Saint Asonia Plays The Webster on Co-Headlining Tour with Black Stone Cherry
Photography By Mia Palazzo
March 2 - Saint Asonia made their way to The Webster in Hartford, Connecticut on their co-headlining tour with Black Stone Cherry. The tour also featured the band’s good friend’s, Any Given Sin.
Though it was a rainy night in Hartford, fans still made their way to the venue early to secure a good spot on the barricade. The night kicked off with Maryland rock band Any Given Sin. Though missing their bassist, the band still had fans excited for the entire duration of their seven-song set.
Any Given Sin is no stranger to the Connecticut crowd. Since its formation in 2015, Any Given Sin has played many shows in Connecticut and therefore had many longtime fans in the crowd for this show. Though only playing songs from their newest album, War Within, the band had a good portion of the crowd singing along to every song they played. War Within, released in August of 2023, became a hit for the band, having features such as SiriusXM Octane’s most spun songs, the band is known for creating a unique twist on modern rock vocals.
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The next band on the lineup was Saint Asonia. The supergroup was formed by former Three Days Grace vocalist Adam Gontier and former Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, later enlisting the former Finger Eleven Drummer Rich Beddoe, and former Dark New Day bassist, Corey Lowrey. Though Mushok’s other commitments prohibited him from being on this tour, he was filled in by Travis Stanley, a known fill-in for bands such as Adelitas Way and Art of Dying.
The band opened with one of their best-known songs, “Above it All” and proceeded to run through some of their biggest hits, their first three songs consisted of my personal favorites of Saint Asonia, including “Better Place” and my favorite song of theirs, “The Hunted”, originally featuring Sully Erna. As lead vocalist Adam Gontier was formally in Three Days Grace there was even a section of the set dedicated to his previous work, including a personal favorite of mine, “Never Too Late”. Along with this, the band played “I Don't Care '', a song Adam was featured on by Apocalyptica, and one of the band’s most popular songs that was put out many years ago, “Blinding Lights' ' by The Weekend.
After some conversing about his struggles, struggles with pills, and how hard life can be sometimes, their set concluded with one more Three Days Grace song, ‘Riot’, ‘Devastate’ from their 2022 EP Extrovert, and concluded their set with “Let Me Live My Life”, the bands biggest song off of their 2015 self-titled album, Saint Asonia. Talking to some of the fans at the show, seeing Adam Gonteir perform after listening to him for years on years was a dream come true for fans who did not stop singing through the band's entire set.
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The headlining band on this date of the co-headlining tour, Black Stone Cherry, is currently supporting their 8th studio effort titled “Screamin’ at the Sky”. The band truly brought their southern charm to The Webster, drawing in all the fans of the southern-styled rock sound. With the newest member of the band, bass player Steve Jewell Jr. fitting seamlessly, the energy was high in both the band and the crowd, even forming the first mosh pit of the night. The band played many older songs, opening with ‘Me and Mary Jane’, and playing songs off of “Black Stone Cherry” and three songs off of “Between The Devil & the Deep Blue Sea”.
The band also played two covers, ‘Give Me One Reason’ by Tracy Chapman and an outstanding performance of ‘Can’t You See’ by The Marshall Tucker Band. The band concluded their set with two of their biggest hits, ‘Blame it on The Boom Boom’ and switching out their instruments to perform ‘Lonely Train’ off of their 2006 self-titled album “Black Stone Cherry ''. The band expressed their gratitude for the appearance at the show and threw out picks, sticks, and setlists before leaving the stage, concluding a great night of rock.
