HALESTORM !!
Dec. 5, 2012, at the Majestic in Madison
by Sal Serio
Posted: Dec 2012
(5405) Page Views
Lzzy Hale of Halestorm 12-5-12 at the Majestic in Madison - photo by Kris Huehne
Oh my goodness, Madison! Wednesday, December 5th was another one of those reasons I will probably never leave the Mad City! It was music, music, and more music all night long! I swear it put more than the usual amount of “hump” in to my Hump Day!
I started out at the High Noon Saloon for the happy hour performance of “Pigs Fly”, a local collection of tuneful merry pranksters performing the earliest days of Pink Floyd (pretty much ‘The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ up to ‘Meddle’). Being a big Syd Barrett fan and early Floydian fanatic, I had high hopes, but these guys absolutely LEVELED the place! I mean, only two songs into their set, when they busted in to “Echoes > Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”, I just melted into an oozing mass of ectoplasm on the floor… and I was straight! Maybe it was the inevitable acid flashback I was warned about all these years. At any rate, next time Pigs Fly performs, don’t think twice, just BE THERE.
Since the High Noon show was done by about 7:15ish I made it to the sold out Halestorm concert at the Majestic Theatre before any of the openers had started. I had been a little irked at the booking, to be honest… I mean, c’mon! Both Halestorm AND In This Moment had sold out the Majestic in the recent past, so, it was a no-brainer to me that this show should’ve been in a bigger room. However, when I got there, it seemed relatively sedate and not too much of a sardine can. The staff, security, and merch crews all were in good spirits and seemed ready to have some fun.
Openers Eve To Adam blasted through a short but solid melodic hard rock set. Some local dudester got the awesome chance through a contest to join the band on stage, and the guy was rock-solid on the guitar part! I bumped into him in the back hallway right as he came off stage and high-fived him… seemed like he was on Cloud 9! That kind of stuff is part of what makes the local music scene so special.
I apologize in advance, but I’m not going to say much about In This Moment, because frankly, I’m not a fan, but I don’t want to be negative since they have a lot of fans here in America’s Dairyland. I will say this though, their sound guy should’ve had the common sense to turn them down. Their whole set was completely handicapped by a distorted, muddy, wall of fuzz. And the black light graveyard setting with the monster make-up… give me a break! Does the world REALLY need a female Rob Zombie? I think not.
Finally, the Lady Of The Hour, Lzzy Hale, came out blazing in a sexy tight black leather jacket, SHORT black hot pants, and mouth-watering detailed black nylons with studded heels… can you tell I was watching her every move?? As if coveting her stunning good looks and ballsy vocal delivery didn’t already have me in the palm of her hand, the guitar geek in me wanted Lzzy’s killer white Gibson Explorer as well! The opening song was “Mz. Hyde” from the new ‘Strange Case Of…’ CD, and the moment everyone in attendance was waiting for skyrocketed right through the roof of the Majestic! Drummer extraordinaire, and Lzzy’s brother, Arejay Hale, wore some weird old man rubber mask as he started the song, but quickly threw it off to reveal his metallic red hair dye. If you’ve never seen Halestorm, be ready for quite the drum calisthenics display… Arejay makes Keith Moon look like a mellow dude! From the very first beats, through to the end of the show, Arejay was jumping around behind the drum kit, flailing his arms like a man possessed, and throwing his sticks EVERYWHERE. And… it didn’t even look like he broke a sweat! The guy is an animal.
Next up, the group launched in to their new single “Love Bites (So Do I)” which had just that day been nominated for a Grammy in the hard rock/metal performance category. Actually, they found out about the Grammy nod while they were on stage at the Majestic! It was a truly sublime moment that came a little later in the set, right before Lzzy’s solo turn at the piano for the ballad “Break In”… she looked a bit stunned! When Lzzy thanked the audience for the support that helped her to live out her dreams, you could tell the sentiments were sincere, and the crowd went totally bonkers!
Speaking of the local connection, Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger was born and raised in Wisconsin (Hartford, I think), and during the encores Arejay Hale was wearing a Bucky Badger t-shirt!
One of my favorite moments of the show was the one cover song that Halestorm played… I may have been one of the only older metal-heads in the crowd that recognized it… they did Judas Priest’s “Dissident Aggressor” from the 1977 ‘Sin After Sin’ album! Holy shiznit! Lzzy was nailing all of Rob Halford’s high notes, and Joe was just slaying the guitar part… they even played it a little faster than the Priest version!
I should also give a big nod to bassist Josh Smith, the first member of the group that I met a couple years ago. Josh was rock solid all night, providing the foundation and spot-on backing vocals, as well as some keyboard work on “Rock Show”… great job, Josh!
I could go on and on about all the great songs that the group played, but I think you get the idea. In a nutshell, the next time Halestorm comes to Wisconsin (hopefully playing in the Huge-mo-drome!) JUST GO… and tape a pillow to your behind, because your ass is gonna get kicked hard! The evening concluded like a nuclear explosion with “It’s Not You”, “I Get Off”, “Here’s To Us”, and “I Miss The Misery”… with first encore “Here’s To Us” perhaps being the finest moment of the whole night… there was no separation between audience and band at that point, we were all celebrating the music, the group’s success, and the joy of rock ‘n roll! Here’s to Halestorm !!