Story & Photographs by Diane Fleischman

 

Heavy metal fans flocked to The Sands Event Center Tuesday night for a three-act bill.  Opening the evening, “Wild Cherry”, an all female dance group from Atlanta, warmed up the crowd. 

Steel Panther was next to hit the stage, a band that formed over fifteen years ago in Los Angeles, brought the mojo essence of the eighties, complete with their hair styles overly hair sprayed and classic spandex pants.  And while they may best be known for their raunchy machismo humor with their stage antics and performance, their heavy metal music is quite good.  Steel Panther proved to be the perfect opening band to Stone Sour.   Think of them as  a cross between Motley Crue and Spinal Tap, with their libidos cranked up to 11. 

Stone Sour promised the crowd, they were going to play songs they haven’t played in years, from their self titled first album.  The audience screamed with delight, as they played “Get Inside”, “Cold Reader”, and “Take a Number.”  

 But the wide attention of their latest release, ‘Hydrograd’ can’t be overlooked, it is a commercial success.  The first single out of the gate, “Song #3”, continues to rise up the charts.  Their set opened with  “YSIF”, followed by “ Taipei Person/Allah Tea”, lead singer , Corey Taylor covered the full stage and threw water from his water bottle into the crowd. More songs were in store from ‘Hydrograd’,  “Knievel Has Landed”, and “Red Rose Violent Blue (This Song is Dumb & So Am I)”. 

The energy onstage continued to build as Stone Sour added “30/30-150”, “Reborn”, “Say You’ll Haunt Me”, “Hesitate” and their 2006 hit,  “Through Glass”. 

Stone Sour returned for an encore and performed “Gone Sovereign”, “Absolute Zero”(‘House of Gold and Bones, Part 1’),  and “Fabuless” (‘Hydrograd’). 

Stone Sour continues on the road with their ‘Hydrograd’ tour in the States until November.

 

 

 

 

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