Simon Rushworth
@Inverness The Ironworks, March 7 2015
The Met Office predicted one storm in Inverness on Saturday night.
What they did not account for was another, even louder one preparing to make landfall.
Fuelled by a day of Nessie hunting on their first venture to the Highland Capital, Halestorm delivered a rousing show met by monstrous delectation.
Touring in support of new album Into The Wild Life, the quartet opened with I Like It Heavy from the new EP and it seemed an apt mantra for what was to follow.
Daughters Of Darkness drew a hot reception from the throngs of female Highlanders crammed into the Ironworks, while an invitation to prove they were “freakier” than the Glasgow crowd from the night before was not missed on Freak Like Me.
For someone so slight, Lzzy Hale’s commanding stage presence is something to be revered. Her vocal range has the ability to go from zero to holy hell and back again in nothing flat and there is no question who the epicentre of the show is.
The girl with the Coyote Ugly charm and grunge rock attitude, you feel Hale would be just as adept at having a beer with you as beating you to smithereens, depending on how the mood takes her.
Not to be outdone, Hale’s brother and band drummer Arejay delivered a virtuoso display of his talents, including a solo with metre-long drumsticks that drew raptures as wild as his shock of bright red hair.
Euphoria was delayed, however, until the climax of the set, where Hale unleashed some Storm staples that are part of an ever-growing arsenal.
Apocalyptic, a downright sultry number that has Hale’s tones draped on warped riffs like bourbon over ice, is a ferocious sign of things to come from the Pennsylvania powerhouses, who will leave an indelible mark on the continent once this European tour comes to a close.
It seemed appropriate a Scottish show closed with Here’s To Us, a song about drinking and giving the middle finger to anyone who dares put you down. Inverness embraced the message.
For a city that is forever being battered by the weather, this was one storm no would mind being caught up in. And Hale was the eye of it.
Jamie Durent