It was hot and humid in Chicago on September 04, 2026. The whole Museum Campus area was busy with two different crowds: One was going to see Kanye West perform his rumored AI-derived new music for the second night at Soldier Field, and the other was a bunch of metal heads and J-rock fanatics heading to Huntington Bank Pavilion to see a triple bill of female-led metal bands.
First up was Violent Vira, who all wore keen matching white cross outfits that reminded me of early goth bands.
They played a solid set of nu-metal with some slight goth touches. Their rhythm guitarist is their secret weapon. He was locked in for the entire set and glued the whole thing together. Ms. Vira has a good voice that is well-suited for angry ballads and growling love songs.
Speaking of vocal chops, Lizzy Hale of Halestorm has enough of them to power a land-mover. Halestorm put on a powerful set of raging metal tracks, most of them about crazy sex, bad love, good love, and weird love. Their wall of Marshall amps was also impressive.
The opening track alone was stunning, with Hale belting out her vocals so loud and proud (with just simple keyboard chords behind her) that I thought they were doing an obscure soul or gospel cover. Ms. Hale could release a soul album if she wished (and I’m surprised she hasn’t). Give her a horn section and a funky rhythm duo and you’d have a winner.
It was good to see a wide age-range of metal fans at this show. I saw plenty of eight-year-olds and a couple six-year-olds as well. An adorable girl was head-banging and dancing near my stepdaughter and I through all three sets while her parents lounged nearby. “That kid rules,” I said. My stepdaughter agreed. The future of metal is assured.
Many of those kids, and plenty of adults, were there for Babymetal – the Japanese metal giants who haven’t been kids for a while now and are still creating a lot of interesting spins on the metal genre.
They came out to a roaring crowd, with their backing band, KAMI, delivering wild thrash metal riffs that were probably causing waves on the nearby boat harbor. “Megitsune” was a big hit only two songs in, and “Song 3” even included a story about the three singers using magic to scare off a giant bear.
A big surprise for me (but probably not for longtime kawaii-metal / “cute metal” fans) was their song “Sunset Kiss,” which, somehow, combines metal with Japanese city pop (a genre of which I am rapidly becoming a fan). The guitar solo in it is also a stunner.
“METALI!!” had the mosh pit and crowd surfers happy, and “RATATATA” was another fan-favorite that had everyone cheering. Of course, “Gimme Chocolate!!” closed the set and is still the best (only?) metal song about how good chocolate is.
They came back with the delightfully named “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!” and “Road of Resistance.” The crowd was still buzzing afterwards, and I saw a good number of kids still bouncing (and one zonked out from so much head-banging) as we left. It was a fun night. Metal crowds are often good crowds with a lot of community in them. This one was no exception.
Keep your mind open.
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