MUSIC

O2 Academy, Bristol (Sun 12 Feb)

It demonstrates considerable confidence to take a band as good as Pennsylvania's Halestorm out as your tour support. Lizzy Hale has an incredibly powerful, Joplin-esque voice emanating from so deep in her bowels that one fears she might, er, follow through at any moment. She's no slouch on the guitar, either. But how she totters around on those most preposterous of stilettos and yet still somehow manages to operate her effects pedals remains a mystery. In one of the most overt displays of sibling rivalry in rock, her talented drummer brother Arejay (Halestorm, geddit? Oh, please yerselves) seems determined not to be upstaged by mini-skirted Lizzy, engaging in an attention-grabbing display of gurning, stick-twirling and general leaping about. Trouble is, he also gets a pace-killing drum solo. They could do with dropping those covers from the set too, though one wonders how many punters recognised Heart's 'Crazy On You' and Skid Row's 'Slave to the Grind'. The good news is that songs from Halestorm's upcoming second album, such as 'American Boys', suggest chart-bothering hard-edged pop-metal potential. If Juliette Lewis's Juliette and the Licks actually sounded as good as they look, instead of being a bit rubbish, they might be something like this. Sad to report, however, that even in 2012 there's still a punter who feels obliged to bellow "Get yer tits out!" at any woman who appears on stage.

Returning after a two-and-a-half year absence to find ‘sold out’ signs at the biggest venue in a city you've never played before is not, one suspects, the fate that would await any manufactured reality TV star. Like labelmates Nickelback, Shinedown managed to "happen without permission", as the saying goes, attracting a large and loyal fan base without being championed by self-appointed trendsetters, getting played on the radio or forming part of any discernible subculture. The only reason why this Florida four-piece haven't attracted the levels of venom lobbed at Chad Kroeger's mob, despite operating in broadly similar musical territory, is that, in this country at least, they've managed to do so without thus far appearing on the mainstream media radar. They've got four albums under their belts, but 'Amaryllis' isn't released until next month, and the only one anyone really knows is 'The Sound of Madness'. So we get most of that tonight. These are big, slick, powerful, muscular, euphoric rock songs, driven by crunching riffage and Brent Smith's lung-bursting vocals, with choruses so huge that they positively defy you not to punch the air and bellow along. But Shinedown are also capable of considerable delicacy, as showcased in an acoustic cover of the classic 'Simple Man' by fellow Jacksonville, Florida residents Lynyrd Skynyrd. Being American, they garnish it all with plenty of cheese, exaggerated humbleness, and not a little posing. Indeed, Smith has his own little illuminated posturing podium, on which you half expect a small helicopter to land at any moment. He's keen on audience participation too, though someone ought to let him know that reserved Brits are not big on high-fiving their neighbours. (Robin Askew)

Copyright Robin Askew 2012