It was a chilly Valentine’s Day evening in Belvidere, Illinois as Alter Bridge’s Walk the Sky 2020 tour came through. Both couples and groups of singles made it their destination for the holiday evening, as the balcony was completely sold out, and with very little room to spare in the standing room only general admission section.
Rock group Deepfall opened up the evening’s festivities. They had passed through the Apollo Theatre AC just months before, as the opening act on Hellyeah’s latest tour. They played a similar group of songs, with their cover of Journey’s “Separate Ways” being the crowd attention grabber of the set.
Up next was Clint Lowery, who, known primarily as the guitarist of metal band Sevendust, has been involved with numerous other side projects where he has acted as a guitarist, and vocalist in some cases. His newest self-titled project features him as both lead vocalist and guitarist, with the debut album “God Bless the Renegades” releasing a mere two weeks before this show. His set consisted of eight of the ten tracks off of the album, and really showed off his abilities as not only a guitarist, but on lead vocals. The set was a nice balance of heavy and melodic, and it was successful in getting the crowd into the performance, despite perhaps not being familiar with the brand new content.
Alter Bridge hit the stage next, immediately kicking things off with “Wouldn’t You Rather,” from 2019’s Walk the Sky album. They then went into their hit track “Isolation” off of AB III. It’s amazing how their sound remained so similar to the studio albums, especially Myles Kennedy’s soaring vocals. Kennedy also provided guitar duties, alongside Mark Tremonti, who was recently named the greatest guitarist of the last decade by Guitar World magazine. Tremonti’s crushing riffs and solos were sick to witness, especially so close, but my favorite part was how much fun he looked to be having. After playing another hit track off of AB III, “Ghost of Days Gone By,” which really got the crowd singing along, Tremonti took over vocal duties for “Burn it Down.”
One problem I had, and noticed that others had as well, was the overbearing lighting setup. With a large array of backlights, there were so many instances of lights flashing across the crowd, and blasting the eyes of random people, as well as the large back panel flashing on and off. I had to avert my gaze many times, and felt I spent more time listening to the set than watching. Later in the set, Kennedy and Tremonti sat down together and played a full acoustic version of “In Loving Memory,” followed by the band coming back together for “Blackbird,” as well as going back all the way to their debut album for “Open Your Eyes” and “Metalingus,” followed by encore performances of “Godspeed” and “Addicted to Pain.”
Setlist:
Wouldn’t You Rather
Isolation
Come to Life
Pay No Mind
Ghost of Days Gone By
Burn it Down (Tremonti)
My Champion
Rise Today
Cry of Achilles
Waters Rising
In Loving Memory (Acoustic)
Blackbird
Open Your Eyes
Metalingus
Godspeed
Addicted to Pain
Fans can check out the remaining “Walk The Sky” tour dates featuring Alter Bridge with special guests Clint Lowery and Deepfall at the following locations:
Thu. 2/20- House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada
Fri. 2/21- MontBleu Resort, Casino & Spa in Stateline, Nevada
Sun. 2/23- Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California
Mon. 2/24- The Wiltern in Los Angeles, California
Wed. 2/26- Moore Theatre in Seattle, Washington
Thu. 2/27- Knitting Factory in Spokane, Washington
For tickets and further information on any of the gigs listed above, click here.
Fans can find Alter Bridge at the following locations:
www.instagram.com/OfficialAlterBridge
