After a year’s hiatus, 98 Rock’s Spring Thing returned with a lineup of heavy hitters at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena on March 13. While Friday the 13th might have ill-fated connotations for the masses, I Prevail, Sleep Theory, The Funeral Portrait, and headliners Three Days Grace put on a show that any audience would be lucky to experience.
The openers did an excellent job priming the audience for the evening, getting the crowd so amped up and raucous that crowd surfers were already making their way towards the stage by Three Days Grace’s third song of the set. The Funeral Portrait delivered clean, soaring vocals and a healthy dose of crowd participation. Sleep Theory’s powerful stage presence had the floor bouncing and the audience following singer Cullen Moore’s every note. I Prevail sonically swung between the melodic lifts of “Hurricane” and “Bad Things” and the crushing breakdowns of “Violent Nature” and “Gasoline,” with impressive pyrotechnics that brought a physicality to the heat of the show.
Three Days Grace fans had the treat of watching Adam Gontier and Matt Walst share frontman duties, and the great effect. Touring behind their new album Alienation, the band balanced their newest music (“Dominate,” “Kill Me Fast,” “Apologies”) with songs that built their legacy (“Animal I Have Become,” “I Hate Everything About You,” “Riot,” “Pain”). There wasn’t a bad seat in the house and the band’s influence reached to the very farthest edges of the arena. Even from the upper levels, the singalongs carried; “Time of Dying” in particular hit an emotional nerve across the venue.
Midway through the set, “Don’t Wanna Go Home Tonight” (featuring Cale Gontier) played against a backdrop of nostalgic photos and early touring footage tracing the band’s rise from their small hometown in Ontario. They shifted seamlessly into a stripped-down acoustic mini set, playing “Get Out Alive,” “Lost in You,” and “Lifetime” under a starry sky visual, easily evoking days past of sitting around the bonfire with friends, making the arena feel unexpectedly close and intimate. A one-spotlight a cappella cover of 3 Doors Down’s “Here Without You” had the crowd lulled into a dreamy reverie before exploding into a full sound, full production of “I Am Machine,” pushing the tempo ever faster through to the finish of the set with “Riot.”
Words and photos courtesy of Ally Ramsey Photography.
