Did Lzzy Hale and Jelly Roll do a duet that I somehow missed? Because holy hell this crowd sucked. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

To close out my 4th show in a week, I made my second trip for the week to the Bridgeport Amphitheater in CT. Apocalyptica opened the show on this fine Sunday night (9/14/25) and it was cool! I’ve known about and listened to these dudes for over 20 years now when friends used to share bootleg CDs of theirs. They were 4 cellists just covering Metallica songs and it was cool. As time progressed, they covered other bands, started doing originals, added guitars, drums, guest singers and more.

Tonight, it was back to their roots with 3 cellists and a drummer with nothing but Metallica covers. To true Metallica style, A prerecorded The Ecstasy of Gold was played before they took the stage and then they opened with Ride the Lightening! Master of Puppets, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Blackened were all played before the chairs came out so they could sit for Nothing Else Matters. It’s really quite impressive to see a crowd rocking out to long-haired dudes with cellos. The guitar-like tones they make with the cellos to fill the guitar solos is awesome as well. Seek and Destroy closed out their set and the crowd was pleased!

Lindsey Stirling was next and I really didn’t know her, but my buddy Del was excited to see her. If you don’t watch YouTube or America’s Got Talent, you may not know who she is. But she is a violinist, dancer, and sometimes singer. She has 2 guitarists (one who also plays keyboard), a drummer, and several backup dancers with her. It’s choreographed very well and it’s quite the production for a violinist. Sometimes the dancing seems a bit unnecessary, but the alternative I guess would be to just watch her stand there. A lot of covers of popular songs are played. Or maybe I should say “re-imaginations” or interpretations of popular songs is a better way to describe it. She’s taking tunes you know and turning them into something new. Lots of small kids were there too and I think, though I can’t be sure, that Lindsey was the draw for them more than Halestorm. It was actually a pretty cool thing to see, but 45 minutes is definitely enough time to soak it in.

Halestorm was next. This was my 3rd time seeing them, but I think my least favorite. I wasn’t a fan of the setlist. They opened with Fallen Star, the first track off their new album. I haven’t fully digested this album yet, but after the first couple of listens, I’m not loving it nearly as much as previous albums. They played two big ones next, I Miss the Misery, and Love Bites (And So Do I). A lot of piano based tracks filled the middle of the set. Still some good ole rock songs, but with softer parts.

The end of the set brought the big energy back with Freak Like Me and I Get Off. They had a drum solo in the set of course, they played their new song Darkness Always Wins which is a great one. Raise Your Horns was worked in there and the main set ended with another new one I Gave You Everything. While I don’t love the song, it ended with a very long jam session where guitarist Joe Hottinger just shredded for several minutes and that was pretty awesome. Lzzy shredded on her guitar too, but he definitely took the lead. Personally thought, I just didn’t feel like the setlist flowed overall. They have so many great songs in their catalog, but leaned very heavily on the new album, only leaving out 2 songs out of 12.

In my previous two experiences, Lzzy Hale’s voice was the prominent star of the show. This time, it felt like it was at the same level as the music and sometimes even drowned out. This sucks because she really sings her ass off and is very impressive.

Before the encore started, the place was getting pretty empty. I saw whole sections that had cleared out and there were many empty seats and even full empty rows all around us.

The encore started with Shatter Me which also features Lindsey Stirling so she joined them on stage. She still danced a little over the top, but it was fun to watch. We made our way out to the parking lot while Here’s To Us was playing and they ended with another new one, Everest.

So back to my intro…the crowd around us was horrible. And perhaps our seats were too. While we were quite close to the stage, we were in the front row of our section which doubled as the main aisle apparently. It seems no one can enjoy a show anymore without 20 trips for beer and concessions. Back and forth all night. Then some douche dressed like a banana (and there were several people dressed as bananas for some reason) decided his seat in the back sucked and he was going to stand in front of us to take pictures and videos. When Del asked him to move and gave him a little nudge, he freaked out and started yelling. Then instead of letting it go, he came back over and got in his face. Words were exchanged and I said “c’mon! Trying to watch the show.” He left but kept coming back…a few times with a cane. So at this point, I’m prepping for him to come back swinging a cane and figuring we’ll have to fight off a drunk old man. Luckily that didn’t happen. Then some lonely, nasty, moron girl behind us thought she should head bang all night (unnecessarily as most songs were not bangers) and whip her nasty hair all over us and everyone around her. A “please stop” turned into swearing and her flipping us off all night (well, really just flipping off Del behind his back – super mature). We all probably have lice now. Between these two yahoos, the many many drunks, the people constantly invading our seats, it was just obnoxious and reminiscent of the crowd at the last Jelly Roll show I went to. Jesse Murph is another artist my daughter likes and when we saw her for a 3rd time (after her duet with Jelly Roll was released) her audience really shifted as well. So I figure maybe thats what happened here. C’mon people, it’s a Sunday night, there’s a ton of kids, drinks aren’t cheap, but let’s have 15 each and act like jerks. I just don’t get it.

I’m sure those in other sections away from the aisles had a different experience, but that was ours and it just wasn’t enjoyable. Also, while I’m all for new music and promoting your album, there were just too many songs off their new album (10 songs or 50% of the set list). Also, for those in attendance that are more of a casual listener of Halestorm, versus a rabid fan, there’s a good chance they never heard 8 to 10 of the songs and that’s kind of a bummer too. Maybe that’s why there were so many empty seats at the end.