On Wednesday I saw breaking benjamin live at the pageant in St. Louis, MO. This was my 5^th time seeing them live. I also saw them at both Pointfests, the second show at mississippi nights, and their acoustic show at vintage vinyl. On to the review…

I left a little after 5 and arrived right around 6. It took a little longer than usual getting there because of rush hour traffic. There was just one line getting into the pageant and was not very long. It was about half way down the side of the pageant. it rained pretty much the entire drive up there, but when I got there it had stopped, so I thought I lucked out, but was I wrong. After 5-10 minutes it starts raining again. Nothing really heard, but just a steady rain. Did I mention it was about mid 40’s out? All I had on was a long sleeve t-shirt. So I was a whee bit nippy. About 6:15 they split the line into 2, but I decided to stay because I moved up about 20 feet, which was good enough. A little after 7 the doors finally open. Another 5-10 minutes later I finally get inside. Here comes the advantage of being 21+, no covercahrge and the 21+ line was empty, so I was able to pass quite a few people and get right inside. When inside I headed right for the pit. It actually wasn’t too bad yet. It faded out towards the sides of the pit. I stayed to the right and was only 1 deep. I was able to move my way to the barricade by the time the first band came on at 8. I was right where the last section of the barricade bends. On to the bands…

8:00 – 8:30 skindred

I had no idea what to expect from these guys, as I had never heard anything from them. They weren’t bad, but nothing special. Lead singer is kinda a wack job. He had this little keyboard and had it play a song while he danced around.

9:00 – 9:30 moderndayzero

This was my second time seeing moderdayzero never saw them as mesh or meshstl. They are a local band, but I have never really gotten into them. I only know 1 or 2 songs by them. They put on an ok show, but for it being a hometown show they didn’t impress me. Granted I knew exactly 0 of the songs they played.

10-11:10 breaking benjamin

Now for the entire reason I was there. They came out and I could see Ben’s face and he had this “HOLY SHIT!” look on him. I must say this was one of the best shows I have seen. Ben once again confirmed that St. Louis is their home away from home. He also said St. Louis is one of the main reasons for their success. The pit was great. There was once guy trying to force his way up front and the security guy right in front of me leaped (lept, whatever) over grabbed him and basically threw him out of the pit, that was awesome. People were surfing all the time, including this one guy who must have done it 6-7 times. When Mark was throwing out pics he threw one close to he so I reached up and actually caught it. I don’t think I have ever actually caught one in the air. This is my second breaking benjamin pic. The first one I got at the second mississippi nights show. Also, this was my first time seeing them since Ben kicked Jeremy out of the band. The file in, BC, did a pretty good job. I noticed a difference a few times, but for the most part he seemed to do pretty well.

• playlist (taken from shallowbay forums), not in order
  • home
  • medicate
  • polyamorous
  • water
  • so cold
  • simple design
  • firefly
  • break my fall
  • breakdown
  • away
  • closure teaser – chevelle
  • lithium
  • wish i may
  • shallow bay
  • rain – Ben by himself

One great thing was the pageant made this a nonsmoking show, which I had nevers een before, but throught it was awesome. One of the security guys said it was new and was just something they were trying out. One guy alsot got thrown out inbetween 2 of the sets. I believe he was smoking pot, but I’m not sure. They let him stay though. Also, the show was no cameras or recordings, so I don’t have any pictures. I don’t know why no cameras were allowed. It’s a bunch of b.s. I know they were videotaping the show, but I have no clue what it’s for. Could just be for the bands personal use or maybe something else, who knows.

After the show I went out and handed out about 80 system of a down stickers, I’m on the street team. Those were gone in no time. Walked back to the car and got home around midnight. I felt like crap when I got home because I hadn’t ate since launch, but I just went to bed.