REVIEW BY DAVID TAYLOR AND PHOTOS BY BRITTON HACKE | Go Venue Magazine
Sioux City was the place to be on Wednesday, October 1, as Halestorm and Lindsey Stirling played the Tyson Events Center. It was my first time at the venue, and I was impressed by how nice the staff were and how well the concessions were run. Though Sioux City isn’t as big as Lincoln and Omaha, people still showed up on a weekday night.
Apocalyptica from Finland was the opener. They are a Metallica tribute band, except instead of guitar, bass, and vocals, they play cellos. It was amazing to hear these arrangements of these songs we know so well for the cello. They have been doing this since 1993 and they still look like they are having the time of their lives onstage. Songs they performed include “The Four Horsemen”, “Master of Puppets”, and “Nothing Else Matters”. The crowd was very much into it. I was hoping they were going to play some of their original songs, but I wasn’t disappointed. They recently released a new album of Metallica covers titled Plays Metallica, Vol. 2.
Lindsey Stirling was the first of the double bill. She is a violinist who performs these elaborate, choreographed dances while she plays her violin. It’s truly remarkable the ability she has to do that. She had an amazing backing band with her, including guitar virtuoso Jason Richardson, who I remember opening up for Dethklok a few years ago. She also had these backup dancers with her that were incredible. She did covers of Darude’s “Sandstorm”, Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”, and Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir. She even made the audience do a TikTok, which I thought was fun. Check out her latest album, Duality.
Finally, it was time for Halestorm. I swear, this band gets better every time I see them live. This was my eighth time seeing them live, and I am still awestruck by the musicianship on stage. Lzzy Hale remains one of the best rock vocalists still performing. Every note she hit was perfect. Every member got to showcase their talents. Every time Halestorm performs, there is always a drum solo from Arejay Hale. But this time, there was this giant inflatable witch hand from the album art of their latest album, Everest, that was overlooking him, and he battled it with his giant drumsticks. It was a nice change of pace from his usual drum solos. They performed quite a bit from Everest, I think nine songs, so they were proud of the music they just put out into the world. But I also enjoyed hearing the older material. The highlight of the night was seeing them perform “Freak Like Me” and seeing the crowd having the best time. Their encore featured a return to the stage from Ms. Stirling to perform her song she recorded with Lzzy Hale ten years ago, “Shatter Me”, so much girl power on that stage when that happened in the best way. They ended their set with “Here’s to Us”, the perfect wrap-up to another amazing set from Halestorm. I would love to come back to the Tyson Events Center for another rock show. It was a great vibe all around.
Halestorm
Lindsey Stirling
Apoccalyptica
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