Review: Alter Bridge Makes Its Case

Alter Bridge at Nashville's War Memorial Auditorium. Feb. 8, 2020. This was the opening night of the band's 2020 Walk The Sky tour. Photo by Daniel Ross.

“Why this band isn’t the biggest rock band in the world is beyond me.”

As we ascended the balcony steps at the historic War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday night, my friend, Mike, and I were basking in the aftermath of one of the best live performances I’ve seen in years from a rock band — and, really, of any genre.

But before Saturday night in Music City, there were nearly 16 years of foundation building.

Alter Bridge burst on to the rock scene in 2004. Three pieces of the recently splintered Creed — guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips, and bassist Brian Marshall — with a new lead singer. That’s the tag they were given, but the truth is so much more rich. Sure, their debut album, One Day Remains, had remnants of the Creed sound, and how could it not, honestly, but it also had the powerhouse vocals of one of rock’s best singers, Myles Kennedy, and a more intense sonic nature from previous efforts.

One new studio album every three years or so yielded the dynamic Blackbird in 2007 (with a title track that, if life were fair, would be this generation’s Stairway To Heaven), the brooding and heavier AB III, 2013’s Fortress — a near-masterpiece of heavy rock craftsmanship — and 2016’s The Last Hero. If there were any real misses, it would be in The Last Hero. While a solid effort with more than passable songs, it faced the difficult task of following Fortress, my vote for the best hard rock album of the last decade.

In 2019, the band released its latest effort Walk The Sky. With the addition of a few new John Carpenter-inspired sonic elements, the band finds itself with another LP that rivals AB III and Blackbird for, at the very least, second place in the band’s catalog hall of fame.

As the crowd gathered to support a band launching its 2020 Walk The Sky tour, there was a palpable sense of anticipation in the air. Much like the Supreme Court defining pornography, you may not be able to describe it, but you know it when you see it. And Nashville most definitely had it in spades.

The show sold out earlier in the day and filled the general admission floor, the upper tier, and the balcony at a venue that has hosted presidents, queens and kings of country music on the Grand Ole Opry, and even yours truly (1995 all-state high school choir … fourth chair baritone, my friends). Just a few years ago, the band played the same room to probably half the crowd gathered on Saturday night. The 2016 show was a few days prior to the release of The Last Hero and had the feeling of a one-off show — lights that didn’t seem to match the music in any real way and a plain black backdrop emblazoned with the band’s name. While that stripped-down show was very solid, it in no way compares with Saturday’s show.

After the openers DEEPFALL, of Michigan, and Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery (playing his second solo show ever), One Life, the opening track from Walk The Sky, was piped in through a sound system more than capable of filling the 2,000-plus capacity auditorium. Its fade-out led to the swelling-guitar-laced entrance of the band and a roar from the Nashville crowd I was not expecting. As the band launched into the album's first single Wouldn’t You Rather, the sold-out crowd seemed to lock in with Kennedy’s assertion to “live from the heart," a position it would hold for the remainder of the evening. As Tremonti launched into the first of many, many solos, the crowd roared with appreciation for the guitarist, an response rarely seen in all but the most die-hard fans of any act.

This love for a group that has flown under the mainstream radar for a decade-and-a-half in the United States (Alter Bridge plays arenas in some parts of Europe) was the most fervent I’ve seen in some time. The give and take between band and audience, giving and showing appreciation, passion, and love for the power of music went on for more than an hour-and-a-half on this cold February night.

As I watched the band’s 2018 live audio and video release Live at the Royal Albert Hall (feat. The Parallax Orchestra), I was struck by how this band has become “our band,” by its fans. People who love Alter Bridge really love the band like few others and are typically evangelists to anyone who will listen. Saturday night in Nashville felt like a taste of a European crowd or, at the very least, a gathering 2,000-plus of the like-minded, the passionate, the faithful.

It felt like something was happening here.

Kennedy seemed somewhat taken aback by the response, remarking to the crowd that he had been in a bad mood earlier in the day (as I’m sure many bands must be on the first day of month-long stint away from family and friends at their homes), but the response had lifted his spirits. I’ve been to a lot of shows in my life and I’ve heard this kind of thing before from lead singers in an effort to rile a crowd up, but this, for whatever reason, felt truly genuine. If it wasn’t genuine, then Kennedy fooled even this self-admitted cynic.

On a side note, if there was one drawback to the show, it was the constant stage lighting directly in my face from my position in the front row of the center section of the balcony. While this tour's production was stellar, my particular spot made it tough sometimes. However, as a guy who needs his personal space, this kind of seat is still my favorite to have. Centered on the stage and on the aisle.

A tight 16-song setlist — with cuts from every album except The Last Hero — not only highlighted the band’s songwriting chops (because, seriously, it’s always about the songs first), but also showed how the band’s latest effort fits effortlessly into a set that contains such Alter Bridge standards as Isolation, Come To Life, Ghost Of Days Gone By, Rise Today, and others. The fervency for the Fortress lead-off track Cry Of Achilles was especially pronounced.

While maintaining a 16-year career as a band is no small feat, neither is methodically building a fan base that is committed to the cause in the way Alter Bridge has.

While everything in 2020 seems niche, the monoculture is extinct, and the days of the arena- or stadium-filling rock band aren’t what they once were, Saturday night in Nashville truly felt like something special, like the coalescence of American rock fans finally opening their eyes and ears to what has been in front of us for years.

Alter Bridge should be the biggest band in rock and roll. If you don't believe me, this tour could prove it.