Flyleaf at the Highline Ballroom

Kristen May crowd surfed while the band pounded the music

Flyleaf is a Texas-based hard rock band, formed in 2002. The band released its eponymous debut album in 2005, and it sold more than one million copies. The band released its second album, Memento Mori, in November 2009 and third album, New Horizons, in October 2012. With the release of the third album, lead singer Lacey Sturm announced her departure and the band announced the new lead singer for the band, Kristen May. The new lineup released an EP, Who We Are, on July 9, featuring May’s vocals for the first time.

Opening for P.O.D. at the Highline Ballroom tonight, this was Flyleaf’s second New York appearance with May this year. The band performed its familiar songs and also introduced the new songs recently recorded with May as vocalist. P.O.D. vocalist Sonny Sandoval joined May and the band for “Something Better,” as he did on the current EP. The musicians played ferociously, jumping off stage monitors and racing across the stage to pump up the audience’s enthusiasm. May belted her vocals with conviction and accuracy, able to hit a high register cleanly as the energy level increased among the band’s musicians. May proved to be a very gifted singer, but she appeared to be the stepmother of the songs that were created with Sturm’s primal growl in mind. The band’s former vocalist was too unique, and the old songs just did not sound the same without her. It will take some time for the band’s new line-up to create new music that is organic to their present instead of their past.