Goodness gracious! (photos)

To say Thursday night's triple bill at the Steelback Centre was intense would be an understatement.

Vancouver's Econline Crush opened the evening with a powerful 30-minute set of old and new material, including Dirty from the January 15, 2008 release Ignite.

Prior to surrendering the stage to Seether, Econoline Crush singer Trevor Hurst encouraged audience members to message the band on MySpace, stating: "We love hearing from you."

"I saw you in the Sault tonight. You guys were great," wrote one happy concert goer. "You guys were also the first concert I saw about ten years ago in the Sault with Joydrop and BTK at the Princess. I haven't heard much from you guys since then, but you're still rockin'."

All four band members made themselves readily available at the merch booth for the duration of the show, happily meeting fans and posing for photographs.

A band of few words, members of South Africa's Seether let their fiery music speak on their behalf.

Also drawing material from their entire catalogue, the set included Fake It and Rise Above This from their latest album Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces.

Three Days Grace guitarist Barry Stock and singer Adam Gontier joined the members of Seether for a passionate rendition of their hit Broken.

This made the already happy crowd a bit crazed.

By the time Three Days Grace appeared, the screaming hordes had crammed themselves to the front of the stage in eager anticipation.

With boundless energy, Adam Gontier, Neil Sanderson, Brad Walst and Barry Stock launched into an intense stretch of hit after hit, beginning with Animal I Have Become.

Also included were Pain, I Hate Everything About You, Never Too Late, Scared and Riot.

An unexpected surprise came when Gontier sat alone on stage with an acoustic guitar and sang Alice In Chain's Rooster.

It was here that it became apparent his voice was beginning to give out.

That didn't seem to matter to the fans.

"BEST CONCERT EVER in Sault Ste. Marie...WOW!!! Keep on a rockin!," was written on the Three Days Grace MySpace page last night.

Nor did it hinder Gontier's performance as he applied his crowd-conquering skills like an old pro.

The only disappointment arose when the house lights came on immediately following the performance, signaling there would be no encore.