Yes a Halestorm hit Philly yesterday, well at least The Electric Factory, as Lzzy and Arejay Hale along with Joe Hottinger and Josh Smith thrilled a sold out house! My son Andrew called yesterday afternoon and told me they were playing and asked if I wanted to go (all you boomers who would go to a concert with their Dad raise your hand, hum, mine’s down) but things have change and I’m thankful for it and, of course, said yes! If you’ve read this blog before you’ll know that I am in the process of re-discovering rock and ProgRock and first gave Halestorm a listen a couple of months ago and really enjoyed their music! Andrew has seen them a couple of times before at smaller venues so this is the first time they headlined at The Electric Factory and the night was billed as An Evening with Halestorm” so there was no opening act! (Andrew said it would be an early night, wrong!) Halestorm became their own opening act. I knew things were going to be a little different when Lzzy appeared on stage in a white evening gown and her band mates were likewise dressed in white! Lzzy went over to the piano and started the night with a ballad “Rose in December” after which the band played an hour or so acoustic sent full of ballads and some rocking songs like a cover of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”. Most of the songs were from either of the two Halestorm albums but there were also covers of songs by Heart and Fleetwood Mac. What the set really did was showcase Lzzy great voice and poignant songwriting ability, that was hidden until on drunken night when she recorded “Hate It When You See Me Cry” into her phone and sent it to her record company and their response back was Wow! we want more like that! She performed it last night the way she recorded it that fateful night!
After a short intermission, the band came back and gave their normal electric performance. I think that they played all the songs that I really liked on The Strange Case of…. like “Love Bites (So Do I)”, “Freak Like Me”, “You Call Me a Bitch Like It’s a Bad Thing” and “Rock Show’. I was surprised how the songs have stayed with me even though I haven’t listen to the album in a long while! There were three covers in this show from Judas Priest, Skid Row and Guns and Roses. I only knew that one was a cover cause they said it was. Here’s the complete set list!
During the acoustic set, Lzzy made a comment that brother Arejay, who was playing a drum box often had trouble sitting still, Andrew commented that I would see way during the electric set and boy did I, the guy is a maniac on drums and did a pretty cool drum solo (it wasn’t “Toad”, but it was mighty good) the solo included some drumming with his hands and some pretty BIG drumsticks!
The evening concluded with two encore songs “Here’s to Us” and “I Miss the Misery” All in all it was a great night and the best night was spending the time and sharing an interest with Andrew!
Here’s the Official Video for “I Miss the Misery”
