Just saw Russkaja and Alter Bridge yesterday and the day before respectively.
Alter Bridge was awesome. I went with people I didn't really know that well so I guess it would've been even better if I went with more familiar people, but it didn't keep us from singing along with Blackbird at the top or our lungs together.
The biggest surprise for me was them playing Slip to the Void, from what they said beforehand I understand that they hadn't played that song in a long time and it's one of my personal favorites. Mark Tremonti has this incomparable badass live attitude that I kind of caught with youtube videos, but it's even better live.
Some comments about the setlist: My Champion and Poison in your Veins were total buzzkills for me, and according to the audience I wasn't alone in that. I don't know, these songs just don't grab me at all. The rest of the new songs they played were totally killer though, bar You Will Be Remembered which was just great.
Russkaja, wow. Never been to anything close to a ska concert but this was one of the most events I've ever attended. Comparing to Alter Bridge which was just beautiful music by a band I really like, singing along and headbanging occasionally, this was just complete insanity. Went with a group of 20 people and as soon as we entered there was just this crazy happy vibe, the venue is rather small and the show wasn't even sold out, so we had some space to create a huge circle and during the intermission everyone was just happily dancing around in the circle and stuff. It was probably the most tiring concert I've ever been to as, from the second they came up, everyone was jumping around the entire time and crowdsurfing continuously. It's just so different than your average concert. There are moshpits and circle pits - kind of - but they are so much happier and no one is doing each other any harm. I kept thinking wow, this is the best crowd ever, but come to think of it, all concerts of this kind probably have crowds like this. I will definitely be going to more shows like this, what an awesome experience.
Oh and I caught the towel of their singer, I'm not sure if I should be prowd of that or disgusted by it, but hey I'll take it
I guess these concerts are not comparable, they're so different. Alter Bridge was great in a more emotional/magical sense, I got to see one of my all-time favorite songs live and I'm still perplexed. And Russkaja was just the most fun I've ever had at a live show, floored. My next concert is Alcest on the 20th, after that I don't have anything planned for a long time.