Evanescence and Halestorm at the YouTube Theater

Evanescence and Halestorm played L.A.’s newest venue last night, the YouTube Theater, which is connected to SoFi stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.

In the 70’s/80’s, there were female fronted rock groups like The Pretenders, Heart, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and Blondie who all left their mark on Rock N Roll. In 1995, Evanescence was co-founded by singer Amy Lee and by the time they released their debut album in 2003 found major success leading to this day.

10 years later, Halestorm formed by siblings Lzzy (Lead Vocals/ Guitar) and Arejay Hale (Drums) released their first EP and have become one of the biggest hard rock groups this past decade. Opening the show was female rock group Plush. This was just the fourth show of the tour.

After an energetic set from Plush, Halestorm hit the stage playing a one hour set of 10 songs plus a drum solo. Since Halestorm released their debut EP they have been the Hale siblings, guitarist Joe Hottinger, and bassist Josh Smith. Halestorm released their first album which was self-titled in 2009 on Atlantic. Their followup album The Strange Case Of… also went Gold. Their last two albums Into the Wild Life and Vicious both went to number 1 on both the Hard Rock U.S. and U.K. charts. Halestorm won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock/ Metal performance in 2013 and were nominated for Best Rock Performance in 2019. Halestorm has played as many as 250 shows a year including major Hard Rock/ Metal festivals like Uproar and Aftershock as well as touring with numerous major acts like Alice Cooper, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, and In This Moment.

Halestorm opened with “Back From the Dead,” which was fitting after the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020. With the pandemic putting 10’s of 1000’s in the music industry out of work Halestorm created #Roadiestrong to help Live Nation show crews. Amy Lee joined in for a duet of “Break In” with Lzzy on piano. Halestorm closed with “I Miss the Misery.” There was some audience participation between Lzzy and the crowd trading off vocals. On Arejay’s drum solo he pulled out a giant pair of drumsticks like Bun E Carlos did with Cheap Trick many years ago and Tommy Chong played in the video of the classic Cheech and Chong song “Earache My Eye.”

Evanescence closed out the show playing 20 songs over 90 minutes. The opening song was “Broken Pieces Shine,” from their latest release The Bitter Truth. The lighting and graphics on the video screen were just incredible as well as the layout of the stage with different risers for the band members. Of the original group Amy Lee is the sole remaining member. The current group consists of guitarists Troy McLawhorn and Jen Majura, bassist Tim McCord, and Will Hunt. McCord has had the longest tenure in the group, joining in 2006. Evanescence released their debut album Fallen in 2003 and found major success with the album hitting number three in the U.S. and number one in the U.K. Fallen also 7x platinum. Their next two albums The Open Door and their self-titled album both went to number one. Their 5th album The Bitter Truth released in March of this year hit number 11. In the U.S. alone, Evanescence has sold over 10 million albums combined. Evanescence has also had 16 charting singles.

Lzzy Hale joined in for the Linkin Park song “Heavy.” The last song before the encore was the 3x Platinum selling single “Bring Me to Life,” which went to number one in four countries. It was also featured in the Marvel film Daredevil (2003). The two song encore consisted of “My Immortal,” and “Blind Belief.”

This major tour runs through December 18th ending in Worcester, MA.

Halestorm setlist: