Hard rockers Alter Bridge have made their way to Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, which is one of the most jaw dropping places you can play in the Emerald City.
Last fall, I was swooning over the Orpheum in Vancouver Canada when I saw the Wardruna show, and I think this place is cut from the same cloth. The Paramount was just close to a sold out crowd (holds about 2800 people).
Alter Bridge is making their 8th appearance here in Seattle, since the Floridian based band formed back in 2004, right before the breakup of the band Creed. I mention Creed because 3 of the 4 band members are from Creed, that being Brian Marshall (Bass), Scott Phillips (Drums) and Mark Tremonti (lead guitar). Myles Kennedy on Vocals who is also part of another band he as with Slash (GN’R) called Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. He is no stranger to Washington State as he grew up in Spokane Washington, and still resides there along with being active with many Charity organizations. Alter Bridge at this point has 8 albums in the discography with the newest coming out in 2022 called Pawns & Kings.
Tonight they are receiving some solid support from a couple of talented bands with Pistols At Dawn and Mammoth WVH.
One thing that made me curious was why the Paramount did not clear out the floor of seats as they have the ability to do this. I also notice that instead of having people in wheel chairs at the back of the facility were mostly at the front too. Alter Bridge are involved with the Wheelchair Foundation (and a few others), so you have to respect this band for getting involved with the community.
They start off the night with “Silver Tongue” off the new album. It’s a pretty thrashy start and boy oh boy, Myles has such a smooth, yet cutting voice. This first rocker got the audience pulled right in and on their feet. I was abit worried as people mostly sat for the first 2 bands which is odd for a rock show. But seats sometimes do that.
Song 3 we hear some clean guitar and with “Ghost of Days Gone By” from 2010’s AB III, we really hear Myles four-octave voice really shine. His singing is absolutely stunning for hard rock, he definitely kills it. Especially, with the swooning Creed-like song “Broken Wings” from the 2004’s One Day Remains album.
Lighting and sound were well done, with lots of meaty bass thumping. Although in the upper deck the sound tends to reverberate and sound boomy.
Mark Tremonti is widely known as riff master in the guitar world but at song 7 with “Burn It Down” we hear the vocal side of him and he is no slouch either! But along with this song you get a ripping solo from Myles too. Brian pounding the bass and Scott crashing the drums does not go unnoticed either, both are great players.
Song 8, with “Watch Over You”, we get an acoustic, calmer part of the show with some sing along with the crowd that knows the lyrics well. Also, they courteously gave a nice birthday sing-along, to one of the band techs during this part of the show.
Song 11 with the epic song “Blackbird” had some really cool solo work from both Kennedy and Tremonti. We saw that with the newer stuff “Pawns & Kings” with solo trade offs.
One song I wished that was on the setlist, “Ties that Bind” from the Blackbird album (2007) . Some nice heavy riffs and guitar work on that one. Next time!
Watching these guys strut back and forth around the stage, I am getting the feeling after all these years, they still like playing together. 19 years, most bands have had many changes and some bands you can see that they don’t like one another, but these guys have been together since inception and even longer with Creed! The chemistry shines through on the music they create as their diehard fans are not disappointed tonight as they ended the 17 song set with the last 2 being “Open Your Eyes” and “Rise Today”
Alter Bridge is a very well rounded band, with premiere experience and highly skilled musicianship, well written songs. The variety from super heavy songs to the other side of the scale with ballads, you definitely get it all that work well produced in a live setting. I think you can bring just about any lover of rock music to this show as the band can appeal to the entire spectrum. I predict soon this band will start playing bigger arena shows, the talent is just overwhelming.
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