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02/20/2019 Sevendust, Tremonti, Cane Hill, Lullwater, Kirra (Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theatre)

By Eric | February 24, 2019 9:45 am

This was the third time in my concert-going career that I got to see a show *on* my birthday, after God Lives Underwater for my 18th, and Shinedown / Theory for my 25th. I figured I’d spring for the Sevendust VIP since this time around it involved seeing soundcheck – sounded fun! I took a half-day from work and rolled into the Falls.

After standing around outside for awhile (they’re always behind!) we got in and saw the boys literally warming up, and joking around while running through Dead Set (which they played that night) and Grasp (which they didn’t, and I’ve never seen live before!). Got the requisite picture, Clint commented on my Eye Empire shirt, and I found out that LJ is the one that has the sound guys playing Big Wreck between sets! (They did that at Anthology in November also).

Soundcheck ended at 3, and doors weren’t until 5, so I met Sara for dinner in the meantime. Came back to the venue about 5:30, wandered in, got a beer, and just milled around, as both Dave and Pete / Kiersten would be coming later. Then we got a surprise. I’ve been going to shows for nearly 22 years at this point, but on this night I still experienced something I’ve never seen before at a show. A full-fledged power outage!

Around 5:50 or so the place goes DARK. A handful of emergency lights at the Dome, you could see in front of you, but essentially everything is out. Word quickly spreads that the outage affects around 80 blocks, 4500 or so customers, per National Grid, and it’s not coming back on until 8:30 at the earliest. There were about 150 people inside at the time, and while they thankfully didn’t boot us, they didn’t let anyone else in. No sales at the bar either! The owner of the place got up on stage along with a NFPD officer and told us all to sit tight. I started chatting to a guy in a Hatebreed hoodie around this time, and ended up talking to him and his wife all night too (Hi Shawn and Lana!). Same story as always, how many shows we’d both been at, etc. I always find friends!

So we’re all just standing around for about an hour and a half when the singer and guitar player from Kirra came out around 7:30 and played some acoustic stuff for us – no PA, just a voice and an acoustic guitar! They probably made more of an impression on us doing this than they would have just playing plugged in. They started with a couple of covers that A) translated acoustically, and B) got the crowd singing along. We got Chevelle’s Vitamin R, Breaking Benjamin’s So Cold (see the videos below!), Black Honey by Thrice, some Seether, Godsmack, Audioslave, and even a couple of their own songs. Most definitely a first as far as I’m concerned, and super super cool of them to do it. They played for nearly 40 minutes!

Kirra acoustic
Vitamin R (Chevelle)
So Cold (Breaking Benjamin)
Black Honey (Thrice)
Remedy (Seether)
Whatever (Godsmack)
Sixteen Suns (Kirra)
*song I didn’t know*
Like A Stone (Audioslave)
*another song I didn’t know* “Who was I before I found myself”

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80 blocks out of power but the @kirra_music cats are holding the damn thing down. Fucking awesome fellas. #poweroutage #sevendust #tremonti #canehill #lullwater #kirra

A post shared by Lullwater (@lullwatermusic) on

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Niagara Falls, the only word to describe tonight is incredible. There was a power outage (80 blocks wide!), and so we all made the best of it until the power came back on! Thank you for keeping the show alive with your voices and your spirit. 📸: @joeblutenkat (@lullwatermusic)

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Then around 8:15 Tanner Keegan (bass player for Tremonti) started playing some blues covers acoustically, and unfortunately the natives were getting a little restless, perhaps because they didn’t know the songs, perhaps because folks were getting antsy. Either way, the crowd did settle down a little bit by Tanner’s 2nd and 3rd songs as he played BB King’s The Thrill is Gone, and then Eric Friedman (Tremonti’s other guitar player) came out with an electric and a battery powered amp to join Tanner for Stormy Monday. Halfway through the song – LIGHTS! POWER! A raucous cheer erupts, they finish the song, and they announce we’re getting on with the show.

*song I didn’t know*
The Thrill Is Gone
Stormy Monday (with Eric Friedman on electric with battery powered amp)


Link if the embed doesn’t work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y4gHWHKReMJAeP3B9

They started letting people in again. I’d been chatting with Dave, Kiersten, and Pete to let them know what was going on, so they arrived in short order, and we all hung out up front right, and they too made friends with the couple I’d been talking to. Yay concert buddies!

The actual show! There were five bands on the bill, and they were supposed to start the music at 6. It’s now 8:45, so Kirra and Lullwater got 2 songs each. Cane Hill got 3. All of them sounded good, no one seemed particularly upset that they got short sets, and then it was time for the two main attractions. Tremonti only cut one song from what they’d normally been playing, and they sounded fantastic. Mark Tremonti is one of those artists that anything he’s involved with comes out great (yes, even Creed sounds good, Scott Stapp notwithstanding), and his solo stuff is no exception. Good stuff.

“Found” intro
You Waste Your Time
Another Heart
Flying Monkeys
Throw Them to the Lions
A Dying Machine
Wish You Well

Another Heart

Throw Them To The Lions

After all of this – Sevendust played a full set to a full house. Unlike the Anthology show, they went back to opening with Black, and the place went nuts. Then *I* went nuts, as Pieces was next. I ended up following Kiersten to pretty much dead center about two off the rail for the rest of the set, and bounced around down there all night. A great list, with a lot of older stuff, heavy on Animosity stuff again too! So. Much. Fun. It seems that most other encores also had Splinter, we didn’t get it, just Face to Face, but that’s a minor quibble. We had an absolute blast. Sevendust show #19 hit the spot just as much as the prior 18!

Black
Pieces
Reconnect
Praise
Bitch
Dirty
Dead Set
Waffle
Enemy
Angel’s Son
Shine
Thank You

Face to Face

Black

Praise

Waffle

Face to Face

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