Tremonti - Bristol Review

Considering that Tremonti is essentially a side project for its founder and namesake Mark Tremonti (vocals/guitar), it is amazing how well-established the band has become over the past decade. Having always been the lead guitarist in his bands previously, Tremonti the band gave Tremonti the musician an opportunity to move from the side of the stage into the centre - and become the lead singer and sole driving force. Whilst I am sure that most, including Tremonti himself, see Alter Bridge as his 'main' job, his solo band has taken on a life of its own in recent years. I would imagine that Tremonti released All I Was with some trepidation back in 2012 - but with five solo albums now under his belt, Tremonti is well-established as a solo artist and singer in his own right. He is clearly an extremely prolific musician, and his solo band allows him to tread a somewhat heavier path than Alter Bridge often does. Alter Bridge is generally influenced by lots of different music, and is the creative brainchild of both Tremonti and frontman Myles Kennedy, but Tremonti's solo work allows him to showcase his love of all things metal - particularly bands like Pantera, who he grew up with. Despite the heaviness, though, Tremonti's solo work is still very reminiscent of everything that he has done in his career to date. He certainly has a distinct writing style which can be traced back to his early days with Creed, and this is also showcased throughout his solo work. He has also really developed as a frontman over the past decade or so, too. I remember seeing him in Wolverhampton back in 2013 promoting All I Was and he seemed a bit awkward fronting his own band. Fast forward to 2022, though, and Tremonti has taken on a life of its own - and I imagine that this will continue, despite the on-going success of Alter Bridge. Tremonti released his fifth solo album Marching in Time last year, and is currently over here in Europe touring it. The shows were supposed to take place in January, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Touring in June probably makes more sense, though, as he has been able to tie a few festival appearances to his headline tour - which ensures that Marching in Time receives a lot of love before the next Alter Bridge album touring cycle kicks off later this year. The European tour included a handful of UK dates, and I headed up to Bristol yesterday to catch the show at the city's O2 Academy. I had seen Tremonti twice previously, once in Wolverhampton and once in Birmingham, so was looking forward to adding Bristol to that list - as the city's O2 Academy is generally a good place to catch bands at.

Something which seems to have become a theme with the venue recently, though, is not opening on time. I remember that it took me a long time to actually get in when I saw Alestorm last December, and that was also the case yesterday. I do not recall this being a problem previously, but by the time I finally got into the venue the first support band Hawxx were already a few songs into their set. Despite the late opening, I still managed to catch a handful of the band's songs and I think that it is fair to say that Hawxx have a pretty unique sound. Their sound is a mix of alternative rock and djent, with angular, heavy riffing mixing with atmospheric and sultry vocal melodies. Most of the songs played on these contrasts, with big riffs often punctuating moments of relative calm that contained most of the vocal lines. Hawxx are certainly not on a full-on tech metal band, but much of the riffing certainly comes from that school of guitar playing. Listening to Hawxx is not like listening to Meshuggah or TesseracT, though, as there is very much an emphasis on atmosphere, too. The band's verses tend to be quite quiet, with pulsing basslines and guitar atmospherics backing the vocals, with the choruses being somewhat heavier. The instrumental sections tended to be the heaviest parts of the songs, though, and occasional guitar solos added demented melodies when called upon. I liked the band's approach to vocal melodies, too, with all four members singing to help give the band a bigger sound. This helped to push the atmospheric side of Hawxx's sound, and off-set some of the big riffing too. Despite only catching part of their short set I enjoyed Hawxx's overall sound and approach. I imagine that some of the intricacies of their music are lost live, but it is always good to see a band that is doing something a bit different. They certainly seem to be a band to keep an eye on, and I will be interested to see how they develop over the coming years.

Following Hawxx were The Raven Age, a five-piece metal band who have never really done anything for me despite seeing them live a couple of times previously. I last saw the band live in 2019, when they opened for Alter Bridge, but I was prepared to be open-minded and give them another go. Sadly, though, my view on the band has not changed. The Raven Age are one of those bands that seem to have a lot of a right ingredients - but for whatever reason their songs just do not do it for me. Frontman Matt James has a strong voice and the band can write decent riffs, but the songs just do not hang together for me. None of the band's choruses jumped out at me at all, and there was very little light among the shade. With the exception of one song that opened quite slowly, everything else that the band played was relentless and pretty heavy. There were no real quieter moments or interesting arrangements to differentiate one song from the next, and band very much fall into the bland category for me. They are part of the post-metalcore boom of newish bands that take what some of the big names of that genre did a decade or so ago and make it sound a bit more modern - which sadly seems to involve stripping away many of the hooks and go for an overall dryer sound that ups the heaviness. I certainly prefer The Raven Age to bands like Bleed From Within, though, thanks to James' strong voice - and I feel like with some better choruses and more interesting overall arrangements the band could actually appeal to me. They do seem to be doing quite well for themselves, though, so there must be plenty of people out there who do get what The Raven Age are about. It is always great to see new bands doing well and building a fanbase, but as it stands The Raven Age are still not for me - and three albums into their career I doubt they will do much in the future that will change that.

It was only around 20 minutes after The Raven Age finished their set that Tremonti hit the stage, and the four-piece band played for around 100 minutes with little pretence. One thing that I like about Tremonti as a solo performer is how he just gets on with it. Save for a handful of brief conversations with the crowd, where he seemed in good spirits, he just let his music do the talking. He always makes a big deal about not going off and coming back for an encore, too, so his 100 minutes on stage was basically just packed full of great music from start to finish. All five of his solo albums were represented in the set, but perhaps unsurprisingly Marching in Time was the most heavily featured. Two songs from this album, Thrown Further and If Not for You, opened the show - and it was clear from the off that the night was going to be a memorable one. The band were loud and sounded great, and the large crowd were really up for the show. Everyone around me was singing along to all the songs, and the atmosphere throughout was really good as a result. The band seemed to sense this, and as a result the show was probably the best of the three Tremonti shows that I have now seen. Tremonti seem to be more of a band now, too. Whilst Tremonti himself is still the star of the show, Eric Friedman (guitar/vocals) certainly shared more of the spotlight this time. He took the solos in a few of the songs, including during Thrown Further, and just generally seemed to be a big part of the show with his harmony vocals and riffing. Tremonti still soloed the most, though, and his riffs throughout the thrashy My Last Mistake and the gorgeous melodies of The Things I've Seen were great representations of the different sides of his songwriting. Most of the newer songs came early in the set, with a highlight being the hard-hitting A World Away, whilst the anthemic Let That Be Us had everyone singing along during the chorus. The new songs were also greeted like old friends by the large crowd, but there was still perhaps more singing during the older songs. Melodic metal anthems such as Cauterize and Catching Fire certainly say plenty of singing - before Flying Monkeys showcased Tremonti's love of all things 1990s with a slower pace and huge grooves. The rhythm section of Tanner Keegan (bass guitar/vocals) and Ryan Bennett (drums) particularly shone during Flying Monkeys thanks to its grooves, too. The slower-paced Dust then saw the crowd wave their phones in the air to help create more of an atmosphere, and it was one of the set's more poignant moments as a result. The heavier A Dying Machine was another highlight, too, with James from The Raven Age coming out to sing the song with Tremonti. This then led into the lengthy title track from the latest album, which impressed due to its diverse arrangement and hooky melodies. By this point there was not long left, but a rare outing for Decay had everyone singing along, before the band brought their set to a close with two massive anthems. The chorus of Another Heart is one of Tremonti's best, and it was sung loudly by the crowd, before the thrashy Wish You Well brought the curtain down on a great evening of heavy music. The setlist was:

Thrown Further

If Not for You

My Last Mistake

The Things I've Seen

No Afraid to Lose

A World Away

Let That Be Us

Cauterize

You Waste Your Time

Catching Fire

Flying Monkeys

Dust

A Dying Machine [w/ Matt James]

Marching in Time

The First the Last

Decay

Another Heart

Wish You Well

As I said earlier, of the three Tremonti shows that I have now seen last night's show in Bristol was likely the best of the bunch. The atmosphere throughout was excellent, and it was great to see the O2 Academy pretty much full. The band sounded tight and loud, too, and everything fell into place to make the night one to remember. With a new Alter Bridge album due out later this year, I imagine that there will not be another Tremonti tour for a little while, but I will certainly look forward to the next one - whenever that is. I have not yet made up my mind whether I will go and see Alter Bridge live again later this year, but last night's excellent show has certainly pushed me closer to getting a ticket - as any show involving Tremonti will always be a good one.