Styper w/Chris Jericho
Stryper – Live January 15th 2011, Anaheim, CA
House of Blues
This week ends the 2011 version of this year’s annual Winter NAMM show in sunny Southern California, and with the help of Line 6 and the House of Blues in Anaheim, industry insiders and fans alike were treated to a very special ‘Sold Out’ closing ceremony of sorts featuring Orange County’s very own Christian rockers, Stryper!
Line 6 sponsored this very special one off show featuring the boys in yellow and black, no, don’t get your hopes up here it wasn’t a flash back to those infamous yellow and black ‘To Hell with the Devil’ stage costumes you might be thinking, but they were donning some newer yellow and black threads that added to their stage presence this evening.
This was a one off show for the band as they are preparing for a February 15th release of their new album ‘The Covering’. No flashy stage ensembles or props at all this evening, this was a straight ahead rock show, no ballads here all night long!
The show started off with opening act Phillip Sayce who played an amazing opening set full of bluesy and heavy solos. A very powerful three piece! If you’re looking to see a reincarnated white boy version of Jimi Hendrix his show will be right up your alley. Rounding out their set they finished with a rocking rendition of ‘Cinnamon Girl’. Phillip got the crowd going and had them all pumped up just in time for our headliner to hit the stage.
No announcer, no fancy lead in intros and smoke, the guys hit hard right out the door with all guitars blazing with a rocking rendition of ‘Sing Along song’ and the show was not about to let up or get out of the hard rocking tone that was set right from the start of this evening. The band would make a few cool announcements tonight including the fact that their new CD was available for sale in advance tonight and the fact that the band is officially back together! (I think we all knew this already guys, but it was nice to hear officially) Line 6 is set to be the sponsor for the guys going forward for the new tour they will be embarking on this year.
The show would continue with a good combination of old and new, in some what of a chronological order interspersed with two new songs off of ‘The Covering’ complete with a couple of very special guest vocalists along the way for some of these newer ‘Stryperized’ coverings! First we were treated to ‘Breaking the Law’ which the band had been covering occasionally during their past year’s ‘Murder by Pride’ tour.
Up next we were treated to a smoking version of ‘Peace of Mind’ the Boston cover featured on 2009’s ‘Murder by Pride’ complete with the one and only Jeff Scott Soto fronting the vocals, and in top shape he was! Up next the band would jump in to their rendition of ’Black Out’ complete with guest vocals on this one being provided by Fozzy front man Chris Jericho! Again another top notch performance that ended with Chris Jericho professing his love for finally realizing his 16 year old boyhood dream of fronting Stryper!
The band would finish up by playing some more hits forom their catalog and coming back out to encore with ‘Abyss’ starting to paly through the theater and them coming back out to what appeared to be a launch in to the anthem ‘ To Hell with the Devil’ which they quickly halted and paused before bursting in ‘Surrender’ and then doubling back to the anthem and closing out the evening with a blazing rendition of ‘Soldiers’. All in all a great show from start to finish and a great warm up for what’s to come in 2011 for Stryper fans!
SET LIST
Sing-Along Song
Murder By Pride
Loud ‘N Clear
Reach Out
Calling on you
More than a man
Breaking The Law
Peace of Mind
Blackout
Open your eyes
All for one
The way
ENCORE:
Abyss
Surrender
To Hell With The Devil
Soldiers Under Command
Review by: Bill Bafford
