Hell or Highwater

First Niagara Pavilion

Burgettstown, PA

September 17th, 2011

              What happens when a drummer steps out from behind the kit, writes some songs and adds some other accomplished musicians to round out the line-up? No not the Foo Fighters, but good guess. I’m talking about Hell or Highwater. Haven’t’ heard of them? Well you should go check them out. They just recently released their debut album and is currently a part of the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival. We headed across the state lines to catch them over in PA and see what they were about. After hearing the set and grabbing a few pics from the camera bay, we chatted with Brandon from the band, but that’s for another page. The set is the main attraction right now. When they first came out the crowd was just in a blah mood after hearing a local band (which was fairly good), but it was just too early for them to rock I guess. As the first track started, people were still filtering in with huge voids in front of the stage. The guys began to get the crowd involved as they made them fill in the gabs and move in closer. That’s when the show started, as well as the entire festival. Brandon on the vocals demanded your attention while the other guys provided a killer beat with lines and riffs fluttering around. They marched around the stage with a great stage presents. They got the crowd into something they might not have heard before as they are a new band with a debut just released. The mix of the tracks is great. They have a couple pace changers that let you get your wind back before hitting you again with a hard one-two. Everything seemed to be spot on for this set. They sounded crisp with nothing turned up too high. Nothing squeaked or wined. Overall it was a very good set and I can only imagine what they could do with more time on stage as well as more tracks in their pockets. I would definitely go see them again.   

Rating: 8/10

Best Part: Stage Presents

Worst: Needed more time on stage

Website(s): www.hellorhighwaterofficial.com