It was a very cold Saturday in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC but the Fillmore Silver Spring was cozy with the heat of a completely sold-out house for Alter Bridge’s date on the Pawns & Kings tour. Mammoth WVH continues along for the party, and for the first half of the US tour, Nashville’s Red has the opening slot.
As a known Alter Bridge fan, I was grateful and excited to cover them again, and looking forward to finally seeing a DC area show—they hadn’t played the Fillmore since February 2017. The last time I covered the band was in Oslo, Norway last November. Saturday, instead of a trans-Atlantic flight, I just took the S9 Metrobus up 16th Street to get to the show.
Frigid temperatures notwithstanding, the conditions were perfect for a great show—the devoted Alter Bridge fanbase filled the venue to the literal rafters and familiar and friendly photographers greeted me when I arrived at the entrance to the photo pit. My favorite Fillmore security guy was working that night too—we were looked after well.
At 7:30 sharp, the lights dimmed, and Red took the stage. On the Christian rock scene since 2002, Grammy-nominated Red (Michael Barnes, brothers Anthony Armstrong and Randy Armstrong, and Brian Medeiros) was unfamiliar to me prior to Saturday night. The high-kicking front man Barnes must have sensed that they were new to many people in the audience and asked the crowd who was seeing Red for the first time. Many hands, including my own, shot up. Nonetheless, the compact, just-under-25-minute set was an impressive introduction to the band’s body of hard rock (Red’s next album, Rated R, is set for release this spring), getting the energies of even wary agnostics like me amped for the rest of the show.
After seeing Mammoth WVH in Oslo, I looked forward to covering the Wolfgang Van Halen- fronted outfit again Saturday night. As others have mentioned elsewhere, Mammoth WVH had an undeniably good year in 2022. Debut single “Distance” received a Grammy nomination in the category of “Best Rock Song.” Mammoth WVH (Van Halen, along with touring band Frank Sidoris, Jon Jourdan, Ronnie Ficarro, and Garrett Whitlock) engaged in heavy touring to support the eponymous album Mammoth WVH, ending the year on Alter Bridge’s Pawns & Kings tour in Europe.
Much has already been said about how Van Halen played all instruments on the debut album, which clocks in at just under an hour. But what’s also impressive to me about seeing Mammoth WVH live is that, aside from the name and the EVH equipment, I detected no trace of the Van Halen the band in sound or performance among the eight song setlist. Wolfgang Van Halen approaches hard rock on his own terms; we’ll all be watching to see how he evolves.
Finally, Alter Bridge (the golden throated Myles Kennedy, guitar god Mark Tremonti, and the beastly rhythm section of Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips). As I mentioned in my coverage last November, Pawns & Kings is Alter Bridge’s seventh studio album, released just in October 2022. Met with rave reviews, the album was still newly hatched when the band toured Europe. Pawns & Kings has settled into my daily rotation and, along with Rammstein’s Zeit, a favorite album release of 2022.
Now, in early 2023, fans have had a few months to chew on the album, allowing the enthusiasm for it to grow. That enthusiasm is what I saw Saturday night. The moment Alter Bridge broke into “Silver Tongue,” it was off to the races, with the crowd (the very young and young at heart alike) headbanging, crowd surfing, and singing along ALL NIGHT. After nearly 20 years, it must be a challenge to finalize a set list for an Alter Bridge tour, and the band has mixed it up a bit since the European leg.
Earlier that afternoon, I attended Alter Bridge’s meet and greet; part of the experience is observing three songs during the sound check. One of those songs we got to hear was my personal favorite from Pawns & Kings, “Dead Among the Living.” I was so happy because that tune had not yet been performed live anywhere—I had even been keeping up with the setlists from night to night, hoping they’d start playing it. Would it be included in the setlist Saturday night? Getting to hear one of my favorite songs played live for the first time seemed too good to be true but sure enough, Alter Bridge inserted “Dead Among the Living“ in the clean-up spot, blasting the song’s thrashy nastiness at us right after the photographers left the pit.
Thank you so much. We loved it.
About halfway through the set, my friendly acquaintance on the security staff, someone who wasn’t previously familiar with Alter Bridge, turned to me and said of Myles Kennedy, “His voice. It’s one of those voices like Steve Perry. It’s that good.” I knew he meant it as a high compliment, and so I nodded and simply replied, “Myles is the best there is.”
When Alter Bridge puts on an amazing show, it isn’t even news, it’s the norm. Saturday was no different—the whole package was amazing. Another special treat came during the two-song encore. Stevensville, Maryland is a wee town on the Chesapeake Bay and is well-known as the eastern terminus of the terrifying Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It’s also home to Paul Reed Smith guitars, the maker of the Mark Tremonti signature model. Paul Reed Smith himself attended the show at the Fillmore, peeking out from time to time to watch the goings on and wave to folks who recognized him. He joined the band for the final song of the night, “Rise Today,” and played guitar alongside Mark and Myles. It was terrific. Tip o’ the hat to the fan who uploaded the video to YouTube.
What a great night. Let’s do that again.
The Pawns & Kings U.S. tour wraps up April 1st in Highland, CA. After appearing at Welcome to Rockville in May, Alter Bridge starts making the rounds of the European summer festivals. If you want to see the tour stateside this winter (I’d like to catch another show or two), good luck and act fast—many dates are sold out or close to it as of this writing.
ALTER BRIDGE
MAMMOTH WVH
RED
Alter Bridge Setlist
1. Silver Tongue
2. Addicted to Pain
3. Ghost of Days Gone By
4. Dead Among the Living
5. Before Tomorrow Comes
6. Holiday
7. Burn it Down
8. Cry of Achilles
9. Watch Over You
10. In Loving Memory
11. Blackbird
12. Pawns & Kings
13. Isolation
14. Metalingus
Encore
15. Broken Wings
16. Rise Today
Mammoth WVH Setlist
1. Mammoth
2. Mr. Ed
3. Epiphany
4. Stone
5. Think it Over
6. Distance
7. You’re to Blame
8. Don’t Back Down
Red Setlist
1. Death of Me
2. Faceless
3. Let it Burn
4. Already Over
5. Feed the Machine
6. Breathe into Me
