Seether’s Triple Threat Tour 09/28/12: Pop’s – Sauget, IL

Back in June Seether announced they would headline the Triple Threat tour with Kyng and Sick Puppies. As it turns out, one of those bands stole the show in my opinion.

Seether has played Pops before, and I have heard stories of chaos and other interesting things. In fact one of the security guards there told me an interesting story about how he spent a few days on their tour bus last time they were at Pops, so clearly Seether is a partying band. Unfortunately , I was not lucky enough to actually party with them on this particular evening.

As the norm goes, my friends and I managed to get to Pops well before anyone else. It’s always a great feeling when you walk into a venue and see that empty rail knowing you have accomplished the mission of getting up front. That moment makes up for all the pains of skipping meals and waiting outside since 1pm.

The opening band for the show at Pop’s go by the name Young Guns. They were from England, and they were pretty good, in a sense they could easily play the Warped Tour and gather a ton of young girls screaming after them. They did a great job of getting the crowd moving and the lead singer did have beautiful blue eyes, so that was a plus. Honestly I’m not sure what their songs were, as this is the first time I have actually heard of the band, but I can tell you they played songs from their most recent album Bones.

The next band I wasn’t familiar with either, they were a three piece band called Kyng. (pronounced “king”) If I would have had long hair, I would have head banged through their entire set. Seriously this band rocked. They had heavy guitar riffs, and blazing bass, along with a lead singer that sort of looked like Rob Zombie, with a hint of Zack Wylde. He knows how to play the guitar that’s for sure. They played straight up head banging music, and they were good at it.

Although I had a hard time understanding exactly what he was saying, they did play songs from their album Trampled Sun and the lead singer was rather flirty. If you’re going to make wide eyes at me, expect the same back. Yes, several times he decided to do that with me and near the end of the set he pointed at me and sung. I love moments where you can connect like that with musicians.

Next up was Sick Puppies. Personally they stole the show. It’s been a year or so since I last saw the band that formed in Australia back in 1997., My first time seeing them, was two or three years ago, when they opened up for Chevelle in Chicago. They rocked the house then, and they rocked the house Friday night. Shim, the lead singer wasn’t feeling too well, you could tell his throat was scratchy but him and Emma, the bass player, and Mark the drummer, rocked it out. They got the crowd bouncing, moving and just plain singing every word to every song. I think they had more fans than Seether it was awesome. Bassist Emma Azari well let’s just say she kicks ass and can play a mean bass that’s for sure. They opened with “Odd One” off of their third album Tri-Polar. From that point on it was all rock. Check out the setlist below.

Sick Puppies set list consisted of:

Odd One
Cancer
My World
All the Same
Maybe
Mad World
Riptide
New Song, not sure on name
Nothing Really Matters
War
You’re going down

Shim also climbed out onto the crowd which did get bumped in the head by his shoe. Sadly I was unable to get photos of this but it’s okay. They performed an epic set and I will no doubt go see them live again.

Seether was next and their stage set up was pretty cool. They had moving parts on the amps, a clock that went around, pumps that moved up and down, and various other things, lots of glowing lights, and special things on the microphones, many different touches to there stage set up.

It had been a good six or seven years since I last saw Seether. They were a band that I followed and seen many times, even one time when they opened for Marilyn Manson way back when. So I was anticipating the sound that they play, but I wasn’t anticipating the mellow vibe I was getting. Honestly I could have feel asleep if it wasn’t for the little kid next to me that had made his way up to the front row and was rocking out. I would have dozed, perhaps it was Shaun’s mellowness that didn’t get the crowd going or just didn’t seem to have a stage presence at all. I’m not really sure.

Seether did perform well for what it was and played their hits along with old favorites such as “Broken.” They had an amazing drum solo by drummer John Humphrey. They did have a set up where Dale the bassist was sitting in a chair playing the bass during “Broken”, and there was some sort of glass object with liquid in it. Here is a photo of it below, the lighting was just dark enough that you couldn’t really get good shots, because it was so smokey in a sense.

Seether did finish up strong, and did get the crowd into with “Country Song” so things were looking up during the performance. As I said Seether has been through a lot as a band, Shaun has had issues and various other things seem to come there way, but overall, they did have a solid performance, the set list is pictured below:

It was a good night for a concert, and being dead center in the front wasn’t to shabby. I would have liked to have the lighting a little different for Seether, but it is what it is. Pops is a great venue, you can’t go wrong with going there to see a show, they have two stages and a balcony enough to accommodate a sold out performance. I love getting there early enough to be able to go in and out of pops to use the facilities, and get a drink if need be, it is a great little venue, nestled between two strip clubs.. makes for the perfect show, and they have a great atmosphere I think, overall I love pops. And this show turned me on to two new bands, that I hadn’t heard of until then, I will see Kyng again for sure, and you never know Young Guns might turn up on another tour, but overall another great concert.