Stellar.

The Carnival of Madness ft. Halestorm

With: Shinedown and Black Stone Cherry

Photos and review by Merideth C.

The final stop for the 6th annual Carnival of Madness Tour brought headliner Shinedown with Halestorm, Black Stone Cherry, and Whiskey Myers to DTE Energy Music Theater for a night of in-your-face rock and roll. Early in the evening, Whiskey Myers and Black Stone Cherry got the crowd into the mood for the energy that was to come. Black Stone Cherry came hard with straightforward, crowd pleasing American hard rock. They were followed by Halestorm, a band I hadn’t heard before, but I was quickly pulled in by lead singer Lzzy Hale’s powerful vocals. I wouldn’t hesitate to put her up there with the greatest female rock vocalist like Ann Wilson, Joan Jett, and Stevie Nicks. On top of that, she absolutely shreds on the guitar. The rest of the band is no joke either; talented, tight, and leave it all on the stage.

The main attraction of the night, though, was Shinedown. This isn’t their first Carnival. They’ve headlined twice before, including the first tour in 2010. Shinedown is always a complete crowd pleaser. As the crowd finished singing along to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” in between sets, Shinedown burst into the fast-paced face melter “Adrenaline”. Lead singer Brent Smith is an incredibly lively frontman. He had the crowd on their feet and singing along the whole night. The real highlight of the show for me, if only because of the change of pace from what I had grown accustomed to throughout the night, was in the middle of the set when the bassist Eric Bass took to the keyboard for 3 songs. In between “Call me” and “I’ll follow you”, Bass took to the mic with an incredible cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”. Shinedown ended the night on a huge high note with crowd favorite “Sound of Madness”. There was no encore, but after such a long night of no-holds-barred hard rock, I’m not sure the crowd could have taken any more.

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Set List

Download songs from this set list by clicking the iTunes icon!

  1. Love Bites (So Do I)
  2. Mz. Hyde
  3. Apocalyptic
  4. Amen
  5. I Like It Heavy
  6. I Am the Fire
  7. I Get Off
  8. Scream
  9. Freak Like Me
  10. Mayhem
  11. I Miss the Misery

Find out more about Halestorm

Find out more about The Carnival of Madness Tour