Walk the Sky Europe 2019 Tour w/ Shinedown and the Raven Age

[Blackbird]

Myles just played Wonderful Life spontaneously, without it being on the setlist. Mark was confused as hell and I was happy as hell.

[Silvercreed]

Myles just played Wonderful Life spontaneously, without it being on the setlist. Mark was confused as hell and I was happy as hell.

How was the sound in these concerts in Germany?

[Blackbird]

Amazing - compared to basically all in-door concerts in relatively small venues I've been to in the past, even though AB obviously don't play in really small venues anymore. Myles' voice was always very audible, same goes for both guitars, even though Mark's could've been a bit louder in Berlin and Leipzig. We also were in the front row/close to the front row in two of these gigs where the sound is normally significantly worse than farther back.

[Thierry]

I hope the sets will be more interesting during the remainder of the tours. I’m having a problem that the core of the set has been the same since the Blackbird tour. They can easily stop playing Come to Life and Rise today for example. I’m not a fan of Watch over you either but the full band joining half way through the song makes it more bearable for me. They have so many great songs. I’m hoping for In the deep, Dying Light, Godspeed, Indoctrination during one of my two shows (Cologne or Amsterdam)

[anguyen92]

I find it hard for the core of the set to be the same since Blackbird since these are the only songs they retained since the Blackbird tour (out of 17-19 song slots a night).

Open Your Eyes
Metalingus
In Loving Memory
Blackbird
Rise Today
Come to Life
Watch Over You (and this is actually slotted in the occasionally played slot rather than a usual staple)

That stated, now after AB III and Fortress, they retained the same five songs that they always played from those albums. At the very least, I'm hoping they can replace Waters Rising with Forever Falling as it looks to be one of the more standouts from Walk the Sky.

[Blackbird]

I hope the sets will be more interesting during the remainder of the tours. I’m having a problem that the core of the set has been the same since the Blackbird tour. They can easily stop playing Come to Life and Rise today for example. I’m not a fan of Watch over you either but the full band joining half way through the song makes it more bearable for me. They have so many great songs. I’m hoping for In the deep, Dying Light, Godspeed, Indoctrination during one of my two shows (Cologne or Amsterdam)

These songs you mentioned still draw a massively positive reaction from every live crowd. There's no reason for them to drop them. Us hardcore fans are only a small percentage of the people that go to their concerts, and it's actually essential for them to play songs that everybody knows because that could be the difference between a casual listener going to a concert, hearing CTL or Rise Today and thinking "Hell yeah, that rocked, I'll do that again" or not hearing any song they really know and thinking "Fuck that band, I'll go see a different act next time".

By the way, anguyen, you should swap ILM and WOY in that list. They constantly played WOY for years and years, it's only in this tour that they primarily play ILM instead of it.

[Silvercreed]

Amazing - compared to basically all in-door concerts in relatively small venues I've been to in the past, even though AB obviously don't play in really small venues anymore. Myles' voice was always very audible, same goes for both guitars, even though Mark's could've been a bit louder in Berlin and Leipzig. We also were in the front row/close to the front row in two of these gigs where the sound is normally significantly worse than farther back.

Really? I'm glad to "hear" that!
I'm not very excited for the concert next December (due to the setlist) but I hope they continue with this sound improvement at least.

Thanks for the info.

[Thierry]

I hope the sets will be more interesting during the remainder of the tours. I’m having a problem that the core of the set has been the same since the Blackbird tour. They can easily stop playing Come to Life and Rise today for example. I’m not a fan of Watch over you either but the full band joining half way through the song makes it more bearable for me. They have so many great songs. I’m hoping for In the deep, Dying Light, Godspeed, Indoctrination during one of my two shows (Cologne or Amsterdam)

These songs you mentioned still draw a massively positive reaction from every live crowd. There's no reason for them to drop them. Us hardcore fans are only a small percentage of the people that go to their concerts, and it's actually essential for them to play songs that everybody knows because that could be the difference between a casual listener going to a concert, hearing CTL or Rise Today and thinking "Hell yeah, that rocked, I'll do that again" or not hearing any song they really know and thinking "Fuck that band, I'll go see a different act next time".

By the way, anguyen, you should swap ILM and WOY in that list. They constantly played WOY for years and years, it's only in this tour that they primarily play ILM instead of it.

I understand what you are trying to say. I’ve been following them since 2004. Saw a shitload of live shows. So why isn’t Broken Wings a part of the core set then? I’d like to see more variety in their sets, if Springsteen or Neil Young can do this, why not AB.

[Blackbird]

I guess because they're not big enough to risk it. I can't answer why it's CTL over Broken Wings, but rotating out some of these songs they always play is a risk. If you're selling out stadiums all over the world you might be able to rotate a lot, but AB have 17 slots in their current set and want to play as much of their new album as possible. Currently that's 5 songs, which leaves 12 slots for five albums. Sure, they could rotate out Rise Today for something like, I don't know, Wayward One, I Know It Hurts, Bleed It Dry or whatever from time to time, but they'll disappoint 2000 people who come to their gigs to see Rise Today and please 200 who want them to play something unique. Is that worth it if you're concerned about being able to make a living off your music?

Edit: By the way, I'm totally with you, I'd love them to make more varied setlists, just trying to argue why they probably don't do it.

[abw1987]

It imagine the setlist creation process is challenging when trying to balance playing well-known songs for casual listeners, deep cuts for die-hard fans, and songs that have proven to excite live audiences in the past. However, I agree some added variety would be nice. For the last couple tour cycles, they've basically started each show with the same 3 or 4 songs, and only have at most a handful of rotation slots in each set. I remember reading they had greenlit 35 songs for this tour cycle. I get that that's a lot of songs to have memorized and to be comfortable enough performing, but if a tour comprises 35 dates, they only need to change up one song per night to get through all 35. (Or less, actually, since the first show will already cover the number of songs in the set.) This is a band that has written something like 80 songs. It feels like they could rotate at least 60% of their catalogue and still keep concertgoers happy.

[Silvercreed]

But why should any hardcore fan be disappointed that the band didn't play for the millionth time Open your eyes, Come to life, Rise today, Isolation or even Blackbird? whatever... Are they just fans of these specific songs or the band?

They could change the setlist every tour, fans would always be happy, I think.
I always had the idea the fans like everything the band does, generally speaking.

It is because they are always repeating the same songs, will probably be the last AB concert I will ever see (if there is another).

[Thierry]

Is that worth it if you're concerned about being able to make a living off your music?

Edit: By the way, I'm totally with you, I'd love them to make more varied setlists, just trying to argue why they probably don't do it.

I totally understand what you are saying. It’s a shame though. I’d love to go to more AB concerts but the setlists, they are just not cutting it for me to get more tickets. I know they are focusing on the casuals.

[Blackbird]

But why should any hardcore fan be disappointed that the band didn't play for the millionth time Open your eyes, Come to life, Rise today, Isolation or even Blackbird? whatever... Are they just fans of these specific songs or the band?

They could change the setlist every tour, fans would always be happy, I think.
I always had the idea the fans like everything the band does, generally speaking.

It is because they are always repeating the same songs, will probably be the last AB concert I will ever see (if there is another).

My point is not that hardcore fans, but casual fans will be disappointed, and those tend to become more and more important the more a band grows. As a casual fan, I don't go to a concert because I want to see Alter Bridge. I go to a concert because I want to hear Come To Life, Rise Today or Open Your Eyes. Specifically. If I don't hear that song, I'm gonna be disappointed, and I might not go to another concert.

[anguyen92]

Even Rush, when they were still around, with one of the most dedicated fanbase in history, delivering 2.5 hour sets every night on tour for almost 20 years, playing various deep cuts from all their albums, people were still going to be upset if they didn't play either YYZ or Freewill. Especially, if the tradeoff was going to be stuff from a recent album like Clockwork Angels or a big deep cut from Permanent Waves like Jacob's Ladder or Entre Nous, but Rush decided to tailor their sets based on the theme they had in mind and won't back down from it (much like all the challenges they faced as a band). Casual fans (which as much as we hate to say it, we do need those kinds of fans if bands are going to fill arenas) would be really irritate if they didn't hear Tom Sawyer or The Spirit of Radio.

I'm seeing AB four more times in 2020 and I don't honestly care if the setlists remains the same, but I would think a lot of people have the luxury to see AB only once in a decade or so (and that number of those fans is way more than what we, the forum, speculate on how that show would a person's first and maybe only AB show). I can imagine the disappointment if they didn't play Open Your Eyes, Metalingus, Isolation, and Blackbird, and yes, even Rise Today.

Of course, and I'm going to push this idea down to the ground until AB actually does this thing, the easier answer to all of this is to have no openers and play longer sets in the process. Sure, it probably has the less likelihood of filling an arena, but it keeps the fanbase more hyped to see more songs from them play and casual fan or not, I think we can all agree that seeing more AB songs played in a show is always a good thing.

[Blackbird]

Of course, and I'm going to push this idea down to the ground until AB actually does this thing, the easier answer to all of this is to have no openers and play longer sets in the process. Sure, it probably has the less likelihood of filling an arena, but it keeps the fanbase more hyped to see more songs from them play and casual fan or not, I think we can all agree that seeing more AB songs played in a show is always a good thing.

I agree with a lot you've written, but strongly oppose this point. Having two openers as in the current tour is definitely too much even for my tastes, but having openers is incredibly important for these smaller bands to get exposure. Bands like Halestorm or Starset (using these as examples because I've seen them as support acts years ago) probably wouldn't be able to do solo gigs in Europe without their exposure as support acts for bigger bands. That's incredibly important to keep a healthy amount of rock bands that are big enough to survive from making music alone.

Additionally, I could imagine that Myles really needs to take care of his voice and doing 20+ song sets might put a little too much strain on it. He's already using a number of techniques to lower the pressure live, e.g. changing words like "away" to "awee" when singing high notes because it's easier and allows him to do it without pushing as hard.

That said, of course I'd love them to play 22 song sets, I just don't see it happening.

[Andy92]

I think AB has more casual fans than we sometimes realize. I saw them in Columbus and the crowd really responded to Rise Today and Open Your Eyes, and it was a bit more hit and miss everywhere else in the set.

[abw1987]

Mark sang "Burn it Down" again last night in Warsaw:

Somehow even better than last time! Great vocals and I love the extended ending they've been doing.

[Thierry]

Mark sang "Burn it Down" again last night in Warsaw:

Somehow even better than last time! Great vocals and I love the extended ending they've been doing.

I’d love to see this in Cologne. Great performance.

[The Dissident]

I find it hard for the core of the set to be the same since Blackbird since these are the only songs they retained since the Blackbird tour (out of 17-19 song slots a night).

Open Your Eyes
Metalingus
In Loving Memory
Blackbird
Rise Today
Come to Life
Watch Over You (and this is actually slotted in the occasionally played slot rather than a usual staple)

That stated, now after AB III and Fortress, they retained the same five songs that they always played from those albums. At the very least, I'm hoping they can replace Waters Rising with Forever Falling as it looks to be one of the more standouts from Walk the Sky.

Going Off of what they have played thus far here is what the setlist appears to be:
1. Wouldn't You Rather
2. Isolation
3. Come To Life
4. Pay No Mind
5. Ghosts Of Days Gone By
6. Burn It Down [Mark]/Broken Wings/Crows On A Wire
7. Rise Today
8. Native Son/White Knuckles (Both have been played in leiu of spot 6 as well]
9. Take The Crown/Dying Light/In The Deep
10. Cry Of Achilles
11. Water Rising
12. In Loving Memory [Acoustic]/Watch Over You [Full Band]
13. Blackbird
14. Open Your Eyes
15. Metallingus
---
16. Godspeed
17. Addicted To Pain

Here is my proposed change:

1. Wouldn't You Rather
2. Isolation
3. Come To Life/Buried Alive/White Knuckles [Blackbird track spot]
4. Pay No Mind/In The Deep/Take The Crown [Rotating Singles spot, if they didn't have One Life Flowing into WYR some of these would be alternating with that.]
5. Ghosts Of Days Gone By
6. Burn It Down [Mark]/Forever Falling/Water Rising [Mark slot #1]
7. Rise Today
8. Broken Wings/Shed My Skin/The End Is Here [ODR Deep cut slot]
9. Dying Light/Lover
10. Cry Of Achilles
11. Burn It Down [Mark]/Forever Falling/Water Rising [Mark slot #2]
12. In Loving Memory [Acoustic]/Watch Over You [Full Band]; [Big Ballad Slot]
13. Calm The Fire/Fortress [Fortress Epic spot]
14. Blackbird
15. Metallingus
---
16. Godspeed
17. Addicted To Pain
18. Open Your Eyes

Personally I feel like this would be a more well rounded setlist with the alternates and potentially including Clear Horizon or Walking On The Sky in addition to some other popular tracks like Words, and Slip. Ideally a 22 song set as stated would be great but I think that would be a bit much on Myles unless they add in some extended jam sessions or let Mark sing 3 of the songs total in the setlist.

Part of my thoughts are at this point either have all the surprises in the main set or have big surprises in the encore. For this I did surprises main set but I think they should move Blackbird into the encore at this point since we all know they will do one and may aswell have that basically be the end of the show.

[mirko.volpon]

They recorded the night of Warsaw for dvd live?