Halestorm – An Evening with Halestorm – Barrowland Glasgow – 7th March 2022
Halestorm return to Glasgow on a cold March night, with something a little different in their show, no support bands. The Pennsylvanian four piece are giving their fans a different experience with a show split in to two separate sets. The word was out, Halestorm were in town, approaching the venue it was evident from the snaking queue forming outside the Glasgow fans were arrived early to get the best spot in the iconic Barrowland Ballroom.
The American rockers were in town and the fan base was out in force, arriving at the venue there was a great energy, fans of all ages had gathered to see their heroes, and get into the venue early to gain a prime spot to view the stage.
The stage was set up with a second drum kit, keyboard and stools around the back area of the stage, the industrial looking stage lights made the stage look more homely. As the fans made their way in, the word was out that the show was starting 15 minutes later than planned to let more of the queuing fans into the venue to see the performance.
As the venue lights dimmed and the stage lights came on lead singer Lzzy Hale took to the front of the stage in front of her keyboard. As she greeted the Glasgow audience, she played broken down version of Break In before playing a beautiful version of Dear Daughter from Into the Wild Life album. This was greeted with the Glasgow crowd resembling a rehearsed choir in full voice singing word for word with Lzzy. The look on her face said it all, you could tell this was going to be one hell of a night of music. Explaining that the set was in her hands and nothing is planned, it could go any way as she introduced God Bless the Beast before inviting band member Joe Hottinger to the stage to help her out with couple of songs before the rest of the band took their positions on stage to perform classic acoustic versions of The Silence, Bet U Wish U Had Me Back and Familiar Taste of Poison.
Lzzy announced that the band had been performing a song from a band in the city / country they are currently playing in, and rehearsing it that day to perform during the acoustic section of the set. Tonight the Glasgow audience were in for a bit of a surprise with a rendition of The Proclaimers I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) with the Barrowland audience in full voice, they had created the ultimate Scottish party atmosphere within the venue.
As the band finished off a great set of acoustic songs that included versions of Raise Your Horns before closing “Welcome to the Nightmare in my Head” from the Mz. Hyde song, this was not a nightmare this was a dream come true for any Halestorm fan with the band breaking down the classic and bringing them back to the drawing board. As the band left the stage Lzzy said that they will be back for their electric set in 20 mins.
This was time for Lzzy’s brother and bands drummer Arejay Hale to take front of stage with his comic routine with cymbal and snare at hand he entertained the Glasgow audience for 15 mins and having a laugh as it went along. This gave the stage crew a chance to clear the stage and make way for the Electric set.
The Stage was set with the Halestorm logo illuminated in the backdrop giving it pride of place. As the lights dimmed Lzzy was first out sporting a new outfit for this part of the show. The band opened the electric set with the awesome Back From the Dead that had the crowd eating out their hands, at this point it was full throttle ahead with a blistering set that included I Get Off, Daughter of Darkness, I am the Fire and the excellent Freak Like Me. The band were on top form giving it their all, after so many months off you feel that all energy levels where on a high for this tour.
Halestorm are a band that know what they want from their show, and deliver this to the highest order, even in a small venue they had an incredible light show that captured the set beautifully. The Glasgow audience were in their glory singing along to all the songs. You can see the tightness within the band as the perform, through back catalogue tracks and adding in the new songs seem to go hand and hand. They closed the set with Love Bites (So Do I ) from The Strange Case album and closed the set with the new single The Steeple, the band left the stage waving to the audience.
After a short break they were back for an encore that had the whole venue, singing and dancing as they performed Here’s to Us and Apocalyptic that had the floor in the venue moving, you could see they were going out to deliver the perfect ending to an amazing show, but it was not over yet as they pulled out even more big hitters in the form of Mayhem before closing a remarkable night of music with the stunning I Miss The Misery.
If you have never seen or heard the band before, go in blind and you will come out a fan with the superb vocal from Lzzy, the joker in Arejay and the excellent guitar playing from Joe and not forgetting the man keeping it altogether bass player Josh Smith. Direct from the US of A they give you the ultimate rock show.
Review by Karen Edmond
