Review by Ben Harwell & Scott Cornell | Photos by Scott Cornell

The Target Center was only 20-30% capacity when Lilith Czar, the alter-ego of Automatic Loveletter’s Front woman, Juliet Simms along with band mates took the stage and enthusiastically kicked off the 93X Twin Cities Takeover. A five band bill that was on it’s last stop of the tour and every band left it all on stage.

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Lilith Czar, a Los Angeles based four piece touring in support of the 2021 album Created From Filth And Dust, played a six song set that included a Stevie Nicks cover of “Edge of Seventeen”, the empowering & explosive ”King” and ended with hit single “Anarchy”. The mix was a little hot on the high side during the first two songs but was remedied in quick fashion. Each member’s stage presence was as if they’d been born on that stage. Drummer Lindsay Martin, with her golden locks in perpetual flight, looked like she was having the time of her life. Guitarist Evan Potter & bassist Justus Dixon, owned their space with smiles and precision.

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93X on air personality Pablo took the stage to introduce Wage War and experienced some mic drop outs and was forced to repeat himself.

Wage War energetically brought head banging ferocity to Minneapolis promoting their 2021 album, Manic. The five piece from Ocala, Florida is a hard act to follow. Circle pits opened almost immediately and lasted for nearly four songs as Wage War broke into a thunderous eight song set. The secondary vocals sounded muddy but didn’t distract or detract from the charismatic performance. Backed with a wall of dominating, near seizure inducing strobes, Front man Briton Bond ricocheted from one side of the stage to the other weaving through Lead guitarist Seth Blake, rhythm guitarist Cody Quistad and bassist Chris Gaylord as they strummed and strutted about interacting with the crowd. Drummer Stephen Kluesener played the dramatic lyric interpreter with emotional pantomiming when the mood struck. Heavily rotating single “Circle the Drain” had the crowd singing over the sound system and closed with “Stitch”

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Seats continued to fill as Asking Alexandria, a quintet from across the pond (York, North Yorkshire, England to be exact) took the stage promoting their 2021 album See What's on the Inside. Asking Alexandria’s exuberance and vigor proved they could hang with powerhouses Godsmack and Three Days Grace and were not going to be upstaged by their supporting acts. Given a 45 minute slot, their set was literally, from start to finish, their greatest hits. The first three songs, “Alone Again”, “Antisocialist '' and “They Don’t Want, What We Want (And They Don’t Care)” are some of their most recent hit singles which elevated the palpable intensity throughout the arena. Fans throughout were singing every word to every song at the tops of their collective lungs. Front man Danny Worsnop had an incredible stage presence and commanded the crowd from every inch of the stage, leaving nowhere unexplored by the second song. Lead guitarist Ben Bruce, rhythm guitarist Cameron Liddell and bassist Sam Bettley maneuvered effortlessly around one another interacting and provoking crowd interactions. Drummer James Cassells trapped behind his kit would not be upstaged Asking Alexandria came to dominate and entertain and had a hell of a time doing so.

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The latest Three Days Grace album Explosions dropped just the day before the Canadian quartet expected and encouraged mosh pits from the onset; the crowd obliged and did not disappoint. During the 2021 hit single “So Called Life”, overpowering levels of distortion briefly took attention away from the performance, but being the seasoned professionals they are, the members of Three Days Grace worked through it with little distraction. Guitarist Barry Stock had a custom guitar pick tower adorned with 80-100 picks with the intent of volleying each and every last one to the pit of screaming fans. Front man & rhythm guitarist Matt Walst wasted no time firing up the crowd and had the fans on their feet the whole show. During their earliest hit single “I Hate Everything About You” the crowd was firing on all cylinders and collectively sang along, echoing throughout reaching even the furthest areas of the arena. Large screens displayed music videos and imagery appropriately themed for each song. Bassist Brad Walst bounced from platform to platform when he could step away from his vocal duties adding to the intensity of the performance. Once again, the time allotted for this band left little room for new material from Explosions but filled the set full of bangers. Front man Matt Walst tossed t-shirts to the crowd before he jumped off stage during the last song “Riot”, to high five those he could reach along the barricade. Drummer Neil Sanderson wasn’t going to be upstaged by his band mates and tossed out his kit’s skins at the end of the set making good with the crowd.

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Godsmack released their seventh studio album When Legends Rise in 2018. Front man Sully Erna stated that this show was the last show while they work on wrapping up their upcoming eighth studio album. That said, it was apparent they wanted to end this tour with a bang. Opening with monster hits “I Stand Alone”, “When Legends Rise”, and “1000hp” ripped the lid off the arena and saw an abundance of crowd surfers. Flame towers during “1000hp” took many in the front rows by surprise. Guitarist Tony Rombola stuck to his side of the stage while Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill gallivanted all over creation. Erna got mischievous, manually manipulating robotic stage lights towards the crowd and interfering with Rombola’s instrumentation. Erna commented on how he felt Minnesota has “the prettiest women in the country” and noticed the overwhelming amount of bearded muscle men in the crowd and encouraged the muscular bearded “lumberjacks” in the crowd to help make this show an authentic rock concert by hoisting the beautiful and willing ladies onto their shoulders before playing “Something Different”. “Whatever” produced a sea of hands and a call and response of “GO AWAY'' from the crowd during the chorus. “Bulletproof” ended the set with the ever present pseudo farewell before a white baby grand piano was wheeled onstage for “Under Your Scars”. Sully took a few moments before playing to speak about the Scars Foundation which benefits programs with a proven track record of effectiveness in addressing mental health issues. Afterwards, Sully got a bit over excited and chipped a tooth before they ended with their rendition of The Beatles “Come Together”.