Oct. 7, 2025
Mercury Music Lounge – Lakewood, Ohio
By Rob McCune
There are plenty of hard rock bands who give it a hundred percent every night on stage – doing the work of 10 out of 10 fingers.
Then there’s Finger Eleven. Giving it another 10 percent on top of the 100 – another finger, and you know which one.
The Canadian rockers out of Burlington, Ontario, haven’t let up since forming the band in 1990, though at that time they were still workshopping band names – briefly Stone Soul Picnic before a seven-year stint as Rainbow Butt Monkeys, which put out their first album. The band’s big break as Finger Eleven didn’t come until 2000 with their third album, The Greyest of Blue Skies. That album included “Suffocate,” which was used in the movie “Scream 3.” And from there, it was a meteoric rise as their songs went from movie soundtracks to hype tracks for WrestleMania.
Still turning it up to 11, the band rolled into the Mercury Music Lounge in Lakewood, Ohio, with friends Alien Ant Farm and fellow Canadians Brkn Love on the ticket.
Toronto-born alt-rockers Brkn Love, led by Justin Benlolo on vocals and guitar, went for broke, throwing down boulders with bangers off their three studio albums, including “20/20 Vision,” which like other tracks, features a war waged with axes – a dueling trio of electric and bass guitars, encouraged by an aggressive drumbeat.
Alien Ant Farm, alt, pop-punk rockers from Riverside, California, followed up with a frenetically paced set, as frontman Dryden Mitchell paced the stage like that one ant in the colony who is always carrying more than the rest. Amping up the crowd to a full frenzy, the Ants fully smashed tracks from their six studio albums, closing with the chart-topping cover of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal,” which was introduced via recording by the King of Pop himself.
Finger Eleven then burst onto the stage in full beast mode – with guitarist Rick Jackett wielding his guitar like a true axe in a headbanging warmup. The band’s set ranged from melodic, with lead singer Scott Anderson showing off his pipes on hits like “One Thing,” to metal with songs like “Above” to full-on rock guitar medleys and finally headbanging heights with “Paralyzer,” arguably their biggest radio hit.
When anyone says “no one really rocks like the old-school rockers,” Finger Eleven and Alien Ant Farm are in that class.
Rob McCune is Every_Thing_After_Photo on Instagram, where he shares his concert photography and reviews, as well as clips from his “Every.Thing.After” podcast, with interviews with musicians and bands.
