Hell or Highwater, a band featuring the drummer of Atreyu now on vocals, were up first. It was a bit weird seeing Brandon rocking a mic and not a drumset but he knew how to get the crowd going; maybe Alex gave him some tips. During one of the songs, Brandon came down in the crowd and walked around a few times, high fiving several fans and taking quick photo ops while singing. The band, in my opinion, is basically Atreyu minus screaming, in my opinion which isn’t a bad thing at all.
In This Moment, a melodic metal band from California took the stage soon after setting up with some bizarre stuff. Vocalist Maria Brink came out in a revealing which seems to be the norm for her stage performances. She opted to use a wireless headset rather than a mic and sat in the middle of the stage on her “throne" of sorts. Corey Taylor came out dressed in a tuxedo with a bunny mask on to help out Maria with one of the songs. This was my first time seeing the band, so I wasn’t too familiar with the band’s material, but it’s easy to see why they’re one of the biggest female-led metal bands.
Stone Sour have been around for a good while. A majority of the crowd was older, middle aged people; some of which included married couples. Of course, there was that one guy who brought his kids and was being overprotective when a mosh pit started around them; I guess that’s what they get for standing right up around the front. The opening riff of “Gone Sovereign" played over the PA shortly before the rest of the band came out and played the rest of the song under the stars before launching right into "Absolute Zero”. Some might argue that Stone Sour’s new material sounds like Slipknot (aside from the fact of them sharing the same vocalist) but the truth is, they’ve always been heavy.
The new song, “Do Me A Favor" from the band’s latest effort, House of Gold & Bones – Part 2 fit in perfect with their set. I only wish they had performed more songs from the album. The highlight of the night for the crowd was when Corey asked them to help sing their next which happned to be “Say You’ll Haunt Me”. Later in the set, Corey came out by himself with an electric played a cover of Alice In Chains’ “Nutshell" before transitioning into "Bother" and my personal favorite, "Through Glass”. Corey mentioned that his comic book, “House of Gold & Bones" has just come out and urged people to go to their local comic shop and pick it up. All in all, it was a great night with each band being a new experience for me; I suggest hitting up this tour if comes near your town!