Rock Out With My Shot Out: Five Finger Death Punch & Breaking Benjamin

Breaking Benjamin and Five Finger Death Punch playing the PNC Bank Arts Center in NJ. Nothing More and Bad Wolves were support for the entire tour.

There is really nothing better than a huge summer rock show. There were a lot of great packaged rock tours this summer, but this one had to be the best. A line-up that included four great bands including Breaking Benjamin, Five Finger Death Punch, Nothing More & Bad Wolves.

Bad Wolves started the fun with a great sounding set. These guys really gained popularity this year with the Cranberries cover of "Zombie". The Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan was supposed to perform on the recording of song but passed away prior. Lead singer Tommy Vext was joined by his Mom on stage for the first verse of the song "Zombie". It was really a cool moment for them.

Nothing More was next up and I have seen these guys a couple times before. They are one of my favorite bands and they give you non-stop energy from the first song to the last. One of the highlights was the bands 14 foot ride-able, scrap metal creation called the "Scorpion Tail". Singer Jonny Hawking rides on top of it as it goes up in the air and at the same time plays a couple drums and levers to activate different sounds. The fans that have never seen that before, loved it. I'm looking forward to them going on another headline tour.

Five Finger Death Punch came on next and it was hands down the best intensive sets I have seen them perform. Singer Ivan Moody vocals were on point the entire night and he seemed to be on a mission. Ivan actually brought up an earlier time they were in NJ and apologized to the crowd for his "Kayne" moment as he called it. It was in November 2016 when he walked off the stage the night before the NJ show in MA. That 2016 NJ show was a bit of mess and Ivan seemed destined to make up for it tonight. An amazing moment happened when the band brought up about 20 kids from the crowd and they helped Ivan sing "Remember Everything". He also gave the young fans a bunch of personal items he was wearing like bracelets, gloves and wristbands. Another highlight was the amazing stage show for FFDP. The band was playing in front of a huge skull and baseball bats. They had probably the brightest stage lighting I have ever seen that included tons of different pyro and lasers. Oddly they left out the first single "Sham-Pain" in their set from their latest CD.

Breaking Benjamin closed out the great night with a huge 16 song set list. The opened the show with the first single "Red Cold River" from their new CD "Ember". They performed 3 songs from the new CD including "Psycho" & "Torn In Two". They had a much darker and moody stage lighting than FFDP but had just as much pyro and smoke canons. Singer Benjamin Burnley powered through the set and at one point of the show had a mini set of drums to play adorned with red light sabers. Breaking Benjamin closed out the great night with their huge hit "Dairy Of Jane" All 4 bands were amazing and this tour will continue with another run later this year.

Five Finger Death Punch