing songs that aren’t even theirs. To add onto the unbearable Phoenix heat, Breaking Benjamin had pyrotechnics with 5 blades of fire on each side of the stage, as well as several other explosives behind the drummer.

Speaking of the drummer, Shaun Foist put on an incredible performance, especially during his lengthy drum solo. Me, being a drum nerd, immediately noticed his drum set. His set had two bass drums and on both of them was the picture on their newest album Ember, which is of an eye that has a fire inside it, so it looked like the drum set had two eyes which was really cool.

Out of the 15 some aught concerts I’ve attended, this one had some of the biggest energy I’ve seen in a while. I loved how many bands were performing and all the amazing music they came with. I’ll always love Breaking Benjamin and want to see them again, as well as Three Days Grace. Thanks, mom and dad, for taking me to another spectacular show!