House of Lords
The Stafford Palace Theatre
Stafford Springs, Connecticut
September 4, 2015
Photos & Review by Dan Wenc
House of Lords has been around since the later part of the 1980’s rock era. With ten studio albums under their belt, ranging between 1988 through 2015, they are still out there touring and carrying on the tradition of the 80’s era rock we still enjoy. House of Lords played an amazing performance at The Stafford Palace Theater in Stafford Springs, Connecticut September 4th, 2015. It was a homecoming of sorts, as James Christian and his counterparts originate from Connecticut. The Stafford Palace Theater is a really cool place to see a show. A smaller and intimate setting for fans to come out and see their favorite bands. Crossing Rubicon, another locally based Connecticut band was the supporting band for House of Lords. We will have a review and pics of Crossing Rubicon in a future article, as they were quite worthy of it, as they are an up and coming second generation metal band.
House of Lords is lead by James Christian on vocals along with Jimi Bell on guitar, BJ Zampa on drums, and Chris McCarvill on bass. Chris McCarvill was not able to play that night, so filling in on bass was Jay Rigney. As soon as House of Lords took the stage, they lit up the room with high energy, it was as if someone had flipped a switch. The sound at the Palace Theater was great and the band sounded amazing. They opened with “Come To My Kingdom” from the 2008 Come to My Kingdom album. After that it was a sampling of classic House of Lords songs from all the albums.
Set list for the night was:
-Come To My Kingdom
-Rock Bottom
-Go To Hell
-Cartesian Dreams
-Battle
-Call My Bluff
-Love Don’t Lie
-I’m Free
-These Are The Times
-100 Miles
-Can’t Find My Way Home
-Sahara
-I Wanna Be Loved
-Pleasure Palace
-Slip of The Tongue
They played the “Go to Hell”, from the 2015 Indestructible album. It is great to see 80’s era bands still making that good music we all love, and with the same sound of that era. House of Lords did just that with “Go to Hell” and that album.
Jimi Bell was absolutely amazing on the guitar, blown away at his performance all night long. Bell put on a shredding guitar solo towards the end of the night. Simply awesome.
What would be an 80’s era rock show without a stellar drum solo? BJ Zampa took his five piece kit and made it sing, just before “Can’t Find My Way Home”. Zampa put on a melodic drum solo. Totally wasn’t expecting it, but Jimi Bell and BJ Zampa were much more than was expected seeing them live, two great musicians and performers. James Christian’s voice was simply unchanged over the years. He belted out songs like it was 1990 all over again. Christian connected with the crowd of local friend and fans. This band still has it!
The highlight of the evening was hearing the 1990’s rendition (cover) of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home”. James Christian doned his acoustic guitar and began the Steve Winwood classic. Favorite part of that song is when BJ Zampa comes in with the thunderous drums, bringing the whole band together.
House of Lords will continue to play a few shows in the northeast before heading off to Europe for tour dates in September and October of 2015. Hats off to House of Lords, for an amazing performance and continuing to still be out playing live shows and making new music, keeping rock alive. And a big thank you to The Stafford Palace Theater, for continuing to host these types of band and for being very hospitable to us at this show. Very friendly staff and a really cool place to see a show.
Check out the pics from that night’s show below:
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