Not too long ago I wrote about the proliferation of female-fronted indie pop bands here: Female-Fronted Indie Pop Rock & Roll.  It seems that women are also starting dominate heavy metal, but I’ll get back to that.  Let’s start with a concert review.

On July 17th my beautiful wife and I travelled two and a half hours to Baltimore, MD to see Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, The Warning and Lilith Czar – all female-fronted hard-rock bands.  I had grabbed tickets months before because I liked 3 out the 4 bands and had never actually heard The Warning.  And while Halestorm was headlining and we are definitely fans, having seen them at least three other times, it was The Pretty Reckless that we really wanted to see.  They made the best record of 2021 in my opinion, called Death by Rock and Roll.  We have also seen them about four times previously, but not since the release of that amazing record.  Notably, as we drew closer to the date of the show, The Pretty Reckless contracted COVID and had to drop off the bill for five shows, but thankfully they returned on a Friday night just prior to our Sunday night show.

After checking into our hotel and having drinks & dinner, we arrived at the Pier Six Pavilion on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor at about 5:15 p.m.  Gates had opened at 5:00 and Lilith Czar was scheduled for 6:00.  We found my wife a margarita (poured from a tap) and 16-ounce can of Loose Cannon IPA for me.  Total cost: $33.  Ouch.  We found our seats and Lilith Czar came on promptly as scheduled.  Her set was strong and included my favorite song of hers, called “Lola.”  Also included in the set were a cover of Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” and the rocking “100 Little Deaths.”  Missing from the short set was “Bad Love” which she really should have included.  Last word on Lilith Czar—that name is her newest persona.  She has previously made many records with Automatic Loveletter and under her real name—Juliet Simms.

Next up was The Warning.  They are three sisters from Mexico, they told us.  They were an excellent surprise for me.  I had hunted up their newest release and it was growing on me, but they rocked hard and sounded great.  Their song “Money” is a good one and was a highlight, as was their cover of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica.

Next, it was time for the band we came to see.  The Pretty Reckless came out to a roaring crowd, as it was finally getting dark outside, and the venue had filled up.  My anticipation was high.  The band is fronted by Taylor Momsen, a former actress, who has the best female voice in rock, for me at least.  She also happens to be perhaps the most beautiful front woman I’ve ever seen.  A prior scan of setlists revealed that I would not likely hear my favorite song from the Death by Rock and Roll record, called “Witches Burn.” but it ended up being in the set and was a real highlight for me.  In all they played five songs from that record, so we were very happy.  In case anyone is Pretty Reckless fan, here’s the full setlist:

1. Loud Love (Soundgarden cover) 2. Since You’re Gone 3. Only Love Can Save Me Now 4. Death By Rock and Roll 5. And So It Went

6. Make Me Wanna Die 7. Witches Burn 8. Harley Darling 9. Going To Hell 10. Heaven Knows 11. Take Me Down

And here’s a video someone posted from the show that’s pretty great:    

We didn’t have to wait long after the end of that set for the headliners to grace the stage.  Lizzie Hale, who fronts Halestorm, was in fine form.  The newest record from them, called Back from the Dead is a return to form after a disappointing record called Vicious.  Lizzie howled & screamed and sounded amazing, to be honest.  I don’t know how she can do that on a nightly basis.  Their setlist was also very good, and focused on the new record, which was fine. After a pummeling hard-rock start, they rolled out a grand piano for Lizzie to play a solo version of the beautiful new song “Terrible Things.”  At that point - and I hate to put a dent in my rock and roll street cred - but after five plus hours at the venue, we left about three quarters of the way through the set.  Checking the setlist the next day, we probably should have stayed, as we missed some good older songs. Here’s a cool video of the opening song, again taken at the Baltimore show:

Overall, it was well worth the trip and we had a great time.  I’ll just end by saying that this was an excellent bill across the board with four excellent female-fronted hard-rock bands.  They are literally everywhere at this point – Eva Under Fire, Flyleaf, Cilver, Royal Thunder, In This Moment, Evenescance, Diamante just to name a few.