 | Written by Alex Stojanovic THREE DAYS GRACE / VOLBEAT w/ Wage War @ Budweiser Stage Toronto, ON, Canada June 19, 2025 Presented by Live Nation Summer's finally here and that means the big outdoor shows are too, and they're out in full force. It's also not too often that you see the big established touring bands doing full-blown tours of Canada, but two bands that teamed up for a full tour of Canada just now were Three Days Grace and Volbeat, with Wage War serving as special guests, bringing three countries (Canada, Denmark & USA) and three different styles to form one epic night. This double-bill hit several major markets across the country and Toronto got to witness this combo on a rather windy Thursday night on June 19 at the Budweiser Stage. When I say three different styles, I mean that Wage War brought the metal edge, Three Days Grace brought the hard rock edge, and Volbeat was middle ground of the two. |
Wage War kicked off the night with a heavy dose of Florida metalcore. As usual, the venue was still filling up when they took the stage. Their mix of aggressive screams and sweet cleans made for some real ear candy, and I have to say that their stage presence was the best out of all the bands. As I was watching, I could tell that a majority of the crowd was slightly taken aback by the heaviness, because this crowd was clearly not your typical metal crowd. Of course, there's some crossover between radio rock fans and metal fans, and there was a good portion of metalheads in the crowd, but when it came to the moshing, the pits were not as energetic or intense as the ones at a regular metal show. Not that it's a problem, it's just an observation. I will say that I did chuckle a few times at the looks of confusion on certain people's faces due to the heaviness.
Coming up next was headliner #1: Volbeat. Now this marks the first time I've gotten to see Volbeat play a headline set after only seeing them open for Metallica twice and once at Heavy T.O. As many times as Volbeat have been here to headline over the years, I just never was able to make it happen until this time. Celebrating the release of their new album God Of Angels Trust, they incorporated a good mix of new material and old favourites. New songs included "By A Monster's Hand", "Better Be Fueled Than Tamed", "Demonic Depression", and that song with the insanely long title that even I'm not done reading it yet, "In The Barn Of The Goat Giving Birth To Satan's Spawn In A Dying World Of Doom". They also threw in "Shotgun Blues" from Servant Of The Mind.
As far as the old favourites go, they focused mainly on songs from Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie like "The Devil's Bleeding Crown", "Black Rose", "Seal The Deal" and "For Evigt", while also touching on classics like "Lola Montez", "Fallen" and "Sad Man's Tongue". They opened their set with a medley of "A Warrior's Call" and "Pool Of Booze, Booze, Booza" and closed with "Still Counting". A rather funny moment was before "Sad Man's Tongue", Michael Poulsen assumed that people knew what song was coming because the acoustic guitar came out. However, a fan jokingly said "Slayer" and Michael acknowledged it, by teasing the intro to "South Of Heaven" on the acoustic before telling him that Slayer wouldn't work on the acoustic. A fun set with the Danish rock legends.
Closing off the night was some homegrown talent with Three Days Grace. The last half-year was a big deal for the band and the fans, mainly because Adam Gontier returned to the fold, and the band is now a quintet with two lead singers as Matt Walst remains in his place. To see both singers up front is something you don't see with a lot of major bands, and I think it's an amazing concept. We've seen it happen with Helloween, and it's working out so well for them. Plus, it's a way to bring the two camps of fans together, whether you're a fan of one singer or the other, but I digress. When Three Days Grace hit the stage, that's when the crowd really seemed to come to life a lot more, which is honestly no surprise given that they're the hometown band and that Adam was back, so the hype was real. I mean, the roars of the crowd for Three Days Grace were just deafening.
This marks the third time I've seen the boys, and each time I saw them, it was always at the amphitheatre, and I got to see both of the previous incarnations. In 2006, I saw them on the One X tour opening for Nickelback, then 13 years later in 2019 on the Outsider tour opening for Breaking Benjamin, so to now see this incarnation with both singers fronting makes it a slightly full circle moment, and of course, hearing many of those classic songs from Adam's era with him on vocals again was nostalgia right into the veins. Songs from every album (except for Transit Of Venus) were featured, and it was super cool to hear Adam's voice on Matt's songs, and to hear both of them harmonize and trade-off. The set kicked off with an absolute bang with "Animal I Have Become", sending fans right back to the good ol' days before coming right back to the recent years with "So Called Life".
The first two records were the primary focus of the set, which makes sense because it's where a majority of their classic hits are from, and we were treated to pretty much all of them, like "Pain", "Home", "Just Like You", "I Hate Everything About You" and "Never Too Late", while also treating us to "Break" and "The Good Life" from Life Starts Now. I was really surprised and happy that they threw in "Time Of Dying", a deep cut from One X, because that was one of my favourites from back then. Matt's era was also respected very nicely with singles like "The Mountain", "Painkiller" and "I Am Machine". Adam also got to have a solo bit in the set where he treated us to "Rooster" by Alice In Chains, and the band also celebrated the present moment with new music from the upcoming Alienation album with the singles "Mayday" and "Apologies". I just have to acknowledge that the only awkward part of the set was that just about every time when Matt asked for a mosh pit, there would either be no pit, or a small one would fizzle, but not last very long. It was during the closing of the set with "Riot" that a more respectable-sized pit formed. However, there were a good amount of crowd surfers, so that made up for the lack of pits.
To close things out, this show proved to be one of the best rock parties to kick off the summer concert season, and a great way to bring particularly Three Days Grace fans that have stayed away since Adam's departure back to the party. Seeing them in particular was a complete nostalgia trip for me, and seeing both them and Volbeat performing full headlining sets was a treat.
Coming up next was headliner #1: Volbeat. Now this marks the first time I've gotten to see Volbeat play a headline set after only seeing them open for Metallica twice and once at Heavy T.O. As many times as Volbeat have been here to headline over the years, I just never was able to make it happen until this time. Celebrating the release of their new album God Of Angels Trust, they incorporated a good mix of new material and old favourites. New songs included "By A Monster's Hand", "Better Be Fueled Than Tamed", "Demonic Depression", and that song with the insanely long title that even I'm not done reading it yet, "In The Barn Of The Goat Giving Birth To Satan's Spawn In A Dying World Of Doom". They also threw in "Shotgun Blues" from Servant Of The Mind.
As far as the old favourites go, they focused mainly on songs from Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie like "The Devil's Bleeding Crown", "Black Rose", "Seal The Deal" and "For Evigt", while also touching on classics like "Lola Montez", "Fallen" and "Sad Man's Tongue". They opened their set with a medley of "A Warrior's Call" and "Pool Of Booze, Booze, Booza" and closed with "Still Counting". A rather funny moment was before "Sad Man's Tongue", Michael Poulsen assumed that people knew what song was coming because the acoustic guitar came out. However, a fan jokingly said "Slayer" and Michael acknowledged it, by teasing the intro to "South Of Heaven" on the acoustic before telling him that Slayer wouldn't work on the acoustic. A fun set with the Danish rock legends.
Closing off the night was some homegrown talent with Three Days Grace. The last half-year was a big deal for the band and the fans, mainly because Adam Gontier returned to the fold, and the band is now a quintet with two lead singers as Matt Walst remains in his place. To see both singers up front is something you don't see with a lot of major bands, and I think it's an amazing concept. We've seen it happen with Helloween, and it's working out so well for them. Plus, it's a way to bring the two camps of fans together, whether you're a fan of one singer or the other, but I digress. When Three Days Grace hit the stage, that's when the crowd really seemed to come to life a lot more, which is honestly no surprise given that they're the hometown band and that Adam was back, so the hype was real. I mean, the roars of the crowd for Three Days Grace were just deafening.
This marks the third time I've seen the boys, and each time I saw them, it was always at the amphitheatre, and I got to see both of the previous incarnations. In 2006, I saw them on the One X tour opening for Nickelback, then 13 years later in 2019 on the Outsider tour opening for Breaking Benjamin, so to now see this incarnation with both singers fronting makes it a slightly full circle moment, and of course, hearing many of those classic songs from Adam's era with him on vocals again was nostalgia right into the veins. Songs from every album (except for Transit Of Venus) were featured, and it was super cool to hear Adam's voice on Matt's songs, and to hear both of them harmonize and trade-off. The set kicked off with an absolute bang with "Animal I Have Become", sending fans right back to the good ol' days before coming right back to the recent years with "So Called Life".
The first two records were the primary focus of the set, which makes sense because it's where a majority of their classic hits are from, and we were treated to pretty much all of them, like "Pain", "Home", "Just Like You", "I Hate Everything About You" and "Never Too Late", while also treating us to "Break" and "The Good Life" from Life Starts Now. I was really surprised and happy that they threw in "Time Of Dying", a deep cut from One X, because that was one of my favourites from back then. Matt's era was also respected very nicely with singles like "The Mountain", "Painkiller" and "I Am Machine". Adam also got to have a solo bit in the set where he treated us to "Rooster" by Alice In Chains, and the band also celebrated the present moment with new music from the upcoming Alienation album with the singles "Mayday" and "Apologies". I just have to acknowledge that the only awkward part of the set was that just about every time when Matt asked for a mosh pit, there would either be no pit, or a small one would fizzle, but not last very long. It was during the closing of the set with "Riot" that a more respectable-sized pit formed. However, there were a good amount of crowd surfers, so that made up for the lack of pits.
To close things out, this show proved to be one of the best rock parties to kick off the summer concert season, and a great way to bring particularly Three Days Grace fans that have stayed away since Adam's departure back to the party. Seeing them in particular was a complete nostalgia trip for me, and seeing both them and Volbeat performing full headlining sets was a treat.
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