Chart-topping hard rockers Halestorm joined forces with Metalcore force I Prevail for a country-wide, co-headlining summer tour. With support from Fit For A King and Hollywood Undead, this tour is stacked, bringing heavy riffing from town to town.
Halestorm – I Prevail – Hollywood Undead – Fit For A King
Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater, Bridgeport, CT – 23 July 2024
Words And Photography: Shannon Wilk
When this lineup hit Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, they had just reached that point in the tour where the bands had settled into their sets and were used to being back out on the road again without reaching the point of losing steam.
Halestorm
Halestorm take the stage closing out the night on a high note. Lzzy Hale walks up to the mic in a suit and corset, singing a snippet of Raise Your Horns a cappella, as the crowd erupts into cheers.
Her voice soars as the band kicks into I Miss The Misery. Halestorm always provides a new show from tour-to-tour by changing the structures of songs and adding a cappella parts or breaking down parts. For example, the added sections to I Get Off, on this tour.
After kicking off the set like a freight train, with their hard and heavy songs, the group brings it down for slower less aggressive songs like Mine, Familiar Taste Of Poison and Takes My Life.
One of the most exciting points of any Halestorm show is Arejay Hale’s drum solo. But this tour brought a different element. The entire band comes downstage for a synced-up group drum circle.
As I said, Halestorm never keeps their set the same, and this was a killer addition to this tour. I Prevail’s Eric Vanlerberghe joins the band onstage to perform their collaborative single, Can U See Me In The Dark, before Halestorm closes out the set with two high-energy tunes, Black Vultures and The Steeple. 
These four bands have a few more weeks to go on this run, and it’s surely one of the tours you do not want to miss this summer. It is absolute Metal mayhem.
I Prevail
I Prevail were slotted before Halestorm for tonight’s show, taking the stage shortly after 8 PM. Their set begins with a haunting intro monologue along with a video on their big screens around the stage.
Each band member takes the stage and they begin their set with the opening track from their latest album, There’s Fear In Letting Go. If it makes a great album opener, it makes a great set opener, in this case.
The band continued playing the True Power album in order until after the fourth song, Bad Things, when they gave their Metal-as-fuck spin on Taylor Swift’s Blank Space.
Throughout the entirety of their set, the screens onstage provided visuals that really enhanced the show, flashing during breakdowns and syncing with the rhythm.
I Prevail really curated a setlist that ebbs and flows, with heavy, more Metalcore songs and more pop punk style tunes, showcasing the band’s diversity very well.
After the group performed Hurricane, they left the stage, and once again, the haunting voice took over the PA and screens. “This is your funeral, welcome to the end…” it says.
“If you seek forgiveness, you’ll get nothing from me.” I Prevail then returned to the stage for two more hard-hitting tunes to close their set.
Hollywood Undead
Hailing from Los Angeles, CA, Hollywood Undead brought their rap rock style to the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater stage, giving the second high-energy performance of the evening.
The group has interesting elements in their live show. Almost every band member sings lead vocals at points in the set, and many of the members rotate instruments from song to song.
Hollywood Undead’s stage setup is inspired by their 2022 release titled Hotel Kalifornia, with cardboard lit-up palm trees and the album’s title spray-painted on.
It’s clear the group lives for having fun on that stage and not taking things too seriously. The band’s bassist/vocalist, Jorel ‘J-Dog’ Decker, pours beer in their tech’s mouth as he plays the tambourine.
It was evident that the crowd was into Hollywood Undead as they moshed and banged their heads, singing along.
Fit For A King
Four piece Metalcore group, Fit For A King, opened the evening at 6 PM. The band served as an incredible first act, bringing infectious energy paired with heavy tunes.
Guitarist Daniel Gailey and bassist Ryan ‘Tuck’ O’Leary both fly high onstage, doing split jumps and spins on each side. Much of their eight-song set centred around their 2022 full-length release, The Hell We Create, with the remaining songs pulled from various albums and EPs throughout their career.
