Halestorm and I Prevail are out on a co-headlining jugernaught of a tour. Out with them are Hollywood Undead and Fit For a King. What I quickly realized at this show is that all 4 bands have huge and loyal fanbases. I will be the first to admit when I first saw this lineup drop I wasn't sure how each of these bands fans would mesh together in a crowd. Anyone that knows me can tell you that I am a Halestorm superfan and I know how their crowds usually are. Their fans like to have a good time, jump around and sing at the top of their lungs. The other 3 bands have fan bases that love to crowd surf, mosh and join in on I Prevail's wall of death. The York Fairgrounds had 10,000 strong for this show and let me tell you every fan joined in on the festivities. Even though there were only 4 bands the atmosphere felt like a festival. The field was hard dirt that turned into a dust cloud every time a circle pit formed. So much dust flew that one of my camera's sensors stopped working during Halestorm's set. The whole concert came in just under 5 hours long from the first note to the last. It was a hot and dirty night of rock and roll.
Starting off the night was Fit For a King. They had a 35 minute, 8-song set that got the party started. FFAK is a band that I just recenlty got in to because quite a bit of my newer friends love them. They are led by vocalist Ryan Kirby who will rip through you with his vocals with a smile on his face. Bassist Ryan "Tuck" O'Leary lives up to his name. He's the most animanted member, jumping repeatedly off of his riser, spinning his bass and running around the stage. They put on a very solid performance that got the crowd amped up.
Next up was Hollywood Undead, the ultimate party, rock band! I will call them the third headliner for the evening. They jammed 12 songs into a 50-minute set that was dialed up to 11 the whole time. I've only seen them perform once before quite a few years ago, when my friends local band opened for them at the Sherman Theater, I forgot how fun they were live. Having 5 members that sing, do on and off leads, different vocal parts, and styles as well as play instruments is what makes them unique. Starting the night off with "California Dreaming" really got the party started. It's fun and upbeat while heavy, and shows off all the members. Next was "CHAOS" which is one of their more recent tracks. This song is heavy, gritty and grungy. A highlight for myself was "Ruin My Life" even though it's a newer song it felt nostalgic and reminded me of my highschool parties. They closed their crazy set with "Undead" from 2008. The sea of crowd surfers helped them bring the house down until the end.
I Prevail coming in as coheadliner and the heaviest band on the bill. They will give you and hug and kick you in the teeth all at the same time. The dichotomy between vocalists Brian Burkheiser and Eric Vanlerberghe is insane. Brian's vocals are smooth as velvet and Eric's are as rough as walking on broken glass, blending them together makes magic. This heavy-hardcore band got their start covering none other than Taylor Swift. 10 years ago these crazy kids from Detroit put out a cover of "Blank Space" and the rest is rock and roll history. I Prevail performed 14 songs in a one hour set. They played the majority of songs from their most recent release True Power, as well as sneaking in the "Blank Space" cover. Midway through their set Brian took the mic to talk about his health issues that took him away from performing briefly. He recently had surgery and wasn't sure he was even going to make the tour. He spoke about how it effected his mental health and that all he ever wanted to do in life was sing in a band. I did get a little choked up listening to him. They performed many of their hits including "Body Bag", "Deep End", "Breaking Down", "Choke" and "Hurricane". Eric made sure that he had the crowd moving, while they did not do the wall of death, they did manage a large circle pit and and endless sea of surfers throughout their set. I Prevail went from cover band to hardcore royalty in a blink of an eye.
Last but not least Halestorm coming home to remind us all that even if you come from a small town you can have big dreams. They performed 12 songs over an hour long set featuring songs from nearly all of their releases. Switching up their set format recently, they kicked off the show with "I Miss the Misery" which was their closing song for more than 10 years. As a superfan that has seen them perform over 100 shows it was a welcome change. They stayed hot and heavy into their second song with "Love Bites (So Do I)". The guitar solos in this song are always fire. For their third song they brought it back to their Atlantic Records beginning with "I Get Off" but with an incredible twist. We all know lead vocalist Lzzy Hale has insane pipes, the woman can wail, but she also has a crazy, soft, bluesy side. She mixed in parts of Heart's "Crazy on You" during "I Get Off". At first you will not recognize the song. She sings with this quiet power, then with grit , then blows through her whistle register. She then brings it down to these killer bluesy soft notes and ends it growling through, to finish "I Get Off". Lzzy sang quite a bit of the song on her knees and leaning back to power her vocals. In two minutes Lzzy shows you exactly why she's the reigning queen of rock and roll.
The middle of the set had a couple personal favorites with "Freak Like Me" and "Takes My Life" which is one of their songs that was recorded before they were signed. It's quite a heavy song both vocally and musically. Halestorm dialed it back a bit for "Familiar Taste of Poison". This song starts with just Lzzy and guitarist Joe Hottinger. The performance was both mesmerizing and seductive. The looks back and forth between Lzzy and Joe tell a story that most will never understand. For this performance Lzzy was carrying around a handmade rose to throw into the audience for a lucky fan to catch. She used to toss out fresh, long stem red roses but she decided to start giving out life long momentos of the show.
To every long time fans delight Halestorm decided to bring back the drum circle for this tour. I believe they stopped doing it in 2013, since then drummer Arejay Hale would just have a drum solo about 2/3 way through their sets. For this part of the show they brought out 4 steel floor toms and set two on each side of the stage. Joe and Arejay were set on the left of the stage and Lzzy and bassist Josh Smith were set up on the right side. They played a sychronized drumline style that threw the crowd into a frenzy. Arejay popped back to his kit part way through and played with his big sticks which are the equivilent of baseball bats. This part of the show was an absolute highlight and welcome addition back into the set.
After all of that, Halestorm brought out Eric from I Prevail to perform their collaboration "can u see me in the dark?" which was actually written for this tour. It's so rare for bands that collaborate on recordings to tour together so this is a treat every night. It's been performed in both of their sets depending on the night. The performance was awesome and the crowd response was killer, they knew that they were witnessing something special.
Halestorm closed out their night with "I Am the Fire" and "The Steeple". "The Steeple" was written during the pandemic and is about being at home at the rock show. It's a perfect ending song since we are still in weird times 4 years later.
Halestorm had the perfect night back home. A huge crowd, good weather and a perfectly raw rock show. Even though they've been a band now for over 25 years they are still fresh and gaining new fans with every album and every tour. There are about 2 weeks left on this tour, get out to a show, I promise you will have the time of your life.
Tara, these are the best tour photos I've ever seen. You did a phenomenal job 💜
Excellent review and pics as always!
These photos are fire!