Halestorm w/ Tom Keifer at A Taste of MN (Day 3), Waconia, MN (05 July 2014) concert review

Crowd

Taste of Minnesota was a venerable local 4^th of July weekend tradition locally for many years—first held at the Capitol, it then moved to Harriet Island in St. Paul, before an ownership change and rising admission fees scuttled the event after 2010.  Late last year, It was announced that the widow of the original organizer was bringing the Festival back, but when recent rains overflowed the Mississippi and submerged Harriet Island and its stages, prospects again looked bleak.



A last-minute location change was announced, and with less than a week’s notice, the festival moved west, to the Carver County Fairgrounds in Waconia.  The Hard Rock lineup was saved for Day Three, headlined by up-and-comers Halestorm and Cinderella’s Tom Keifer, and from all accounts, was a well-attended success.

The Flamin’ Oh’s Crow

The day began with sets from some longtime national bands with Minnesota roots—The Flamin’ Oh’s (who have been around since the late ‘70s) played the indoor second stage and Crow (who began in 1967) and Gypsy (first formed as The Underbeats in 1962) each played afternoon sets on the main outdoor stage.  Then, the way cleared for the night’s two headliners, who are both coincidentally from Pennsylvania.

Tom Keifer

Tom Keifer is best known as the lead singer and chief songwriter for 80’s blues hard rock band Cinderella, but recently released a solo album, The Way Life Goes (Merovee Records/Warner Music) which had been in-the-making for over ten years.  Keifer looked like he’d aged fairly well and almost evenly split his 73 min. set between solo and Cinderella songs, along with a Beatles cover thrown in for good measure.



Converting the crowd with opener, ‘Night Songs’, the title track from Cinderella’s 1986 debut album, Keifer dressed in mostly black, with styled jeans and the similarly moppish black hair style as he had almost thirty years ago.

Tom Keifer

Solo album songs ‘It’s Not Enough’ and ‘A Different Light’ followed, using the same blues-based hard rock synthesis that Cinderella has become known for, and fit in seamlessly with the older songs with Keifer’s screechy wail still mostly intact, despite his reported continuous vocal cord issues.  “You ready to rock and roll?” Keifer asked the audience, already knowing the answer, before going into three back-to-back Cinderella hits with his crack band, which included Paul Taylor on keyboards, best known from Winger and Alice Cooper’s 80s-era band.



An acoustic mini set half way through included duets with wife, Savannah Snow, on the new ‘Ask Me Yesterday’’ and Cinderella classic power ballad, ‘Don’t Know What You Got’. “Sing this with me, you’ll know this one”, Keifer remarked before going into The Beatles’ ‘With a Little Help from my Friends’, which was more influenced by Joe Cocker’s soulful version than the Fab Four’s original.  Keifer ended with ‘Gypsy Road’, a blues stomper from Cinderella’s sophomore album, Long Cold Winter, with appropriate set closing lyric, “I drive all night just to see the light”.



The pride of Red Lion, PA; hard rock foursome Halestorm (Lzzy Hale – vocals,  lead guitar, keyboard; Arejay Hale – drums; Joe Hottinger – lead guitar; Josh Smith – bass) was feeling a case of studio cabin fever, as they took a break from finishing their third album (due later this year) to hit the road for some shows this summer.



The band wasted little time in entrancing the crowd, as it opened with radio hit, ‘I Miss the Misery’ from previous album, The Strange Case of… (Atlantic Records). Lzzy Hale was adorned in all black- sleeveless top, leather pants and matching eye liner, while younger brother Arjay banged (and climbed) the drums behind her with restless manic energy.



‘Love Bites’ and ‘Freak Like Me’, which both have local radio airplay, personify the band’s songwriting approach- crunchy riffs, soaring choruses, and somewhat seductively affronting lyrics.  Keeping to their bar band roots and as evidenced on their ReAniMate EPs, the group dove into several well-suited cover songs during their 90 min set, starting with Dio’s 1983 song, ‘Straight Through the Heart’ to a classic Fleetwood Mac song, to the mostly obscure 1977 Judas Priest song, ‘Dissident Aggressor’, and a seething Guns ‘n Roses cover of ‘Out Ta Get Me’, which was saved for the encore.

Lzzy Hale

Hale slowed things mid-set with gentle piano ballad, ‘Break In’, which prompted a bevy of lighters and lit cell phones from the crowd, soon followed by sibling Arejay’s drum solo, which featured dropped beats from legendary hard rock songs, along with the younger Hale playing with maybe the largest drum sticks we’ve ever seen.  ‘Mz. Hyde’ and main set closer, ‘I Get Off’ were also well received, with Hale teasing the audience, “I think we can take it a little further… strut your stuff, Minnesota”.

Halestorm Setlist

The three-song encore saved the best for last; starting with the new and yet-to-be-released, ‘Mayhem’ from the upcoming album, followed by the fierce G’n’R cover, then the band brought Tom Keifer back on stage for a special “guest version” of ‘Here’s to Us’, from A Strange Case of…, which had beer glasses held high and swaying, crowd hands in the air, and everyone assembled on stage, clearly having a good time.



Despite its cloudy recent history, the weather setbacks, and a makeshift forced change of venue, A Taste of Minnesota (as it’s now officially called) brought a satisfying musical platter of acts, at least on this night, with the hope the Festival will continue through any unexpected future obstacles and flourish to regain its previous status as a premier event.