Concert Review - Seether - 11/11/07 - Nokia Grand Prairie

I knew I was out of my element when I overheard a pierced gentleman on the way into the concert ask a buddy, "Are you in the 'pit?". The concert was headlined by Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, two bands I know nothing about except for "So Cold," a great song by BB. Seether wasn't even listed on the ticket, which is weird because they have had several hits. The upside of that was that they went on relatively early; the downside was the 45 minute show length.

The band walked on around 7:20 without fanfare and immediately lashed into Gasoline, a perfect opener to get the crowd (who was mostly there to see the other bands) into it. The 3-piece band was very tight, and the sound quality was great allowing the crispy and crunchy guitars and frontman Shaun Morgan's powerful voice to be heard clearly. Morgan plays lead guitar and handles all vocals without missing a beat. His voice is a cross between Staind's Aaron Lewis and Kurt Cobain.

The set decoration featured the weird artwork from the band's latest album and christmas lights and a baby doll around Morgan's musicstand. Needless to say, but that didn't exactly add to the performance. No problem, though, as Morgan and co.'s talent and songs were more than enough to fulfill my power chord needs as loudly as possible. The setlist was as follows: "Gasoline", "Fine
Again", "Needles", "Truth", "Rise Above This", "Broken", "Fake It", and "Remedy". For "Broken", the band brought out Adam from Three Days Grace to sing along to the Amy Lee part. The gulf in talent between Morgan and the two headliners (in Morgan's favor) was never more apparent as 'Adam' strutted around with his sleeveless shirt doing the side-microphone trick people do when they can't actually sing.

The concert was an A. I just wish it had been longer. Given my limited interest in new bands, it was refreshing to see a band on the upward trajectory of its arc, really feeling the music and authentically putting themselves out there for the audience. My shows of late have been good, but lacking the intensity and angst that is necessary for a truly good rock show.