Branded as ‘A Wild Evening With Halestorm’, the audience were treated to an array of tracks; old and new, acoustic and electric, covers and originals. Their new album Into The Wild Life, released in between the bands previous trip to the UK and now, is crammed full of tracks never heard before by UK fans, until now. Starting the night off with an acoustic set, but in true Halestorm style, the songs are still just as fiery and energetic with the acoustic guitars. Freak Like Me is less like a band performing for their fans and more like one big party when that one song comes on that everybody knows every word to. I’m Not An Angel and In Your Room, songs that haven’t graced Halestorm setlists with their presence that often, make for stunning renditions.
A quick (hopefully) impromptu cover of parts of Nirvana’s Come As You Are and Metallica’s Enter Sandman seem to massively please the crowd with various chants of “Slayer!” (optimistic) erupting before going straight into I Get Off, singer Lzzy Hale’s vocals are irrevocably enticing, turning this crowd favourite into an irresistibly slick acoustic jam. Rose In December, played for the first time live on UK soil, is a piano ballad that Lzzy wrote back when she was 16, explaining that “it’s really cheesy, because I am a cheese-ball.” It’s evident, just on this one track, how compellingly colossal Lzzy’s vocals can be.
Another first for Halestorm is performing their new album Into The Wild Life in its entirety. Sick Individual, a do-whatever-the-fuck-i-want anthem, takes another step up live from an already solid album track. Amen, Mayhem and Apocalyptic, the album’s heavy hitters, are concrete statements as to where the band are at right now. Pounding vocals and guitar solos all round. Watching this album played live is the perfect way to experience what Halestorm are all about, and closing track I Like It Heavy, a total feel-good rock n’ roll heavyweight, flawlessly curves off the full album set with a solo a cappella outro from Ms Hale herself.
This is a ‘Wild Evening With Halestorm’ after all and the band, still with a couple of surprises up their sleeve, gloriously start off the encore with Grammy award winning track Love Bites (So Do I) and swing straight into It’s Not You. One deep cut, which fans were promised in the plenty tonight, that rarely makes an appearance on setlists, is The Hand. With its aggressive guitar tones matching Lzzy’s vocals, this golden oldie would be welcome a lot more in the future. Just when the night seems to be over the band scramble back on stage for a final blowout in the form of a very appropriate cover of The Beatles’ Hard Days Night. For any fan this has definitely been a wild and entertaining evening with Halestorm.
Photo credit – Erin Moore at Forte Photography UK : Facebook / Twitter / Website
Halestorm: Facebook / Twitter / Website
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