It was with some trepidation that I set off to see Alter Bridge play the Carling Academy in Glasgow. I loved the bands’ debut album  “One Day Remains” and, in the two previous live shows I’d seen, they’d proved to be an excellent live band.  In Myles Kennedy Alter Bridge possess one of the great voices in modern rock but my problem lies with the band's second album “Blackbird”. Despite repeated listenings I still can't decide whether I like their new heavier sound and hence there was a possibility that gig could have proven to be a disappointment. 

Support act Enjoy Destroy are a promising young four piece from Basingstoke, kind of similar in style to Feeder. They have melody, a few good songs and enthusiasm. What they proved in Glasgow however is that they have no real stage presence as well as being guilty of the kind of marketing from support acts that drives me crazy. The whole idea of a support slot is to get noticed and find a wider audience, well how come so many support bands don’t display the name of the band on the stage anywhere? Mumbling your name a couple of times during the set and expecting that to be enough to make the audience run out to buy their CD just isn't good enough. Must try harder guys! Ok rant over! 

Come the time for Alter Bridge to hit the stage the audience had swelled to maybe a couple of hundred short of the 2000 capacity, definitely a good sign for the band and there was a real buzz about the place too. In Glasgow at least the crowd was full of twenty something guys who were obviously nuts for all things Alter Bridge. The band powered into opener “Come To Life” culled from the aforementioned “Blackbird” and once the sound had been tweaked by the engineer it was clear that the band were firing on all cylinders, as up for the gig as the crowd. It was also loud to say the least and would only get louder throughout the rest of the set. However, despite the volume, the sound was clear as a bell and with the next song “Find The Real” they managed to raise hopes that the show would mix in songs from both albums all night.

Actually, as it turned out, they only played four songs from “One Day Remains” but the material from “Blackbird” worked so well that this was only a small gripe.  Indeed much to this reviewer's surprise, and despite earlier reservations, the title track from Blackbird was the highlight of the night. An epic song with Kennedy’s strong, but melodic voice, repeating the refrain “May you never be broken again” creating almost a hush in the hall before the roar of appreciation at the end.

Whilst the rest of the new songs quite didn’t reach the same heights  the only lows were the band insisting on including their cover of “Whole Lotta Rosie” again - how can  a band so tight on their own material sound so loose on this song? The inclusion of this cover meant the exclusion of other more worthy material, most notably “Shed My Skin” from the set but “Open Your Eyes” proved a worthy set closer complete with a mighty crowd sing-a-long section, something which visibly moved the band. After the “Whole Lotta Rosie” mess Alter Bridge redeemed themselves with a good Robert Johnson blues cover before finally finishing the night in raucous fashion thanks to “Rise Today”. All in all Alter Bridge delivered what was a really good gig and, despite the fact I still have reservations about album number two, Alter Bridge remain a killer live act. Check them out of you can.

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