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A rendezvous with Halestorm
HALESTORM
Rendezvous Inn
Perryville , MD
January 20, 2007
By GREG MAKI
My most anticipated album of 2007? It’s not the expected new release from Metallica or Megadeth or any of the other giants. I’m certainly looking forward to those, but what I want to hear more than anything else is the debut studio effort from a little band out of York , Pa. , called Halestorm. Atlantic Records signed the band, which draws its name from the sister/brother-frontwoman/drummer combo of Lzzy and Arejay Hale, in June 2005 and kept them on the road for much of the next year and a half, releasing only a five-song live EP (One and Done—read Live-Metal.net’s review).
The 2006 Winterfresh SnoCore Tour, co-headlined by Shinedown and Seether, introduced me to Halestorm when it rolled into Baltimore last February. From the moment Lzzy began the a cappella opening of “It’s Not You,” I was hooked. They soon returned, with Shinedown and Trapt, as the opening act on the Equinox Tour. For the second time in two months, they stole the show.
With touring now behind them for the time being, the band, rounded out by guitarist Joe Hottinger and bassist Josh Smith, is focused on the writing and recording of their album, with a few local shows scheduled along the way. That’s what led them off the beaten path on a Saturday night to the Rendezvous Inn in Perryville, Md., where they played to an appreciative crowd of loyal fans and others who had simply wandered in for a night out at their local watering hole. They treated the audience to two-and-a-half hours of their no-frills rock n’ roll sound. How’s that for your $5 cover? Remarkably seasoned for a band so young (which, no doubt, springs from having formed nearly a decade ago when Lzzy was but 13 years old and Arejay 10), they have the stage presence of an act twice their age. Of course, the Rendezvous doesn’t even have a real stage; it’s a dive in the middle of nowhere. Major credit goes to whoever was running the sound for doing a spectacular job in what appeared to be a less than ideal venue.
As with any rock band with a female lead, much of the attention goes to Lzzy. But it is warranted, as she is one of the most powerful new voices to emerge in the last several years. On SnoCore, she made blowing Amy Lee of Evanescence out of the water a nightly event when she joined Seether to help sing the hit “Broken.” As an added bonus, she’s also a natural between songs, her friendly banter a welcome change from the clichéd rock star patter.
The set featured mostly original material, with familiarity making the songs from the EP stand out. My personal favorite of the entire night was “Demon Rum,” which is as good a drinking song as I have ever heard. An interesting assortment of covers, including Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog,” Judas Priest’s “Living After Midnight” and Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark,” helped fill out the set. It’s always great to see non-metal bands acknowledge some of the genre’s greats. The drum circle that was part of the show on the national tours was even more impressive this night, beginning with an extended solo by Arejay before his bandmates joined in the fun. It’s things like this that show me Halestorm is truly a band that is in it for the music, not individual glory or flavor-of-the-week hit singles. Their music is timeless, their live show overflowing with passion and love for what they do. This was my first concert of 2007 and the bar has been set high for the many that will follow.
myspace.com/halestorm
www.halestormrocks.com
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