01/25/2005 - Springfield, MO - Rockwell

[Steve]

Post your reviews here.

[RMadd]

Just got back from the Rockwell. Unfortunately, I don't have the exact setlists for all the bands, so I'll try to approximate as best I can; nor do I have any pics of anything, as they wouldn't let me take my digital camera in b/c of it's video capture capabilities.
I stood about 5 or 6 feet behind the rail on the righthand side of the stage. Before the show, I bought an AB tour shirt & a Submersed shirt & a big-ass poster, of which they had a ltd quantity. After the show, I got a license plate dealywhopper, in the hopes that they would be able to sign that as well.

Submersed went on first. I know they played Flicker, In Due Time, To Peace, and Hollow last. There were a couple others that I can't remember off the top of my head. As for their sound, they were 10x better live than on the CD. Much, much heavier--they fuckin rocked! It seemed to me people really liked 'em, perhaps b/c they knew 'em from AB's promotion of them. The guitarist, Eric Friedman, stole the show. He's quite the accomplished guitarist, and was the most energetic member.

Silvertide, IMO, wasn't quite as good. It was pretty obvious most fans had come to see AB (and Submersed, too). Only a handful of the crowd got into each and every Silvertide song. They played, from what I can remember, they played Blue Jeans, Heartstrong, & Ain't Comin' Home, along w/ about 4 others. They were definitely more theatrical than Submersed or AB. The singer kept dancing around the stage, swinging his mic, etc., and the lead guitarist & the bassist were bouncing around quite a bit too. Ditto for the drummer.

After about a 20 minute wait after Silvertide, Alter Bridge finally came on. In addition to every track from ODR (I'm not going to try to list them in order, as I lost track about halfway thru the set), they covered Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" (w/ an intro culled from AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock") and Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion". Both were simply amazing. They had quite a bit to live up to, covering the greatest rock band in history and the greatest American rock band, but they filled those shoes quite well. They followed "Sweet Emotion" w/ an awesome performance of Open Your Eyes that had the whole house rockin' and singing along.

So the show ended around 11:15 or so. A buddy of mine, who happens to work at The Rockwell from time to time, and I hung out for a good 30 minutes, despite the fact that the table representing a local music store said they wouldn't be coming back to sign. So, 30 minutes later, there wasn't much more than 40 fans left waiting inside. My buddy and I decided to take off, but to swing by their buses parked out back, to see if there was any activity there. Shore 'nuf, there was a line. After standing there for about 15 minutes (I was able to retrieve my camera to get a couple pics, at least), we finally saw Mark, Myles, Flip, and Brian walking towards the buses! So I was able to get both my poster and license plate autographed. Kick-ass! In all the show was well worth the $23 I spent. Hell, the bands prolly got screwed outta some good money.

[RMadd]

Words cannot adequately describe how awesome it was. Indeed, even pictures--which are worth a thousand words--and video--which is technically comprised of thousands and millions of pictures, and therefore the equivalent of billions of words--cannot fully tell how fucking awesome the show was! I gotta see 'em again, tho right on the rail.

[RMadd]

Oh, almost forgot to add a few other cool things.
Above, I guess I didn't do a AB justice in describing their presence. It was just amazing. Mark was absolutely incredible to watch, tearing up the guitar. Myles, too, was awesome. Definitely helped get the crowd going (if Mark wasn't enough lol). Flip was just pounding away on the skins. Never realized how awesome he was; I guess his part just doesn't do him justice. Couldn't really see much of Brian from where I was standing (Myles was almost directly in my line of vision for a good amt of the show--not that I had a problem w/ that lol).

At one point between songs, Myles paused, as if he was thinking what to say. Finally he pointed over to Mark and said "This man is not human. He's a robot!" He walked over to Mark and said "Watch what happens if I press this button." Mark stopped moving. As Myles walked back front and center, he was like "That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever said with the mic." The whole while Flip was doing the robot (albeit while seated) lol.

Between "Sweet Emotion" and "OYE", Mark, Flip & Brian started playing the intro to "Steel Dragon" (from the movie Rock Star). Myles turned around and was like "I told you guys, I don't do that without leather pants. I can't do that without leather. But here's a song I can do in denim!" Funny stuff.

The end of OYE was particularly sweet. They get to the interlude of the song, and before Myles sings any of his part there, they just repeated the bridge part. Then they brought a guy on-stage who had won Q102's 'Rock Star for a Day' contest (playing off Myle's role in "Rock Star"). He looked like he was having the most kick-ass time up there. Then they broke loose w/ the bridge & solo & finished it up. Mark even let the guy take his guitar after the final notes had been played and were ringing out!

[RMadd]

almost forgot an interesting occurrence while talking w/ the guys after the show: I was waiting to have Mark sign a couple things I had & to talk to him. This one guy, prolly in his 30s, 40 @ oldest, spoke w/ him. I didn't pay attention to what he said, or what Mark said, but judging by the comments of another guy standing there, I think the man had been a little pissed about Creed breaking up and Mark & Flip seemingly discrediting Scott. The man hadn't brought anything to sign.

[Dogstar]

Kick-ass review, Bearfan, thanks for sharing. Glad you had such a great time. I'm seeing them in about two weeks or so. I can't wait!!!!