It’s amazing what one band member can do for a band’s popularity. You see it all the time- a member leaves and the band suffers on some levels and, when singer Adam Gontier abruptly left Three Days Grace in 2012, the band continued on with Matt Walst at the helm, but they went from arenas down to headlining amphitheaters and also acting as support on many tours.
However, some of the music they put out in that time is arguably some of their strongest material.
Enter 2025, and Gontier finally made his way back to the band, after 13 years away- some of that time completely off the grid and the rest of it fronting Saint Asonia, but the band released their first single back- “Mayday” in 2024 and their reunion record- Alienation in 2025, followed by a 2026 U.S. headline tour, which started in the Spring and has carried into the Fall for a second leg- both of which featured support from The Funeral Portrait and I Prevail.
The Funeral Portrait may be one of the fastest-rising bands in years. With singles like “Suffocate City,” “Dark Thoughts” and “Holy Water” exploding over the last 2 years, the Indianapolis crowd was primed and packed to capacity well before doors and The Funeral Portrait didn’t disappoint, opening with a cover of The Beatles’ “Mad World” before ripping into “Generation Psycho” and “Blood Mother,” with the crowd chanting and singing along to every word.
Despite bassist Robert Weston having to fly home for family matters early in the tour, the band still sounded flawless and singer Lee Jennings’ vocals are as powerful as it gets. The band proved once again why they’re the future of hard rock.
I Prevail was up next and cranked the energy up to a million, with a set loaded with screams and pyro.
This was a lot of fans’ first glimpse into a world of I Prevail without longtime clean vocalist Brian Burkheiser and they’re definitely a different band. They’ve put their focus on more of the heavy material, throwing in just a few of the ballads and clean vocal songs to keep fans happy and stacked the setlist with songs from their new record- Violent Nature and keeping fans on their seats’ edge with a heavy onslaught that they’d not forget any time soon.
The only thing fans might have been left wanting was more of the “Hurricane”-style songs and more of the band’s earlier material. There was less “Stuck In Your Head” and “Rise Above it” and more “NWO” and “Gasoline.”
Finally, it was time for Three Days Grace to take over and, much like I Prevail, it was many fans’ first taste of Three Days Grace with Gontier back and sharing the stage with Walst for a double-singer attack.
Their set was perfectly balanced between Gontier and Walst era songs and showed the band paying homage and honor to their past, where they came from and to their roots, talking a lot about the early days, reminiscing about shows they’ve played in Indiana and looking back a lot throughout the set and even showed the old logos and artwork on the LED backscreen behind the stage.
Halfway through the show, they sat down at a campfire, played a video talking about the beginning of the band and told stories of sitting around a fire in the middle of nowhere Canada and played a short set of acoustic songs.
They even played a small medley set that included “Gone Forever” along with “Porn Star Dancing” by My Darkest Days- Walst’s band from before Three Days Grace and saw Gontier taking vocals on the second verse, as well as “I Don’t Care,” which Gontier recorded with Apocalyptica.
The only album they didn’t play a song from was Transit of Venus but played multiple tracks from every other album and even saw Gontier singing vocals on some of the Walst-era songs, which was really cool to see.
If you’re a fan of any era of Three Days Grace, this is the tour you’ve been waiting for. They embrace their roots and who they truly are and made sure to give the fans every song and deep cut they’ve been wanting to hear for years.
This is the best Three Days Grace have ever been.
-Reggie Edwards