Following the success of their UK tour back in April of this year, American rockers HALESTORM teased that they had something special lined up for the UK in August of this year. For a while we were wondering what this something special could be but we didn't have to wait long as about a month or two later, we found out what they were teasing us about.

On August 17^th and 18^th, they would be playing two special UK shows called "A Wild Evening With HALESTORM" which would feature just them and them alone playing their music for us all night long including their brand new studio album Into the Wild Life in full and in its entirety live for the first time. The first night was in Liverpool and the second was in London and this is my report of the second night detailing and highlighting what took place during this special evening.

At around 12pm on the day of the show, I arrived at the venue to conduct an interview with HALESTORM guitarist Joe Hottinger where I asked him questions about the show, the new album, touring and general music questions. The interview flowed smoothly and talking to Joe was really interesting as the answers he gave helped me to understand a little bit more about the band and music in general. Once the interview was done, all that was left to do was to wait for the doors to open which wasn't until 7pm so I spent some time wandering around London to fill up the time.

At 7pm, the doors opened and the fans flocked into the Koko (the venue of choice for this show) in Camden High Street. As I entered, I took in the environment around me and it looked amazing. Think of an opera house with a ground floor area for seats (or standing in a rock show situation) and about three or four balconies with a few boxes on the sides for extra seating/standing space and a reasonable sized stage to accommodate whatever event is taking place on it and you get the idea.

 

After a long 90 minute wait, the show began at 8:30pm and things kicked off with a short but sweet set of acoustic versions of popular HALESTORM tracks from their first and second albums including "Mz Hyde", "Rock Show", "Here's To Us", "Familiar Taste of Poison" and "I Get Off". Hearing them in this acoustic style was actually rather cool as you wouldn't think they would work in an acoustic style but they do actually work rather well stripped down.

 

They worked so well in fact you could hear every member of the audience singing along to them and the whole venue was alight with excited fans, rock horns and voices singing their hearts out to the songs with the band who were also smiling and enjoying themselves as their fans sang along to their songs with them.

After the acoustic set ended, there was about a 10-15 minute interval while the stage was prepared for the next set which was the one we were all waiting for, the brand new HALESTORM album Into the Wild Life being played in full in order and its entirety live.

 

The new CD has a lot of different musical styles used so I did wonder how this would transition into a live set and the answer is very well as it resulted in a fantastic performance right down from the heavy hitters that are "Mayhem" and "Sick Individual", to epic numbers like "I Am The Fire" and "Amen", to beautiful numbers like "Dear Daughter", to bluesy numbers like "New Modern Love" and "What Sober Couldn't Say" and Rock anthems such as "Apocalyptic" and "I Like It Heavy" which all sounded fantastic live.

 

Don't get me wrong, the original studio versions were already fantastic enough but these live versions made them sound even more special. I guess you'd have to be there to get an understanding of what I mean but once you do, you'll be able to see why I thought this.
 

After the second set came to an end, the third and final set of the evening kicked off almost instantly with an insane drum solo from Arejay Hale who is probably by far, one of the most insane drummers I have ever seen at a rock show. The way his sticks and his arms flailed around on the drums hitting the skins, the kick pedals and the cymbals was simply unbelievable.
 

After a mad display of his drumming skills, Arejay interacted with the audience by getting them to sing along with him for a little bit and once again, the venue came to life with the excited energy from the fans with their smiles, their rock horns and their voices as they sang along with Arejay.
 

The drum solo was finished up with Arejay getting out his big drum sticks and when I say big I mean MASSIVE as the sticks were so large, I was quite surprised that they didn't total Arejay's kit with not only their size but the way he was handling them with a mad display of drumming skill and energy.

 

The final set may have been short just like the acoustic set at the start but every minute was made the most of with yet another display of fantastic performances from both the band and the fans as the former played a few more songs from their first two albums after Arejay's insane drum solo including hits such as "Love Bites (So Do I)", "Freak Like Me", "It's Not You" and "I Miss The Misery".

 

The final set also included one of the bonus tracks from the deluxe edition of their new album ("Unapologetic") which did seem a bit out of place not being included in the second set, but thinking about it now, that part really doesn't matter as by hearing that song and the first deluxe edition bonus track ("Jump The Gun") in the second set, meant we really did get to hear the new album in full live.

So what was the performance like from HALESTORM during the show as a whole? The simple answer to this is amazing but then having seen them live twice prior to this show, I was already expecting it to be a fun set but I wasn't expecting it to be as amazing as it was.

Every member of the band was really on fire during this performance including Lzzy Hale belting out her amazing vocals while also playing her guitar and even the keyboards as well on a few songs, Joe Hottinger shredding those solos and showing those guitar riffs he means business and the rhythm section of Josh Smith and Arejay Hale providing us with some cool bass grooves and some mad drum beats to accompany the shredding guitars and all of these instruments combined with the amazing performances sounded absolutely fantastic when played live.

The first set with the acoustic versions was a nice little inclusion and it was a unique way of opening up what was set to be a fantastic evening but come the second set with the new album being played live in full, the show really came to life as the songs sounded wild, energetic, heavy, beautiful and amazing. This also translates into the encore set too and also the way both the band and the audience performed as both were rocking out, headbanging, smiling, bouncing around, singing their hearts out and overall, having a good time.

 

To sum up this report into one final statement, "A Wild Evening With HALESTORM" set out what it achieved to do as all three sets sounded fantastic right down from the stripped down acoustic set, to the new album being played in full live and the encore set which was packed with a short but sweet selection of the fan favorites. All of the sets and all of the songs played really did make this one special evening to remember as it was one great big nonstop rock and roll party with a fantastic band who know how to rock out and have fun.

If you've yet to see HALESTORM live then what are you waiting for? Get out to a live show of theirs whenever you can as I can guarantee that you'll have a blast and end up leaving the venue at the end of the night buzzing with energy. If you missed your chance to see them this time then be sure to catch them on the UK leg of the Carnival of Madness tour in January/February 2016 along with BLACK STONE CHERRY and SHINEDOWN.

Setlist 1: Acoustic
1.        Mz. Hyde
2.        Familiar Taste of Poison
3.        Rock Show
4.        I Get Off
5.        Here's To Us

Setlist 2: Into the Wild Life
6.        Scream
7.        I Am The Fire
8.        Sick Individual
9.        Amen
10.    Dear Daughter
11.    New Modern Love
12.    Mayhem
13.    Bad Girls World
14.    Gonna Get Mine
15.    The Reckoning
16.    Apocalyptic
17.    Jump the Gun
18.    What Sober Couldn't Say
19.    I Like It Heavy

Setlist 3: Encore
20.    Drum Solo
21.    Love Bites (So Do I)
22.    It's Not You
23.    Unapologetic
24.    Freak Like Me
25.    I Miss The Misery