Halestorm and In This Moment Harrah’s Resort Concert Review

Halestorm, In This Moment and New Years Day Concert Review at Harrah’s Resort in Funner CA.

The show at the Harrah’s Resort in Funner CA was the last show of the tour lineup of Halestorm, In This Moment and New Years Day with all three bands giving an incredible finale tour performance!

The evening’s entertainment started with New Years Day, a band who received their big break when they performed at the “Alternative Press Music Awards” alongside legendary rock vocalist “Lzzy Hale.” The band consists of Ash Costello-lead vocals, Nikki Misery-rhythm guitar/lead guitar, Frankie Sil-bassist, Brian Sumwalt-drums and Austin Ingerman-lead guitar.

 

New Years Day blew through an infectious and fiery set with vocalist Costello reigning full command of the stage for their entire set. For their last song Defame Me, the band gave the audience a show to remember, with their bassist, Sil jumping into the photo pit between the stage and the fans to get up close with everyone in the first row. Sil was then joined by guitarist Ingerman and both guitarists tore it up to give the fans an up close and crazy Rock and Roll moment to remember!

Check out the New Years Day Photo Gallery Harrah’s Resort Here!

New Years Day Set List Harrah’s Resort was:

In This Moment Brings Witching Hour Mysticism to Funner, California

As the In This Moment Blood Girls emerged on stage to a cascade of flashing lights, smoke, thunderous drums and a siren wailing in the distance, a sound emanated from the PA system;  an intense wind that escalated in thunderous intensity with an overwhelming force continually growing. The consuming sound continued until it’s final explosive conclusion ended with a sonic blast and shooting columns of smoke that radiated from the front of the stage. For a brief moment an eerie silence encompassed the room which  quickly gave way to the deafening screaming of the crowd, reminding you that this was actually an unprecedented beginning to an ITM show.

As the keyboard line for the song Blood started to ring out over the PA System, In This Moment’s Siren, Maria Brink took her place center stage between the Blood Girls…This was indeed a stunning beginning to a stellar show!!!

The band presented an incredible set with many fan favorites including Blood, Sick Like Me, Big Bad Wolf and Adrenalize Me; as well as songs off their latest CD Ritual including River of Fire, Roots and Black Wedding (with Ash Costello singing the part of ROB HALFORD).  Maria momentarily paused as she seemed to have slipped into some sort of trance that seemingly came over her; pushing through her transcendental state, Maria asked the audience if they could feel something in the air; the band then seamlessly moved into an awesome version of the Phil Collins classic, Something in the Air Tonight. 

From the classic Phil Collins song the stage became a dimly lite dark blue glow with three lighted orbs placed at the front of the stage. From the stage’s coalescing smoke, Maria and the Blood Girls appeared in front of the glowing orbs. As each girl grabbed an orb, raising it over their head, the grinding sexy blues groove for Oh Lord began with the entire audience singing along from the first note.

The recent ITM tours have included the “Monster Jam”, a moment in the show where the band gets down to some serious heavy metal crunching with a good dose of guitar solos thrown in before they unleash the “Beast”, drummer Kent Diimmel. Diimmel displayed incorruptibly flawless drumming chops as he shredded his drum kit like a tornadic force, thrashing back and forth across his drums. At the solo’s end, this left many wondering if there was anything left in him or his drums to continue on for the rest of the night.  Of course, both man and machine survived his explosive energy expenditure that was equal part “technical precision and primal assault”!. If his solo does not yet have a name, may I suggest “viento del diablo” – Devil Wind!

Another particular evening highlight was when Brink gave a deep and appreciative thank you to all the “Beautiful Faces here tonight” and to the bands New Year’s Day and Halestorm for such a “Beautiful Tour”. Brink also went on to celebrate with the audience the Birthday of ITM guitarist Randy Weitzel by presenting him a candle lit Birthday cake!

The evening was indeed filled with many special moments for this incredible tour finale!!!

The band finished their set with Whore, a tribute to anyone and everyone who was ever told at one point in their life that they would not amount to anything more than “Shit”. The song is about rising above all the negativity in your life and becoming the person you’ve always envisioned. A Brilliant message from a Brilliant band!

Check out the In This Moment Photo Gallery from Harrah’s Resort Funner CA.

In This Moment Harrah’s Set List:

Blood

River of Fire

Adrenalize Me

Roots

Monster Jam

Black Wedding (With Ash Costello)

Sick Like Me

Big Bad Wolf

In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins Cover)

Oh Lord

Whore

Halestorm Tears up Funner California with songs from “Vicious” their latest LP as well as Halestorm classics.

Halestorm leaned heavily on their latest LP titled Vicious, as well as songs from The Strange Case Of… LP and an additional two songs from their second LP, Into the Wild Life, with I am the Fire and Amen.  For those who have not yet had a chance to check out the latest Halestorm LP “Vicious” you are in for some mind blowing vocals which amazingly are even more incredible live then on CD. The power and sheer intensity of the voice of Lzzy Hale was expertly captured and recorded by the LP’s producer, Nick Raskulinecz or “Booujzhe“, which is the nickname that was given to him by “Rush”… but on this night at the Harrah’s Casino, these fans were completely blown away as Lzzy Hale’s soaring vocal intensity, cascaded over the audience throughout the night with a much greater power and tenacity than a mere CD could possibly capture!!!

The band consisting of Lzzy Hale-Vocals and rhythm guitar, Arejay Hale– Drums and  backing vocals, Joe Hottinger-Lead guitar and backup vocals, Josh Smith-Bass guitar and backing vocals exploded out of the gate with a blistering version of Uncomfortable from their Vicious LP. Each band member exuded an electric force that ignited the crowd that was fueled by the song’s feverish tempo.  Other songs from their Vicious LP included incredible versions of Black Vultures, a song about never giving up, the sexy Do Not Disturb  and an incredible version of their new song, The Silence, an acoustic song with raw in your face and stunningly powerful vocals.

Hale introduced the acoustic song The Silence from their Vicious LP by saying, “The Vicious LP is pretty heavy but here’s a song that’s on the lighter side.”

 

 

The Silence is vocally one of the more challenging songs from the Vicious LP and Hale was in incredible form and more than up for the task. Hale and guitarist Joe Hottinger sat at the edge of the stage to get up close and intimate with the fans as they executed a moving version overwhelming the crowd with Lzzy’s vocal splendor. Hale is a truly remarkable talent, having an amazing voice that was stunningly strong and powerful on the last night of a tour! Actually this was the last night of the tour of this lineup but Halestorm actually had one more Festival show the next day at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas.

Another evening highlight was the shredding drum solo by Arejay Hale who was bathed in a mass of flashing strobe lights as he attacked every drum and cymbal like a madman. Arejay fired away like a machine gun on “rapid auto fire” slashing drums and cymbals from right to left and then left to right, always hitting his mark with impeccable precision. Arejay continued his assault with the “Big Sticks”!! Drum sticks that were more like baseball bats which he wielded with ferocity and style which included a couple of stick twirls and tosses/catches that were surprising and provided crazy entertainment! His solo ended with a count-in to the fan favorite, Freak Like Me, where Hale belted out near the song’s end; Funner… we’re all Freaks Tonight!. 

The night ended with Here’s to Us, a fitting final song of the finale tour with all three bands on stage. As Lzzy belted away throughout the song, members from New Years Day and In This Moment joined in the fun by throwing TP across the stage like kids assaulting a house on Halloween. While many on stage were throwing TP across the stage and covering amps, Ash Costello (NYD) was going out in style, wrapping TP around Lzzy like a TP Xmas tree! Brilliant fun indeed!

Check out the Halestorm Photo Gallery from Harrah’s Resort Funner CA.

Halestorm’s Set List Harrah’s Funner CA