
If you are looking for a bad review of Three Days Grace with Halestorm at Hamilton Place Theatre you are not going to find it here. I must start this review off by saying I am a huge fan of both these bands and tried very hard to find something to write that was bad about the show but I couldn’t.
Halestorm came out on stage and almost immediately won over the crowd, which honestly is hard to do being the support act but they seemed to do it with ease. I just recently found out about Halestorm from Periscope of all places. (for those of you who don’t know what Periscope is, it is a live streaming app run by Twitter) The drummer Arejay Hale was periscoping from behind his kit one night and I happened to stumble across it and fell in love, so needless to say I wanted to know more instantly. For those of you who know who Halestorm is already I am sorry I didn’t come across them sooner, apparently I live under a rock. They have a fan base of 1.1 million on Facebook and growing, and with Lzzy Hale at the helm I can see why. She has an incredible voice and knows how to command an audience.
They started off their set with one of my favourite songs by them called “Love Bites” and by the end of the first song the crowd was on their feet. Lzzy at one point asked if anyone had heard of them before, and it was a mixed response but even the people who shouted they hadn’t were standing and enjoying every second of the show. By the time the band played “I Like It Heavy” halfway thru the set they had won them all over.
We were entertained by a drum solo by Arejay Hale, who is Lzzy’s brother, and honestly I don’t want to ruin it for everyone and tell everyone what he does. Let’s just say he doesn’t sit on the drum stool for long and it may or may not involve some big sticks. He is probably one of the most entertaining drummers I have seen in awhile. Most drummers get hidden in the back behind the kit, but Arejay makes a point of being noticed.
Halestorm is known for their near non stop touring, performing as many as 250 shows a year (Wikipedia) and that is not an easy task. I will definitely be seeing them again and hopefully soon.
Now the headliner, Three Days Grace. They came out on on stage to a screaming audience even before one note was played. I can’t believe how loud their fans were, the place erupted with cheers and screams as they walked out. They started their set with “I Am Machine” which was released In 2014. But as soon as they played “Pain” the crowd went crazy singing every word to the whole song. The entire crowd was on their feet for the 1.5 hour performance. Even an over enthusiastic fan decided he would jump on stage and “dance” ( I use that term loosely) jumping on the drum riser before security grabbed him and escorted him off stage.
Matt Walst is a great fit for Three Days Grace and honestly I was a bit skeptical about him at first, but, now that I have seen him live I am pleasantly surprised at how well he fits in to their mould. Matt a couple times jumped off stage to interact with the crowd from the front of Hamilton Place Theatre right to the back. I wish more bands would do this to be honest. The fans in the cheap seats want to feel included as well and this is a great way to bring them into the action.
I did have to laugh at one point during the show, it seemed like Barry Stock was a pick dispenser throwing a ton of picks one by one into the crowd, he had a bit of a smirk of his face while he was doing this.
Matt left the stage at one point before the drum solo and asked the audience to chant Three Days Grace which they happily obliged, and very loudly I might add. I do have to say the drum solo was quite lengthy so for whomever loves drum solos you are in for a treat at a future Three Days Grace show.
We were entertained by old and new Three Days Grace tunes and I couldn’t have been more pleased about this. I prefer the older songs but that’s not to say some of their newer songs aren’t growing on me. Just before they started “Never Too Late” Matt said to their fans “this is a song about never giving up and Three Days Grace will never give up” and as far as I can tell Three Days Grace has a long and great continuous career ahead of them.
Once again I have to say thanks to the crew because without them there is no show.