Review by Richard Henry for MPM
Tonight’s venue is The Limelight 1 in Belfast, and we have Tremonti coming back to these shores to support the new album “Marching in Time” this is the 3rd time the band has come across to play in Belfast!
Support tonight came from the band “Hawxx”, a 4-piece band hailing from London but with members originally from Greece, Wales, England and Italy, I have to be honest, I hadn’t heard of these guys before this evening’s gig, but I was certainly in for a treat!
Opening with the track “Blunt” from 2020s Deadland Ep, this was a sludgy riff driven track, bouncing along with plenty of heads in the audience nodding along, the massive harmony vocals kicked in on this song and was really a staple of the whole set with all 4 members of the band contributing at different stages and all together as well!
Launching into “Hologram” off 2022s You’re Only as Loud as You Shout Right Now Ep, this straight away reminded me of Periphery, with the 7-string riff and drum patterns, straight from the brutal, a softer verse and into a chorus yet again demonstrating the vocal prowess of the band, when they do heavy, they do heavy, but another facet was the second guitar player Hannah who was constantly adding atmospheric parts to a lot of the songs and adding texture!
“Trust Your Rage” is the track up next, with an eastern sounding guitar riff, and with Anna’s vocals building and soaring in this track, it showed the range she has, especially in the chorus where she goes into falsetto and really soars, this song yet again has a fantastic section with all 4 singing, and just provides something very different to a lot of bands, and really stands out for me!
“Low” starts with an almost folk guitar inspired intro, then you get smacked in the teeth when the riff kicks in, yet again I can’t help but notice the soaring vocals and the harmonies, again textured guitar parts all over the main riff, provided a blanket over the sound, really ear catching stuff!
“Filth” and “Death of Silence” are next, ace in the hole is drummer Jessica, who powers through the set unrelenting as well as providing many of the backing. Track of the night for me is “Death of Silence”, heavy brutal riff in the style of Monuments but with an absolutely stunning chorus!
The next two songs “The Worst Thing” and “Detonate” again I was blown away with the vocal performance of the whole band, “The Worst Thing”has a chorus that I am sure a lot of people can relate to! Detonate has a fantastic heavy riff again reminding me of a more Djent sound, the vocals are fantastic on this one, soaring chorus and then the spoken word section, just great songwriting!
Last song of the set was Dogma, now I straight away heard Meshuggah in the first riff, then crossed with an almost System of a Down verse riff, driving bass line by Julia on this one and drummer Hannah playing double kick and odd time, massive guitar riff and massive chorus, what a way to end the set, again a band I had not heard of before tonight but I have spent all day listening to, do yourself a Favour and check them out!
After a quick turnaround between bands, it’s time for the main event, the venue is pretty much at capacity at this point and just before 8:30 we have “Tremonti” come onto the stage to rip through a 19-song set!
Kicking it all off we have “Thrown Further” from the new album “Marching in Time”, driving choppy riff starts it off before we come in with the soaring verse and sign along chorus, Eric providing much of the additional guitar parts/textures and vocal harmonies as he does all night, adding a lot to the bands overall sound
“If Not for You” next, from the new album, we have an intro to the song triggered through the pa, absolutely soaring vocals from Mark on this one and his voice seems to get stronger every year, the trump card of this band is truly the songwriting, not a surprise from Mark, huge chorus with Eric sprinkling a lead part behind the vocals, massive middle section riff, with the interplay between the guitar and drums, then back to the soaring vocals
“My Last Mistake” is next up from the Dust album, now that’s a riff Metallica would be proud to write at the start, all the heads where moving in and around the front for this one, driving verse in to the massive chorus with Eric providing all the high vocals to this, absolutely massive sounding, Mark ripping into a trademark solo on this one, this song for me highlights the difference between Alter Bridge and Marks solo project, this song has massive hooks in the chorus and really wouldn’t be out of place on an Alter Bridge album but it’s the intensity of the riffs and drumming that really stand apart from his main band.
“So You’re Afraid” from the All I Was album is next and keeping the intensity up, Tanner bouncing around and throwing the bass guitar round him like a lunatic, fantastic intensity from all the guys, another massive riff and chorus song, and again that’s the strength of this band is being able to combine the two elements!
Time to bring the levels down a bit, letting Eric play a bit of a solo over the intro to this one, “The Things I’ve Seen” from the Tremonti debut album, is the first drop in intensity in the set with a massive singalong and the crowd getting involved singing the chorus, great track from the “All I Was” album!
We move back to the new album with the track “Not Afraid to Lose”, this song really highlights the vocals of Mark and Eric, this song to me really is the one that could be an Alter Bridge song, a really uplifting track and a true anthem in the vein of “My Champion”, stunning track!
So, after the two-song breather in pace, the song I had been waiting to hear live, “A World Away”, opener of the new album, heavy is the word for this one, what a riff and then straight into Ryan destroying the kit, with an onslaught of double kick and thrash beats, then into a deliberately slow verse riff that builds into a massive chorus, without doubt the heaviest song in the set!
The heavy continues as we stay with the new album and the track “Let That Be Us”, double kick heavy riff at the start, driving verse riff, into, yeah you guessed, a huge singalong chorus, massive middle section on this with a huge riff kicking in before going back into that massive chorus, dynamics are the key as the band go from heavy to singalong at the drop of a hat, really the core strength of these guys!
“Cauterize” is up next from the album of the same name, Ryan yet again getting a workout on the drums with the double kick riff at the start, the crowd are singing away on the chorus of this one, plenty singing the verse as well, soaring vocals on this one, really standing out on the middle section as well as the chorus!
Next up is “You Waste Your Time” off the All I Was album, a twisty riff on this on e and the heads are all going again around me, with the crowd shouting out the chorus back to the band, Tanner demanding more of the crowd, the energy just does not let up both from the band and the crowd!
Moving to the “Dust” album, we get “Catching Fire”, probably my favorite song from the band and the reason my neck is so sore today! Driving and aggressive after the droning intro, absolutely huge chorus on this one with Eric providing the soaring high vocals in the chorus, breaking from the second chorus into the slow riff, Mark walks back to the mic and urges the crowd to bring it, just before the thrash beat hits and the double bass kicks in, epic track!
Bringing the tempo down a bit we have the track “Flying Monkeys from the Cauterize album, this just drives along relentlessly, a slow grinding riff just keeps going, plenty of crowd singalong on the section before the chorus!
Again, a good band builds the set, we have came down in temp and next is the track “Dust” from the album of the same name, not so much a ballad but definitely a more mellow tune, showcasing again not just Marks vocals on the verses but also the combination of the three guys on the chorus, I haven’t mentioned about the actual guitar playing a lot in this review but as you can imagine it was stunning all night with the solo on this song being another!
Mark asks how many where here the last time he played Belfast, a good healthy roar from the crowd and we are transported back to the last album “A Dying Machine”, and we have the title track itself, I would suggest an almost prog vibe on this song more so than any other song played tonight, a real story of a song, peppered with double bass from Ryan, a massive hook chorus, the song builds and then breaks into the middle section only to build yet again leading in to the end of song!
Back to the new album again and we have the title track “Marching in Time”, this starts off with a wistful guitar refrain and an offbeat drum pattern, like a lot of the slower Tremonti songs it builds and builds, then there it is, the massive chorus with the dual vocals and textured guitar parts from Eric, then breaks down and builds again, after the middle section we have a really lyrical and melodic solo from Mark, but you can hear it building again in the background as the solo is building and then like that it dies down again to the end of the track!
Back to 2018s “A Dying Machine” for the track “The First and Last”, just guitar and vocals kick this off and you can really hear the texture in Marks voice at the start of this, I can’t help but feel this could be an Alter Bridge track, it just has that feel about it!!
Apparently, the next song is in the set because the fans have been asking for it, so Mark tells us from the stage, we have “Decay” the last track from the 2012 “All I Was” album, this is just a heavy mid-tempo riff, with the crowd singing away on the chorus, an absolute head nodder of a track!
“We don’t do encores, walk off the stage for a few mins and let you guys’ cheer, so we have two songs left”, Mark lets everyone know, so let’s put the energy into the last two songs!
“Another Heart” from 2015s “Cauterize” album is up next, and bring up the intensity they did, not just the band but the whole crowd was headbanging and jumping away to this one and singing, the middle section wouldn’t be amiss in a Slipknot song, heavy as hell with double kick all over the place and a lovely eastern sounding solo from Mark!
“Wish You Well” from 2012s debut album is the set closer, the tempo is cranked up again, every one singing “I Wish You Well” in the chorus, this is nearly the ultimate feel-good set closer, pounding all the way through and with the trash middle section before the double kick comes in again and a classic Tremonti solo, then that breakdown outro!
Just like that, 19 songs are over and what a set, a good coverage of all the albums to date and without doubt a band on absolute top form, hopefully we will see them back soon once the next Alter Bridge tour cycle is done!
Photography by MPM
