How much fun it must be to front a platinum-selling rock band, make longtime friends with other rock vocalists and then go out on tour to play music and laugh together. Such are the current lives of Benjamin Burnley, the founding member and lead singer of Breaking Benjamin, and Lacey Sturm, lead singer of Flyleaf.
The two are singing their hearts out onstage, accompanied by Sturm’s husband and Pittsburgh native Joshua Sturm on guitar. “I’m rocking as hard as I can acoustically,” he joked at one point early in the set Sunday night at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks.
As Burnley said at the show’s start, “We just like to relax, have fun and sing some songs. We’d really like to hear you sing along, too.”
The packed crowd at the Roxian was happy to oblige.
Both Breaking Benjamin and Flyleaf found success on rock radio stations during the 2000s, and both are still kicking. Lacey Sturm and Burnley have been friends for decades, and they’ve collaborated in the past. Sunday night’s set was split between songs by the two bands, with a few covers thrown in for fun.
Along for the ride was Burnley’s son, Benjamin. “We call him Cheech,” Burnley said. Cheech got big cheers from the crowd, especially when he stepped up to the mic toward the end of the show to sing a little on recent Breaking Benjamin release, “Awaken.”
On Breaking Benjamin’s full-band recordings, Burnley can tend toward the screamier side of rock singing. But with the bells and whistles stripped away, he sang his songs with a power and clarity that showed off how talented he really is. Lacey Sturm’s voice has always been high, clear and expressive, but experience has lent it a roughness that makes the songs written by her younger self sound even more impactful.
As requested, the audience sang along with the first Breaking Benjamin song, “So Cold.” Burnley and Sturm dueted on this and many others. Their voices blended well together, both packing a lot of power and emotion over the dark plucking of Joshua Sturm.
“We just decided one day, hanging out, eating pizza,” said Burnley.
“And wings,” Lacey Sturm added.
“And wings, to do a little acoustic tour with the three of us. I love singing with Lacey, I love playing with Josh,” Burnley said.
He referred to the next Breaking Benjamin song, “Dear Agony,” as their first collaboration. Burnley bellowed out the chorus with that trademark edge to his voice, and the two singers harmonized beautifully.
“You know we live in Pittsburgh, right?” Joshua Sturm asked the crowd. “We’ve got a lot of family here tonight. Hi Mom, hi Dad.”
Flyleaf songs “Fully Alive” and “Sorrow” felt more melancholy when played acoustically, but Lacey Sturm’s lilting vocals were like an uplifting added instrument on top of the guitar.
In the middle of the show, the one-two punch of Breaking Benjamin’s “The Diary of Jane” and Flyleaf’s “All Around Me” were a highlight of the night. Even better, that scorching pair were followed by the somewhat softer “Ashes of Eden” and “So I Thought,” which Burnley called his favorite Flyleaf song.
“I listened to it over and over again,” he said, referring to when he first heard it. “It’s one of those songs, as a songwriter, I wish I wrote it, but I didn’t. So the next best thing is I get to sing it with Lacey and Josh tonight.”
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Early on in the show, they played Silverchair’s “Tomorrow,” an impressive feat on an acoustic guitar. The last third of the show was heavy with covers, including a tearjerking rendition of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” (a request of Lacey’s) and a poignant rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” (at Josh’s request). The song fit Lacey Sturm’s current vocal character perfectly.
Burnley proved himself not just a gifted vocalist but an able mimic, putting on the grunge edge for “Tomorrow” and a peak rendition of Nirvana’s “All Apologies,” while managing a maybe-better-than-the-real-thing Clapton on “Tears in Heaven.” Lacey Sturm might not be Steve Perry, but her whole heart and soul went into Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” It was their first time playing that one, and what a treat for Pittsburgh.
The trio of musicians unleashed every grenade in their arsenals for their closing cover, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” Burnley threw everything into his James Hetfield snarl and Lacey Sturm added extra height to the soaring chorus.
They exchanged onstage hugs to big cheers from the audience and promised to see us again. Maybe there are more acoustic tours like this in the future. It’s a great format for seeing favorite artists having a great time and making some great music.
