Tremonti shredded their way through the UK delivering a night of metal mastery to Bristol’s O2 Academy

Words & photos by James Crisp (@james_taking_pictures) | Feb 10, 2025

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What originally started as a solo passion project some 15 years ago for Mark Tremonti, has now led to 6 incredible albums and countless US/European/UK tours under its belt.

Mark Tremonti is known as the guitar virtuoso and songwriter from the multiple award-winning alternative rock/metal bands such as Creed and Alter Bridge. Tremonti, with an abundance of music, thought it only right to bring his somewhat more thrashy, metal, guitar solo-soaked tunes to the masses; thus, Tremonti was brought into existence.

The band itself is made up of well-established musicians and insanely talented (as to be expected from a band led by Mark Tremonti). First, we have Eric Friedman on rhythm/lead guitar and backing vocals; next on bass and backing vocals is Tanner Keegan, then behind the kit sits Ryan Bennett and taking centre stage, the man himself, on lead/rhythm guitar and lead vocals Mark Tremonti.

Tonight, we only have one support band, and that comes in the form of the South Wales trio Tristan Thomas, Jordan Evans and Perry Davies, who make up the mighty Florence Black and what a way to kick the night off. The classic rock/80s rock-inspired band took those influences and made it oh so much heavier. It was hard for the crowd to refrain from banging their heads and dancing around like the room was on fire. The perfect way to warm the crowd up.

Now it is time for our main event headliners. The lights dim down to complete darkness as the members of ‘Tremonti’ head out onto the stage one by one to an enormous roar from the crowd. They and I knew exactly what was in store, and we were all so correct.

The band went straight in full force with the title track of 2015’s ‘Cauterize’, and from that first guitar chug and beautifully fast double kick pattern, the show had begun, and the crowd were in a complete frenzy from here on out. If you are familiar with Mark Tremonti’s songwriting style, then you can imagine how loud the packed-out crowd were singing his signature phenomenally catchy choruses; it was loud!

This may have been a tour in support of the latest album ’The End Will Show Us How’ but the band were kind enough to treat us with delights from all six albums in the back catalogue, from songs such as ‘So you’re afraid’ and ‘You waste your time’ from the 2012 debut album ‘All I was’ and ‘Catching Fire’ and ‘My last mistake’ from the 2016 album ‘Dust’.

The band really made these songs look so easy to play, but any musician will tell you some of the things they were pulling off were sometimes what seemed near impossible; it was such a great sight and sound seeing and hearing these guys do what they do best and to pretty much absolute perfection too.

Before ending the set with a two-song encore consisting of the songs ‘A Dying Machine’ and ‘Wish you Well’ Mark Tremonti gave out a huge thank you to not only the audience in attendance but to the UK fans as a whole as the band has always been so loved and welcomed over here on our little island.

The set was a two-hour masterclass in songwriting and just masterful playing. I strongly urge anyone to go check them out when they inevitably return on the next UK run of shows.

Thank you, Tremonti, for a truly unforgettable night.