Halestorm Gets Vicious at The Armory

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If you were having trouble finding something to do on Saturday, December 8th in Minneapolis, you certainly weren’t looking hard enough. As I made the trek once again from Mankato to the Twin Cities, I noticed the increase in traffic going up there almost right away. The purpose of my journey this time was to cover Halestorm, In This Moment, and New Years Day at The Armory. After making my way through the traffic closer to the venue and parking, I made my way to the venue.

I thought it was a bit odd that the door opening time was 5:15 pm, but the show didn’t start until 6:45 pm. It was apparent pretty quickly once I saw the line that almost wrapped around the entire block.Getting all those people through security is no easy task, but it seemed The Armory has a pretty good system in place to make it seem easy. People were flowing in at a good pace while I was waiting to be escorted to the photo waiting area.

New Years Day was up first. We were told when we got there that we wouldn’t be able to take photos of them, hence the reason you don’t see them in this review. I heard their very loud set from the stairwell where we were waiting and it sounded pretty good. Every so often, the door would open and we would be blasted with music from their set. They did a cover of Pantera’s Fucking Hostile, so that got the crowd excited.

It was finally time to get to work and as all of the photographers waded through the SOLD OUT crowd to get to the photo pit, I could tell this was going to be a fun set with In This Moment. We were restricted to the first three songs at this one, which was weird because photographers usually get the entire set because of all the costume changes and such. There was enough going on just in those first three songs that I reallydidn’t mind. In This Moment is well known for heavy hitting rock songs and agreat live show. It truly is like going to a theater performance…it’s just alot louder! They use a ton of smoke and fans for their performance and it seemedlike there was some technical issues early on as there were people running around on stage fixing fans that fell over or connecting hoses for more smoke. They did a great job staying mostly hidden though and the show went on. I could heard the crowd singing along behind me the entire time. In This Moment put on the show that many of the fans had come to see.

Now, it’s no secret that I’m pretty enamored with Lzzy Hale, so to say that I was excited for their set is kind of an understatement. Halestorm was one of the bands playing at the first show I took my oldest daughter to. I had heard them and had their first CD at the time, but seeing them live absolutely blew me away. Every show I see them at since then has been nothing short of amazing. They have the perfect mix of fast and heavy songs that are fun and catchy, but there is also the softer, more meaningful songs mixed in. They started out with the song “Skulls” off their new album “Vicious” and followed up with the equally heavy “Love Bites (So Do I)” and “I Am The Fire”. As I was packing my gear up, I heard “Do Not Disturb” playing, which was one of the songs I was hoping to hear live. They also played an extended version of”Amen” with plenty of rocking out being had. Lzzy has a few songs that she plays her piano to give the other band members a break. This time she played a Journey cover of Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) and Dear Daughter. Afterwards,they promptly returned to rocking and kicking ass. To say that Halestorm put on a great performance would be putting it lightly. They play a bigger venue each time they are here, so it will be interesting to see where they play next time around. When they do come back, make sure you are there to see Halestorm in action!

As always, get out and support live performances and I’ll see you out there!

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