Black Label Society in Des Moines

Zakk Wylde is the leader of the Black Label Society and he has quite the army of followers. The ValAir Ballroom was rumbling with the strains of 3 heavy bands that worked their way up like a rally from one guy who introduces the next who introduces the main speaker.

Priestess led things off to set the mood. These 4 guys hail from Montreal so they are on quite the trip through free country. They brought their straight ahead metal sound to people awaiting their leader. They were good at starting off the heavy night, but some comments were made about their songwriting. These guys have a good sound, but a way to go. They are worth keeping an eye on.

Black Stone Cherry made a lot of new fans last night. They brought their brand of Kentucky hard rock and had existing fans along with them for the ride. They played their new single and other tunes from their debut CD. Each member brought a ton of energy to the performance. The singer, while usually the eye of the hurricane, got swept up into the energy the audience gave back to them. The two Les Paul guitar attack worked in their favor as the singer took most of the leads, but traded off with the other guitarist. It's good to see long hair coming back around and these guys all created a whirlwind with it while playing. The ending of their set was classic as the two guitar players put their heads together and played the guitars behind their heads. The bass player then stood in front of the drummer with his bass offered up as a sacrifice while the drummer played it with his sticks. The guitarists then went to opposite sides of the stage and knelt to make some noise. They suddenly got up with the last remaining chords of their set and thanked the crowd. Visually, this was brilliant and something I hadn't seen before. Nice guys and they met everyone they could at the merch table after the show.

The crowd had been chanting "Zakk" most of the night. The front of the stage was blocked by a BLS curtain as the crew set up the stage. Zakk and the boys hit the stage with some light sounds until the curtain dropped and the metal began. Zakk had the crowd in the palm of his hand while a pit was formed and the fists were raised. He kept the rhythm going for quite some time with new songs and old. Midway through the set, he sat at a keyboard and played several songs from there. It surprised me that this guitar hero was tickling the ivories like a pro and was willing to bring the beat down for a bit. He still retained the heavy while offering up a tribute to Dimebag while a roadie brought a Dimebag T-shirt out and set it on the far left amp. There were 8 double stacks of Marshalls across his backline and after several songs at the keyboard he turned them back up for a few more stomps in the Wylde. Zakk them went into a long guitar solo that culminated in the National Anthem. This guy almost had smoke coming from his finger tips as he played. Most long guitar solos tend to bore after a short bit for everyone except the hardcore fans. Zakk has such a command that he could have been playing any of his tunes as the crowd was just as much into the solo as his songs.

The Iowa Chapter was out for Zakk last night and it was declared good. Catch these bands and get there for all three!