Saw a cool show last night....................

[TommyD]

> A local band featuring the only serious student I ever had played at one of my usual bars last night. This kid showed up at my house one day with a guitar and a set of Boomers,apparently he heard me jamming a few days before and was looking for someone to teach him. He was going about it all wrong at first,wanted to learn Ozzy and Ratt stuff before he even knew how to tune up or change strings. Through a total lack of coordination and raw talent,he plugged away like no one I have ever seen except in stuff like certain sports. His ambition has served him well,as he is without question the best player in a working band in this area now. I got there late in the set,due to work,and had to leave early to see about a booty call,which fell thru dammit,LOL. When I got there,they had just started Poundcake,which he pretty much nailed. Next up was Crazy Train,which he also totally nailed. To my surprise,they did Don't Tell Me You Love Me,and as soon as I recognized the opening riff,I asked another player from back in the day if he could nail Jeff Watson's part the way he had everything else. He told me "hell,yesterday he said he didn't even have a cd of it to try and learn it,so I have no clue". Before long we found out,and he SMOKED it,later saying he found the Powertab for it and worked on it for like 45 minutes,then plays it perfect the very first time he ever played it live,and was a spur of the moment decision to even play it to begin with. The next song was Radar Love,his part was closer to Vito Bratta's version than the original,and just kept killing us. The whole band then stepped on their dick by letting some half drunk chick come up and butcher that horrible Sheryl Crow/Kid Rock song with the drummer,then redeemed themselves with a metalized version of The Devil Went Down To Georgia,with Joe the guitarist playing the fiddle part,this was one of the best cover songs I have ever heard live. They took requests for their encore song,and after a lot of drunken rambling and the typical "play some Skynyrd" I'll be damned if they didn't choose something totally opposite of the typcial set list you have to play to be a successful working band in this area,Judas Priest's Painkiller,theoretically to show people they can throw down as well as play stuff that people around here will dig,the singer didn't quite nail Halford's part,but didn't expect him to,and Joe was all over the guitar part like he owned it. We got to talking after I came back from the missed booty call,and played his Model 4 some,and saw something I have never seen before. His middle pickup has never been adjusted from where it was when he bought it,and has been scooped out by his pick,apparently he really sticks the pick deep in between the strings,and was worn it down to the point where it looks like he did it with a half-round file,parallel to the strings. He played his black Model 4 all night,with a black cherry one for backup. His rig was a Peavey Triple X he bought that day,an RP-14 in the effects loop,and 2 Behringer cabs. His tone was killer,and for the Night Ranger tune,he changed tone settings to try and match the original,and if I had never seen his rig,I would have sworn it was a Mark IIC+,it sounded that good. Oddly enough,he said he's a cop in Brownsville,Tn,and knows another friend of mine who is a state trooper working the same county. Cop Rock? I'd say so. Tommy D.

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Saw a cool show last night....................

I saw an amazing show last night too...this girl came into work yesterday morning and I was talking to her for a bit, and it turned out that she was playing a coffeeshop later on. So after work I went and managed to catch her last 3 songs...no shredding, no cover songs, no amps, but she just sang her ass off and it was rad... www.rachelmerchand.com

[Newc]

Re: Saw a cool show last night....................

Tommy - I know a guy sorta like that out in Lexington/Parsons TN - Marvin Talley. He can read Tab like Segovia could read Standard Notation. I let him borrow about 10 or 12 of my GFTPMs and GWs and after about 3 months when I got 'em back he had almost all the songs nailed, and he had never heard most of them [img]/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] I was like "Dude, no way" but my singer at the time (Marvin's bestest buddy) says "No really, he don't have that tape, and never heard those songs before".
I forget which particular bands were the ones he hadn't heard, but the only ones that gave him trouble were the Racer X (YRO) and Yngwie stuff - prolly cuz of how it was tabbed with all the Rhy Fig 1 and Fill 2 boxes at the bottom of the pages. Had he heard those tracks and seen the tab laid out straight without the stray boxes at the bottom, I do believe he could have played them that day perfectly.
He almost had the Rhoads stuff nailed, but because of how the stray Figure/Fill boxes were scattered on the pages, those fills came out kinda dry.

Unfortunately for Marvin, he suffers from "Meedlyitis" and "Volumus Maximus" [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] as well as "there's another guitarist in the room - time for "SHRED WARS" " [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] (as well as Megalomania, but hey, who doesn't? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img])

Other than those severe issues, had I been looking to start a Shred Metal band, Marvin woulda been on lead.

Newc