Manchester - Phones4U Arena - 22nd October

[Decay]

Practise makes perfect indeed, but the best practise is to play a song before an audience. When do you think a song is gonna sound better live? When they play it for the first time (when the band is nervous, not knowing how the crowd is gonna react) or for the 10th time? Compare the performance of Cry Of Achilles from Orlando with the one from Cardiff or Glasgow. Big difference.

And yea, it would be great to have those songs on DVD afterwards. But it would be even better to see (almost) all of those songs live in person, not just 3 or 4 songs. That DVD would not be a good representation of the Fortress tour.

I hope to god that Bleed It Dry makes it on there because I LOVE that song. Doesn't look hopeful right now, have they sound checked it at all?

I remember reading they have.

You're 100% right.
Timo, you just have the right words to say, every time, I like that.

[Jim]

The best practice is absolutely not playing it for a crowd. This is Alter Bridge we're talking about. Not some shitty local band learning some covers for pub crowds. Their reputation relies on the songs being played perfectly, they've spent 10 years earning their way to playing ARENAS. They can't just play a song to a decent level and hope to get better at it, just to get it out there. If they played Calm The Fire and fucked up a couple times, all hell would break loose!? Look at the shit Lzzy got for cracking ONE note in my WOY video.

The scrutiny they're under is so ridiculous, i absolutely understand them wanting to be perfect. So if they have to soundcheck Calm The Fire 10 times a day for a few shows in order to play it 10/15 times+ and to be filmed for DVD, then that's fine by me! Because seriously, if they messed a single note up.. The shit storm that would rain down on them by over-confident, jumped up wannabe musicians across the world would be monumental. It's just not worth that hassle if they can actually perfect it for the shows they want seen by the world forevermore

[Mister Gold]

Practise makes perfect indeed, but the best practise is to play a song before an audience. When do you think a song is gonna sound better live? When they play it for the first time (when the band is nervous, not knowing how the crowd is gonna react) or for the 10th time? Compare the performance of Cry Of Achilles from Orlando with the one from Cardiff or Glasgow. Big difference.

And yea, it would be great to have those songs on DVD afterwards. But it would be even better to see (almost) all of those songs live in person, not just 3 or 4 songs. That DVD would not be a good representation of the Fortress tour.

I hope to god that Bleed It Dry makes it on there because I LOVE that song. Doesn't look hopeful right now, have they sound checked it at all?

I remember reading they have.

This. I get where Jim is coming from, but I have to side with Timo here.

Also, Jim, your comment about the band not being required to play Fortress songs on the Fortress tour... It isn't required, but it's certainly expected of them. Especially since we're talking about a relatively young band and this being their fourth album.

[Crumbso]

The best practice is absolutely not playing it for a crowd. This is Alter Bridge we're talking about. Not some shitty local band learning some covers for pub crowds. Their reputation relies on the songs being played perfectly, they've spent 10 years earning their way to playing ARENAS. They can't just play a song to a decent level and hope to get better at it, just to get it out there. If they played Calm The Fire and fucked up a couple times, all hell would break loose!? Look at the shit Lzzy got for cracking ONE note in my WOY video.

The scrutiny they're under is so ridiculous, i absolutely understand them wanting to be perfect. So if they have to soundcheck Calm The Fire 10 times a day for a few shows in order to play it 10/15 times+ and to be filmed for DVD, then that's fine by me! Because seriously, if they messed a single note up.. The shit storm that would rain down on them by over-confident, jumped up wannabe musicians across the world would be monumental. It's just not worth that hassle if they can actually perfect it for the shows they want seen by the world forevermore

You see. That attitude from people I don't get. AB aren't a perfect band live. They miss parts out and change vocals and riffs and everyone hails them as perfectionists. As soon as an outsider, Lzzy, makes one mistake people go mental.

[Timotheus]

The best practice is absolutely not playing it for a crowd. This is Alter Bridge we're talking about. Not some shitty local band learning some covers for pub crowds. Their reputation relies on the songs being played perfectly, they've spent 10 years earning their way to playing ARENAS. They can't just play a song to a decent level and hope to get better at it, just to get it out there. If they played Calm The Fire and fucked up a couple times, all hell would break loose!? Look at the shit Lzzy got for cracking ONE note in my WOY video.

The scrutiny they're under is so ridiculous, i absolutely understand them wanting to be perfect. So if they have to soundcheck Calm The Fire 10 times a day for a few shows in order to play it 10/15 times+ and to be filmed for DVD, then that's fine by me! Because seriously, if they messed a single note up.. The shit storm that would rain down on them by over-confident, jumped up wannabe musicians across the world would be monumental. It's just not worth that hassle if they can actually perfect it for the shows they want seen by the world forevermore

I agree with you to a point, but take Cry of Achilles. The first night's performance was amazing! Definitely better than decent, but the last few shows just have been a lot more confident. Myles is getting more into it, commanding the crowd to sing along, stuff like that. Same thing with Waters Rising.. The first night was great, but the second night was clearly better. That might've been because of technical issues in the first performance, but what if that happens during Calm The Fire on the night they decide to record it? I assume they practised like hell for Waters Rising, and still something out of their control happened.. I didn't hear many people complaining about the performance; there were mainly happy tweets that they played it.

Live means that there will be mistakes. I didn't mind that screw-up by Lzzy at all. I thought that made the performance extra human.

[Jim]

Yeah man, i guess we're all on the same page. I just want the majority to have patience and understanding

[Mister Gold]

Yeah man, i guess we're all on the same page. I just want the majority to have patience and understanding

I think the majority would be a bit more patient and understanding if the band hadn't done this before with AB III. I know I would.

I get that Fortress is a much more challenging album for them to play and I'm willing to give them time to ease into it, provided they were to actually increase the number of new songs they played live. Instead, we've gone from five new songs at the start of the tour to three. I just get the impression that the band is just going to continue only playing three new songs or further decrease the amount of Fortress songs they play live, which I really don't want to happen.

[Lotha]

We'll see what happens, people. Personally I'm more with Jim on this one. If it takes more practicing for the songs to sound tight, so be it. They're bound to play more Fortress stuff sooner or later.

[Mister Gold]

We'll see what happens, people. Personally I'm more with Jim on this one. If it takes more practicing for the songs to sound tight, so be it. They're bound to play more Fortress stuff sooner or later.

It goes back to the band's history though. We've made similar assumptions before, only to be proven incorrect. What's different this time?

[Lotha]

We'll see what happens, people. Personally I'm more with Jim on this one. If it takes more practicing for the songs to sound tight, so be it. They're bound to play more Fortress stuff sooner or later.

It goes back to the band's history though. We've made similar assumptions before, only to be proven incorrect. What's different this time?

The year, the album, the songs, the tour? A lot of differences.
Just because something's been some way for some time, doesn't mean it can't change. The band's announced more songs. Patience.

[austinjhnsn]

We'll see what happens, people. Personally I'm more with Jim on this one. If it takes more practicing for the songs to sound tight, so be it. They're bound to play more Fortress stuff sooner or later.

Yeup this. I don't mind them having to practice the songs... As much as it might bother me, I respect them waiting to play the songs until they perfect them.

[Timotheus]

Also if that means that we never might hear them live? Because I think that's why they never played WDTTW live.. They didn't get it perfect.

And it's hard to be patient if you get to see them live in 2 days, and the playlist is getting worse and worse. The only reason why I'm still somewhat excited is because of Cry Of Achilles and I look forward a lot to ATP opening the concert.

[Lotha]

Also if that means that we never might hear them live? Because I think that's why they never played WDTTW live.. They didn't get it perfect.

And it's hard to be patient if you get to see them live in 2 days, and the playlist is getting worse and worse. The only reason why I'm still somewhat excited is because of Cry Of Achilles and I look forward a lot to ATP opening the concert.

I'm personally perfectly ok with not playing WDTTW, and I think you should try being impatient because you can't wait for the concert to come, not worry about the setlist.
What happens if they introduce more songs, all this vexation for nothing? Relax, be mad after the gig if that's what you choose to do.

[AB23]

Guys... Practice doesn't make perfect... PERFECT PRACTICE makes perfect... jeez

[AB23]

Jim they fuck up virtually every concert in some way shape or form. I don't think them messing up Calm the Fire is gonna ruin anything. Myles doesnt miss notes because whenever he senses that a difficult note is coming up he finds a way to avoid it for the most part. Whenever they mess something up in concert they have been human enough to admit it, and for the most part the crowd loves the human aspect of it.

Last time I saw them live they messed up All Hope is Gone and Myles shouted out "I'm gonna give 10 bucks to the next person who tells me the fucking lyrics to this song" and the crowd went into an uncontrollable cheer throughout the rest of the song. Shit happens.

[Patty]

I'm not annoyed by the lack of Fortress songs. What does annoye is that they still play plenty on Blackbord songs but took out my favourite in Buried Alive.

[Timotheus]

Also if that means that we never might hear them live? Because I think that's why they never played WDTTW live.. They didn't get it perfect.

And it's hard to be patient if you get to see them live in 2 days, and the playlist is getting worse and worse. The only reason why I'm still somewhat excited is because of Cry Of Achilles and I look forward a lot to ATP opening the concert.

I'm personally perfectly ok with not playing WDTTW, and I think you should try being impatient because you can't wait for the concert to come, not worry about the setlist.
What happens if they introduce more songs, all this vexation for nothing? Relax, be mad after the gig if that's what you choose to do.

Okay, I'll live by those words the coming days

[RuRo]

Setlists for a DVD is another issue. Assuming we're fortunate to get more then the best thing for them to do is to really try and make sure that the DVD setlists are as different as possible (within reason), so that fans aren't literally buying a new DVD for only 4 songs they don't already have on DVD. They didn't really do that for Wembley - it was lacking in AB III compared to Blackbird (even though it was more compared to what's being played from Fortress) and the older stuff was the same as on Amsterdam.

If they were to do a DVD again where the majority of the setlist has been on the past 2 DVDs, a few songs were on the last one and only 4 things are new, in my opinion that's extremely poor. And yes, I realise it hasn't happened yet so I am definitely not going to complain about something we don't even know yet, but remember the last time everything was supposed to be saved for Wembley, it was supposed to be OK to not play any more AB III stuff at the shows before because they were saving things like WDTTW for Wembley, and possibly throwing in a couple of older songs that weren't on Live From Amsterdam. But then that never happened, so you can understand why some people interpret the current setlists as bad signalling for what could be coming on a future DVD, and don't have complete faith that they'll suddenly play 8 Fortress songs after playing 3-5 before.

So yeah, not much new stuff in the UK is definitely bad in terms of my own chance to see them live, but it's also a bad signal for new stuff on DVD as well...

[Crumbso]

Jim they fuck up virtually every concert in some way shape or form. I don't think them messing up Calm the Fire is gonna ruin anything. Myles doesnt miss notes because whenever he senses that a difficult note is coming up he finds a way to avoid it for the most part. Whenever they mess something up in concert they have been human enough to admit it, and for the most part the crowd loves the human aspect of it.

Last time I saw them live they messed up All Hope is Gone and Myles shouted out "I'm gonna give 10 bucks to the next person who tells me the fucking lyrics to this song" and the crowd went into an uncontrollable cheer throughout the rest of the song. Shit happens.

Yet people still make excuses for them being perfectionists? It's weird. They do fuck things up but they always have. That's the beauty of it. If they want everything to be perfect then why did they change the Waters Rising riff?

[AB23]

I don't go to live concerts to hear an album perfect version of a song. Its the human aspect and the crowd involvement that I enjoy. I mean, I don't want them to alter a song so much that its not enjoyable (like they did with burn it down) but I don't want them to make a song absolutely perfect