Photos and a review of Evanescence, Halestorm, and The Warning in Ottawa

[Ross MacDonald and Karen Coughtrey were on the case. – AC]

Monday night (October 28, 2024) was Ladies Night in Ottawa at the CTC, as three hard-rocking women fronting three different rock bands put on a stellar (and convincing) showcase of why women belong in rock. Of course, this was the Ottawa stop of the Evanescence and Halestorm tour supported by The Warning.

It’s no secret that concert goers often don’t make an effort to arrive before the opening act takes the stage and it was remarkable that The Warning took the stage with much of the night’s audience already in attendance. Clearly a community in the know, The Warning are a band not to be missed.

The Warning are three sisters, Dany, Paulina and Alejandra, hailing from Monterrey Mexico. Don’t let their ages fool you, despite all being younger than 25 their sound is hardened, mature, and they know how to put on a rock show.

They had the crowd enthralled during their eight song set. They mostly played songs off their new album Keep Me Fed which dropped earlier this year including opening with ‘S!ck’ and also ‘MORE’, ‘Sharks’, Hell You Call A Dream’, and ‘Automatic Sun’. They closed off with ‘Evolve’, after which they received a standing ovation, the audience was clearly impressed with this young band.

Continuing the family theme, siblings Lzzy and Arejay brought their band Halestorm to the stage next. No stranger to touring, the band from Red Lion, Pennsylvania often performs as many as 250 concerts in a year and it shows. They know how to put on a show and Lzzy’s voice needs to be heard to be believed. With a real growl to her voice, she is an incredibly strong presence on the stage yet transformatively gentle when she puts down the guitar to take a seat behind a piano or keyboard.

Formerly known as a Christian rock band , the opening was a nod to those roots and one might have thought they were in for an evangelical concert experience. But the show was instead more focussed on celebrating women. Before performing ‘I get Off’, Lzzy said:
“I need you to realise something. I need you to notice something. This is not a normal rock show. There are a lot of women on this stage. We need to work twice as hard to be noticed, to be seen. It’s happening and this song is for you.”

Lzzy also told the crowd that the other women on this tour are her sisters/her best friends and thanked the crowd for letting her be out there, and then Amy Lee surprised the crowd by joining her on the piano for ‘Break In’. Continuing the sisterly love Lzzy shouted out a group of female fans who have attended hundreds of Halestorm shows world wide and ‘Familiar Taste of Poison’ was dedicated to them.

They opened the show however with ‘I Miss The Misery’ and ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’ and also played their newest single (dropped in June 2024) ‘Can You See Me In The Dark.’ They ended the set with a spectacular performance of ‘Takes My Life’ that had Lzzy on her knees and back followed by drum circle of sorts and then brought the audience back to the church of rock and roll, declaring the crowd “their people” and closing with a rousing performance of ‘The Steeple’.

The crowd was dressed to impress and the arena was packed with people showing off their individual take on gothic fashion leaving no question which band was the main event of the evening and Evanescence did not disappoint. Evanescence even drew fans all the way from Chile to their concert in Ottawa, 9,000 km away.

Amy Lee’s ethereal voice rang clear through the arena long before they took the stage, building anticipation along with the audio of ‘Artifact/The Turn’ and the visuals of smoke, intense lighting effects and a projected fiery stylized e familiar to any fan of the band. They opened with ‘Broken Pieces Shine’ and ‘Made of Stone’.

Creating atmosphere was a notable part of the performance from the bell tolling as intro to ‘The Game is Over’ to the Phantom of the Opera vibe created with smoke effects on ‘Far From Heaven’ to the creepy beautiful tones of the near lullaby sounding ‘End Of The Dream’.

Amy made an effort to connect with the fans in her talk between songs, speaking about the hardships of current life and of wanting to avoid watching the news. She encouraged the fans that had hope to share it, to use their voice to bring people together.

“For these moments where we are in a pure and true place, where we can have our hearts open and feel all our feelings together. Look at all these people in here together in that pure real place.”

Before playing ‘Imaginary’ they showed the crowd a video of clips of the band’s heyday, behind the scenes views into concerts, music videos and more, a way to thank the fans for being there then and for continuing to be here now. Amy would also marvel at the lightning in the venue, just the right amount to allow her to see the faces of the crowd and she thanked the fans for their beautiful smiles and for letting the band into their lives.

The set list included what the band titled The Triple Threat melody which consisted of ‘Lose Control’ from their 2006 album The Open Door, ‘Part of Me’ off the 2021 album The Bitter Truth and ‘Never Go Back’ from the 2017 album Synthesis. They sang more songs off that 2021 album including ‘Blind Belief’ and ‘Better Without You’ but of course the crowd loved the old faves the most and the band gave them ‘Going Under’ early on in the night.

To the surprise of many there was no encore. The band just played straight through to the regular end of concert time and of course they saved the best for last. The crowd showed ecstatic enthusiastic appreciation to be hearing ‘My Immortal’ and ‘Bring Me To Life’ performed live once again.

All in all it was one stellar night of rock, likely one those in attendance won’t soon forget. It was a great night period but one can’t help but to think of how inspiring it must have been for any young girls in attendance. They have a place in rock music and the future of women in rock seems to be in good hands with these three bands at least.

The Warning
Dany Villarreal Vélez – guitars, lead vocals, piano
Paulina Villarreal Vélez – drums, vocals
Alejandra Villarreal Vélez – bass, piano, vocals

Halestorm
Lzzy Hale – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Arejay Hale – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Joe Hottinger – lead guitar, backing vocals
Josh Smith – bass, keyboards, backing vocals

Evanescence
Amy Lee – lead vocals, piano, keyboards
Tim McCord – guitar
Will Hunt – drums
Troy McLawhorn – guitar
Emma Anzai – bass, backing vocals