Concert Review Meanderings - Breaking Benjamin

So this past Tuesday night (the 24th) a couple friends and I moseyed up Asheville to attend Breaking Benjamin's sold out show at The Orange Peel. This was my 4th time seeing Benjamin Burnley and the cast of characters perform live. This show featured a good selection of songs off of their five albums with a heavy emphasis on 2015's "Dark Before Dawn" but also included the hits and other fan favorites.

One of the reasons I love listening and attending Breaking Benjamin shows is that I know that I will get a solid, professional and dare I say grateful attitude from Benjamin and the band. I sincerely believe him when he states the reason that they are out there performing live is for their love of their fan base. He mentions it several times at each show and you know that he is not mailing it in at any of their shows. He has a great rapport with the people at the shows be they at the front of the stage or way in the back.

Cool thing is that they keep their ticket prices reasonable as well. Face value for the ticket was $36 for two hours of solid ass rock music which also included a decent length set by the openers out of Detroit, MI called Wilson. Every time I thought of the name to myself I expected Tim Allen to magically appear. I am not familiar with Wilson's music and I guess the best way to describe it would be hard rock bordering on thrash metal. They did a pretty good AC/DC cover of "Back In Black" as well.

Breaking Benjamin's Set List Song/Album :
So Cold (We Are Not Alone)
Angels Fall (Dark Before Dawn)
Sooner or Later (We Are Not Alone)- featuring Keith Wallen on lead vocals
Blow Me Away (Shallow Bay)
Simple Design (We Are Not Alone)
The Imperial March / Bulls on Parade / Smells Like Teen Spirit / Walk / Sad But True
Polyamorous (Saturate)
Ashes of Eden (Dark Before Dawn)
Believe (We Are Not Alone) - featuring Aaron Bruch on lead vocals
Never Again (Dark Before Dawn)
Breath (Phobia)
Failure (Dark Before Dawn)
Until the End (Phobia)
I Will Not Bow (Dear Agony)
Encore:
The Diary of Jane (Phobia)

Although I loved every song and I pretty much sang aloud on all of them some of my favorites this night were "Sooner or Later", "Breath", "I Will Not Bow" and the gorgeous "Ashes of Eden". "Ashes" had Benjamin leaving the stage and joining fans in the first rows touching hands and doing fist bumps. Very cool!

As always Breaking Benjamin performs an awesome medley of songs from bands that had a big impact on them over time. They always start it off with "The Imperial March" from Star Wars as Ben Burnley says is the anthem for geeks and nerds like him. LOL. Good line! That segues into Rage Against The Machine (Bulls..), Nirvana (Smells..), Pantera (Walk) and Metallica (Sad..).I always enjoy this bit and over time they have added songs to the medley.

My only complaint is some of my fave songs are left off the set. Songs like "Give Me A Sign", "Medicate" and "Rain". However I have heard these in previous shows so it's all good. It was mentioned at the show that they are working on new material so I am hoping this gets released in 2017 if not my current Breaking Benjamin CDs will continue to be in heavy rotation in the house and in car CD player.

Peace and rock on!