Experience Hendrix tour - Sony Centre, Toronto, Oct. 28, 2010 Part 3

Better late than never, here's the final bit of my sort-of review of the Experience Hendrix show last week in Toronto. After Kenny Wayne Shepherd had kind of torn up the house with full-on blasting and swagger, the duo of David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas seemed to be something of a low-key letdown.  But as I settled into their short set, I appreciated the burnished tones, effortless interplay and classy licks of these two Los Lobos veterans.  After running through "Can You See Me" and "Little Wing" Hidalgo and Rosas were joined by the Slide Brothers and Robert Randolph. Rob Quail worried aloud that three steel guitars would sound like a swarm of mosquitos, and he was not far wrong, despite the obvious talent of the musicians. A total of five guitars jamming on "Them Changes"? Not for the weak of heart.

The steel players stayed on stage to be joined by Living Colour for "Purple Haze," and then Steve Vai took the stage for his mini-set, which I found quite enjoyable despite his shredder tone and quirky phrasing. His sense of humour came through strongly on "Midnight" (from War Heroes), "May This Be Love," "Love or Confusion" and "Foxy Lady." The final song featured Billy Cox on lead vocals; he announced "Red House" as Jimi's favourite song, and admirably finished the night with Brad Whitford and Mato Nanji. There was no encore.

I was pretty impressed with the concert overall; it was certainly a great value for the money - we paid just over $100 per ticket, and that was the top price.  Not bad for no less than thirteen fine lead guitarists playing some of the greatest songs of Jimi Hendrix's career and paying tribute to his singular guitar style.

Experience Hendrix tour - Sony Centre, Toronto, Oct. 28, 2010 Part 2

Next out was former teenage blues phenom Jonny Lang, now 27. His was one of only two Teles seen that night - almost all of the guitars played were Strats. No one sported a Flying V, and in fact Gibsons were completely absent from the show; no wonder, since the tour is sponsored in part by Fender. Lang has a high-intensity style both on the guitar and vocally - he evinced a grittiness in the latter that was reminiscent of a young Steve Winwood. His very musical solos were largely executed with his right-hand thumb, a la Wes Montgomery.

Joining Lang, and looking three times as old, was the Aerosmith rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford. Whitford has played second banana to Joe Perry for at least two dogs' ages and judging by his performance this night, he has been hiding a solid blues-rock virtuosity. I've always loved the playing of "old guys" the best, especially when it comes to root-based music like blues and country. Brad Whitford had the assured style and tone that only comes from a few thousand one-nighters.

Lang and Whitford traded off on "Fire" and "The Wind Cries Mary," then were joined by Mato Nanji of Indigenous for "Spanish Castle Magic". Indigenous is a Native blues-rock band of some renown I gather, although I have not heard of them. I mentioned Nanji's brutal stage volume in the last post, and his relative inexperience was showing alongside Whitford, especially.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd and singer Noah Hunt were next out, and KWS evinced all of the charisma that Eric Johnson lacked. His blues-rock guitar style lies at the edge of hard rock, and his frequent cock-rock posing harkened back to a better time for guitarists of that stripe. Noah Hunt was hilariously pretentious, with a stentorian vocal style and dramatic gestures that would be masterfully parodied by a Will Ferrell or even a Jimmy Fallon. Kenny and Noah performed "Come On," "Voodoo Child" and "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)". I'm not sure that I can even hear "Slight Return" anymore - it's been run into the ground by too many bar bands.  But the slow, mysterious "Voodoo Child" was a highlight. Rob Quail noted with hilarity that I yawned during KWS's set, and I don't doubt it, though I must say that I respect his commitment to a somewhat discredited performing approach.

Part 3 soon to come.

Experience Hendrix tour - Sony Centre, Toronto, Oct. 28, 2010

I don't go to a lot of concerts these days - I work most evenings and it's hard to justify taking one of my rare nights off to spend $100+ on a show. But when I saw this concert advertised I was so impressed by the lineup that I decided to round up a couple of guitar freak friends and check it out.
The Sony Centre, formerly the Hummingbird Centre, formerly the O'Keefe Centre, is an acoustically excellent concert hall in downtown Toronto. Janie Hendrix, Jimi's half-sister and the administrator of the Hendrix estate, started the evening with a short speech, which we missed because we were in line to get beers. I regaled my friends, Rob Quail and John Davis, with stories of Experience Hendrix merchandising gaffes of the past, such as the Jimi Hendrix golf balls and the Jimi Hendrix red wine (one of the substances that killed Jimi in 1970).
We settled into our seats in the centre of the orchestra section, midway between the soundboard and the stage in the middle of Ernie Isley's three-song set. He was backed by Billy Cox (Band of Gypsys, Jimi Hendrix Experience) and Chris Layton (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble). Isley played some Hendrix-like guitar and told a quick story about Jimi staying at his house in the early sixties when he was an Isley Brothers sideman. Isley played "Stone Free" and "Message To Love" with a nice touch but a ratty tone to my ears.
I believe that Living Colour was next - their second lineup with Doug Wimbish on bass. They did very good versions of "Power of Soul" and "Crosstown Traffic" - some of the best-rehearsed music of the evening. It was nice to see black musicians well represented in this show; it could easily have gone the other way, but curator John McDermott should be commended for a well-balanced and interesting lineup. Living Colour was not much changed from their late-80s heyday, though Corey Glover has put on a few pounds and his plaid sweater and cap ensemble brought the "Rerun" character from the 70s series "What's Happening" to mind for me. Vernon Reid played his trademark flurries of fast notes in every solo; Rob Quail commented something to the effect that when it comes to phrasing, VR just doesn't. It's a love-or-hate thing. I happen to enjoy what he does - there's a modernism to his playing that appeals to me.
Eric Johnson, the Texas guitar god, performed "House Burning Down," "Drifting," "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," and "Are You Experienced?" very faithfully in terms of arrangement and tones. When he let loose on his trademark wide-interval solos, the crowd of mostly male, ponytailed and mulleted baby boomers shouted their approval, along with entreaties for him to "turn it up." Johnson's guitar was not as audible as it could be; the sound crew had a hard time balancing the various guitar rigs on stage at times.  With some of the players, the amps were so loud on stage so as to obviate the need for the PA altogether, as was the case with Mato Nanji from Indigenous, a subpar player whose Marshall cabinet was hurting our ears right off the stage. In spite of his stiff image and hard-to-hear guitar, Eric Johnson made an excellent impression with his impeccable execution and musicianship. I especially appreciated his astounding reproduction of the backwards solo in "Are You Experienced?"

part 2 to come...

Walking in Toronto Part 2: More guitar iconography.

Part of the window display for a condo.

College Street lamppost

Queen Video, College Street. Nice Rickenbacker 4001 bass.

Amp-themed coffee cup. Gift shop, College Street

Magazine store, College Street

Lamppost, College Street

There's a guitar in there, I swear! Soundscapes display window.

Another poster in the window of Soundscapes.

Soundscapes window.

Soundscapes ukelele-themed window display, advertising the documentary film The Mighty Uke.

Deconstructing Luther Perkins

Learning some Luther Perkins licks today for a gig. Luther was Johnny Cash's guitarist from 1955 to Luther's death in 1968. He's a good example of a musician who noticeably develops and advances over the course of his career. One Johnny Counterfit writes on one of his webpages about Luther:

In conversations with Luther’s widow, Margie, I discover Luther had a never-ending desire to improve his guitar talents, including adding more intricate dimensions within his own creation.


His lead licks on early Cash sides like "Cry Cry Cry" (1956) were rudimentary but effective. By the time of the recording of At Folsom Prison in 1968, Luther was a fluid country player. He died tragically that year in a house fire at the age of 40.

Of particular interest for me at the moment are the lead guitar parts for "Cry Cry Cry" and "Get Rhythm". They're mostly boogie patterns, with occasional counter-intuitive moments. There's something stoic about Luther's early licks on these songs. That quality meshes well with Cash's doomy voice and stentorian songs.

Walking in Toronto: Guitar Iconography

Yesterday I resolved to take a picture of every image of a guitar that I saw on my walk through downtown Toronto. I guess you could say that I was engaging in some casual fieldwork on guitar culture. The interesting thing for me is the variety of ways that images of guitars are used to represent different ideas.

From the Metro free paper - a Royal Bank ad for student loans - the guitar is a luxury item, as opposed to the more necessary schoolbooks

The window display at Remenyi Music, a store catering to Royal Conservatory of Music and University of Toronto music students. The electric bass is nestled among more traditionally 'legit' instruments.

From the same window, an ad for the upscale Lowden acoustic guitars.

Shredding for change at Bloor and Yonge.

Pointy guitars have become a retro rock and roll symbol, suitable for belt buckles.

Window display at the weird, dusty music store on Yonge.

Away for a month and still hunting for a small amp.

It's been about a month since my last post and it's not really laziness that prompted this extended break from the bloggin'. In the time since I last posted, I played a whack of gigs, exchanged my new Marshall Class 5 (not enough volume to be useful in a lot of gigging situations) for a Traynor YCM-20 (which I'm about to return as well - the reverb feeds back on the lead channel and the amp is generally uninspiring), seen Mike Stern and Bill Frisell live in clubs and have generally had my hands full with a variety of time-consuming musical projects.
Mike Stern was especially inspiring.  I had never seen him play before, but I have been aware of him since the 80s, when he played in one of Miles Davis' late bands. My impression is that he just plays what he wants and doesn't worry too much about putting a label on what he does, or fitting in to current fashions.  He's really a classic fusion player, with a constant outpouring of ideas, beautiful phrasing, and a quite nice tone from a Yamaha Pacifica, a stereo solid-state amp setup including a Pearce amp (no longer available but I coveted one at the Guitar Clinic in Hamilton back in the day) and an old Yamaha amp that I can't identify, along with the 'doubling' effect on the old Yamaha SPX-90 digital effects unit (which comes out sounding a lot like chorus).
That Mike Stern was able to coax such lovely sounds out of solid-state gear has got me re-evaluating my fealty to tube amps. I just don't seem to be able to find a usable small tube amp in the price range that I'm working in. I'm looking at the ZT Club 12, which is a digital amp that weighs 22 pounds and puts out 200 watts. My good friend and musical partner Alec Fraser just switched to digital for his bass amp, and I have to say that he is achieving a convincing SVT tone with the tiniest of high-powered amp heads. I'll probably do the exchange tomorrow and report back.
Oh, and I still have my Strat. Long story involving Eric Clapton. Another time.