Alter Bridge: PointFest, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Maryland Heights, MO, 5/15/11

Its 10:00 on a Sunday morning in a community just outside of St Louis, Missouri. It has been drizzling rain for a short time now and the wind has picked up to nice little gusts across the open grounds. The temps have dropped dramatically since Friday and it is cold. It’s one of those days that you want to stay inside in cozy pjs with a cup of hot chocolate and a good movie. But a crowd of people have congregated outside the gates of the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater awaiting entry into a much ballyhooed festival sponsored in part by local raidio station The Point. The weather means nothing to them. They can smell music sifting through the air like good bar-b-que and they want in.

PointFest has become so popular that the city now has two of them a year; one in the spring and one again in the fall. And today’s ticket is ripe with talent. Many up and coming hard rock bands play throughout the day. It will be 4:00 in the afternoon before the popular Alter Bridge walks onto the stage to entertain a large crowd of cold, wet, music lovers who have been primed for what is to come. It will be worth the wait.

Myles Kennedy, who has spent much of his time fronting Slash’s band on tour since mid-2010, walks out slowly, eyes closed, one hand on his guitar strings, the other cupping his ear. He seems in deep concentration, waiting for the moment when drummer Scott Phillips will count out the beat and his sidekicks Mark Tremonti and Brian Marshall will kick into “Slip To The Void”. He sways, he breathes, he waits. The anticipation is growing and the crowd is ready.

Playing for only the allotted half hour, Alter Bridge give a hungry rocking set that barely takes a moment to catch its breath between songs. Tremonti is proving once again why he is considered one of the most respected guitar players in music as he swings notes high and low and down to his admirers below. He smiles, he grimaces, and he shoots out solos that send chills down your spine. Bassist Marshall is keeping a steady rhythm that builds a fire with Phillips, one of the most underrated drummers in music. The rain has stopped for this set and you almost think that someone above is a fan.

“You guys having a good time?” Kennedy asks and gets a roaring response in the positive. His eyes are a vivid blue today and his smile is wide as he scans the crowd. The weather must be wrecking havoc on his throat but he sings with an unrestrained passion. Fans are raising devil horns and banging heads as AB tears into “White Knuckles”, a sonically-swift free-for-all of musical instruments in rapture.

Alter Bridge was formed from the ashes of a bleeding Creed around 2004. The only thing that separates AB from Creed is frontman Kennedy and what he has brought to the mix, which is a renewed fire that was dying out as Creed was slipping into ruin. He has brought a bit of punk with him as well, sparking the other members of this ensemble to come alive like a reborn phoenix. He gives Alter Bridge just what they need to NOT be a rehashed Creed.

From the firepower of a blazing Tremonti on “Find The Real” to “Rise Today” and ending with “Isolation”, the chilling first single off the new CD, ABIII, the band took their thirty minutes to heart and gave the crowd something to call home about.

SETLIST = Slip To The Void, Find The Real, White Knuckles, Ghost Of Days Gone By, Rise Today, Isolation.

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