Yeah this is something I thought could be cool to do; after all I am somewhat of an avid gig-goer and like to attend as many as possible and have done so for years now.
So it was last night, Monday the 21st of October and the bill reads like a who’s who of modern radio metal. You have openers Halestorm who have made themselves one heck of a name in such a short amount of time – watch out for them cause they ARE the future stars! Then we go to Shinedown, a band that frankly have become massive since their 2007 release ‘Sound Of Madness’ and for the life of me I have no idea how it happened (I don’t mean that in a bad way), it seemed to happen overnight, and then the big guys, the headliner act tonight was Alter Bridge; a band that I think is best described as this generations Guns N’ Roses – they’re massive and they’re just gonna get bigger!
The cold rainy night outside was illuminated by the green and blue lights of the newly built and newly opened (like literally a week before or something) Scottish Hydro Arena and inside it would hold possibly the most anticipated concert all year for rock and roll fans.
Walking in the arena is awe-inspiring, the hall itself wasn’t too big either, frankly it was smaller than I expected and smaller than a lot of these big arena type venues. It wasn’t long after doors opened that we got our first earful of noise coming from up-and-comers Halestorm. Out stepped this leather and denim clad group of guys you’d expect to see playing these types of show but then out bursts the lead singer, still clad in denim and leather but being female rawker Lizzy Hale.
From the get go all I could think of was bands like Val Halen and Whitesnake, the proper 70s and 80s glam rock – they didn’t have the appearance of it all, but the sound and her voice especially so harkened back to the days of “Jump”. Their set was short enough, they didn’t out-stay their welcome which is something support bands can sometimes do, but Halestorm did what they were supposed to do; they got the crowd ready and warmed up for two bands that are arguably the biggest two bands in modern radio rock/metal. Just to say though, Halestorm will be huge, although still fairly new and fresh they play like a bunch of pros, they don’t shy away on stage and sure as hell don’t fumble their words due to the mass of people watching. They will be the band that takes over the likes of Alter Bridge and Shinedown in 10 or so years.
After a brief, but not too long break to set stuff up the crowd was treated to Shinedown, now I just want to say this is a band I have followed since the very start, the days when they played clubs, hell I remember seeing them announce a show at this small club (King Tuts Wah Wah for those that might know of it) just a few years ago but passing cause I legit didn’t expect anyone to be there. Now 5 years later their here playing this brand new arena, it’s crazy how fast bands can pick up and take off, and like I said above I literally have no idea when or how it happened – it seemed it was with the release of ‘Sound Of Madness’ (a release I was looking forward to so much, I remember gushing over the first reveal of “Crow And The Butterfly”) and just out of nowhere everyone loved them. Sadly with this (and lead man Brent Smiths personal stuff) their music changed from heavy rock to more ballad, almost all softer sounding stuff. They did open with “Devour” though, which tore the building apart, they raced on and broke it DOWN!! Brent’s vocals sounded so raw but so much like they did on record, he had this great presence, again a band that isn’t shy of the sheer mass of people. One thing that did kinda get me and maybe this is just me being an obvious Eighteen Visions nut, but he did look a little too much like an Obsession-era James Hart, decked out in his shirt, waistcoat and suit trousers. But they played a great show, I mean obviously they played a lot of new material which is softer so it wasn’t all to my taste and Brent did like to preach a lot, maybe too much to the point they were starting to outstay their welcome with the crowd, but you couldn’t dis his singing ability (or the instrumentals either), both sounded crisp and so sharp. If they had played maybe some more tracks from ‘Sound Of Madness’ and a few more oldies I would have been much more happier about it, but if you were a fan of them in the current day then I bet you enjoyed the fuck out of it all.
Another standard break, but again nothing that was unbearably too long, and we were then greeted with the ear-piercing voice of Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge frontman). Playing an incredible 18 song set, the band was able to condense their now decade-long career down to a 90 minute show including all their hits, a nice blend of hard and soft and striking a great balance of old and new material. As usual Alter Bridge’s sound was out of this world good, they clearly have a damn talented team behind the scenes cause they are the sharpest sounding band I have ever seen live: it’s almost identical to their CD stuff.
The first half was almost entirely tracks from the new album ‘Fortress’, which is as always an album where Alter Bridge deliver on major riffage, expand on the current genre and all in all just produce a damn great album. These new rippers came across so well with the crowd; everyone was into them as though they had heard them hundreds of times before. The second half saw a more classic Alter Bridge set played, with jams from all 3 previous Alter Bridge albums having equal weight to the set – it always astounds me how Alter Bridge still play songs from their first album, I literally can’t name another band that has the experience of AB that still play songs off of their first album. Classics like “Ties That Bind” and “Open Your Eyes” get the crowd dying for more, and a track that has become somewhat of a staple of an Alter Bridge show “Metalingus” offers the best 4 minutes of the entire night, everyone in the crowd is waiting for it all night and it even sounds like the band itches to play it all night too; when it was played the crowd erupted, hearing Myles screech and saunter around the stage is just an amazing sight.
The night came to a close with an acoustic version of “Watch Over You” performed by both Myles and Lizzy Hale: somehow a moment that could’ve been sappy wasn’t, if anything it seemed to be a perfect start of the end. From here the band dove back into their bag of oldies pulling out 3 more tracks, one from each previous album, sending the crowd home more than happy.
Verdict-wise I’d say that the price I paid for this was well worth it, I mean I kinda wanted more from Shinedown, I didn’t expect to hear “Fly From The Inside” or “I Dare You”, but I just wanted more I guess. In all though I’d say it was a super fun show, and if you ever have a chance to see any of these bands, in particular Alter Bridge, do yourself a favour and go for it – it’ll be the best money you spend in a while.
