Alter Bridge Tour Report 06/19/05

[Trimontana]

Posted By Michael Today at ABB.NET
Ok, let's see, so much has happened. I think last time we spoke was right before the Paris show.

The band had a lot of fun at the Paris show. Actually, it was not in Paris proper but out in the suburbs somewhere near a college campus. It was a much smaller show than Glasgow with only a couple hundred people in attendence. The promoter also told us that it was exam week at the college so it would be hard for people to attend. Tori Amos was playing across the street and I was told she was having the same problem.

Anyway, it didn't really matter. Those couple hundred fans screamed and sang along like they were a crowd of a thousand. The guys gave it their all and came off the stage extremely happy. One of the things that I love about AB is that they never do a lay-up. No matter how big or small the show is, you can always count on them giving 110%. After the show we all got to hang with the fans outside for a while. Myles and Mark were treated to a stirring rendition of Open Your Eyes by two gentlemen who pulled an acoustic guitar out of their car. Pretty cool.

Next was the show in Munich, Germany, where we opened for Three Doors Down. Hanging with the 3DD guys is like a big family runion. For those who do not know, 3DD opened for Creed back in the day quite a bit and, through that, they all became good friends. AB sold out a Munich show a few months back and Brad was telling us the crowd always goes crazy for 3DD in Munich, so everyone knew they were in for a good show.

An interesting story... I talked to a journalist outside the venue who was kind enough to give us a huge stack of magazines. It was every single magazine that AB had ever been in in Europe. We can not read any of them because they are all in various different languages but they are cool keepsakes nonetheless. Even cooler was the fact that he told us that he was covering a festival in Switzerland the night before where Iron Maiden headlined. He was telling the Iron Maiden guys that he was going to see AB the next night and he said they got really interested and started asking him if he had seen them live before and if so, how good were they? He told the band that he had seen AB twice in Europe before and that, in his opinion, AB is one of the best live bands currently on tour. He then said that Bruce Dickinson said that he loved AB and couldn't put the cd down. You should have seen the smiles on AB's faces when I told them that. Brian is a huge, huge, Iron Maiden fan and also remember that the first concert I ever took Mark to was Iron Maiden.

The show itself was incredible. AB tore the roof off the place as did 3DD. Definitely the best crowd reaction thus far even beating the Download Festival, which was insane in its own right. Myles and Mark also went up and played during 3DD's set which generated thunderous applause. It was a song off their new album called Live For Today. Myles sang the choruses and Mark shredded on guitar. It was awesome. Afterwards, we had a big 3DD/AB party and then headed to Berlin.

I did not do much on our day off in Berlin, as I was exhausted but i know Brian went and got a piece of the Berlin Wall and did some sightseeing. There were also quite a few stars at our hotel including Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The world premiere of Batman Begins was across the street that evening. Turns out the happy couple got engaged the next night in Paris. Crazy. Also ran into Christian Bale outside of the hotel. Nice guy and a hell of an actor. NIN was also staying at the hotel and they invited us to their concert that evening. Myles and Flip attended with a couple of our crew and said they had a great time and that NIN puts on a hell of a live show. "A very angry show" as Myles so aptly put it. Mark sat in his hotel room and wrote new songs and played guitar all night. Does he ever do anything else? Haha.

The next day was show day in Berlin, again opening for 3DD. It was pretty much exactly the same as the Munich show except that AB had to work a bit harder to win the crowd over. We had only played Berlin once, almost a year ago, for a few hundred people. I do not think most people knew who AB was when they first started to play but they sure as hell knew them by the end! The crowd got more and more into it as the show progressed and I think AB had the crowd fully immersed by the 3rd song. By the time AB finished with a cover of Kashmir to end the set, the crowd was going crazy. It is a really special thing to watch a band slowly win over a crowd like that. It's like watching a living, breathing entity come to life. After the show we all said goodbye and thanked evryone from 3DD, band and crew, for letting us spend some time with them overseas. 3DD is a true class act.

Next we had an off day in Amsterdam. I think. I can not recollect much of it. What can I say? It's Amsterdam. The place rocks. Nuff said.

We woke up the next morning at the Fields of Rock in Nijmegen, Holland. Check out this lineup.... AB went on first, followed by Moterhead(best show of the day I thought. Holy crap those guys rock hard!), Slayer(Mark stood on the side of the stage watching, in absolute heaven), Velvet Revolver, Audioslave, Black Sabbath and finally Rammstein. It was an honor to even be on this bill. I mean, think about it, all the bands after us consisted of all the bands that are our elders. The bands we all listened to and loved growing up. Motorhead and Slayer have been around for ever. Velvet combines GNR and STP, two of my favorite bands. Audioslave has the guys from Soundgarden and Rage. And then you have Ozzy and Black Sabbath, one of the greatest bands ever. It was awe inspiring.

AB went up there and crushed it. The crowd was cheering relentlessly, clapping with their hands in the air and singing. Myles busted ass on stage during the second song, slipping on a set list. He got up right away and, after the song, declared it a "Spinal Tap" moment to the crowd. Pretty funny.

Backstage was a who's who of rock stars. Mark and Cornell exchanged hellos at one point. It was very brief. I asked Mark why he did not talk to him more and he told me that besides James Hetfield of Metallica, Chris Cornell was the only other person in rock he is nervous to talk to because he loved Soundgarden so much growing up. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even rock stars get nervous and have "rock star moments". Tom Morello also went out of his way to come up and speak with Mark. The two of them had a long convo about guitars and such I would imagine. It was the first time both of them met. Turns out they are both fans of each other. Everything else, however, paled in comparison to the arrival of Jimmy Page. Talk about a true rock star. I think everyone in the entire place was scared to talk to him. Myles said he walked by him twice and could not screw up the courage to say hi. In fact, he told me this morning that he lost sleep over it last night. Haha.

So that brings us to today, an off day in Madrid, Spain. Most of it was spent flying from Holland. Pretty scary plane flight, I must say. I thought we were going down at one point. And, to make matters worse, the damn Spanish airline lost my clothes bag. So here I sit in a hotel, writing to all of you, waiting for my clothes to arrive. Ahhhh, the glamorus life of rock and roll. By the way, Spain. YOU'RE NEXT!!!!

See you at the shows.

Michael Tremonti

[TeriB19]

Gabi, thanks so much for bringing that over!! Awesome read!!!

[Trimontana]

You're welcome Teri. It's a pleasure. Just think that in 6 hours i have to wake up to get my flight to see AB in Madrid, and the guys are already there. I hope they are having a great nite in my country.

[The Lithium]

Hell yeah, 3 Doors Down rocks live, saw them live TODAY!!! Awesome, pure awesome! Well not better than AB of course, but VERY good!!

Seems like AB is pretty much having the time of their lives. It's funny that they get nervous about Audioslave. I'm seeing them in 7 days!

[Dogstar]

GOD, I love Michael's updates! It sounds as if they are having a freakin blast. GOOD FOR THEM!!! And way cool that they went to NIN and also saw Jimmy Page!!!!! Slayer and Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Audioslave...Jeebus, I wouldn't have a voice left after going to that festival!

Thank you, Gabi, for posting that!