The lineup for this year’s Carnival of Madness tour has been announced, and Evanescence and Chevelle will headline the traveling festival. Rounding out the lineup will be Halestorm, Cavo and New Medicine.

This year’s version of the tour will kick off July 31 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Ill., and is scheduled to run through September 5 with a show in Evansville, Ind. In between, the groups will visit cities including Columbus, Ohio; Atlantic City, N.J.; Charlotte, N.C.; El Paso, Texas; Sioux City, Iowa and Uncasville, Conn.

With Evanescence and Halestorm both having strong female lead singers, the shows are guaranteed to provide a significant amount of girl power. Evanescence singer Amy Lee commented on this as well as her excitement about the upcoming tour.

“We’re really looking forward to the Carnival of Madness tour this summer,” Lee said in a statement. “We love Chevelle and haven’t hit the road together in years, and I’m really stoked to finally be playing some shows with Halestorm. Naturally, I’m a fan of strong women in music and Lzzy’s voice is spectacular.”

Most of the bands on the tour have released new music in the past few months, so fans can get ready to hear brand new tunes mixed in with old favorites. At the end of 2011, Evanescence released a self-titled third album. Since that release, the band has spent much of the intervening time on the road.

Halestorm’s album is even more recent: The Strange Case of… was released just last month. The album is the group’s second, following their self-titled debut which was released in 2009. The band recently wrapped up the Mass Chaos tour, which had them on the road with Godsmack and Staind.

Chevelle’s most recent album, Hats Off to the Bull, also came out at the end of last year. The album is the band’s sixth studio album.

As night firmly settled in on day one of the Beale Street Festival in Memphis the heat didn’t seem to get the memo. Temps were still cresting 80 degrees as Evanescence wrapped their set just after midnight. The warm temperatures certainly didn’t keep the crowd away as they packed in ever tighter to see this new spin on an old band. Its fair to ask if Evanescence is still actually Evanescence at all in the same vein as you’d question if you can still label Guns N’ Roses GNR. Sure the principal lead singers are still the same for each rock group, but all the moving pieces that make a band a band have changed.

In the case of Evanescence, Ben Moody and Amy Lee were a dynamic song writing duo that collaborated for the band’s break through album “Fallen” in 2003. David Hodges was also a key contributor of what became Evanescence in the early days. Their debut album showered the band with Grammy accolades and became one of the best selling albums of the past decade. Moody assembled compadres Will Boyd, John LeCompt and Rocky Gray to help flesh out the band’s dynamic sound.

Hodges departed almost immediately after fame came calling. Moody left the band mid-tour in 2003 and the rest of the cast stuck it out a few more years before becoming casualties of the music machine. Lee plugged onward, keeping the Evanescence moniker intact while reloading the line-up. The first post-Moody album “The Open Door” suffered the dreaded sophomore slump creatively though it did find an audience, selling an impressive six million copies. Their latest 2011 self-titled release seems to have more trouble finding its footing and that sharp decline bleed over into the band’s live show.

Was it a bad show? Certainly not. The Little Rock-based band was proud to be playing in the town they were discovered and the crowd showered them in adulation. Lee talked about how amazing it was that years before she was standing out in the audience at Beale Street dreaming of being on that stage and that dream had been realized. It was a very humble and heart felt thanks to her fans that have supported her throughout the years.

Evanescence was at their strongest when leaning back on tracks from “Fallen.” The band offered up a high-powered punch with “Going Under.” Amy Lee thrashed around the stage, hair flying to the pounding beat. There were plenty of “The Open Door” numbers included and a hefty helping of tracks from their latest self-titled work. The band performed these songs well yet these spots in the set list didn’t have the same umph as the “Fallen” numbers. The audience may have contributed to this feeling as well. They were plugged into the set from start to finish, but you could tell those old mainstays really resonated deeply with them.

In all, it was a good performance by Evanescence. Amy Lee still has the pipes that have become her claim to fame. She has a compelling stage presence that made the band great back in 2003. My only gripe is that maybe she should have wiped the slate clean and toured as Amy Lee and her band or created a new name to define this set of musicians who are clearly not Evanescence. That way the baggage of the ugly breakup and the lofty expectations of what the band was wouldn’t weigh down what could be a promising new chapter in Lee’s musical journey.

We’ll be covering the Beale Street Music Festival all weekend so be sure to check back with us throughout the weekend and Monday for our continued coverage of the event.

This fall, Evanescence, the Grammy award-winning rock group, will be returning to the stage to support their self-titled third album and first release from the band in five years.

Currently, the band consists of Amy Lee (singer/pianist), guitarists Troy McLawhorn and Terry Balsamo, drummer Will Hunt and bassist Tim McCord. Starting on October 10, the band will be kicking off their tour in Oakland, CA. They will wrap up their major market outing of 12 dates in New York City on November 1.

Opening support will be provided by The Pretty Reckless and Rival Sons. Tickets for the theater and club run can be purchased at the band’s website.

On October 8, “Evanescence” will be unveiled by the female-fronted band. The album of 12 tracks was recorded in Nashville alongside producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Foo Fighters). Their last set, “The Open Door,” was released five years ago in 2006. It topped Billboard’s 200 chart in addition to charts in Switzerland, Mexico, Greece, Australia and Germany.

In a recent press release, Lee said, we have gotten more aggressive with the lyrics and music than ever before. We are very excited about releasing the new album. For a real long time we have been working hard on the music. It’s a very amazing feeling to see it come together finally. The album is all about our fans and us. We have combined some new attitude with the best from Ev. We can’t wait to share it.

In discussing their forthcoming studio album, Evanescence claims the followup to “The Open Door,” their 2006 set, had a process that was more collaborative than their previous albums. Currently, the band is in Nashville finishing up the recording. The predicted release date for the untitled album is October 4.

In an interview with Billboard about the album, Amy Lee the lead singer said, after we finished our last tour (in support of “The Open Door), I took off sort of. I wasn’t sure what I would do next. I wasn’t sure if this thing with Evanescence would be happening again or when.

Lee also confessed that she needed a break of about 18 months before she was able to write music again. Lee said, I wound up falling in love again with Evanescence and wanting to work again with the guys. It evolved into a group project. This process has been a collaboration with the entire band.

Normally, it is me along with one main co-writer. Everyone this time was involved from the beginning. The band has more of a live feeling. Everyone’s playing is very strong. It feels like we’ve been performing these songs for a year on tour.

In addition, Lee discussed their first recording sessions (which were scrapped) that the band underwent with Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews), stating that material had felt more like a solo album. Lee said, I realized I was recording a solo album, and if we wanted it to be a Evanescence set, that we needed to make this more like a band and come together.

For me, it was a very hard time. I thought that I did know what I wanted. It didn’t really happen how I wanted things to. I feel very strongly about what we currently are doing. Some of those songs from the session we still have. However we’ve made those songs about the band.