The evolution of females fronting, and leading, otherwise all-male hard rock and heavy metal bands has gone from proving they belong as a form of equality to showing they can rock just as hard as men. To standing on their own. To ridding the genre of the term “female-fronted” so that it’s no longer something considered to be unique.
To that end, three of metal’s finest — uh-hem, “female” — singers and/or singer/guitarists brought their bands to the Aztec Theatre on Tuesday night in a show of solidarity for female rockers. And to celebrate.
Headlined by Halestorm, with support from a theatrical In This Moment and beginning with goth veterans New Years Day, the ladies and their backing men converged for a night of fun metal (see 91-photo slideshow below). Highlighted by Halestorm singer/guitarist Lzzy Hale, In This Moment’s Maria Brink and New Years Day’s lone original member in vocalist Ash Costello, the women on stage came, entertained and conquered.
Touring in support of fourth album Vicious, Halestorm’s quartet of Lzzy Hale, her brother and drummer Arejay Hale, guitarist Joe Hottinger and bassist Josh Smith churned out 14 tunes with six coming from the latest record such as the sultry “Do Not Disturb,” the Grammy nominated “Uncomfortable” and the first of three encores “The Silence,” an acoustic duet between Lzzy Hale and Hottinger. Another five tracks came off 2012’s The Strange Case Of . . . including “Mz. Hyde” and the blistering “Love Bites (So Do I),” a tune Halestorm performed during the 2012 Mass Chaos tour at the Alamodome in support of Staind and Godsmack prior to that album’s release. Check out ATM’s Facebook Live footage of “Amen.”
Halestorm demonstrated how much it has grown and matured musically since supporting Staind and Chevelle in 2009 at Austin Music Hall and taking part in the inaugural Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival in 2010 in Corpus Christi (watch ATM interview here). Also veterans of the 2013 and 2015 River City Rockfests, Halestorm emphasized its musical growth while surprisingly shunning its entire 2009 self-titled debut album’s “started-it-all” hits “I Get Off,” “It’s Not You” and “Familiar Taste of Poison.” But you can watch the more modern version of Halestorm with ATM’s footage of Arejay Hale’s humorous drum solo segueing into “Freak Like Me” here and Lzzy Hale’s attention-getting intro to second encore “I Miss the Misery” below.
In This Moment, while trying to find its sound since 2007 debut Beautiful Tragedy, is no stranger to playing shows in San Antonio in which it didn’t always fit in with the other bands on the bill. Cases in point: the 2009 Vans Warped Tour that featured mostly college and alternative acts; the 2011 All-Stars tour that was loaded with metalcore acts (watch ATM interview with Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth here); the 2015 family-oriented, radio-friendly Fiesta Oyster Bake and even their first headline trek with Motionless In White nine years and a day to Tuesday’s concert when Brink confided to ATM her band was not ready to headline so soon into its existence.
But that was hardly the case at the Aztec.
In This Moment has put out six studio albums in 11 years plus assorted other EPs and a live record/DVD. Brink and Howorth, the lone remaining original members in what has become a revolving door of sorts of bassists, second guitarists and drummers, have turned up the stage theatrics tenfold since first coming onto the scene. Exotic costumes, a pair of backup dancers and a setting so large that the drum kit is placed off to the left side (audience’s right) of the stage to accommodate it.
To show that there’s little room for ego on this tour package, In This Moment was afforded several things normally not befitting of a non-headlining band: a curtain drop, a set longer than an hour (70 minutes), an encore (“Whore”) and even large balloons raining from the Aztec. One almost had to remind itself that Halestorm was still to follow after seeing all that.
But ITM’s visual display is always a unique unveiling. The down side to finding its sound, however, is that In This Moment continues to ignore its first three albums live, opting to only play material from its fourth, fifth and latest sixth offering Ritual. Combine that with an instrumental medley of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Creeping Death” plus an iconic Phil Collins cover that’s on the new album, and it’s perfectly OK to wonder if In This Moment will ever perform “The Promise,” “Forever” or “Daddy’s Falling Angel” again. Watch ATM’s footage of “In the Air Tonight” and “Big Bad Wolf” here.
Saddled with the job of warming up the sold-out Aztec for Halestorm and In This Moment, Costello and New Years Day had the luxury of playing before a venue that was already packed on the lower level before the festivities began — something that doesn’t happen often for support acts even on weekend shows.
New Years Day was sporting a couple of different band members, and a much more toned-down goth look, from its July 2017 Vans Warped Tour appearance. After opening with “Kill or Be Killed,” Costello and Co. knew how to get a Texas crowd fired up early. The vocalist directed everyone on every tier of the Aztec to put their horns up for the late Vinnie Paul Abbott and “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott before launching into their rendition of Pantera’s “Fucking Hostile.”
Of course, if a band is going to perform a cover around these parts of a legendary Texas band, it better own it. Further, there’s always two sides to cover songs: either the band does the original justice or, if it sounds completely different, there’s the argument that either it was horribly done or the band could be credited for doing it its own way. In New Years Day’s case, the first verse leading to the first chorus was virtually unrecognizable for a couple of reasons: Costello, of course, sounds nothing like Phil Anselmo. Secondly, the drums and overall tempo of the song is played slower than Pantera’s blistering version. Thirdly, Costello whispers some of the lyrics rather than performing it with Pantera’s angst. Give New Years Day an “A” for effort and for Ash.
New Years Day also stood on its own by having guitarist Nikki Misery play in the audience on “Scream” (ATM balcony footage here). Misery, who drooled a lot on stage at Warped Tour while wearing a shirt that said, “Who the fuck is Nikki Misery?”, was part of the toned-down look this time as the men in New Years Day left the white face paint at home and wore black vests over black long-sleeved shirts and ripped black jeans. Of course, that may have also been due to playing indoors in December as opposed to on 100-degree asphalt in July. Misery, though, didn’t completely tone down his antics as he sucked on guitar picks before spitting them into his hand and handing them to a lucky fan.
With the exception of too many covers being played and early material being left off the sets, Halestorm, In This Moment and New Years Day accomplished their mission. They made the Aztec aware that women could rock at the forefront of male bands. They put smiles on roughly 1,500 faces. And they undoubtedly influenced other females to perhaps have their daughters follow their path one day soon.
