Author Topic: The Official Alter Bridge Thread v. PAWNS & KINGS  (Read 256544 times)

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Offline sylvan

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #280 on: November 03, 2010, 01:37:07 PM »
Alter Bridge with Slash doing Rise Today Live!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqynAZ4aic0

Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #281 on: November 03, 2010, 08:30:11 PM »
Eh.

I mean, that's really cool that Slash got on stage for Alter Bridge and not vice versa. But i never like it when Slash played Rise Today during his solo tour. Plus that solo he did at the end was just...bad. Mark slays that solo with his eyes closed. I sure getting a chance to play on stage with Slash was exciting for Mark, though

Offline sylvan

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #282 on: November 04, 2010, 07:12:08 AM »
Eh.

I mean, that's really cool that Slash got on stage for Alter Bridge and not vice versa. But i never like it when Slash played Rise Today during his solo tour. Plus that solo he did at the end was just...bad. Mark slays that solo with his eyes closed. I sure getting a chance to play on stage with Slash was exciting for Mark, though

Yeah, I'm not super impressed by the performance, but whatever.  It was cool, it would have been even cooler in person, and judging by Mark's face during the song, he think's it's pretty damn cool too.

Slash w/ Myles and Ozzy are coming to town, but of course, tickets are damned expensive.  Would be kinda cool to hear Myles in an arena though.

Offline RuRoRul

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #283 on: November 04, 2010, 08:44:20 AM »
It was a cool thing of Slash to do. Also I think it would have been a bit boring if they got Slash up just to do Mark's exact solo - I don't think anyone would expect or want that. It wasn't better than what the real solo is, it was pretty much what you could have expected from Slash though.

Anyway, I feel bad since the American version isn't out yet, but people have been talking about Home and Zero for a few days and I got them today. Anyone else heard them yet?

Only had a couple of listens but I like all the lead guitar on Zero.

Offline sylvan

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #284 on: November 04, 2010, 09:10:16 AM »
I figured since I got the whole album a month early, I can at least wait until the US version comes out to get those tracks.  But, I'm excited to add two new songs.  Next week :metal .

Edit:  Check out the 2010 Tour Rehearsals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi1NgsHXSXM
« Last Edit: November 05, 2010, 02:29:57 PM by sylvan »

Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #285 on: November 05, 2010, 01:27:37 PM »
Here is a great interview from Ultimate-Guitar. Really great questions and answers. I posted half of it.


Quote
Whoever said you could have your cake and eat it too must have been talking about Mark Tremonti. The high-speed player recently returned to Creed for a reunion tour where they played big arenas all over the country. And on the other side of the musical spectrum he has Alter Bridge, the group fronted by Myles Kennedy – the singer Slash has tapped to go out on the road with him – playing in theaters and intimate clubs all over the UK and Europe. He has just completed recording AB III, Alter Bridge’s third album, and has plans to tour with them as well as return to the road with Creed at the beginning of 2011.


So, Tremonti has it all. But it’s not an easy task balancing the two bands and forging a unique identity within each one. He talked about that in this lengthy interview where he revealed what it feels like to win the lottery – twice.

UG: Mark, when we last spoke you had said, “The biggest challenges I’ve had since breaking up the first time,” talking about Creed, “was having Alter Bridge not sound like Creed. Now the challenge is, since we have all this new experience over the last six years were we’ve really come a long way as musicians and songwriters, is to not song like Alter Bridge when Creed got back together.“

Mark Tremonti: Right. When we did the Full Circle record, you know, we kinda dipped into the waters… how can I put this? You know, the new tricks along the way that we had learned over those last six years. We wanted to show that we had growth in Creed, but not necessarily going too much in the direction of the Alter Bridge sound. You know, the Alter Bridge sound is just a little heavier, more complex, and we wanted a little bit of that to come across on the Creed record. I think maybe there’s about three songs off the Creed record that could get somewhat into the Alter Bridge territory. But for the most part with the addition of Myles in Alter Bridge on the guitar, layering, and just the difference in vocals make it just sound so different that I think it’s safer now for us to experiment a little more with Creed without worrying about that as much.

Could we talk more about how the Creed thing came about? One of the things you had said to me was, “We were selling millions of records but it was no fun at all.” I understand things were a little uncomfortable when things broke up, but how did the overture come to sit back down with Scott? Were you basically open to the idea from the start?

Yeah, I think it just was a matter of us taking the time apart and growing up a little bit. Everybody, you know, me and Scott Phillips our drummer, all had kids. I think looking back on all the years, it’s easier to recognize the success you had when you step out of that band and go somewhere else. It’s just that much more difficult. You see how it is, the kind of struggle that most bands have out there, and then you realize just how well you had it and how much of a shame it would be just to throw away being able to tour arenas and amphitheaters and to live that kind of touring lifestyle. You know, it’s fun. Now we have to go out and do that with Creed here in the States for the most part and in Europe go back to the theaters and the big clubs and whatnot with Alter Bridge and really get the best of both worlds.

So what were those first sort of rehearsal sessions like? What did it feel like? Was it like being back with your buddies? Did it take a little bit of getting used to one another again?

When we got back together we really didn’t rehearse for the tour as much as we tried to rush getting a record done. We had talked about just doing a summer tour and then we decided if we’re gonna go for it we might as well do it the right way and get an album out there to support the tour. Just show people that we wanted to stay relevant and not just a band that relies on their legacy, you know, of the past and all the radio tunes that we have. We wanted to have something new out there. So we gave ourselves a real short period of time to get it done since the tour was already scheduled. So essentially we pretty much had three months to write, record and rehearse for a tour, so it was a lot of work. But you know, me, Scott and Brian have been together for so long that it’s easy for us to get into a room and arrange a song. We would do two or three songs a day sometimes and then Scott would go home and work on lyrics. He’d come in the next day and we’d say, “Hey, check out these three songs we got put together.” We’d work like that ‘till we got to the studio, I think, with fifteen or sixteen songs.

A lot of the stuff we were coming up with, me and Scott would sit down and… he writes lyrics like poetry. You know, he’ll break out 40 pages of lyrics and we’d throw them out on the table and me and him would go through them and I’d kinda try and single out which lyrics would fit the melodies right and he would choose his favorite lyrics. We would just kind of put ‘em together the same day as we’d be recording them. So it was different then we’d ever done it but the excitement in the studio, something so new and fresh, kinda comes through on the recording. You know, if we’d had all the time in the world we’d of done it different, but I think for the time that we had it worked out alright.


"We wanted to show that we had growth in Creed, but not necessarily going too much in the direction of the Alter Bridge sound."
So what were those first shows like? Being back out on the road and doing some of the big songs and the new songs? How did that feel?


Well, the first show is always nerve wracking because you haven’t done it in so many years. We really didn’t rehearse but maybe two or three days with all of us. You know, with all the time we were in the studio we didn’t allow ourselves much time to rehearse for the tour. So we had to kind of rely on muscle memory and practicing on our own to really get it. You know, this last tour was plug and play. We’re very well versed with the sets at this point so it was much easier now, much more fun. You can relax and have a good show. But, you know, first couple of weeks of the first tour last year were just making sure the production and the show and your personal performance and everything was right. You had to concentrate more, which is not as fun as letting it flow, but we got there after a few weeks.

So this new tour this year is the 20-10 tour?

Yeah, I think our performances were much better on this tour. Everybody got real comfortable with the set. I think this tour was a lot better than last year’s tour.

I’ve heard talks of South America next year? Would you be up for another Creed tour?

Yeah, we were talking to promoters down in South America and we’re just kind of waiting on the business folks to figure out something that makes sense for us. You know, Myles is gonna be busy next year on and off with Slash, which gives us time to see what falls in the gaps. I’m also gonna work on putting out a solo project myself. So if I don’t have a Creed tour going on and Myles is out with Slash, I’ll be piecing together an album just ‘cause I don’t like sitting idle, you know?

Certainly it’s in the early stages, but can you comment at all about this solo record you might be doing?

Well, I’m a songwriter, and I’ve got a ton of material sitting around and I just wanna get it recorded. I dunno, I’ve got a couple of guys that I’m working with. Eric Friedman and Garrett Whitlock. Eric Friedman on guitar, he plays guitar on the Creed tours with me; pretty much the little brother I never had. I’ve been real close with him for years now. He’s a real talented player. We get together and record all the demos. And Garrett Whitlock used to play in a band called Submersed. He’s a great drummer. And I’ll be singing and playing guitar. So it will be an experiment but we’ll see how it works out.

How would it be positioned in terms of what Creed and Alter Bridge are doing?

We put together about five songs at this point. Mostly melody driven; some heavier stuff. It’s tuned down a little lower ‘cause I’ve got a lower voice. So everything’s down at least a whole step. A lot of stuff’s tuned down to C, so that lends to a nice heavy guitar sound. But we’ll see. It’s not all gonna be heavy. It’s either gonna be heavy or melodic, one of the two. Probably a mixture of both.

When we spoke last you’d mentioned when you came up with the track “Blackbird,” that that sort of became the anchor song for that album. That you were now able to build this record around this song, that it was such a strong song. Can you look at a song off the new record as being that anchor track? Might it be “Isolation,” the first single?

I think “Isolation” is just a fun, heavy rock song. It’s gonna be a fun live song. Just an energetic tune. But I think there’s other songs on the record that are much deeper, you know. My favorite song on the record is “Show Me a Sign.”

Really?

Yeah, that’s the one that gets the most emotion out of me. But on the ballad side of things, and on the emotional side of when you hear a song and it really move you, I think “Wonderful Life” is about as emotional as it gets for Alter Bridge. When we were writing this record I was really pushing in the direction of let’s not chase down radio singles. Let’s keep everything as artistic as possible and not conform in any way, shape or form. Then the last week of pre-production came around and our producer and a couple of the guys in the band and everybody’s talking and we’re like, “We’ve got the heavy stuff, we got the long, epic kind of rock song, all the moody stuff. Let’s try to come up with something a little more light-hearted, a little less heavy, just to make the album dynamic.”

At first I was a little against it but then I’m glad I went with it because a song like “Wonderful Life” came out and now it’s one of my favorite songs on the record.

There are some acoustic guitars in there and certainly the picking thing is really one of the more identifiable elements of your playing. The guitar playing on the record seemed a little more seamless. You talked about not going after the radio single, and your playing reflects that. Was it a conscious thing to bring the playing to a new level?

You know, I’m just always practicing, always playing. Every record that comes out you’ve got a few years in between of growth. I think of this last cycle, it’s just what I’ve learned in the past three years since the last Alter Bridge record. We’d be piecing together a song, and wherever the solo [fit] we would just kinda go into it. It was never a planned thing. We know in Alter Bridge that solos are definitely a part of the sound. If there are no solos on the record it just wouldn’t be Alter Bridge. That’s one thing that kind of separated us at first from the Creed sound. I dunno, I just try to go in different directions with the guitar. I grew up trying to play as fast as I could. I really didn’t have any feel or vibrato, and really any class to my soloing. I’ve always been a melody writer, so I just thought, “Why don’t I really try to get into learn better phrasing and trying to play some more blues and jazz.” Just try and get my feel and phrasing and class up my guitar a bit, that’s all I’ve been working on.

Where do you think that happened? Did it happen with the Creed stuff? With the first AB record? Could you feel the shift away from the kind of shred thing to this more melodic style of playing?

I think in the last four years is when I really stopped trying to, you know, play individual licks as fast and as clean as I could. Now I’m just trying to improvise as much as I can, which makes a huge difference in my playing. I think every guitar player should, you know, if they’re playing for an hour a day, spend half that time improvising. So I think it’s the most important thing for me at this point. I think there’s a lot of learning you have to do before you can just sit down with a guitar and improvise. But I think I was at the level where I had all the road maps on the guitar: I know all my scales; I knew what fit where. And it was a good time to just apply and let it flow. ‘Cause at the end of the day I wanna be able to get called up on the stage by any kind of band or guitar players or whatnot and be able to just improvise my way through it. Before when I was younger there was no way in the world that I could do that [laughs.]

I remember talking to Myles and he’s like, “Man, you spend all this time doing all the painful, horrible stuff that I hate to do and you never have fun with the guitar and just play.” He didn’t realize that the painful stuff that he didn’t like was fun for me. I like setting the metronome and playing the same thing for an hour to make sure it’s perfect. I guess half the guys are like that and half the guys just say, “Screw it. I’m just gonna improvise and see what happens.” Those guys get better feel and better at improvising, and that’s what I’m really going after these days.


You bring up a really great point. I don’t wanna bash anybody out there, but I think most of the bands tend to lean a little more on the shred/solo thing as opposed to integrating the guitar as an orchestral tool and the improvising thing. I don’t hear a lot of it. We don’t have to name names, but do you hear guys kinda going more after sheer technique than style or character?

I think most people my age or younger are mainly relying on technique and stuff that they’ve pre-learned. You know, when we play live I’ll play the solos like they are on the record; maybe little changes here or there to make it flow better. But just in general when I’m playing alone and trying to become a better player that’s when I’ll throw the improvisation in there. I think most bands you hear on the radio, there’s not a whole lot of improvisation going on. I think the best guitar players are the ones that do it. I mean, a guy like Joe Bonamassa, that guy can improvise for days and sound like it’s the best-written solo in the world. That’s how I wanna be. That’s the kind of style I’m after. I’m after the Warren Haynes; I’m after the Audley Freed. I’m after Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, these guys that have an endless bag of tricks.

Interesting, because all these guys you describe aren’t really “rock” guitar players. I mean, Joe is, but he’s really more of a blues guy and Larry’s more of that jazz thing. These kinds of players are where you’re taking your input?

Yeah. Right now as we speak I’m learning “Up the Line” by Robben Ford, which I’ve been able to pull outta there a lot of great ideas. Usually he’s real jazzy but on this tune he’s more, you can use it for rock and roll; he stays mostly pentatonic but he does it in a way I’ve never really seen it before. He comes up with stuff that you’re just like, “Wow, that’s something different. I wanna learn that.” But at the same time I’ll learn a Robben Ford song and I’ll realize if I spend a month mastering this song, I wanna throw a different style in there as well, so I’ll learn a Michael Schenker song. So I’m learning “Rock Bottom” at the same time. Just trying to keep it mixed up. You know, you fall into one guy, one player, one style too much and I think you start losing sight of the big picture.

A song like “Ghost of Days Gone By” almost has that country feel in the verse. And again, the solo was great; very melodic. Was that sorta of the moment?

That song is in open D5 tuning. It lets you come up with crazy, different voicings. You know, you can’t go and play your pentatonic scale on a D5 tuning ‘cause it scrambles it all up. So it’s a great way to create something that sounds very different. I was just experimenting with it and I’ve kinda gotten used to that tuning where I’m comfortable with it now but I can still stumble on to new territory and try to come up with cool new chord voicings and whatnot and I found a nice chord in that solo that I just could arpeggiate in the middle. That’s probably my favorite part of the solo.

What about a song like “Make it Right.” Again, kind of more acoustic stuff with a really great solo over the outro. Sounds like you’re doing some of those Hendrix two-string pulls kinda moving up. Was that just kinda going in there and press record and kinda going for one?

“Make it Right” was from the first round of writing we did. Probably a good four months or so before we got back together to finish writing, and I improvised the solo. We were just putting the song back together for the first time and it kinda just stuck with me. ‘Cause there’s something magical sometimes when you improvise the solo and you’re in the moment, and I just went back and pretty much three quarters of that solo is from that first tape of the improvised solo I did when we first wrote the song. It was one of those things where why fix it if it ain’t broke?

There is a fair amount of acoustics on the record. I mean, you’ve always been kind of an acoustic guy, right?

Well, I do a lot of writing on acoustic. We layered on the songs where it made sense; we would layer some acoustic underneath, you know, when you have a verse that’s arpeggiated or whatnot, we would always put some acoustics underneath it.

We’d talked during our first interview about wanting to integrate Myles more into the process in terms of his guitar playing and his contributions on guitar. Do you think you brought him into the AB thing on this record in the way that you wanted to?

Oh, yeah. Ever since the first record he’s been a hundred percent in on the guitar playing of both the last two records and it makes a huge difference. On this record we didn’t have a whole lotta time to live with the songs and rehearse ‘em a lot. It was pretty much write and go into pre-production. When I was writing my guitar lines for this record I wrote as if I was the only player, like it was a Creed record. Not like it was a Creed record, but I played like I was gonna cover all the guitar parts with my one guitar. Probably make it sound as big and dynamic and full as possible. Then when Miles comes in, he had such a different style than me, that it just maybe gives it almost like a 3D quality to me. It adds a whole other layer and he’s got a really good way of not ever crowding things or making things sound cluttered at all. It always sounds much better when he puts his parts down. Him and Elvis [Baskette; producer] are very good at getting in there and throwing down a 100 different pedals and effects and just coming up with cool sounds. I still don’t know what the hell they did ‘cause I wasn’t in there when they did his guitar parts, but every time I’d hear one I’d love it.

Read the rest here
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/alter_bridge_we_wanted_to_stay_relevant_and_not_rely_on_legacy.html

Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #286 on: November 06, 2010, 10:39:35 PM »
My initial enthousiasm for ABIII has kinda worn off. The production is so agressive it gets tiring after a while. That constant wall of guitars in the choruses sounded awesome on the previous records, but here it sticks out like a sore thumb. Myles' vox are sounding thinner and more raw, don't like the way it is EQ'd at all. ODR and Blackbird sound so heavy yet open, but this mix/master just doesn't do their music justice.

I just listened to Metalingus, Find the Real and Ties That Bind. I don't hear that fun-ness in the new record somehow. It's like ABIII tries to be emotional, epic, heavy, soaring; in almost every song. 
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #287 on: November 07, 2010, 11:56:14 AM »
I haven't listen to album in awhile only because i want it to be somewhat fresh when I get my hardcopy on Tuesday. It's definitely a departure from the previous albums, but it don't think it's a bad thing at all. The music is still fantastic. I don't really mind the production value, as long as the music hits me.

Online Adami

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #288 on: November 07, 2010, 12:04:43 PM »
I haven't listen to album in awhile only because i want it to be somewhat fresh when I get my hardcopy on Tuesday. It's definitely a departure from the previous albums, but it don't think it's a bad thing at all. The music is still fantastic. I don't really mind the production value, as long as the music hits me.

I only heard samples, but it didn't sound like much of a departure to me.
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #289 on: November 07, 2010, 12:42:44 PM »
I haven't listen to album in awhile only because i want it to be somewhat fresh when I get my hardcopy on Tuesday. It's definitely a departure from the previous albums, but it don't think it's a bad thing at all. The music is still fantastic. I don't really mind the production value, as long as the music hits me.

I only heard samples, but it didn't sound like much of a departure to me.

Well that's just samples my amigo. This album is very artistic, and have many dark themes.

Online Adami

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #290 on: November 07, 2010, 12:43:51 PM »
So were the other two.
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Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #291 on: November 07, 2010, 04:11:22 PM »
Seeing the guys live tomorrow in Amsterdam, pretty psyched!

Curious as to how the new tracks will sound live. Hopefully more organic than on the record. What an ugly rythm guitar sound, the riffs are some of the fattest Tremonti has put on tape, but it's just not sounding badass. ABIII literally has nothing, after 20 listens, that I want to come back for. Soundwise and songwriting wise, it sounds like they've gone from multi-facetted, inspiring, positive and SOULFUL rock music, to a one-dimensional, depressive hardrock/metal style. Those choruses are becoming so incredibly annoying after a while. And why does every chorus have to be harmonized? It's just all too much, can't really find myself in this one unfortunately.

Hoping to hear as much epic ODR/Blackbird material as possible, with some of the better material from ABIII - see if it's better live.

'Isolation' definately has the grooviest metal riff of the year. So that's cool I guess!  :biggrin:
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #292 on: November 08, 2010, 10:11:02 AM »
I can't wait! It's hits the stores in the US tomorrow!!! Finally will have it in my grasp, blasting it in my car stereo! Im stoked!!!  :metal :metal :metal

Offline Jakartabassplayer

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #293 on: November 08, 2010, 10:17:55 AM »
Seeing the guys live tomorrow in Amsterdam, pretty psyched!

Curious as to how the new tracks will sound live. Hopefully more organic than on the record. What an ugly rythm guitar sound, the riffs are some of the fattest Tremonti has put on tape, but it's just not sounding badass. ABIII literally has nothing, after 20 listens, that I want to come back for. Soundwise and songwriting wise, it sounds like they've gone from multi-facetted, inspiring, positive and SOULFUL rock music, to a one-dimensional, depressive hardrock/metal style. Those choruses are becoming so incredibly annoying after a while. And why does every chorus have to be harmonized? It's just all too much, can't really find myself in this one unfortunately.

Hoping to hear as much epic ODR/Blackbird material as possible, with some of the better material from ABIII - see if it's better live.

'Isolation' definately has the grooviest metal riff of the year. So that's cool I guess!  :biggrin:
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Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #294 on: November 09, 2010, 09:30:30 AM »
Seeing the guys live tomorrow in Amsterdam, pretty psyched!

Curious as to how the new tracks will sound live. Hopefully more organic than on the record. What an ugly rythm guitar sound, the riffs are some of the fattest Tremonti has put on tape, but it's just not sounding badass. ABIII literally has nothing, after 20 listens, that I want to come back for. Soundwise and songwriting wise, it sounds like they've gone from multi-facetted, inspiring, positive and SOULFUL rock music, to a one-dimensional, depressive hardrock/metal style. Those choruses are becoming so incredibly annoying after a while. And why does every chorus have to be harmonized? It's just all too much, can't really find myself in this one unfortunately.

Hoping to hear as much epic ODR/Blackbird material as possible, with some of the better material from ABIII - see if it's better live.

'Isolation' definately has the grooviest metal riff of the year. So that's cool I guess!  :biggrin:
JEALOUS!!!
was going but couldn't because of school.
If you could buy me a shirt or something Id pay you back and you'd be my hero

Damn, sorry dude. I just got back from Amsterdam (spent the night there), and now I'm reading your request. They did have awesome ABIII shirts, easily some of the coolest bandshirts I've seen.

The show was great obviously, I was particulary pleased with the amount of Blackbird material, which was more than half of that album.

Setlist, somewhat in order:

Slip to the Void (works great as an opener)
Before Tomorrow Comes
Buried Alive
All Hope Is Gone (the best live song from the new record)
Broken Wings (One of the highlights)
Brand New Start
White Knuckles
Ghosts of Days Gone By
Coming Home
Metalingus
Come to Life
Hallelujah
Blackbird
One Day Remains
Watch Over You (acoustic - great)
I Know it Hurts
Coeur D'alene
Ties That Bind
Open Your Eyes
Isolation (This one wasn't that great.. like the studio version though)

Encore:

Rise Today (awesome as an encore, and one of my favorite straight-forward AB songs)

Pro's:

Blackbird, the song. Presented as the centerpiece of their live show, and it's definately their greatest achievement. The solo section was built up very well, just like the studio version.

Good sound

Lots of songs

Awesome vocals

Awesome guitar solos

Great stage presence - enough interaction with the crowd. They definately got this down, and it's 50% of the show. I feel Myles' makes a compromise between his singing and his showmanship. But he's still amazing, and showmanship is very important for these kind of bands.

It's Alter Bridge, ofcourse they're great live!


Cons:

Hallelujah (Everybody has been doing it, and honestly the only really good version I can think of is Buckley's)

Some Blackbird material is still played way too fast, especially Ties That Bind, wtf.

Weird chorus-like effect over Myles' vox during the entire gig. It was especially noticable during the acoustic songs. A similar vocal effect I noticed on Muse's latest tour. Maybe it's to fatten up the vocals so that they don't get buried under the massive wall of guitars?

NO 'FIND THE REAL'!

Minor thing: After a couple of hours, you've had your fair share of loud guitars and epic choruses.


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Offline Jakartabassplayer

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #295 on: November 09, 2010, 10:14:27 AM »
Seeing the guys live tomorrow in Amsterdam, pretty psyched!

Curious as to how the new tracks will sound live. Hopefully more organic than on the record. What an ugly rythm guitar sound, the riffs are some of the fattest Tremonti has put on tape, but it's just not sounding badass. ABIII literally has nothing, after 20 listens, that I want to come back for. Soundwise and songwriting wise, it sounds like they've gone from multi-facetted, inspiring, positive and SOULFUL rock music, to a one-dimensional, depressive hardrock/metal style. Those choruses are becoming so incredibly annoying after a while. And why does every chorus have to be harmonized? It's just all too much, can't really find myself in this one unfortunately.

Hoping to hear as much epic ODR/Blackbird material as possible, with some of the better material from ABIII - see if it's better live.

'Isolation' definately has the grooviest metal riff of the year. So that's cool I guess!  :biggrin:
JEALOUS!!!
was going but couldn't because of school.
If you could buy me a shirt or something Id pay you back and you'd be my hero

Damn, sorry dude. I just got back from Amsterdam (spent the night there), and now I'm reading your request. They did have awesome ABIII shirts, easily some of the coolest bandshirts I've seen.

The show was great obviously, I was particulary pleased with the amount of Blackbird material, which was more than half of that album.

Setlist, somewhat in order:

Slip to the Void (works great as an opener)
Before Tomorrow Comes
Buried Alive
All Hope Is Gone (the best live song from the new record)
Broken Wings (One of the highlights)
Brand New Start
White Knuckles
Ghosts of Days Gone By
Coming Home
Metalingus
Come to Life
Hallelujah
Blackbird
One Day Remains
Watch Over You (acoustic - great)
I Know it Hurts
Coeur D'alene
Ties That Bind
Open Your Eyes
Isolation (This one wasn't that great.. like the studio version though)

Encore:

Rise Today (awesome as an encore, and one of my favorite straight-forward AB songs)

Pro's:

Blackbird, the song. Presented as the centerpiece of their live show, and it's definately their greatest achievement. The solo section was built up very well, just like the studio version.

Good sound

Lots of songs

Awesome vocals

Awesome guitar solos

Great stage presence - enough interaction with the crowd. They definately got this down, and it's 50% of the show. I feel Myles' makes a compromise between his singing and his showmanship. But he's still amazing, and showmanship is very important for these kind of bands.

It's Alter Bridge, ofcourse they're great live!


Cons:

Hallelujah (Everybody has been doing it, and honestly the only really good version I can think of is Buckley's)

Some Blackbird material is still played way too fast, especially Ties That Bind, wtf.

Weird chorus-like effect over Myles' vox during the entire gig. It was especially noticable during the acoustic songs. A similar vocal effect I noticed on Muse's latest tour. Maybe it's to fatten up the vocals so that they don't get buried under the massive wall of guitars?

NO 'FIND THE REAL'!

Minor thing: After a couple of hours, you've had your fair share of loud guitars and epic choruses.



its okay


DAMN!!!!
That sounds epic!!!!!
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Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #296 on: November 09, 2010, 02:01:33 PM »
Yeah, they exceeded my expectations.

Upon us returning from the gig, my mother became curious to actually give them a good listen. I used to play them once in a while, but that was mostly as background music. So I put on 'Blackbird', and she recognised most of the songs; but now she was really listening.

She was floored by 'Brand New Start' and 'Watch Over You', and the title track had her in tears. Happened to me too, the first time I gave it a full-attention listen.

She just came to me, gave me 20 euros and said, 'Order a copy for me, it stays either here in the living room OR in my car. You keep your hands off of it'.  :rollin
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Offline faemir

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #297 on: November 09, 2010, 08:07:43 PM »
If you mean to say that Pain of Salvation's hallelujah it's amazing, then you sir, are wrong.

Offline Basekick

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #298 on: November 10, 2010, 12:06:12 AM »
Uh oh.

I've been trying to round up some people to head to the Alter Bridge show at Gramercy Theatre before pulling the trigger and getting myself a ticket.  Tonight I figured I might as well secure myself one just in case the show sells ou---

God Dammit.
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #299 on: November 10, 2010, 10:47:55 AM »
I think Myles rendition of Hallelujah is just as good as Buckley's. Yeah, a lot of people are covering it, but Myles put a bit of Myles in his cover.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgTBDRCGjKU


You can't tell me this is not a beautiful cover

Offline Jakartabassplayer

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #300 on: November 10, 2010, 11:12:22 AM »
Yeah, they exceeded my expectations.

Upon us returning from the gig, my mother became curious to actually give them a good listen. I used to play them once in a while, but that was mostly as background music. So I put on 'Blackbird', and she recognised most of the songs; but now she was really listening.

She was floored by 'Brand New Start' and 'Watch Over You', and the title track had her in tears. Happened to me too, the first time I gave it a full-attention listen.

She just came to me, gave me 20 euros and said, 'Order a copy for me, it stays either here in the living room OR in my car. You keep your hands off of it'.  :rollin
Epic
 :tup
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Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #301 on: November 10, 2010, 05:58:48 PM »
I think Myles rendition of Hallelujah is just as good as Buckley's. Yeah, a lot of people are covering it, but Myles put a bit of Myles in his cover.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgTBDRCGjKU


You can't tell me this is not a beautiful cover

OK, point taken. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the song, but it works for me in context of JB's 'Grace' album.

But what hurt it the most, was the chorus effect on Myles' voice. Acoustic guitar + CHORUSED voice on 'Hallelujah' = Fail. A song like that is supposed to sound as pure as possible, and a chorus effect just ruins that. Still, cool that he did it. Shouldn't have been moaning about it, the show was awesome.

Regained some apprecation for 'ABIII' after seeing AB live. They somehow managed to keep the same style, but they changed the overall tone of the moods and music. I happen to prefer the first two records, but this is obviously a great record. Had to give it a rest for a while, but yes, it's great. My expectations were too high, anyway.

I've heard 'Slip to the Void' so many times now (since it's the opener), but damn, that track just keeps on growing and growing. It's epic in a really cool way. 'The moment you let love go', there's just something about that. That's the perfect lyric for that melody. Great hook.
Maybe the best song on the record, together with 'Words Darker than their Wings'.
« Last Edit: November 10, 2010, 06:08:47 PM by PixelDream »
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #302 on: November 10, 2010, 10:52:08 PM »
I'm glad AB III is growing on you!

I, for one, am mad that i cannot find a friggin hardcopy of the album. That's right. I still don't have it in my possession at the moment. I went to a Target and two different Wal-Marts. They have Soundgardens new album on display, but not Alter Bridges. If Best Buy doesn't have it when i go tomorrow, I will combust, and all of Orlando will become a barren wasteland.... expect for Disney World... cuz it's magical

Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #303 on: November 11, 2010, 05:37:38 AM »
I'm glad AB III is growing on you!

I, for one, am mad that i cannot find a friggin hardcopy of the album. That's right. I still don't have it in my possession at the moment. I went to a Target and two different Wal-Marts. They have Soundgardens new album on display, but not Alter Bridges. If Best Buy doesn't have it when i go tomorrow, I will combust, and all of Orlando will become a barren wasteland.... expect for Disney World... cuz it's magical

Dude, that's ridiculous they don't carry it. In Holland it's all over the place, it's everywhere on the 'new releases' shelves. (the album entered at #7 in the album chart if I'm not mistaken). All Roadrunner releases are distributed very well here, but maybe Roadrunner being essentially a Dutch company has something to do with it.

Can't you just order it online?
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #304 on: November 12, 2010, 02:21:09 PM »
Yeah, I could, and I should've, but the places I usually go and get my CDs have always been reliable. However, I went to Best Buy to get the CD, and they had it! They were in the New Release sections, and they were the only ones in the sections that didn't have many left. Which is good.

AB III is doing very well. Better than I expected. On iTunes, it was the #2 album overall, #1 on the rock charts. I don't think Blackbird even cracked the top ten on the overall albums chart.

Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #305 on: November 13, 2010, 04:49:17 AM »
Album just kept growing on me. I can't say I like it better than Blackbird, but as a whole, it beats One Day Remains.

My favorite two songs are now 'Slip to the Void' and 'Words Darker Than Their Wings'. These are both in my top 10 AB songs.

Forgot about 'Show me a Sign'. That song is monumental as well. These three songs together are as epic as 'Blackbird', but spread throughout the album.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2010, 05:10:51 AM by PixelDream »
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #306 on: November 13, 2010, 05:19:39 AM »
I'm really loving Make It Right at the moment. This is such a sweeping song!

Offline RuRoRul

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #307 on: November 13, 2010, 06:00:32 AM »
Quote
Album just kept growing on me. I can't say I like it better than Blackbird, but as a whole, it beats One Day Remains.

My favorite two songs are now 'Slip to the Void' and 'Words Darker Than Their Wings'. These are both in my top 10 AB songs.

Forgot about 'Show me a Sign'. That song is monumental as well. These three songs together are as epic as 'Blackbird', but spread throughout the album.

Exactly agree with this. Well, there are a few other songs I like about as much as Words like I Know It Hurts and Fallout. And I'll have to see if it ages as well as ODR.

I've went through loads of phases with Make It Right - first listen, sounded really good, until it got to the chorus which I don't like. Then after a bit I regarded it as the worst or second worst on the album because of that chorus. Then I came to really appreciate the verses and bridge like I did at first, and was often listening to the song. But at the same time, it's difficult to really think a song is that great if the chorus of it isn't so good, especially in such a standard structured song where the chorus is in it 3 times during 4 minutes or so.

Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #308 on: November 13, 2010, 07:14:46 AM »
Hmm. Interesting. One of the reasons i love Make It Right is because of the chorus. I just love how the elements work. The guitar and the harmony just connect. I really love how the guitars pic up on the second verse. That's probably my favorite part in the song. Also the solo at the end is just  :metal

All Hope Is Gone is probably my favorite on the album at the moment.

Offline RuRoRul

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #309 on: November 13, 2010, 07:31:39 AM »
Quote
I really love how the guitars pic up on the second verse. That's probably my favorite part in the song.

Same here.

And I might be kind of exaggerating how little I like the chorus. I mean, I can listen to the song fine and it sounds good, it just doesn't stand out to me at all and something about the "make it right" bit just doesn't sound as good as other choruses. Just not a chorus that stands up to the quality of the rest of the song in my opinion.

Offline pogoowner

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #310 on: November 13, 2010, 11:34:54 AM »
Just ordered the new album because I realized Amazon is selling it for $7.99, and I get free shipping. Currently listening on Grooveshark, and it sounds pretty solid.

Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #311 on: November 13, 2010, 05:13:20 PM »
Yeah i got mine at Best Buy for 7.99. Sweet deal bro. It's cheaper than downloading the music files off of iTunes haha

Offline PixelDream

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #312 on: November 15, 2010, 06:51:10 PM »
'Make it Right' sure isn't one of my favorites, even though the song is mostly comprised out of classic AB. The chorus just isn't as strong as it's supposed to be, indeed. The ending is very sweet though. 'Breathe Again' kinda falls into the same category. They're on the more happy side of the band, and I feel that they've done these type of songs way better in the past. It's the darker stuff that's great on this album, and for that I love it.

And the intro of 'Isolation' just doesn't seem to get old with me. 'BANG!' - *Most groovy metal riff I've heard in a long time*
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Offline Samsara

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #313 on: November 16, 2010, 10:52:43 AM »
Forget if I posted the link to my review of the album for The Breakdown Room. Here it is:

Thematic Approach a Winner for Alter Bridge on AB III -  https://www.breakdownroom.net/alterbridge-ab3.html


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Offline Accelerando

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Re: The Official Alter Bridge Thread
« Reply #314 on: November 16, 2010, 12:28:26 PM »
Awesome review man  :metal