The Mass Chaos tour featuring Godsmack, Staind, Halestorm and Brook Royal rocked the Oncenter in downtown Syracuse Tuesday night. They combined their metal edged indie rock to create a show that was both unique and riveting. Opening the show, the “break-out” band Brookroyal featuring members Jack Weise (on lead vocals), Jason Zykan, Bon Lohman, Adam Stewart and David Brown warmed the crowd up with their massive energy and enthusiasm for their music and talents. They have opened for many prestigious bands including Disturbed, Filter, Evanescence, etc., and show that they themselves have staying power, from powerful guitar solos to Jack’s connection with the crowd, even jumping in with them singing and meeting his fans.
Halestorm took the stage next with a literal storm of enthusiastic fans shouting from the rafters. They obviously have a huge following, as many not only were there to see them, but also were eagerly (and proudly) purchasing their new CDs. Arejay Hale began the revelry jumping on stage with a bandleader’s hat and megaphone and strutting about on stage exciting the crowd for his sister and lead singer Lzzy Hale to make her grand entrance. Joe Hottinger and Josh Smith followed and they broke into the popular Love Bites, hitting their guitar and bass with an almost angry power. Lzzy Hale’s sultry sex appeal (clad in short black leather shorts, lips blood red and hair a golden blonde) led the band from one song to the next, with her stellar guitar skills and expressive vocals like strangely feminine battle axes crushing the lyrics and rallying the troops. From “Freak Like Me” to their big hit “I Get Off”, Lzzy’s gritty depth of emotion backed by the heavy hitting drums and guitars, left the crowd begging for more.
The highly anticipated Staind, took the stage with no mercy. Aaron Lewis, known for his haunting acoustic ballads of love and loss, didn’t start the night off with tenderness, but with the hard hitting heavy metal song “Raw,” reaching into his inner Pantera growl, to bring goosebumps to everyone listening. Accompanied by the hair flying Mike Mushok, bassist Johnny April and drummer Sal Giancarelli, Aaron continued his hard metal sound from the songs “Right Here” and “Eyes Wide Open” to the hard hitting “Now”, leading us down the road to the his newest ballad hit “Country Boy” – which was released as a single independently from Staind’s current album. Lewis’s vocals shine in this song – so different and gentle vs. his other hard hitting tunes. “It’s Been A While”, one of Staind’s other mega hits which consequently hit the Billboard Top 10, still stole the show as one of both Staind’s and Aaron’s most iconic songs. Without a doubt, the crowd was on pins and needles anticipating the performance of this song, and Staind did not displease. The quiet melody silenced the thrashing metalheads, tears streaming down the faces of many, all feeling the meaning of the words, most having experienced it themselves. Staind could easily have closed the show with everyone thoroughly pleased, but instead gave us an additional double encore closing with their newest power ballad “Something to Remind You” and its lyrics “So this is it, I say goodbye, to this chapter of my ever changing life, these mistakes the path is long and I’m sure I’ll answer for them when I’m gone…” describing the journey the band (and Aaron) has made so far.
A 30-minute intermission followed while Godsmack’s crew set up for their sensational stage show. This was required for their infamous double drum set to be strategically set up for the band’s closing song. As AC/DC bellowed from the speakers, the lights started dimming and the crowd started roaring for Godsmack to take the stage. Opening with the head banging “Awake,” Godsmack rocked the audience with Sully Ema’s growling (and somewhat creepy, yet sexy) vocals. He often crept into the shadows, as in the song “STR8,” and let fellow guitarist Tony Rombola and bassist Robbie Merrill take the limelight. Of course you could not ignore the hard hitting Shannon Larkin on drums, especially on the song “Enemy.” Sully himself did an odd solo at the end of “Keep Away,” putting his back to the audience for what he called his “noise” solo, privately creating melodies and rhythms in the shadows of the amplifiers. Of course his true solo, or should I say “duel” solo, was near – only after they sang their huge hit “Voodoo.” Sully and Shannon jumped onto their drum sets which glided forward and rotated for the audience to get a special treat. Drum sticks flying in the air, then falling back to their hands to bang out Godsmack tunes, to AC/DC, to Aerosmith riffs, with the duo taunting the crowd to encourage them for more. And the crowd did just that – loving every minute and begging for the drum sticks that they so happily tossed to them at the end. To top the night off, after the drums returned to their normal positions, Sully and the rest of Godsmack double encored with “Whatever” and then with “Stand Alone” which they certainly did not do. Instead, they pulled fans from the audience to dance and sing with them and to close the night with a phenomenal frenzied bang!
Halestorm set List:
Love Bites
MZ Hyde
Miss the Misery
Freak Like Me
Poison
Rock Show
It’s Not You
I Get Off
Here’s to Us
Staind Set List
Raw
Right Here
Eyes Wide Open
Spleen
Failing
So Far Away
Now
Country Boy(Aaron Lewis solo song)
For You
Paper Wings
Outside
Not Again
It’s Been Awhile
Mudshovel
Something to Remind You
Godsmack Set List:
AC/DC-Orson Wells Intro
Awake
Straight Out of Line
Enemy
Good Day
Oracle
Bitch
Keep Away (noise solo)
Rocky Mountain Way
Love/Hate
Voodoo
Drum Solo
Whatever
Stand Alone
We would like to thank Kymm Britton of 60 Cycle Media for allowing BackstageAxxess to review the show.
