KNAC.COM - Reviews - I PREVAIL, HALESTORM In Houston, TX With Photos!

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I PREVAIL, HALESTORM, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, FIT FOR A KING In Houston, TX With Photos!

By Larry Petro, News Monkey
Friday, August 16, 2024 @ 9:24 AM

If Three's Company Then Four's A Party At The Woodlands Pavilion August 10th

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All Photos By Larry Petro/Petrofyed Photography

Let's play a game of One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others. When it was first announced that melodic hard rockers HALESTORM would be joining forces with metalcore heavyweights I PREVAIL for a summer co-headlining tour across the states my initial thought was that this pairing seemed to be a bit odd considering the musical diversity between the two bands. Throw in supports acts FIT FOR A KING and HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD and there definitely seems like one band is not like the others, so to speak. Of course I jest just a little bit, but not too much because HALESTORM certainly seemed like the odd man out on this package tour. But how would it be in reality? Read on and see...

With 4 bands on the bill and an 11pm Pavilion curfew you knew things would have to get started early. The venue gates opened at 4:30 and at 6pm sharp Tyler, Texas natives and quasi-Christian metalcore rockers FIT FOR A KING took the stage. Having seen the co-headliners before I was most looking forward to experiencing FFAK and HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD for the first time and FIT FOR A KING did not disappoint. Opening with a new song, "Keeping Secrets", the band was on point throughout their 8 song set and although I don't consider myself a diehard metalcore fan, the musical talent of the band was high caliber and I love a band that has uplifting lyrics such as FFAK employs. And vocalist Ryan Kirby pours his soul into everything he sings. By the time the band hit their third song "Falling Through The Sky", which was dedicated to HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD, they were in full stride. During tracks like "Reaper", "When Everything Means Nothing" and set closer "God Of Fire" (dedicated to the fans), both bassist Ryan O'Leary and guitarist Bobby Lynge could be seen doing leg kick jumps off of their risers, most times in sync with each other (see photos), which was very cool to see. This band left a lasting impression for sure.

Setlist:

"Keeping Secrets"

"Breaking the Mirror"

"Falling Through the Sky"

"End (The Other Side)"

"Reaper"

"Technium"

"When Everything Means Nothing"

"God of Fire"

I'm not a fan of rap rock. There, I said it. I guess it's just because I don't like rap music in general and mixing it with metal just poisons it in my opinion, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. BUT, there are exceptions where it's not only tolerable, it's enjoyable to a certain extent. And that's what we got with Los Angeles' own rap-rockers HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD. Employing 3 vocalists most of the time in Johnny 3 Tears, Danny Rose Murillo and Dylan Alvarez, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD got the party started with "California Dreaming" from the band's 2017 album Five and should absolutely not be confused with the 1965 song of the same name by THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS. From there things just went into full party mode with "Chaos" before guitarist Charlie Scene switched places with Murillo, taking over the mic while Murillo shouldered an axe and bassist Jorel Decker also took a mic for "Riot", giving us the earworm theme song chorus for their performance..."Fuck this shit, let's start a riot!".

Other highlights of HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD's set included having a 10 year old onstage to introduce the song "Comin' In Hot", the inclusion of a portion of the STEEL DRAGON tune "Stand Up And Shout" from the Rockstar movie, their performance of the first verse and chorus of the Neil Diamond classic "Sweet Caroline", which left me shaking my head, and beach balls flying around the crowd and just an all-around party atmosphere during "Ruin My Life". Though I personally was not familiar with the band's material it was quite evident from the response and sing-alongs of the crowd that they indeed did, and were enjoying themselves at the Hotel Kalifornia.

Setlist:

"California Dreaming"
"CHAOS"
"Riot"
"Everywhere I Go"
"Renegade"
"Comin' in Hot"
"Another Way Out"/"Du hast"
"Ruin My Life"
"Hear Me Now"
"Sweet Caroline" (Neil Diamond cover)
"Bullet"
"Undead"

Being a co-headline tour, HALESTORM and I PREVAIL would be alternating who would close out each show. With no offense to the guys in I PREVAIL I was really hoping we would get a closing set from HALESTORM but the odds were not in our favor on this night. So we got HALESTORM as the pre-closer and what a show it was! As the house lights dimmed HALESTORM took the stage and the spotlight focused on frontwoman LZZY HALE as she performed a short acapella version of "Raise Your Horns" with her arms and horns raised high. This led straight into the opening number, the rocking "I Miss The Misery" and then right into "Love Bites (So Do I)", two of the band's greatest hits. But the rocking didn't stop there. After some banter with the crowd about 'getting off' the band launched into, what else, "I Get Off" which included a little interlude of Lzzy being down on her knees front and center in front of the photogs for a bit of "Crazy On You" and her raising the middle finger.

The band was on fire and it's always cool to see the interaction and chemistry between Hale and her guitarist counterpart Joe Hottinger during tracks like "Freak Like Me", "Mz. Hyde", "Rock Show" and set closer "The Steeple". During a good portion of the show drummer Arejay Hale was spotted wearing a Houston Astros baseball jersey repping our hometown heroes. Of course if you've ever seen HALESTORM live before then you know that Arejay Hale gets a slight drum solo where he plays with a huge pair of drumsticks. Well on this night he began by telling the crowd that he had recently gotten engaged, to a Texan, which elicited an appreciative roar from the crowd. He then introduced his fiancee who brought the large sticks to him. He wasn't the only one playing the drums though as the rest of the band members each had their own drum lined along the front of the stage, which to me looked almost like oversized tin cans with no labels on them.

My last time seeing HALESTORM was at the Rocklahoma festival a couple of years ago when, because of a headliner cancellation the band basically got the headliner slot and blew everyone away with their performance. That's one thing about this band, whether they’re in a headline position or not they always give a headline-worthy performance.

Setlist:

"I Miss The Misery" ("Raise Your Horns" acappella intro)
"Love Bites (So Do I)"
"I Get Off"
"Freak Like Me"
"Mz. Hyde"
"Familiar Taste of Poison"
"Takes My Life"
Drum Solo/Circle
"Rock Show"
"I Am the Fire"
"Here's to Us"
"The Steeple"

After a relatively quick stage changeover it was time for the evening's headliners I PREVAIL. Having seen them a year ago as support for the GODSMACK tour I knew what to expect and from a photographer's perspective the first 3 songs of the show were an absolute nightmare scenario; lots of smoke, solid lights of blue or red and virtually no front lighting. But for those in the audience the entire evening would be a stunning visual experience as they kicked things off with the instrumental "0:00" then "There's Fear In Letting Go". The combination of unclean vocals from Eric Vanlerberghe and mostly clean vocals from Brian Burkheiser were a brutal assault that prevailed (see what I did there?) throughout "Body Bag", "Self-Destruction", "Bad Things" "FWYTYK" (Fuck What You Think You Know). There was some sort of issue early on as the sound mix was horrible but whoever was in charge got that figured out and the rest of the set was error-free, including during the cover of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space", which when done by I PREVAIL is unrecognizable from the original.

Back in June the band released a new single collaboration with Lzzy Hale called "can u see me in the dark?" and for this number Lzzy joined the band onstage as she and Vanlerberghe performed the duet which was nicely done. And as luck would have it, this evening was Vanlerberghe's birthday so following "FWYTYK" the band brought out a pink sash and pink, feather-lined birthday hat for him as the crowd sang Happy Birthday. As a great segue into the next song, Vanlerberghe was asked what he wanted for his birthday and he stated that he wanted to see a circle pit get going on the lawn portion of the venue and the crowd gladly obliged as the band launched into "Judgment Day". From my vantage point I could see police officers headed to the hill but could not tell if it was just for extra security just in case they were needed or if they were going to try and break up the mayhem that ensued, but it was to no avail, the crowd was having too much fun. The band continued the auditory onslaught with the final 4 numbers, "Choke", "Hurricane", "Bow Down" and the finale of "Gasoline".

Even though the pairing for this tour was a bit odd it definitely gave fans of each band the opportunity to expand their horizons by experiencing the other (if they had not done so previously) and in the process gaining new fans. There's only 2 shows left on this run, tonight in Phoenix, AZ and tomorrow night in Las Vegas, so check it out if you're nearby!

Setlist: