Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Halestorm are currently wowing audiences across the country on their headlining tour with In This Moment and Eve to Adam , but once the holidays arrive they have something special for their East Coast fans. The group has announced three “ An Evening With… ” performances that will showcase two distinctly different sides to the band. Singer Lzzy Hale reveals in a posting, “We want to invite you to spend your holidays with us! This mini tour is your opportunity to see a very unique Halestorm show! We are bringing ‘The Strange Case of …’ to life and splitting the night into two very equal, but opposite performances — light and dark, black and white … Jekyll and Mz. Hyde. Don’t miss this show, because this special presentation of Halestorm will only be happening for a few nights over the holidays.” The band has booked performances at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory Dec. 27, Montclair, N.J.’s Wellmont Theater Dec. 29, and a special New Year’s Eve show at Baltimore’s Soundstage. Tickets for all three dates are on sale now. Halestorm love the holidays, recently taking advantage of the Warner Sound studio on Halloween to provide a mini-set for fans . That six-song performance has been turned into a new EP called ‘In the Live Room,’ which can be purchased here . [button href=”http://loudwire.com/halestorm-the-strange-case-of-top-2012-rock-albums/” title=”Next: Halestorm – Top 2012 Rock Albums” align=”center”]
Photo: Kathy Flynn (3) While most bands are winding down their 2012 touring, there’s still one hard-rocking bill going that’s definitely worth the price of admission, as Halestorm , In This Moment , and Eve to Adam are making their way across the country and bringing attitude, theatrics, and just a good ‘ol fashioned rock show to audiences on a nightly basis. Their travels took them to the Los Angeles House of Blues in West Hollywood Wednesday night (Nov. 13), and the crowd was thoroughly rocked by the end of the night. Eve to Adam opened the evening in impressive form. They took the opening slot and warmed-up the audience for the night with a blistering set that featured their such standouts as ‘No Regret,’ ‘Run Your Mouth,’ and their salute to the military, ‘Reach.’ Singer Taki Sassaris, battling through a cold, kept the energy level high by jumping into the pit filled with fans and tossing his shirt midway through the set as the band rocked through a cover of Billy Idol’s ‘Rebel Yell.’ Guitarist Guarav Bali handled the usual Steve Stevens solo from the track with ease, and really energized the audience for the remainder of the set. The show also offered a chance for Eve to Adam to showcase a pair of new songs, with ‘Bender’ feeling like a natural fit as a future audience favorite and ‘Straightjacket Supermodel,’ stirring up the crowd as well. Next up was the highly theatric Maria Brink and her band In This Moment. Brink, a vision in white with a long flowing cape, delivered a captivating performance, while ably backed by her grimy-looking cohorts. The group had fans waving their arms and clapping at will to tracks such as ‘Rise With Me,’ ‘Adrenalize,’ and ‘Beast Within,’ while the audience lit up with lighters and cell phones for ‘Burn.’ Their set ended with the transfixed crowd rocking out to the band’s recent single ‘ Blood .’ As for headliners Halestorm, they did not disappoint. Lzzy Hale and crew took the stage to the sounds of ‘Mz. Hyde,’ ‘Love Bites (So Do I), and ‘Freak Like Me.’ They had the look of a band on top of their game, and unlike the other two acts of the night, they took the opportunity to bring things down a bit. After the raucous ‘Rock Show,’ the band exited while Hale performed the track ‘Break In’ on piano at the side of the stage. She would be rejoined by the rest of the band for their excellent cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Gold Dust Woman’ before amping things up again with ‘Familiar Taste of Poison.’ An Arejay Hale drum solo with the shirtless redhead rocking away with furious abandon followed, with Hale even breaking out giant drum sticks to the delight of the audience. The rest of the show was filled with favorites like a cover of Skid Row’s ‘Slave to the Grind,’ “It’s Not You,’ ‘Here’s to Us,’ and the set closers ‘I Get Off’ and ‘I Miss the Misery.’ For the remaining dates on the Halestorm, In This Moment and Eve to Adam trek, check here . Check out photos of Halestorm, In This Moment and Eve to Adam from the West Hollywood show below. Halestorm Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn In This Moment Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn Eve to Adam Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn Photo: Kathy Flynn
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about the band’s forthcoming album ‘The Divinity of Purpose,’ as well as hitting the road with Lamb of God and how playing shows has changed since Randy Blythe’s arrest. Read the full interview with Jamey Jasta below: You are obviously part of this awesome Lamb of God tour and you are probably doing 12 bazillion things, as you do? Metal is a life style and no one in the metal community is more immersed in that lifestyle than you. When did you realize that metal would become so prominent in so many aspects of your life, musician, songwriter, label owner, media personality. Coming from the punk and hardcore scene – I just saw that there needed to be more unity with metal. We always played with metal bands and we always enjoyed metal bands like thrash bands, death metal however you want to call the different sub-genres and I thought “It’d be good to just be more involved and bring people together.” I always liked the inclusionary aspect of metal whereas coming from the punk and hardcore scene a lot of it is exclusionary where there’s a lot of strong beliefs. So I thought “Man, it would be great to have a balance of the two” so very young I started learning about how shows were booked and how tours were booked and how different bands got signed and I just tried to learn so that if I ever was to be in a band, which I ended up being in – I had a little bit of an edge. Especially coming from the punk and hardcore scene there’s so many bands and it’s so hard to break especially in the Northeast – being from Connecticut we were sandwiched in between New York and Boston where there’s hundreds of bands, you really have to work super hard to get noticed. Growing up and having bands like Biohazard and Sick of It All but also bands like Anthrax and all of the Florida death metal bands, we ended up getting to play with a lot of those bands. You see how die-hard the fans are and how truly supportive and they stay with the band and now we’re seeing it more than ever with Testament and Anthrax and even Megadeth – they constantly keep having these huge rebirths in a way where the fans pass it along to younger fans. We just wanted to do that but for bands who were crossover bands who had roots in the hardcore scene and everything comes with that – the lifestyle aspect of it, trying to make a brand, have your own clothing, have your own label, have your own TV show or radio show or whatever it is. You want to have a medium to promote the stuff and it’s been cool and a lot of people are still doing things like that; Kerry King from Slayer had a clothing line, Scott Ian has a web TV show and it’s nice to see that through metal there are all these cool opportunities being had. I believe in abundance I’m like, “Share the wealth and have everybody express their views and interests and have the music be that medium to get the message across.” As you mentioned there’s a new Hatebreed record coming out in January and tell us what will fans love most about this new record? I just think if you like any one Hatebreed record there’s a little bit of something for you on this one. I feel like if you like ‘Satisfaction [Is the Death of Desire]’ and you’re in your thirties and that hardcore was a big part of your life, there’s some stuff you’ll like on this record. If your more ‘Perseverance’ type of person and from the last ten years onward have been a fan there’s a lot of themes that are similar. Then there’s the thrash and the crossover influence, as well. I think it’s got all of the cool elements of Hatebreed records in the past but has that identity where it’s fresh and new but you know when you put it in, you know it’s Hatebreed. Even if you hate us at least you won’t be like “Who is that? What is that?” you know who it is. You guys are celebrating an anniversary coming up right? We just celebrated the 10 year anniversary of ‘Perserverance’ and Nov. 11 [marks] the 15th anniversary of ‘Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire.’ I don’t think we’ll get the chance to do a tour or a re-release of the record or anything which would have been cool but the past is the past – we’re proud of it but it’s like we got to put this new record out in January and it’s onward and upward. This is a huge tour for us to play out to a new audience. It’s great to see Lamb of God – even though they might not be new to some people, we’re seeing a lot of young kids and I feel like they’re the new leaders of aggressive metal or modern metal. Both Hatebreed and Lamb of God are both powerful aggressive bands in an instant how did things change for you as a musician, entrepreneur and for metal as a whole when Randy [Blythe] was arrested in Prague? Well it was crazy because it instantly put this magnifying glass on how a concert should go as far as searching the fans, security, barricades and we come under a lot of scrutiny because we’re from the hardcore scene. There are some people who are very vocal about us becoming a big band – they don’t like that. There’s always been this kind of punk rock guilt in the scene like “You can’t be successful, you can’t make money or play big shows on big stages” but we’ve always been looking for the most success possible – we’ve never been ashamed of that. Randy getting arrested has really brought that out and people have said, “What are you going to do? Are you going to be able to play shows without a barricade.” We’ve been playing shows with barricades for the last 12 years it’s just people that wasn’t to cause a stir and act like we’re compromising our integrity in some way. They’ve brought all this stuff up like, “Everybody should be welcome on the stage” and all this stuff – not at a metal show maybe at a punk and hardcore shows and God Bless them if they can police the stage and be on top of it. God forbid somebody breaks their neck like we had happen at The Staircase in PA and that’s probably going back to 2002, 2003 – that club shut down, we almost got named in the lawsuit. Even before Lamb of God we were dealing with these types of issues before Lamb of God was even signed so they just brought it to the forefront – it’s such a unique incident where they feel Randy is at fault which he isn’t, he’s totally innocent. Regardless I think it’s a bigger question or a bigger thing where people just need to respect each other at a show, respect the security and vice versa. What do you want out of the show? Do you want to enjoy it or do you want to hurt people and hurt yourself? You have to ask yourself that. If you’re looking to hurt people or hurt yourself then maybe you should just stay home. As far as the bigger metal bands like Lamb of God, Anthrax and Slayer – don’t ever expect to be allowed onstage. Hatebreed has already done shows since this has happened without barricades and it was just a couple random shows like my birthday show in Switzerland and everything was fine. We took a risk by doing that and if could’ve gone wrong but we told the crowd “Look this is super important that everybody respects each other, if somebody dives you got to catch them, if somebody falls you got to pick them up.” I don’t see that being something that can still go on especially not in America, definitely not in America. I think that in America, especially after the ‘Perseverance’ tour which was probably our most violent tour we’ve done in a long time, with the exception of Pomona. Pomona was incredible, seeing all the unity and everybody picking each other up and really no fights – that was great but every other place was super violent and I’m not complaining. I understand it’s heavy music and a crazy show and we write some stuff that’s going to cause the kids to go crazy but at some point you have to say “Enough is enough, let’s respect each other.” If you get hit in the pit just deal with it and shake it off. At the Detroit show there were girl fights and it was crazy. I know when you involve booze and heavy metal you’re bound to have a couple fights but we had a lot of shows where it was literally like 30 fights – two, three fights every song and you’re like “Alright this has got to chill for a little bit.” That’s why with Hatebreed we try to do the bigger tours like Mayhem Fest where we can play to a ton of people, get out message out and not have to worry about people getting hospitalized. In terms of Hatebreed, what surprises people most about you in terms of their perception that’s based on Hatebreed and your music? Well now after the whole CNN debacle where they basically misreported us being a racist band or having a racist agenda – because our fans stood up for us and really just bombarded them with Tweets. It actually got us a little bit of mainstream attention and now people who might not know about Hatebreed at least they get it and they say, “Okay their negativity or the negative aspects that they see or feel in the world they’re trying to do something positive with it” and they get that we’re trying to have a positive agenda. So I guess when people meet us and we’re regular guys and we’re not out here beating people up or sacrificing goats or whatever they think that we’re doing – they get it. Also, when you perform at this level – we’ve done more shows than most bands who’ve been around for 20 years, 30 years, we’ve done a higher volume of shows. We’ve gotten out a lot of energy, when you scream your head off for 40 to 90 minutes a night – it’s hard to be upset during the day, that’s the therapy. That’s probably another thing that people don’t realize – I get all the bad stuff out, I have that release. That’s why with this whole record and going into this new world tour and everything, I have a really good outlook because I still get that fulfillment – that’s why I feel like we’ve had such long term success it’s a cyclical power, people get that from the show and we get that from performing. We just need now to make it be more of a fun experience and hopefully the next tour won’t be as crazy and violent. We write some heavy stuff so it is to be expected. Do you think looking back at starting out in terms of punk roots and you have to be in an angry mindset in general on that whole genre – thinking back then to now do you still feel that anger and rebellion in general? Yeah, but also I think it goes in waves now we have the election coming up and the way the economy is and as you get older you see so many people are down and out. People are dealing with depression and anxiety and struggles that you face throughout your life, it’s just constant fuel for the fire I think. I feel like life is never going to be a hundred percent peachy so you got to have that balance. You don’t always want to eat pizza, you can’t eat pizza for every meal, you want to switch it up just like you don’t always want to listen to Hatebreed, maybe some people do and God bless them – but for when you do need that release or you want that aggressive music whether it’s in the gym or on your ride to work hopefully we’re that band. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Dez Fafara of DevilDriver on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .
PearlJam.com Pearl Jam are one of the leaders when it comes to providing their fans with bootleg performances of their shows, but they intend on making the turnaround a little quicker and offering some special deals in the future. As such, they’ve launched what they’re calling the “Instant Classic” bootleg series. In late September, the group played one of their few shows this year in Missoula, Mont. as a show of support for Montana Senator Jon Tester’s re-election campaign. The Adams Center performance was the first time in seven years the group had played in Missoula, and it turned out to be such a high energy show that the band declared it “an instant classic.” As a result, they put a rush on making the performance available to their fans for a limited time at a special price. The period is currently underway and continues through Tuesday (Nov. 13) with fans being able to purchase the bootleg in MP3 format for $4.99. Most bootlegs retail for $9.99 at the group’s website . During this sale period, proceeds will be donated to the Poverello Center in Missoula. After Nov. 13, all formats (MP3, FLAC, FLAC-HD, and CD) of the show performance will be available at regular prices. Visit www.pearljam.com/goods to place your order. Pearl Jam are in the process of working on new music, though bassist Jeff Ament recently admitted that they are taking it at their own pace and that he doesn’t expect they’ll continue work on the disc until sometime early next year. He added that even though there are seven or eight songs recorded, “It’s still sort of a blank slate and that’s exciting.” No timetable has been set for delivery of the next album. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-grunge-bands/” title=”Next: 10 Best Grunge Bands” align=”center”]
Facebook: Kamelot Kamelot have had a busy year with touring North America, especially after a massive trek with Nightwish. Not to mention they’ve released their tenth studio album ‘Silverthorn,’ the first to feature the band’s new vocalist Tommy Karevik and they are currently on tour all over Europe in promotion for the new disc. While they were in the States we got the chance to speak with Kamelot guitarist Thomas Youngblood who looked back on their tour with Nightwish and talked about the band’s chemistry with the Agonist frontwoman Alyssa White-Gluz. He also expressed his enthusiasm about the release of ‘Silverthorn’ and Kamelot’s future as a whole. How would you describe the experience of touring with Nightwish? It was great. I think the musical styles of both bands complement each other really well even though we’re different from each other. We’ve been talking about doing a tour with them for a few years now so it’s cool to finally see it happen. It’s been great. You were at the show in New York and they all have been pretty packed and the fans love the combination. Alyssa White-Gluz of the Agonist joined you on stage and she’s offers vocals on the new record. How would you describe your relationship with her musically. Yeah, she’s been on my radar for a few years, we had the Agonist as one of the supporting bands on our last U.S. tour and I kind of knew about her before but on the tour we had her come out for a couple of shows and do ‘March of Mephisto’ with us — from then on it was just really cool chemistry between her and the band. When it was time to do the new album we had a spot on there that normally we probably would’ve had a guy do but I thought it was a cool twist to have a female growler. She kicked ass with the part and we shot the video for ‘Sacrimony’ and she’s also in the video so it’s been fun. It’s cool to see her in action when she comes onstage because she’s got this dominating presence which I think is really cool. ‘Silverthorn’ is the tenth studio album. What does the name of the record mean to you personally? Well the fact that we were able to make this record so quickly, we got this perfect blend of beauty and pain. The title ‘Silverthorn’ itself is a sort of a contradiction — the literal meaning is something that’s in the story but for us we just look at it as this strange and beautiful creation that we were able to achieve. This new record is a concept album –- do you find that there are any particular challenges with a concept album that are different from creating a non-concept album? Definitely, you have to stick within the storylines –- for example lyrically if you want to write stars and it has nothing to do with the story, it’s more open and easier to do a non-concept album. With a concept record you have to stay with the story, it wasn’t a massive challenge in terms of inspiration; things just seemed to fall right into place from the very beginning. I don’t know if we will do another concept record or not but with this one everything went super smooth. We’re totally stoked about the record and we knew we had something special when we were about half way in the middle of this thing. The newest member, vocalist Tommy Karevik, was exceptional at the live show in New York. What does he bring to the band? I think when we knew we had to bring in a new person on vocals we wanted the opportunity to grow the band not just to maintain the band or survive. We wanted to look at this as an opportunity to make the band bigger — I think with Tommy we can do that. Not only is he an exceptional singer, he’s a great songwriter and he’s way ahead of what I thought he would be in terms of being a frontman. People who come out to shows will see that this guy is a force to be reckoned with. [Laughs] I can’t imagine a better choice, honestly. In the beginning when this whole thing started we were a little unsure of what the future might be but now we’re really excited about it. The members of the entire band — you have a couple of Europeans and Americans from different states. Do you find the international mix adds to the creativity of the band at all? It probably does somehow, everybody has different likes and tastes –- I think the most important thing is getting along, just having a similar sense of humor, having a similar sense of social skills like being polite but also having a good time. That whole kind of chemistry is the most important and that way when we go to create things we do it more as friends instead of just being colleagues or business partners -– I think that’s the key to the chemistry and the band’s future. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/nightwish-kamelot-bring-powerful-show-to-new-york-city/” title=”Next: Check Out Photos of Kamelot’s Stop in NYC” align=”center”]
YouTube Against Me! singer Laura Jane Grace will have reconstructive dental surgery after a crowd surfing audience member managed to accidentally knock the microphone stand into her mouth during a show, resulting in the early conclusion of the performance. The band was playing in Wilmington, N.C., on Wednesday night (Nov. 7) when it’s alleged that an audience member was pushed toward the stage into the stand that managed to shatter Grace’s teeth and led to an angry equipment throw down from the singer. Punk News reports here was no video of the incident, but fans began making online comments about what happened. One fan, Matt H., posted that he apologized for the “douchebags that stormed the stage and stopped the show,” and begged the vocalist not to think any less of the rest of the crowd because of what happened at the show. Grace offered her comments on the situation in a series of tweets that read: For those asking, last night my mic was kicked into my face and it shattered a couple of teeth. It was an accident, but still really hurt… — Laura Jane Grace (@LauraJaneGrace) November 8, 2012 I’m also pretty upset about the idea reconstructive dental surgery. — Laura Jane Grace (@LauraJaneGrace) November 8, 2012 I’m gonna start a kickstarter to get a diamond grill like Kanye — Laura Jane Grace (@LauraJaneGrace) November 8, 2012 Against Me! have been working on a new album called ‘Transgender Dysphoria Blues,’ that will reportedly touch on Laura Jane Grace’s transformation over the past year. Grace, formery Tom Gabel, came out as transgender in May. Bassist Andrew Seward told MTV Hive of the album, “It just sounds f—ing killer. I don’t know if ‘brutal’ is the right word, but it sounds really f—ing tough, and good. Laura is recording the whole thing herself — engineering, producing, build the studio — full on everything.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/against-me-singer-laura-jane-grace-discusses-fan-reaction-to-transgender-transformation/” title=”Next: Laura Jane Grace Reveals Fan Reaction to Transgender Transformation” align=”center”]
Photo: James Minchin Tragedy struck at the stadium where Linkin Park performed in Cape Town, South Africa, tonight (Nov. 7). One female fan died and about 20 others were injured when an advertising structure collapsed prior to the concert due to high winds. Apparently, the wind gusts caused a temporary scaffolding structure to collapse onto fans who were on their way into the concert, but the show went on as scheduled. Linkin Park learned of the tragedy shortly after the concert ended. The band was performing in South Africa as part of their International Linkin Park Underground Summit in which they interact with fans. Following the show, Linkin Park posted a message on their official website expressing their condolences to the family of the deceased fan and their concern for those injured: Following our performance tonight at Cape Town Stadium, we were advised that several people were injured as a result of the collapse of an advertising tower erected by Lucozade in the parking area outside the venue. We wish to express our deep sadness and concern for those injured and our heartfelt condolences to the family of the fan who died as a result of her injuries. Though we have had no relationship with the sponsor or the entity responsible for erecting the structure, we take the safety of our fans very seriously and our thoughts are with all of those who were affected by this tragedy. Prior to the news of the concertgoer’s death, Cape Town authorities released the following statement: “Twenty concert attendees were injured at the Cape Town Stadium this evening when a temporary scaffolding structure in the stadium precinct collapsed due to high winds. The injured were treated on scene and have been taken to nearby hospitals for further medical attention.” Raw video footage of the aftermath of the scaffolding collapse has been released below. The tragedy follows similar deadly incidents involving Radiohead and the country band Sugarland. Raw Footage of Scaffolding Collapse at Linkin Park Show