Live Review: Halestorm (Unplugged) - London

Live Review: Halestorm (Unplugged) – Islington Assembly Hall, London

17th June 2026
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin

Coming off the back of an incredible second stage headline slot on the Friday of this years Download Festival, just days prior, tonight Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of Halestorm, bring their unplugged performance to UK soil.

What a venue for this special shiw, Islington Assembly Hall is an absolutely stunning place which lends itself nicely to an unplugged performance. Having seen Halestorm perform several times over their career, in venues ranging from local 1200 capacity clubs to the O2 Arena just a short trip over the river from here, seeing just two mic stands and a piano on stage before they come on seems strange.

It’s a much calmer entrance to the stage than they are known for, tonight just casual wander in to view, in more relaxed, yet still signature, outfits. Joe with his acoustic guitar and Lzzy’s mic waiting for her on its stand.

Opening the first set with ‘Amen’ is a powerful start, a song notoriously heavy will demonstrate perfectly what the fans are in for with this alternative style of performance. Straight away it is extremely clear that Halestorm do not need a stack of amps, effects pedals on mass and pyro to put on an amazing show. Every recognisable song felt like a completely fresh one with the stripped back feel of it , ‘Do Not Disturb’ and ‘I Get Off’ going from their usual had hitting heavy anthems to a much more intimate versions. I suspect Lzzy’s microphone wasn’t really needed and that she could performed tonight with no additional help.

Then we are greeted with songs that are normally on a more sombre wavelength of their albums, ‘Familiar Taste of Poison‘ being a stand out which just seems so much better in this setting, Lzzy’s voice just holding each note perfectly.

With no support act this evening, the performance was split into two separate sets, giving a bit of a rest in between for both band and fans alike.

When Lzzy re-enters the stage it is just her and three beautiful renditions of ‘Dear Daughter’, ‘How Will You Remember Me?’ and ‘Break In’. Normally these are already emotional songs, however, when it’s just Lzzy and her piano it takes that feeling up several notches, the crowd can feel the passion that is put in to the lyrics and the story telling is on another level.

There is a few covers thrown in as well, ‘Gold Dust Woman’ by Fleetwood Mac – a song Halestorm covered for the ‘ReAnimate 2.0’ EP – is delivered as another version with Lzzy’s own personal stamp on it.

Whilst Arejay and Josh are certainly missed on this run of shows it does not take anything away from the experience. The fans in the sold out venue are singing back every single word and with it being unplugged you can expect that the crowd will be a fair bit calmer with their movements.

Even ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’, a song that you would expect the fans to get rowdy to, gets brought down to an almost funky level; the tempo is very similar, but the feel is completely changed with everyone here completely involved with it.

Being called the Living Room Sessions Tour feels very apt, there is banter between songs, with reverences being made to the Ferris Wheel incident at Download, fans shouting out things and both Lzzy and Joe responding, something that doesn’t seem to happen with most bands, even at small shows.

Bring back unplugged tours more often.