Halestorm are at the right point in their careers to grace us with “An Evening With” tour – four albums deep with the fifth due to arrive in May and their previous tour was in arenas, so to willingly drop it back down the “intimacy” of a 2000-cap venue to reconnect with their UK fans is a welcome move. And when Glasgow is involved, it has to be the Barrowlands.
A gig I’d been looking forward to for quite some time, unfortunately, the paid job (if only we could do this full time) meant I missed the first couple of songs of the evening and immediately, Lzzy Hale’s inimitable pipes hit me as I open the door as she stands at a keyboard with a tease of Back From the Dead’s “Raise Your Horns” before Josh Hottinger s her for “The Silence”. The rhythm section of Arejay Hale and Josh Smith make appearances for the final few songs, it allows the band to banter with one another as the younger Hale indulges in some deliberately terrible jokes – thankfully Arejay is a better drummer than he is a stand-up comedian.
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As the band have been paying homage to the UK, each city receiving an exclusive cover of a song by “local heroes”, what did Halestorm pick for Glasgow? As soon as those first chords hit, you know it. Yep, The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” has the Barrowlands bouncing during the stripped back portion of the evening, even if The Poclaimers aren’t exactly locals. That said, as they close out the first part of the evening with “Mz. Hyde” in its Reimagined EP format and live, it’s even better than the recording (which was no slouch).
It’s been close to seven years since they last trod the boards of the Barrowlands and as they make their triumphant return to the stage after a brief break, plugged-in, with “Back From the Dead”, it’s immediately apparent that a pandemic hasn’t stopped them, sounding fiercer than ever. As a unit, they’re as well-oiled as they’ve ever been and don’t so much as perform as they do own the stage, closer to an up-and-coming band hitting their stride in their residency rather than the global titans they’ve become. It’s not that Halestorm have unfinished business in this room, so much as they want to reacquaint themselves with it.
With the furious “Uncomfortable” and intense “I Get Off” following, it’s clear that Halestorm, as ever, aren’t messing around, intent to leave everything they have on-stage. Meanwhile, “Daughters of Darkness” is dedicated to two of the audience in the front row who flew in from New Jersey for their one hundredth Halestorm gig. With more tastes of the album in “Bombshell” and “The Steeple” peppered into the rest of the set, what does let the evening down is the band don’t take any real risks with regards to their plugged-in set. Instead, what we’re treated to is a fairly standard set but they do it so damn well that any deep cuts you were hoping for are forgotten in an instant.
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Returning to the stage for a second time for the encore, the band blast through their final songs with standard “Here’s to Us” and after the beige-ness of the Into the Wild Life songs, the band finally calls it a day with an epic rendition of “I Miss the Misery”. As the band transform one of their oldest songs into a an incendiary closer with Lzzy Hale’s vocal acrobatics outdoing their usual lofty heights, the extended guitar-work, vocal runs, call-and-response never becomes self-indulgent or tiresome. Instead, it raises curiosity “What are they going to do next?”, hoping that it won’t come to its inevitable end.
If ever there was a perfect fit for a night like this, it was Halestorm. Indeed, despite them looking to rise even further up festival billings and would continue to be well-deserved, if they were to do this every year, it’d be a great addition to the gig calendar, especially if they were to mix up the setlist and take some more risks. However, as they suffered the effects of Covid like every touring band, what was already an incredible band has upped their game even further.
Photos from the London date by Shells of Moshville Times
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