Creed were okay right? I mean they made My Sacrifice, so they can’t be bad. Right???? It’s just that they’re about as fun as an episiotomy, and as innovative as a Belgian. Now performing an episiotomy on a Belgian sounds like a opportunity too good to miss, but, alas, this is not on the cards. Creed were a big, relevant mainstream success; good vocals, consistent musicianship but almost utterly devoid of purpose and ambition. Boring is a more succinct analysis. Alter Bridge, comprised of seventy-five percent of the former members of Creed, should have been damned from the start. This is certainly not the case. If their most recent output is anything to go by, the majestic AB III, then they deserve to be recognised as one of the best hard rock acts of the twenty-first century. The recent release of this CD/DVD combination, filmed ‘live from Amsterdam’ in 2008, predates the successes of AB III, when Alter Bridge were still attributed with the reputation of being Creed’s younger sibling. Yet these are giant misconceptions, as this 2-disc set will prove.
In the past Myles Kennedy, vocalist with Alter Bridge, has admitted that the band’s live shows are what the quartet exist for; never does this ring truer than when watching and listening to Live from Amsterdam. The band are tight, giving credence to their solid musicianship, and what’s more, they are exhilarating to watch. The tracks taken from AB’s first album, One Day Remains, such as the haunting Broken Wings and the crowd-favourite Open Your Eyes are veritable spectacles of musical guile and tact thrust into an adrenaline-fuelled arena with a band seemingly proud its output, and an audience even more grateful to be witnessing it. In Loving Memory although now a live staple of the Alter Bridge set, is heart-wrenching and fails on any level to be cheesy or contrived; it stands, as it should, as a beautiful epitaph to Mark Tremonti’s deceased mother, and rings especially true in this environment. However it is the mature sound of AB’s second record Blackbird that provides some of the most engaging material throughout the DVD. The delivery of these songs is spectacular; emulation of this band in a live environment would prove a daunting task to even the experienced performer. Myles Kennedy straddles the stage, riling the crowd and pointing an accusatory finger at the corrupt and feeble political machinations that have let him, and the rest of us, down...
‘We are the disenchanted and we die with each passing day...SO WE SCREAM...’
This DVD taps into the live experience that very few music videos are able to achieve; it is a tangible feeling of excitement and pure familiarity with what you have just watched.
If the fat was to be trimmed anywhere, then it would be from the fairly unnecessary blues number Mud Bone and the Freddie Mercury-esque calls of incitement to the crowd. Yet if at any point Myles Kennedy seems smug during the performance, I think it is a well earned feeling of satisfaction; this show, two years before the release of AB III, a notable landmark album for ANY music lover, was a demonstration of this band’s potential.
Alter Bridge in 2008 was a fledgling group composed of experienced musicians. Their performance in Amsterdam propelled them through adolescence and prepared the way for their overwhelmingly crushing third album; a fitting leap into maturity. This is the year of Alter Bridge; I compel you to see them in concert.
Roll on summer and Download 2011.
Always looking in,
The Outsider
Rating: 8.9/10
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