Like a Storm tears it up at The Machine shop on Feb. 24th. Lauren Rae/The Pit
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] like to consider myself well on my way to becoming a Machine Shop veteran. I’ve seen many a great show there, with a couple sold out shows catering to a packed house with some great bands. Never in my Shop going life have I ever seen the venue so full there’s barely room to move or the crowd give such a positive, raucous reaction to every single band performing as I did on the 24th.
Tuesday night honestly could have passed for a Saturday, as the Blood for Blood tour rolled through Flint, MI as it criss-crosses its way through the winter wasteland that is the USA at the moment, featuring Hellyeah, Devour the Day and Like a Storm, an alt-metal band from New Zealand hell bent on introducing the world to the term “didge metal”. That will be happening soon as the boys are set to trek across Europe for the first time starting next month. The wee continent is about to go up in flames. It’s been forewarned.
Speaking of which, ’twas a huge day for Like a Storm as their first (but certainly not their last) major label release, Awaken the Fire, had hit the shelves, and it’s currently sittin’ pretty at the 13th spot on Amazon’s Most Popular Rock Album list. So both those boys and the fans were flyin’ high as they took to the stage with a setup that looked like it could have been in the background of a scene in “American Horror Story: Coven”. Candles and ouija boards, oh my! But it was sorely lacking in voodoo dolls. Marie Laveau is not impressed.
Given that there were still two bands to go for the entire night, and they were second on, the boys had to keep their setlist short and sweet. But they know their crowd well and they always deliver. We were given some of the fan favorites and radio hits, such as “Chemical Infatuation”, “Love the Way You Hate Me”, and their cover of “Gangsta’s Paradise”. If you’ve never heard this version, I highly, HIGHLY suggest you zoom on over to Amazon or iTunes and check it out, it puts the original to shame. But don’t think that newer content was skipped over! “Wish You Hell” is in the regular rotation now, and the live version is just as kickass as the album version. And it wouldn’t be an LAS show without their crowd-pumping cover of AC/DC’s “T.N.T.” Though, I think this is the first time that the crowd was too dense for the lead singer to venture into during the song.
I’ve seen Like a Storm live so many times that I’ve actually started to lose track. You’d think one would get bored after a while, but it never happens. The energy these guys exude when on stage is contagious and even if it’s your first time seeing them, or you didn’t even come to the show for them, you can’t help but get into the set. I hope everyone’s prepared for what’s coming; these brothers are about to take the world by…
…well, you get it.
