Halestorm Hails Toronto

Meister's Metal Mayhem

Some Photos are from Halestorm’s Performance at Aftershock 2013 by Kimberly Annette

TORONTO, Canada, Dec. 3—Grammy Award-winning band Halestorm’s latest tour rolled into Toronto’s The Opera House recently, bringing with them Redlight King and Stars in Stereo for a house-levelling performance. The high-capacity crowd early in the evening encompassed ages from teenagers to grey-hairs and had a considerably higher ratio of female attendees than most other rock shows.

LA’s Stars in Stereo, led by vocalist Bec Hollcraft, took what little stage space they were afforded at 8pm, and blistered through a set of all-original compositions. They were a great fit to the headliner, Halestorm.

Redlight King (originally from Hamilton, Ontario, but now in LA) followed. Frontman Mark “Kaz” Kasprzyk guided the packed house through the set that sounded a little like a heavier version of The Tragically Hip, a Canadian favourite.

By the time Elizabeth “Lzzy” Hale led her band (including younger brother drummer Arejay) onstage, the crowd was chanting “Halestorm” amidst sporadic shouts of “I love you, Lzzy,” from both genders in attendance. The high-energy, emotional performance from Halestorm held the whole place captive as they powered through a set list containing new hits, covers and old favourites. Lzzy’s vocal cords were in top form and her vocal prowess was simply staggering. Drummer Arejay Hale exhibited trickery and general fun in his drumming, as he was often tossing his sticks in the air or to someone side of stage (who seemed to drop more than he caught!). His drum solo included playing with his ha Rock Rag #16-Halestorm photo #4 nds, overall jumping around and oversized novelty sticks, the whole performance reminiscent of Vince Neil/Slaughter drummer Zoltan Chaney (also known in some circles as “the Monkey Drummer”). Guitarist Joe Hottinger, who joined Halestorm in 2004, displayed his chops well and was obviously having fun onstage, while bassist Josh Smith was a stalwart throughout the show, driving the rhythm section with his chunky bass lines. The cover songs, Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman,” Judas Priest’s “Dissident Aggressor” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” all came off very well in concert, but it was the Halestorm originals like “Familiar Taste of Poison,” “Love Bites (So Do I),” “You Call Me a Bitch Like It’s a Bad Thing” and “Here’s to Us” that absolutely stole the show. Catch this tour if you can, it’s an excellent night of upbeat rock and roll!