Tremonti and Trivium perform in Tampa

Mark Tremonti and his band have to do their latest tour without their usual bassist. His other band is touring at the same time, so he decided to tour with them instead.

The other band is called Van Halen.

"It's kind of this little side project he's working on," Tremonti joked.

The bassist is named Wolfgang Van Halen. He'll be playing with his dad and his uncle Alex on Sunday at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa.

On Saturday, the band Tremonti will have a substitute bassist when they play a few miles away at the Ritz Ybor in Tampa.

It's just a coincidence that the two tours are synching up in Tampa. But because they do, local audiences may be the only ones along the tour to catch Wolfgang Van Halen performing with Tremonti.

"If he's in town and he has the night off, I'm sure he'll stop by," Tremonti said.

(He does indeed have Saturday night off. Van Halen plays Friday night in Charlotte, N.C., and then their next show is Sunday in Tampa.)

Meanwhile, though, Tremonti and his bandmates -- guitarist Eric Friedman, drummer Garrett Whitlock and tour bassist Tanner Keegan -- have been at their home base in Orlando, getting ready to head out on a tour in support of their latest album, "Cauterize."

"That came out in May," Tremonti said. "We've did another album that's all done and that's coming out early next year."

The tour started Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, then stops at Orlando (or technically, Lake Buena Vista) before Saturday's Tampa show, and then heads out across the country for the next six weeks.

Mark Tremonti first came to fame as the guitarist and one of the two main songwriters for Creed and as the guitarist for Alter Bridge. Even though he's been touring extensively with Tremonti in 2014, Alter Bridge is still very much alive.

"We have the first four months of net year booked up for studio time," he said. "And Myles (Kennedy, Alter Bridge's singer) has a solo album coming out, too. So there's a lot of music coming out of our camp."

On the current tour, Tremonti's performing with another Orlando metal band. Trivium, and a band called Wilson out of Detroit.

Justin Spencer, the lead guitarist for Wilson, said his band sounds like AC/DC on steroids.

"We try to sound like the last Friday night on earth," he said.

The band's aren't a perfect stylistic match. Tremonti admits, but they all have followings and he thinks they'll complement each other.

"We've played with Trivium at festivals," Tremonti said, "and we've played a couple of cruises with Wilson. But this is the first time we've toured with them. It'll take the first couple of shows to see how the crowds mix, but I think it'll be great."

Details: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12, The Ritz Ybor, 1503 E. Seventh Ave., Tampa. Tickets: $22 advance, $25 day of show, $35 balcony (21 and over). Information: (813) 247-2555, theritzybor.com.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919.

Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Tremonti and Trivium perform in Tampa ."