Alter Bridge and Mammoth WVH Bring Monster Show To Detroit For Valentine’s Day

Alter Bridge brought their Pawns & Kings tour to Detroit’s Fillmore Theatre this past Tuesday for a Valentine’s Day treat along with special guests, Mammoth WVH. Alter Bridge was named after an actual bridge in Detroit on Alter Road. Detroit is Mark Tremonti’s hometown, so shows here are a homecoming for him.

The excitement for this show was evident with fans lining up several hours before doors time to get their spots in front of the stage. The Fillmore, originally know as The State, is a great venue for music and a historic building which is approaching its 100^th anniversary next year. With a capacity of 2900 it makes for an intimate venue with great acoustics and no bad seats.

Alter Bridge, featuring the dual guitars and vocals of Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti, brought the goods this night opening with the song Silver Tongue off their latest album Pawns & Kings. I love this song with its machine gun attack guitars and soaring vocals and what a great tune to get the crowd going! Myles is one of rock’s best vocalists and hearing him live gives me shivers.

The evening’s set was a mix of songs from the band’s first four albums and Pawns & Kings. Kennedy and Tremonti both took turns at guitar solos during the night and Tremonti sang lead on Burn It Down from their first album. There was a minor glitch at the start of Holiday with Kennedy’s guitar volume having been turned down, but other than that, the show was well paced and energetic. Tremonti and bassist Brian Marshall love to move around and pose when they’re playing which really gets the audience into it.

There was a slower segment in the middle of the show with Myles Kennedy doing a solo acoustic of Watch Over You and then Tremonti joined him with his acoustic to do In Loving Memory. The song Blackbird was dedicated to the MSU shooting victims and began with a short instrumental opening of The Beatles Blackbird.

Pawns & Kings picked up the energy after that and the band finished the main set with Waters Rising, Isolation and Metalingus. For the encore the night finished with Rise Today and Open Your Eyes.

Mammoth WVH is the support for this tour as they were for the recent European leg. Wolf Van Halen is carrying on the family tradition and I’m sure dad is smiling down on him from above.

Mammoth’s set of eight songs, all from Mammoth’s debut album, was a crowd pleaser. Wolf Van Halen wrote all the songs and played every instrument on the album, but assembled a great touring band with Garrett Whitlock, his former bandmate in Tremonti, on drums, Frank Sidoris of Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators on guitar, Ron Ficarro bass, and Jon Jourdan guitar.

Wolf went back and forth between guitar and keyboard showing his versatility and skill. He displayed his musical chops during guitar solos, particularly in the song Mr. Ed where he demonstrated the finger tapping that his dad popularized decades ago. With two other guitarists in the band it was a wall of guitar sound and heavy. The acoustics at The Fillmore are quite good and it sounded great everywhere. Before playing the song Think it Over, Wolf told the audience that it had been his dad’s favorite song. One can’t help but feel good watching the spawn of Eddie up there rocking hard and having the kind of success he is. The name helps get you in the door, but he has the talent to stay for a long time.

Nashville based alternative metal band Red opened the night with a rollicking set that got the crowd revved up and ready to go.

Alter Bridge / Mammoth WVH / Red
The Fillmore
Detroit, MI
February 14, 2023

All Photos by Dan Boshart

Alter Bridge