Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The American railroad system was once upon a time a boon to the country, a piece of engineering wonder that straddled the distance between the Atlantic and the Pacific with pride and wonder, it helped put small towns on the map and paved the way for expansion that was unsurpassed for years. No sooner had it been completed than the great American love affair with cars began in earnest and small town America found itself strangled and cut off from the rest of the country, forced to join in or to become a back water of neglect and social abandon.

The Ma and Pa railroad, lovingly called throughout Pennsylvania serviced towns such as Red Lion and without the strength of character that resides in Lizzy Hale, the name of the town may forever have slowly sunk into obscurity and fading hopes. A front woman of distinction from a town which plays third fiddle to might of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, it’s no wonder that Halestorm went down so well as they blasted their way through their set at the Echo Arena, the empathy and delight in such a performance by the band and the booming sentiment of those adoring a strong female icon not lost upon a city’s Rock crowd.

This was a time in which Halestorm thrived and as part of the Carnival of Madness tour, the band made much of their time on stage in Liverpool, the blistering heat of fortunes past driving the group onwards, the attitude of intensity and frenetic energy building up to the point where the imagery of the mine works that Pennsylvania founded its steel industry upon, bellowing like a man-made volcano and colliding with the steel crush of the city’s football team in full dominating flight would all quake under the might of Lizzy Hale’s determined voice and the band’s full on musical anger.

Opening their portion of the Carnival of Madness with the songs Love Bites (So Do I), Apocalyptic and Amen, Halestorm drove home every song as if hammering in a railroad spike into the ground, pulsating muscular dominance over nature, the urge to bring a sense of the fortified steel into the lives of the Liverpool audience, was enough to understand that passion resides in the very heart of the band. As they set went on, that passion growled and the furnace of their music intensified. Tracks such as Mayhem, I Miss The Memory and I Am The Fire were greeted as if they had been written by one of the city’s own.

Towering and insanely good, Halestorm showed just how tough they are and that sometimes a small town nestled between big behemoths can be just as tough and thrilling to come from and call home.

Ian D. Hall