Live: Stone Sour in Indianapolis

Ever since releasing the House of Gold and Bones albums in 2012-2013, Stone Sour have been on a completely different level than they were before and their sixth record- Hydrograd has kept the momentum going with massive success. They kicked off the Hydrograd tour cycle off last year too and it’s continued into 2018 with a stop off at Indianapolis’ Egyptian Room with Red Sun Rising and The Dead Deads, who opened the show to a crowd that was already almost at capacity. In Indianapolis, it’s rare to see a show where the venue is almost full early in the evening but on this night, it was the case and rightly so- all three bands on the bill have the ability to steal the show and each one brought their big guns for the show. This was the end of the tour for The Dead Deads and they came ready to blow the crowd away and make sure everyone left talking about them. They played a blistering set that showed massive versatility and everyone was left wondering why The Dead Deads weren’t a household name already. Red Sun Rising came on next and kept things going with a set that showed fans why their debut- Polyester Zeal was such a success but also threw in some new material to get fans ready for what’s on the horizon in their soon-to-be-released sophomore record- and it should be a scorcher. It was pretty clear the Indianapolis faithful knew exactly who Red Sun Rising were as they get involved in almost every song in the setlist. Not long after they finished up, it was time for Stone Sour to take over and, when the lights went down, it was deafening. One thing that stands out is that the band had pyro- indoors- which was completely unexpected for the capacity crowd and added an extra element of “holy shit’ to the crowd- and the game was on. Corey Taylor and company know how to work a crowd and hold it in the palm of their hands and that’s exactly what happened in Indy. Taylor made sure to demand every inch of the fans’ energy and being and he got it tenfold. The band didn’t just play material from the new record or the last few like a many bands tend to do- they played songs from literally every studio album- including “Cold Reader” and “Get Inside” from their first record and “Hesitate” from Audio Secrecy. Absent, however was their massive hit- “Bother”- but they made up for it in more than one way and fans didn’t seen to be too worried about it. Everything from the pyro to Taylor’s giant confetti guns to the giant wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men (or Bayley Buddies for all you WWE fans) at the end of the show, made sure the night was a massive success and the Hydrograd tour should be going strong through the end of 2018. -Reggie Edwards