HALESTORM & NEW YEARS DAY Rock Rupp Arena [Review & Photo Gallery]

Halestorm

This was stacking up to be an epic night of rock n roll in Lexington, KY. Three of the best female fronted bands touring the country were scheduled to be making a stop at Rupp Arena. Well, that was the plan until word came down that the bus carrying most of In This Moment had broken down. So the night that started with three bands was now down to two, but New Years Day and Halestorm more than made up for it!

New Years Day

I started this year off with New Years Day and In This Moment, photographed them in January of this year. So I was looking forward to closing out the year photographing them again. That didn’t work out as planned. I was thrilled to be capturing at least one of them. Ash and the guys came out swinging, “Kill or Be Killed” from 2015’s ‘Malevolence’ started the set then into “F**king Hostile”, which I’m sure most reading this will know is a Pantera cover that New Years Day recorded on 2018’s EP release ‘Diary of a Creep’ which includes several stellar covers. Aside from a few technical issues with Ash’s mic, New Years Day put on a great show for the Rupp Arena crowd!

Halestorm

Halestorm was closing out a helluva 2018 – a number 1 album with ‘Vicious’ and a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance for the track “Uncomfortable” from ‘Vicious’ that was on the set list tonight! A nineteen song set list that took full advantage of the extra time they were given. Halestorm started off the night with “I Am the Fire” then “Love Bites (So Do I)” (which won a Grammy back in 2013) from 2012’s release ‘The Strange Case Of…’ These two were just the start of a tremendous 19 song set that had Rupp Arena rocking! Among those 19 Halestorm played five songs from ‘Vicious’ including the first single and Grammy nominated “Uncomfortable” and the latest single “Do Not Disturb” that if you’ve not seen the video for you really need to go watch it! It’s hard to believe sometimes that Halestorm only has 4 studio albums released at this point; the amount of hit songs they play at their shows is impressive. This big Kentucky crowd was singing along to every song. “Mz.Hyde,” “Freak Like Me,” “Apocalyptic,” and “Mayhem” that closed out the set, but they weren’t done, not by any stretch! A white grand piano, a single spot light meant it was encore time! A 4 song encore that started off with Lizzy alone at the piano covering “Separate Ways” the huge Journey hit, then straight into “Dear Daughter.” Arejay, Joe and Josh joined her for the last two songs of the night “I Miss The Misery” and “Here’s To Us” and that brought an end to a rocking night of music in the bluegrass state!

As always, get out and support live music! Without you these bands wouldn’t be touring.