My my my, that was much better than I expected. I anticipated some aging hard rockers and a light crowd at the Pepsi Center. I mean I haven’t heard much from either of these bands in years and then I heard David was regrouping from his first few shows after a touch of pneumonia. To say the least, I was expecting a sleeper. Well let me be the first to tell you I was very, very wrong. This show was high energy and packed to the gills with hardcore fans. Neither band skipped a beat and both came out raging.  This was going to be fun!

Let me start by giving Three Days Grace a little love. They came out swingin' and got the crowd all roweled up! Adam’s vocals were spot on during every song, and love it when a singers voice live is just as strong and clear as it is on their albums. He nailed every familiar tune, and I was singing along the entire set. I will give one little bit of minor criticism to Adam. Dude, stop with the ninja kicks off the drum stage into some kind of 'kung-fu chop'. It’s super cheesy and takes way to long for you to climb up there to get it all set up. If you want to jump off something, make it spontaneous and run, jump, and fly off that fucker! Other than that Three Days Grace crushed it and got the crowd nice and heated for the main event.  

Alright Alright Alright, now on to the main event.  Disturbed came out of hibernation like a bat outa hell! These guys haven’t toured in a number of years and then went big with a full-scale arena tour. I thought for sure it would be a bust,  but I’ll say again I was mistaken and pleasantly surprised.  The Pepsi Center was near-capacity and ready for a butt load of fiery hard rock. David's ridiculously strong voice surely didn’t reflect that of a man that just had bout with pneumonia. In fact quite the opposite. He sounded just like he did 15 years ago,  especially after the first few songs when his vocals really warmed up. What an amazing instrument to be born with.

As far as the other three members. Wow! John Moyer still has the juice! He beat that bass up nice and brought a ton of energy and presence to the stage.  His headbangin' coupled with those crazy wild locks helped his intensify his grungy metal esk persona. I also love his acoustic bass, that thing is sick.  Dan Donegan shredded on lead guitar and really connected with fans close to the stage (which I think is awesome). There’s so many rock stars out there that can’t be bothered to have fun with the people that paid big bucks to come see them. I hate that and I was glad to see Dan and the rest of the band really engaging with their fans. Drummer  and vocalist Mike Wengren is a solid musician that also deserves a standing O. I don’t know how anyone can keep their shit together playing a huge drum set with both hands, two bass drums with both feet, and then singing along with one of hard rocks biggest voices with out screwing a beat up or singing off key. He is Amazing!

Wrapping up,  I’ve got to give these guys a high five for being good roll models to their fans especially their younger ones. I like that David stopped and made a strong speech about helping friends struggling with addiction and depression and not just saying it lightly. "Slap some fuckin' sense into your friends and loved ones" he said passionately, "Drag them into rehab kicking and screaming if you have to. Do whatever it takes to help them get help". Just a great message to everyone in this age of opioids and suicide. Great job fellas! I will be listening to Disturbed a little louder from now on.  Cheers too many more years to come!

Photos: by Susie Wolcott, Review: by Alex Mackison