Halestorm, Shinedown and Alter Bridge - Wembley Arena London 18th October 2013

Lzzy Hale strode onto the Wembley stage in heels that even Gene Simmons in his prime might have struggled with.  What followed was 30 minutes of sublime rock. Having seen a full Halestorm gig it was going to be interesting to see what they cut out as frankly every song is a killer.



They still squeezed in a drum solo - which you might have thought was a bit pretentious considering they have a limited time slot available and are third on the bill - BUT Lzzy's litle brother Arejay is such an entertaining drummer (something like the offspring of Animal from the Muppets and Tommy Lee) that it was an inspired decision.

They rocked the place and went down a storm - they played :

  1. (Judas Priest cover)


A quick stage reset and Shinedown were on.  Halestorm were really good, but Shinedown were really, really good!  Opening with the magnificent neck breaker of "Devour" they proceeded to tear Wembley down, which considering that a fair percentage of the songs they played are not out and out ballsy rockers is a credit to them, and in particular frontman Brent Smith whose stage presence and  rapport with the crowd is second to none.  A great mixture of songs - particularly the double whammy of "Second Chance" and Skynyrd's "Simple Man". Simply brilliant.







OK before I start the final bit as I know it's bound to get comments - I really like Alter Bridge. I liked Creed before them too - I like the way that they have gradually moved away from that Creed sound into their own Alter Bridge sound. Myles Kennedy is a great vocalist and Mark Tremonti is a stunning guitar player. I've bought and regularly play all the Alter Bridge albums - but ...

..I was bored tonight.

I don't know what it was . maybe the fact that we never had a decent view or the fact that Shinedown before them were so good .. I really don't know. It must be me rather than them (everyone else around me was going apeshit and probably quite rightly so)  but to me everything sounded...the same. Sorry but I have to be honest.  The musicianship was impeccable, Myles Kennedy looked truly humbled as he thanked the crowd and tracks like "Cry of Achiles" and "Open your Eyes" were great but as the gig wore on I found myself glancing at my watch more and more.

Don't let this put you off seeing Alter Bridge the new album Fortress is great and they are a stunning band - but tonight I'm afraid it just didn't work for me, sorry.




  1. (Acoustic)
  2. Encore:

  3. NR.

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