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Last year, there was one piece of news that caught the attention of people who listened to alternative music in the early 2000s and 2010s: THREE DAYS GRACE brought back their first singer, Adam Gontier. But that wasn’t all, because they also kept Matt Walst. It was a real bombshell, which was only topped by the announcement of their new album, Alienation, for this year. As part of the promotion for this album, the Canadians returned to Europe for an extensive tour. One of the tour stops took place on November 17, 2025, at Haus Auensee in Leipzig. BADFLOWER was also there as the opening act. Read on to find out how we experienced the evening.
But first, many thanks to lightinmirror.de for the photographic support!
Badflower
At around 8:00 p.m., the Americans from BADFLOWER took on the difficult task of warming up the audience, who were eagerly awaiting THREE DAYS GRACE. The band around singer Josh Katz plays alternative rock, which in places reminds me a lot of MUSE, but also has strong elements of 90s alternative rock.
The set was characterized by a lot of energy, which was also transferred to the audience quite well. The unsurpassed highlight was the singer’s crowd surfing session, although at first he didn’t seem to have much confidence in the crowd’s ability to carry him. Fortunately, he was reliably carried and was even able to continue performing the song that was playing at the time.
What was absolutely annoying, however, was the really bad sound. The drums and bass were so overdriven that you could hardly hear the vocals. The guitars and backing tracks were completely inaudible, even though I was standing right next to the mixing desks. Towards the end of the set, it got slightly better, but that simply shouldn’t happen at a show of this size with around 4,000 paying guests! In that respect, the performance was unfortunately not what we had hoped for.
Three Days Grace
In front of a sold-out crowd at Haus Auensee, my inner teenage girl was eagerly awaiting the performance of THREE DAYS GRACE. When the hall darkened and the words “Here we fucking go!” appeared on the LED screens, I got goosebumps that didn’t go away for the rest of the evening.
The first song, Dominate, from the current album Alienation, immediately demonstrated what would continue throughout the evening: lots of energy, more guitars, and energetic vocals from Adam Gontier and Matt Walst, who complemented each other perfectly. It is always a challenge to combine old songs with new songs in one set, especially when they were shaped by different singers. However, THREE DAYS GRACE knew exactly how to do it!
The musical focus was logically on the current album, but also on the classic One-X. The band really proved that the new Walst/Gontier era means both a new beginning and a return to their musical roots. Without the band continuing, albeit without Gontier but with Walst on vocals, the band would certainly no longer exist today. Gontier also acknowledged this, explicitly praising his bandmates for their perseverance and expressing his respect for this.
It was no less emotional when Gontier performed RADIOHEAD’s song Creep, then invited his cousin Cale onto the stage for the following song, Don’t Wanna Go Home Tonight, who then took over on acoustic guitar.
Overall, the performance by the Canadian export hit was a complete success, marked by a really well-thought-out show, a lot of enthusiasm, emotion, and an audience that reflected and returned the band’s energy 200%. It was a real pleasure to finally hear songs like Animal I Have Become, I Hate Everything About You, and I Am Machine live. The new songs, such as Mayday, Dominate, and Apologies, are in no way inferior to these songs—on the contrary! They symbolize the new beginning that THREE DAYS GRACE had hoped for, and we are excited for the next few years with this brilliant band!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 