Over the years, Alter Bridge tours have been some of the best value-for-money packages around. Black Stone Cherry, Halestorm, Shinedown, Theory of a Deadman. These are just a selection of the massive North American names they’ve dragged with them as they’ve grown over the past couple of decades and while some bands struggle to maintain their status as UK arena headliners, Alter Bridge clung on and in 2026 somehow seem to be getting better.
Opening the night and having been given far too short a set, Sevendust were in the enviable position of being able to pack their set with hit after hit. ‘Denial’ and ‘Enemy’ are standout songs, though it was fantastic to see was a crowd engaged with their new music in the form of ‘Is This The Real You’. Frontman Lajon Witherspoon is charismatic from beginning to end, engaging with the crowd throughout, but doing so in a way that made it feel like you were in 1 on 1 conversation with him. The string quartet (I think it’s ok to call three guitarists and a bassist that?) did similar, waving, lobbing drumsticks and picks all set and behind the kit, Morgan Rose did something many drummers could learn from and actually looked like he was enjoying his craft. They’ve promised they’ll be back soon and they deserve a sold out tour when they do make it.
As far as openers go, Sevendust are probably not the wisest choice, though. A seasoned outfit with a couple of decades of experience under their belt and the sort of stage presence that you’d bottle and sell to people half their age if you could. How do you follow this? In truth, not many can and here, tonight, Daughtry certainly couldn’t. Now, in theory they have everything that is needed to succeed. They’ve got that ‘stadium rock’ sound that transfers to arenas, a hugely competent singer, hell on any other tour he’d be the best singer by miles and he’s backed by, again, a hugely competent band with a catalogue of strong of songs.
What they don’t have though is the energy or presence to drag the crowd along with them. This isn’t helped by the fact the guitarist and bassist are so far apart that the only reasonable assumption is that they fell out with each other on the M1 overnight. Behind them there’s a drummer and keyboardist on their risers and it’s down to vocalist Chris Daughtry to provide the energy. His vocals are massive, this is a certainty, the stage presence just doesn’t seem to be there. It’s not that Daughtry don’t have the chops for a stage this big, in front of a room of this size, in the UK – they just don’t have ‘it’ just yet. And, even though it turned out to be the best song of their set, let’s not get started on support bands doing encores.
Alter Bridge though are a different beast though. Striding out with purpose and moving straight into the opening track from their 2026 self-titled album, ‘Silent Divide’, it was immediately apparent just why they are able to keep people coming back – live Alter Bridge are just massive. It didn’t matter that this track was new, in fact it wouldn’t have mattered if the band were just jamming out new stuff on the spot, when Myles Kennedy, Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips get on stage the outside world truly disappears.
Picking out a highlight from their set is nigh on impossible. 17 songs were played with 13 of them being from their opening four LPs, staples like ‘Cry of Achilles’ and ‘Addicted To Pain’ elevated the set in positions two and three and Tremonti taking over vocals ‘Burn It Down’ was a delightful change considering ‘Waters Rising’ didn’t feature. What is unusual though, is that it was the ballads that really made the set special. Maybe it’s the increasing age of those in attendance and the sentimentality that we’re feeling these days, maybe they’re just bloody good songs, but ‘Ghost of Days Gone By’ and ‘Blackbird’ were insane, with Tremonti’s solo in the latter still being the best solo released this millennium. The standout though was ‘Watch Over You’, a song that has made its way back into set lists over the past few years and just oozes emotion. Kennedy’s vocals seem sharper now than they have done for over a decade and this is a song with so much meaning behind it that they needed to be. Best of all though, he seems be in a great place and that comes through in his swagger.
This, right now, despite being the twentieth year of Alter Bridge feels like the best version we’ve seen. Maybe it’s a renewed love for band from within thanks to having other projects that distract from potential monotony, or it could be the continued devotion of their fans, either way – there aren’t many better ways to end a set than ‘Isolation’ and barely anyone shifted for the exit before the band had left the stage. A wonderful to round of their UK tour. Alter Bridge are back on their throne.
Words by Dan Hemming. Photographs by Rebecca Marshall.