On May 13th, the MIDFlorida Credit Union Amp welcomed the Awaken the Fallen Tour, starring co-headliners Breaking Benjamin and Staind, with support from Wage War and Lakeview.
I unfortunately missed Lakeview due to wonderful 275 traffic, so my night started off with Wage War. The Florida band started their “hometown” set off with their song “NAIL5,” an enigmatic rock/rap mix that had the crowd off to a great start. Wage War offers dual vocals, headbanging riffs, and a drumline that makes your body shake. Their ten song setlist offered a great range to the older crowd, and I feel they definitely added more to their fanbase.
With a drop of a curtain, Staind opened up the double header. With a jam packed sixteen song setlist, the band did not waste time with pleasantries and dove into their set. It was “dad rock” jam after jam, classics like “Lowest in Me”, “Outside”, and “Wannabe” making the cut. Multiple times throughout the set, lead Aaron Lewis took to his acoustic guitar to serenade the crowd, phone flashlights and lighters illuminating the venue. Staind’s set was closed with fan favorite “Mudshovel” which had the crowd screaming along one last time.
Closing out the night was Breaking Benjamin, and with “Dark” setting the mood as the curtain blew in the breeze, only to be dropped at the beginning of their song “Failure”. Lead Benjamin Burley commanding the stage and offering his iconic screams up on a silver platter for fans. One of the best parts of Breaking Benjamin is that Burley does not work alone, the front of the stage lined with his bandmates, all offering vocals that blend seamlessly and create a choir all their own for the fans to witness. The band played a stacked seventeen song setlist, touching songs from eight different albums in the band’s discography. Breaking Benjamin ended the night with fan favorite, “The Diary of Jane” which had the whole amphitheater, the pit to the lawn standing to applaud this powerhouse of a band.
