Sully Erna

Sully Erna presents The Journey to Avalon at The Rave

This was the kind of night that you would call perfect if you live in the Midwest, with the amazing weather after days of rain and an even more amazing night of music. As someone who loves music, there are moments when you know something will be a special night when you hear its tour announcement; this was the case hearing Sully Erna was going to do a solo tour.

Erna is the lead singer of one of the biggest hard rock bands, Godsmack, and just finished up his tour of duty with Godsmack. So, with a few nights off before the official tour, starting on June 1^st, Erna treated Milwaukee to a preview.

When I arrived at The Rave, I noticed not too many people showed up and the show time was pushed up. As I talked with one of the people working there, it was only going to be a few hundred tonight and will be a very intimate night (Now, if you’re a Godsmack fan, and knowing Erna is going to tour solo for a month, where are you?). Walking in the venue room, the stage was set up with many candles placed everywhere, with purple spot lights and several spots filled with instruments spread throughout the stage.

Start time was 8:30pm and like clockwork, the members of Erna’s band came out and played the intro to Avalon as Erna walked out the crowd, which you could tell, was still unsure what to make of this, but those thoughts disappeared right away as Avalon started. Listening to the album, Avalon you would have a hard time saying it fits into this style of music with its world music sounds of Arabic, Latin rhythms, jazz, and, rock.

You cannot be but impressed by the skill level of Erna, as he plays several instruments throughout the show, as well as the all the members of the band. 2^nd vocalist, Lisa Guyer, possesses an amazing voice to counter Erna’s full voice.

Several songs were played with a video interlaced in the background on a cloth background like Sinner Prayers, My Light dedicated to his daughter, and 7 Years.

There were many great moments like Erna playing piano playing Until Then followed by a solo that ended in a twisted way. Along with the powerful Sinner’s Prayer but for me the best part was for an encore Erna gave a gift to the crowd in playing the Godsmack song Serenity.

As the night ended with 2 covers of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain and another sing along like the night before with Godsmack, he asked the crowd to sing as loud as they could to feel the power of music through them as he sang the Beatles classic Hey Jude.

As the song ended he thanked the crowd and walked away into this perfect night.

Do yourself a favor and check out this show, not only as fan Godsmack music but a fan of just amazing music played by amazing musician who are:

Sully Erna-Lead Vocal

Lisa Guyer-Vocals

Tim Theriault-Guitars, Vocals

Chris Decato- Keyboards, Midi, vocals

Chris Lester- Acoustic Guitars, Bass

Irina Chirkova-Cello

Niall Gregory-Drums, Percussion

David Stefanelli-Drums, Percussion