A few months ago, Halestorm was a supporting act for Ozzy’s Back to The Beginning concert, just released a new album entitled Everest, and their Connecticut fans brought a full house to Bridgeport’s Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater. On a beautiful late summer night, September 14, Apocalyptica was there to open the night all the way from Finland with their symphonic renditions of our favorite Metallica songs. Lindsey Stirling kept the heat going with her electronic violin fronted rock show and choreographed dance performance. The tour’s name comes from both Halestorm’s and Lindsey’s latest releases, Everest and Duality.
Apocalyptica is a symphonic metal band from Finland who has 10 studio albums out and has sold millions of albums worldwide. These guys started their career with an album entitled Plays Metallica by Four Cellos in 1996 and came full circle in 2024 with their most recent release entitled Plays Metallica, Vol.2. It’s not often that you get to see guys with long hair banging their heads while playing cellos. This was a stellar way to start the night. Everyone was on their feet and singing the lyrics to their favorite Metallica songs right from the start with “Ride the Lightning”. The band members all have so much energy in their performance and the fans gave it back in return, pumping their fists in the air and banging their heads. There was so much energy in the air all throughout their 6-song set ending with “Seek and Destroy”. They are on tour with Halestorm and Lindsey Stirling through early October then they head up to Canada for five more dates with the same tour before ending up in Oregon October 12th for a solo date. Then they are off to Mexico for some shows on their own.
Apocalyptica is:
Eicca Toppinen – Band leader, rhythm cello, programming
Paavo Lotjonen – Rhythm/bass cello
Perttu Kivilaakso – Lead cello
Mikko Kaakuriniemi – Drums (touring)
Setlist:
1. Ride the Lightning (Metallica cover)
2. Master of Puppets (Metallica cover)
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica cover)
4. Blackened (Metallica cover)
5. Nothing Else Matters (Metallica cover)
6. Seek and Destroy (Metallica cover)
Lindsey Sterling is violinist and dancer that brings an amazing, choreographed performance to the stage, with dancers and a band consisting of Drew Steen on drums, Ryan Riveros on guitars and keyboards, and newest member Jason Richards on guitar. They played a crowd pleasing set of a several covers, five songs of her most recent release (2024) Duality, and select songs from her lengthy career. The first cover she played was “Sandstorm” by Darude and she let us know it’s her favorite song to play. Lindsey and the dancers change costumes throughout the set. Most costumes were very flowing, and Lindsey, at one point, donned skeleton wings and then angel wings, and the dancers during one song had wolf masks on. Another cover that Lindsey performed that I knew was Charlie Daniel‘s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. This is always a crowd favorite.
After “Evil Twin”, Lindsey introduced Jason Richards, the new guitarist and member of the band. Then, standing next to a wheel that was brought out on stage she said, “Meet the wheel everybody, we have some fun choices on here, some deep cuts, some new songs, some that we haven’t played in like ten years.” The wheel was just that, a wheel that had song choices on it that Lindsey would spin to pick the next song. Well, on her first spin the wheel almost fell over, so she had to do a do-over. The song that it landed on was “SWAG”, a deep cut, to which she asked the band if they thought they could remember how to play it. They seemed to get through it effortlessly. They ended their set with a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Kashmir” after which, the crowd gave a thunderous round of applause.
Touring Band:
Drew Steen – Drums, percussion
Ryan Riveros – Keyboards, guitars
Jason Richards – Guitar
Setlist:
1. The Phoenix
2. Underground
3. Monday Not Sick Anymore
4. Sandstorm (Darude cover)
5. Elements/ Crystallize
6. Artemis
7. Foreverglow
8. Blue (Da Ba Dee) (Eiffel65 cover)
9. Roundtable Revival
10. The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels Band cover)
11. Firefly Alley
12. Eye of The Untold Her
13. Toxic (Britney Spears Cover)
14. Evil Twin
15. Swag (Spin the Wheel)
16. Untamed
17. Kashmir (Led Zeppelin cover)
Halestorm hit the stage a couple of minutes early, and the cheers were deafening when the curtain dropped and they came out playing “Fallen Star”, the first of 10 songs they would play off of their new album, Everest. The backdrop to the stage was mountains to look like Mount Everest, and there was a giant blow up Yeti hand sticking up from behind the giant wall of Marshall amps. At the end of “Fallen Star” confetti cannons shot off and covered the people in the floor section with confetti. Next, Lzzy, with her powerful vocals, played two of my Halestorm favorites, “I Miss the Misery” and “Love Bites (So Do I)”. Fun Fact: Lzzy spells her name this way due to the influence Ozzy Ozbourne has had on her life and career.
Along with Lzzy’s captivating vocals is her brother, Arejay Hale, slaying on the drums, Joe Hottinger melting lead guitar, and Josh Smith on bass. Together, they had the entire full house on their feet from start to finish with a 21-song set. During the middle of the set, they slowed it up a little while Lzzy got on the piano and performed a few songs. During Arejay’s drum solo, the giant blow-up Yeti hand moved out from behind the amps and started attacking him. He picked up a blow-up sword and a fight ensued. With Arejay victorious, he broke out his giant drumsticks and finished his solo. They ended the regular set with fan favorites “Freak Like Me”, “I Get Off”, and a song off of Everest, “I Gave You Everything”. Halestorm came out for a three-song encore se,t which began with a cover of Lindsey Stirling’s “Shatter Me” for which Lindsey came out to perform with them. They ended the evening with the title track off of Everest.
The nEVEREST DUALITY Tour was a huge success in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Right from the start, Apocalyptica got the fans pumped for an unforgettable evening of sights and sounds. Lindsey and her crew performed a set of violin-based rock and choreographed dance that the fans won’t forget. Then Halestorm nailed a killer performance of hits and new songs that left the crowd exhausted from pumping their fists and singing along. They will be on tour together until October 11, in Spokane, Washington.
Halestorm is:
Lzzy Hale – Lead Vocals, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano
Arejay Hale – Drums, backing vocals
Joe Hottinger – Lead Guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Josh Smith – Bass, keyboards, piano, backing vocals
Setlist:
1. Fallen Star
2. I Miss the Misery
3. Love Bites (So Do I)
4. Broken Doll
5. Do Not Disturb
6. Shiver
7. Like a Woman Can
8. Darkness Always Wins
9. Break In (Lzzy on Piano)
10. Raise Your Horns (Lzzy on piano)
11. How Will You Remember Me
12. WATCH OUT!
13. Familiar Taste of Poison (dramatic version)
14. Rain Your Blood on Me
15. Drum Solo
16. Freak Like Me
17. I Get Off
18. I Gave You Everything
Encore
19. Shatter Me (Lindsey Stirling cover) (with Lindsey Stirling)
20. Here’s To Us
21. Everest
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