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Guitarmageddon at the Roxy

fdesalvo

fdesalvo

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Last night, I met Slash, Sambora, Winters, Trucks (the old one haha), Gibbons, and a heap of others at a small benefit concert in West Hollywood.

My mind was bloooown.  Normally when I see a stage full of lead guitarists, I just change channels, but these guys were on point and the only one guilty of shameless wankery was Lukather, who somehow resembles a 70's vintage p*rn star (Hey, I love the guy!).  Incidentally, his tone was very harsh and void of mids!  Slash's tone was very thin and jagged, as well.  The best tone of the evening went to Gibbons, who was playing a new Magnatone (What!).  They hauled out Edgar Winter mid-set.  Guy looks like Gandalf, except he was wielding a sax instead of his staff!  Guy had tons of energy and was just amazing. 

Got to do the meet'n greet thing and everyone was really gracious.  I'm just now starting to absorb what I saw and heard last night.  What a great night of rock!  Sad that the golden age of music has passed.  I don't know if the environment will ever allow bands like this to flourish again.
 
Sounds like a blast.  Like you, I usually move on when I'm channel surfing and a gaggle of lead guitarists show up.  Glad it turned out to be a positive thing for you.


As far as whether bands like that can continue to flourish - well, I think there will always be folks who are dedicated to playing and performing, but the cats who made the 70's happen will, necessarily, all go on ahead and leave us to carry on.  Best we can do is to do the best we can do.  Play out when you can, and play with others even when you can only do it in the local Grange hall on a Saturday afternoon.
 
big +1 on that

Bagman67 said:
Sounds like a blast.  Like you, I usually move on when I'm channel surfing and a gaggle of lead guitarists show up.  Glad it turned out to be a positive thing for you.


As far as whether bands like that can continue to flourish - well, I think there will always be folks who are dedicated to playing and performing, but the cats who made the 70's happen will, necessarily, all go on ahead and leave us to carry on.  Best we can do is to do the best we can do.  Play out when you can, and play with others even when you can only do it in the local Grange hall on a Saturday afternoon.
Click to expand...

 
Sounds like a once in a lifetime adventure.


So Gibbons, like this?!                    Sorry so big. Is there a way to resize a link?

31062-9094900-Magnatone_011_jpg.jpg
 
Doc,

The takeaway for me was how amazing the big jam bands like the Allman Bros were.  I wish I could've seen them in their day.  Butch Trucks was there playing on one of the drum kits and this guy is a firecracker!  It was fun to watch him messing with the other guys on stage. At one point during the outro of a song, he was trying to trick Sambora into hitting the last note early.  I think I'd have missed those antics entirely if I wasn't a musician.

Another thing - Gibbons.  Man that guy still has the touch and presence.  Despite being sandwiched between Lukather, Sambora, Slash, and a couple other lead players, everyone's attention was on him.  Even the guys on stage were just in awe of him.  In the midst of this 6 man solo/wankery, Gibbons simply let a note sustain and extended his tele with one hand towards the audience and let it feedback into this one-handed bend.  All the guitarists on stage just looked over and smiled.  He found a way to cut through.  I gotta say, hearing him do those little pinch harmonics on the low string bends live was way cool haha.  :guitarplayer2:

Edit: I left wondering if we'd ever have bands like these surface again, but I don't think the soil is fertile enough to support a band's growth over the decades as was the case with the Allman Bros, Zep, Aerosmith, etc...I think the talent is out there, but you will have to work hard to find it and no label is going to bother developing them in this age of the "Single".  We need to bring back musicianship and showmanship.  Bring back guitar and keyboard solos.

The guy who got me into this event makes the jewelry that Slash, Gibbons, and the other cats were wearing.  I had no idea who he was when we met, and the fact he lived in my condo complex in Orange County, CA - far removed from LA by SoCal standards was even more of a shock.  I was working from home at the time and had the patio door open to let in some cool air.  In the middle of my work day, I heard some really great jazz/blues fusion guitar ringing out and thought one of my neighbors was playing a CD.  I was focusing on trying to ID the artist when I heard a flubbed note.  I thought, "This is LIVE! And there's another guitarist here besides me!" So, I did what any of you would've done - I turned my amp on, cranked it to 6 and hit some of my comfort zone blues moves.  I turned off the amp thinking I could be disturbing the neighbors and went back to work.

Moments later, I heard the sound of acoustic blues getting louder and louder until there was a knock at my door.  I opened it thinking a pissed off neighbor was waiting for me, but it was him playing the blues right in front of me haha.  He said, "Man, I heard this glorious sound and I followed it to your door!" I told him, "Come on in!  We are jamming!" I've been friends with him ever since and he's the coolest cat you will meet.  He literally has 75 vintage guitars of every kind and probably just as many holy grail amps all over his place.  I mean original plexis, tweeds, blackfaces, you name it.  His place is the equivalent of having a sofa and bed inside of the Hollywood guitar center vault. 

You gotta love how random life can be and how fate works its thing in the background.  It took me moving out of West Hollywood and off of Sunset to meet a guy this real and cool.  I'll close with some cool Gibbons trivia - my friend made him a cross necklace by request, but he said he'd probably never wear it (he ended up wearing it that night, though).  BFG has a necklace with some really cool things hanging from it - one is the car key from James Dean's fatal car crash scene.  Another "charm" is Clark Gable's apartment key from when he was up and coming.  He's got other crazy things on there, as well.  Kinda cool to know.
 
Very nice web page work and lots of hard work indeed. Sounded good even through my tiny e-machine monitor speakers which means sounded great if it were played through the Lab-Techs on my other computer. On the topic of Gibbons, my brother in law did a bunch of artwork and promotion for ZZ Top in their early days and he remains known to Gibbons on a first name basis. And as I recall Gibbons himself doodles around with artwork. My brother in law is also a photographer and the photo of Hendrix on page 5 of the insert and the back cover on the Valleys of Neptune CD was taken by him in Dallas 1968. When I was a wee lad I saw Hendrix play at the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport LA. The Municipal Concert preceded the Dallas concert by a few days; brother in law was also at the Municipal event which I found out many years later. And yes I also hail from LA. BTW, The CD cover photo was taken by Linda McCarthy.
If you attend another event grab those autographs, they come in handy down the road. If I could go back in time I would have gotten a SRV signature which in and of itself is artwork. Thanks for sharing your trip to the Roxy.




 
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