| Welcome to the LOUDEST DOT COM ON THE PLANET! |  |
|
|
 |
|
| Welcome to the LOUDEST DOT COM ON THE PLANET! | |
|
|
|
|
EVANESCENCE, HALESTORM, THE WARNING In Ottawa, Canada By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent Wednesday, November 27, 2024 @ 12:10 AM
The irony - and thankfully not the ironing - of nearly missing my first experience of catching two bands I'd taken somewhat for granted musically as well as an aspiring female power trio from way down south because of last-minute house chores was not lost on yours truly. That, and the usual public transit commute out to Kanata which rivals navigating the construction of the bridge on the River Kwai during WWII. Despite all of those odds, I made it in time to catch at least a good 15 minutes of THE WARNING's set as the Monterrey, Mexico-based sibling trio jammed and crooned their way through their closing numbers "Hell You Call A Dream", "Automatic Sun" (about the 2024 lunar eclipse) and "Evolve" (or is it "EVOLVE" and all-caps-sounding titles are suddenly the new normal these days?). Fronted by vocalist/guitarist Daniela Villarreal, who appeared to be singing the bulk of the songs I'd heard from them that night, alongside her sisters Paulina (drums) and Alejandra (bass), the decade-old band have had the hard rock scene on notice since their highly-touted cover of "Enter Sandman" featuring Alessia Caraon vocals for METALLICA's Black Album's 30th anniversary had gone completely global. Throughout their escalating career in between, they've toured with several diverse bands ranging from SAMMY HAGAR to THE KILLERS and THREE DAYS GRACE and have put out four studio albums including their most recent effort titled Keep Me Fed. And the crowd did just that following their performance, nourishing the trio on a steady feast of loud accolades that night. Overall, THE WARNING certainly have all of the signs of knowing how to command a stadium even based on the limited amount of time I got to see them.
https://thewarningband.com/
For a well-established band who are almost as well-known for their vast yet eclectic and varied cover versions as they are for their own original material since their inception a quarter century ago, Red Lion, Pennsylvania's own HALESTORM showed an incredible amount of restraint in avoiding the temptation to perform anything other than their own songs that evening. Granted, you could probably call their version of I PREVAIL's lower-case titled "can you see me in the dark?" a cover, but does that count when your lead singer co-wrote some of the music on the track in the first place? Nevertheless, as great of a performance that the band fronted by vocalist Lzzy Hale are known for on many of their covers - including a heavily faithful rendition of "Slave To The Grind" that nearly saw Lzzy take over from the recently-departed Erik Gronwall to join SKID ROW full time when she filled in on some select dates - HALESTORM's own numbers are their best defining moments. Opening number "I Miss The Misery" alone is a catchy-sounding lyrical earworm celebrating the end of a tumultuous relationship from the perspective of the beleaguered partner enduring its heaviest burden and Lzzy easily roars through the track with a confident wrath which no red-blooded male would dare to cross knowing the potential repercussions otherwise. The follow-up numbers "Love Bites (So Do I)", "I Get Off" and "Freak Like Me" also do a fine job in stoking the empowering passion of the mostly female audience in attendance that evening in such a way that their faithful rendition of "Slave To The Grind" just can't quite reach. Lzzy Hale totally knows her audience well enough in that retrospect even if she can't recall if the night's performance was either HALESTORM's first or second visit to Ottawa. "I was probably so wasted that night that I can't really remember!" she casually admits to the crowd midway during the performance; incidentally, following a check on setlist.fm, I can confirm that this show was HALESTORM's first appearance in Ottawa. Meanwhile, her backing band comprised of Joe Hottinger (guitar), Josh Smith (bass) and her younger brother AreJay (drums) lay down some nice meaty riffs and rolls throughout the entire show. They even make their show all the more interesting with not only the standard drum solo but also a drum circle featuring all four members. Lzzy also gets to bring out the vocalist of the headlining act to partake in a piano duet version of "Break In" from the band's 2012 disc The Strange Case Of... as a sea of phone flashlights adorn their performance. Closing with the fan favorite "The Steeple" from their 2022 album Back From The Dead, which, appropriately enough, is a song about how playing live is a form of spiritual catharsis, HALESTORM's Ottawa conquest is complete, giving both their fans and Lzzy Hale something to remember their visit from that night: A performance showcasing how much their strengths in their original material is worth banging the drum about.
https://www.halestormrocks.com/
Setlist:
Fast forward some 20-odd years and four more studio albums later, as she would take the CTC stage donned in the finest and darkest of Victorian-styled dress which she designed herself, Amy Lee, evidently not all that bothered in not quite having found Jesus since her teenage band camp years, opens EVANESCENCE's set with the heavy-set symphonic doom groove number "Broken Pieces Shine" from their latest - well, really, 2021, for obvious reasons - disc The Bitter Proof. The band's latest lineup, also comprised of newcoming guitarists Tim McCord and Troy McLawhorn, drummer Will Hunt and SICK PUPPIES bassist Emma Anzai, put on a well-tuned performance with much focus on their latest material, their honed sound creating a fairly-sized gap between the band's early gothcore/nu metal sound and the more melodic-sounding direction they're heading towards. Indeed, for a band that have taken a lot of critical flogging for their sound (and, yes, even from yours truly) unintentionally echoing that of the European symphonic metal community throughout much of their career, EVANESCENCE's new and heavier approach to its music over the past decade or so have earned the band a seat at their table. Follow-up numbers "Made Of Stone" and "The Game Is Over" delicately straddle that divide before the stage turns dark and Lee appears in the spotlight, her monotone intro to 2003's "Going Under" followed by McCord and McLawhorn's power chords crashing in the background and Anzai's thumping raw-sounding bass creating tectonic activity below everyone's feet. The crowd, being mostly late teen and early/mid 20-something punters dolled out in black lace and leather outfits, aren't just joyously welcoming
From almost breaking from the weight of criticism by the Euro metal elite to breaking barriers and even breaking proverbial baguettes with their intercontinental sisters, EVANESCENCE, HALESTORM and THE WARNING brought a show of epic proportions while bending genders and riffs alike that evening and proving their detractors wrong about their place in the music community.
https://www.evanescence.com/home/
Setlist:
| |||||
|
|
| Recent Reviews |
 |
|
EVANESCENCE back from that 2-year COVID-19 moment of exile from live shows overall, but moreso for the end of their 17-year wait since the band last visited Ottawa (with STONE SOUR as the opening band at the time). The long wait could explain why Amy often seemed to be ready to burst into tears during almost every brief interaction with the crowd, not to mention her extremely close connection with her songs. The "Lose Control"/"Part Of Me"/Never Go Back" medley is a neat piano-driven tapestry of despair, self-reflection and final acceptance; given how "Never Go Back", with its poignant stand-out lyric "It's all gone, the only world I've ever known", had been inspired by the 2011 Japan earthquake, Amy did a stellar job in connecting all of these songs to lyrically summarize the COVID-19 years. No wonder Lzzy Hale had earlier declared that she could effortlessly recite an entire telephone book to rapturous applause after the pair had duetted on "Break In" during HALESTORM's set. And by the time the last solemn notes of "My Immortal" have guaranteed that there wasn't a dry eye left in the house, Amy, now close to getting watery-eyed herself and having joked that she doesn't understand how critics view EVANESCENCE's music as being depressing, could use a crowd-pleasing finale to lift both her spirits and those of the crowd - and that would be the band's hit "Bring Me To Life" sang and played the way she'd envisioned it: Heavy and symphonically driven without any trace of rapping on the track.