New Years Day, In This Moment, Halestorm in Eugene, OR

Last Saturday, three of the biggest Mistresses of Metal decended on Eugene, Oregon to completely slay for the nearly capacity crowd at the Cuthbert Amphitheater. Ash Costello, Maria Brink, and Lzzy Hale with their respective bands, New Year’s Day, In This Moment, and Grammy award winner Halestorm, came on like they were out to prove something and if that was the case, we were picking up what they were putting down.

New Year’s Day opened up with “Kill Or Be Killed” and with the blazing sun in their faces, completely shredded for nearly 40 minutes. One staple of the New Year’s Day experience is their tribute to the metal gods, Pantera, with their cover of “Fucking Hostile”. I actually heard someone in the crowd say “Jesus, I didn’t know they could do Pantera.” Yes, my friend, they can do Pantera. Between songs Ash said “See, we can do everything the boys do, we just look better doing it”. Hey, who am I to argue?

But this wasn’t an ordinary “girl power” celebration. It was a celebration of metal and the music that unites us. The crowd was a diverse mix of genders and ages. But, it was clear that younger ladies are getting the message that it’s okay to put them horns up and celebrate heavy music.

As the set for New Year’s Day was cleared and the black widow sheet was pulled up in front of the stage, the crowd was getting restless. I was anxiously waiting to hear the crowd singing along with the “Don’t Stop Believin'” intro music, but instead, the soulful sound of the late Aretha Franklin and R-E-S-P-E-C-T was played instead. Well played, In This Moment, well played. RIP, Queen of Soul.

In This Moment opened up with “Salvation” from their most recent album, Ritual. Live staples “Blood”, “Roots”, “Sick Like Me” and “Oh Lord” all made the set list, but sadly, “Black Wedding” wasn’t included this time ’round. For the last song of the set, the pulpit was placed front and center, Maria, with her “crown” firmly affixed to her head, took her place atop. She gave a short explanation of the empowering nature of the term “whore” before closing out their set. During the performance of “Whore”, a couple dozen huge red and white balloons were tossed out over the crowd, which bounced around through the duration of the tune and added a “crowd participation element” to the already jovial celebration.

Halestorm opted for a far less theatrical production with a simple stage layout. There was no shortage of lighting however with huge lighting arrays on either side of Arejay with his drum kit rear and center. Halestorm opened their set with “Skulls” from their album, Vicious, released just last month. If you’ve got the album, great. Live it, love it. But really, go out and SEE it. Seeing Halestorm live is nothing short of Uh-Fucking-Mazing. Honestly, I don’t think that recording equipment has been invented yet that can capture the raw energy in Lzzy’s voice. And that energy didn’t let up for the entire set. Halestorm played 7 songs from Vicious before ending the evening with a second encore, “Here’s to Us.”

When all was said and done, these powerful women gave Eugene, OR an powerful, memorable perfomance. And to think I got to see three amazing bands for the price of one.