- Sep 14, 2001
- 1,695
- 18
- 38
I found this on Myspace
_________________________
Hey People,
It's Zakalicious again...Finally able to review and upload pics from, as Coza said, "the show of the year". I'm gunna upload a few pics and type heaps so like I always say on every blog I type... Pull up a chair, get a drink, get some food, get comfortable and GET READING lol.
Now most of you that know me, know that my favourite band EVER is Nevermore, for obvious reasons...The main reason being the super shredder that is JEFF LOOMIS.
As soon as I heard that they were coming, I literally, ran out the door, took a bus to Tea Tree Plaza and bought my ticket....First person in Adelaide lml. Gotta love commitment eh lol. Tickets were amazingly cheap so I was glad I didn't have to break my back to get a ticket.
Soon after I said, "I have to get a Jeff Loomis Shirt made" lol. Over the last couple of months anxiously waiting for the day, I was getting ready for the best show of my life, I was looking for pics of Jeff that would catch his eye.
A day before the show I rand and e-mailed T Shirt City for the design, quote and eventual making of the shirt... I couldn't pay for it so I gave my dad $50 to pick it up while I was at work. I knew it was gunna turn out great...I also had "Jeff Loomis Is God" printed on the back to make an ultimate tribute to my guitar hero and biggest influence next to Jason Becker.
The only problem with the shirt I had was it was a bit big so I looked king of hip-hop in it lol.
I t was the day of the show, and I was psyched. I had the camera charged and limited edition copy of "Enemies Of Reality" to get signed. I head off to the venue nervously at 4PM. Nevermore's crew only just rocked up and I was hanging around waiting to meet the band pre-soundcheck. I ran into one of the tour managers and he invited me into the venue which was very kind of him. He also said he'd arrange for me to meet them after soundcheck for a chat, autographs and maybe a few pics but I wasn't gunna get my hope's up.
First person that walked up was bassist, Jim Shepard. It was cool seeing a guy I had listened to for a long-ass time with his previous band with Warrel, Sanctuary. I walked up to him a little later so I didn't bother him and we had a quick chat-
Z- It's an honour to see and meet you since my favourite band is Nevermore and the fact I have been listening to Sanctuary for God knows how long
J- Thanks man I realy appreciate it *looks at my shirt*
Z- Yeah, check out on the back *showing him the "Jeff Loomis is God" print* lol
J- *Laughing heartlity* That's great man, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. What's your name bro?
Z- Zak
J- Zak, cool meeting you, I hope you enjoy the show
Z- Best night of my life lol
After that, I saw Chris walk in and dissapear and he looked well buff...Real healthy. 20 minutes after, it happened. Van and Jeff were walking through the door. I walked off my couch, headed straight towards them, turned around and pointed to the writing. I heard to hearty laughs with Jeff saying it out loud. It was a moment to remember. I also proceeded to chat with them two
Z- I am beyond honoured to meet not only memebers of my favourite band, but the guys who is the reason I practise guitar for 12 hours a day.
J- Aww, thanks bro, that means a lot... Now you've even inspired me to play more now. You should get me one of theose shirts printed
V- Nah, get "Legend" to be printed above the pic"
Z- Hell yeah, I can get it modified
V- Yeah, get it modified bro
Z- This amazing meeting my hero nest to Jason Becker
J- I LOVE Jason Becker dude, what's your nmame brother
Z- Zak
J- Zak, it''s great meeting you brother, I'll talk to ya later, right now I need to get some food...Thanks heaps
Z- Sure, thanks heaps for coming down bro
J- Anytime
Right after that I started to call almost everyone I knew who loved Jeff Loomis and said "I just met Jeff Loomis" and everyone was extatic and real happy for me so I'm sorry that they couldn't be there with me. Right after I spoke to my mate, Joey, I saw Warrel walk in and go downstairs for catering.
I didn't see him for a while but Jeff Came out with his C7 Hellraiser and started to play, check his levels and warm-up. He shredded his face of and played some very familiar licks... The minor-hexatonic based lick he did for Guitar World, the descending diminished sweeps in "Serrana" and a whole bunch of other stuff. Seeing my hero rip right in front of me with no-one but the odd crew was amazing. He stayed on for about 25 minutes and went back downstairs.
I saw Warrel again and he was walking past me and I had a similar conversation with him, I told him it was the best day of my life and he said "We haven't even started yet, give us a chance lol". He saw the shirty and he also laughed heartily. I got him to sign my cd and talked to him about his Snactuary days and if he could still go high up like he sued to...He said "I could if I wanted to but it's not 1988 anymore lol". Warrel is a super nice guy and made me laugh a bit.
I took off outside so they could do their soundcheck. About 10 minutes later, my buddy Kieran rocks up with camera and cd booklets and greetd me with "Hey, I knew I'd see you here". Thing is, a week before at the signing session, he aid he had a backstage thing for the show but I told him I met them already and that they were closing off people for soundcheck. We hung out and talked, raving on about how cool Jeff Loomis is, YouTube and Family Guy haha. Apparently I do Cleveland perfectly lol.
We lined up at 6:30PM and heard the boys play "Final Product", "River Dragon..." and "Inside Four Walls" and they sounded great.
I was kinda pissed at the fact I didn't line up earlier so I could get front row but I later found out that there were no barricades so I was ok getting a good spot.
I had a look at merch and it was crap...I don't wanna even talk about how crap it was lol. It looked like something Linkin Park would sell if they were desparate, which is what they are now so the Metal Gods have banished their fortune for all eternity.
The openin bands SUCKED. The first band were a bunch of 45 year olds, they had heart but quality could've improved. Transcending Mortality sucked and I'm definately not a fan of their work...They did play solos, but the structure was horrible. I spent most of the time calling people on my phone outside and hanging out with my brother Coza and my other mates, Roadie, Jason, Mark, Greg, Cass and Kieran.
After that, I bought a beer in spirit of the best night of my life.
I sure as hell had no problem getting a good spot...I was pretty much leaning on the stage and breathing on Jeff's footswitch haha. Coza was next to me and he was just as hell prepared to knock kids outta the way to be in front row to see out favourite guitar player, next to Jason Becker.
We could see "Brodders" (Our nickname for Chris Broderick lol) and he quicly popped on stage to tweak his preamp...H eturned around to pull a funny face and we all went nuts.
Then, the moment arrived... The lights dimmed and the intro tape was roaring through the PA. Van came out and shook everyone's hand as did Chris. Everyone else came out and I was pumped up, getting ready to not only soil my pants, but to watch my guitar hero shred his balls off.
They started with "Final Prduct" and I was banging my head like crazy...First time in a long time...
BTW, Most of these pictures aren't zoomed, so I was THAT close.
Seeing Chris play Steve's first lead perfectly was awesome, I honestly thought Steve was onstage. Warrel, sang his balls off and dictated the crowd for a circle pit and I'm not sure if the did as I was so focussed on the show-
Then, I pondered while quicly looking at Jeff's pedal rig..."How is he gunna play his tapping lick without a wah pedal". Well, the solo came and he even made the single note lines of "Final Product" sound like he created the instrument and that he had full command over it. The the solo came with the tapping lick, he was moving all around nailing it every time and it sounded even better without the wah, then came my favourite bit...The pedal-point lick followed by the diminished sweeps-
Jeff ripping is guts out during the pedal-point lick
He nailed the song perfectly and made his GW Columns look like an amateur lol. I turned back to Coza and both of our jaws were on the ground. We were in aww of our hero's performance.
After that came "My Acid Words" and Warrel sang his heart out for this one and Van pounded the drums like they were made out of jelly lol. Jim also went crazy nailing all his parts perfectly... Even Alex Webster would've been amazed at his playing-
The whole band went really balls out for "Acid..." and I was well chuffed at how active they remained while playing so technically- As you can see, Jeff was HAMMERING the crap outta the guitar-
At one point, Jim was gunna take over Jeff's rig lol-
They banged out more classics from the older catologue like "Narcosynthesis", "Inside Four Walls", "Next In Line"...All of which they delivered a devastaing performance. A million times batter than the studio version's, that's for godammn sure.
They also got stuck into one of my favourites from "Enemies..."..."I, Voyager". Jeff nailed his massive Augmented-arpeggios (I'm pretty sure they're Augmented). Anyways, another thing I loved is the fact they made the super heavy single note riffs sound heavy as-
We loved every minute and we sang our lungs out. He is the super-shreddre I mention is my Opeth blog. He's got a sick voice to, despite it's pisstake lol.
Warrel was king of vocals though... While singing "Voyager.." it felt like he was singing to us all personally.
Of course, a song that couldn't be missed caught up with us. A song that Warrel said "...Made the most die-hard Cannibal Corpse fan break down into tears". It was "Heart Collector" and the head banging start to get to my neck lol. Not as bad as past shows but still...Jeff and Chris sure didn't hesitate to wash the crowd with their locks and sweat lol-
Jeff absolutely wailed his guts out for "Heart Collector"-
Chris in the mean time banged out those power chords like a well oiled killing machine-
Then came a song all fans of the diminised scale would be proud of... "River Dragon...". Jeff went absolutely ape and nailed it better than the studio version...The slides sounded insane. I thought about doing a video for the solo but I thought "It's already on the internet a million times, I'm gunna be different" lol. But during the night, I kept on getting touched on the head and getting my hair stroked by a greek-girl I saw at Arch Enemy. I personally think she was drunk but that doesn't matter lol.
One of my favourites came up again.... "This Godless Endeavour"...I was ready for a sweepfest and me being the overly excited school girl I was, I put my hand next to Jeff's and swept along with him lol. During this, the greek-girl, hopped onto a stage box and leaned my head on her stomach, right under her breats....I knew she was drunk but we were having fun lol....I WAS GETTING GROPED LOL.
Jeff was amazing-
Jeff went on to rip another on of my favourite solo's ever..."Engines Of Hate" which was just a stroke of genius.
Chris crushed out the rhythms like he was shredding his butt off-
I was waiting for my favourite solo ever and it was coming.... "Sentient 6". Most people love the actual solo in the middle of the song ....I do to but my favourite is the arpeggios he does at the end which he didn't do, but he improvised which was just as cool....Too see how cool it was, click play or go to my video page-
Jeff Loomis Playing the outro solo in "Sentient 6"
After that, they ripped out on "Born".... Since I had a few requests to tape the solo, guess what I did lol-
Jeff Loomis playing the "Born" solo
Jeff was amazing and played better than he's ever played and he super-shredded the solo for "Born" up. As you can see.
Since Jeff was pointing out my shirt to the guys during the night, and because i banged my head off, he gave me his pick...He only used the one during the night and he gave it to me...All worn out. I was really chufed and everyone was happy for me, especially Coza. He was jealous but I am now trying my hardest to get him and his stepson, another good mate of mine, Jake, a pick.
I waited with Kieran & Co., Coz and the Greek Chick for the guys to come out after the show. Warrel and Jim left immediatly so I was the only one with his autograph.
They came out and I chatted to Jeff, Chris and Van and got them to sign my CD... I would've got a pic with Van but my camera had no memory left. I did take pics with Loomis and Broderick though-
BTW, I ducked down for this one so he isn't that tall.
Me and my future Guitar Teacher-
You can see the shirt and where Jeff signed it....I can't ever wear it again...I'll get it all framed.
All around the best night of my life and I'm glad Jeff was laidback and a super friendly dude. Like Michael, I hope to be good friends with him one day.
There ya have it....Unbeatable. If any band can say that they can play better than Nevermore, they're lying.
Videos are also in my Video section.
-Zak
PS Thanks to my bro Kieran for giving us a lift home and Coza for being as kickass as always.
_________________________
Hey People,
It's Zakalicious again...Finally able to review and upload pics from, as Coza said, "the show of the year". I'm gunna upload a few pics and type heaps so like I always say on every blog I type... Pull up a chair, get a drink, get some food, get comfortable and GET READING lol.
Now most of you that know me, know that my favourite band EVER is Nevermore, for obvious reasons...The main reason being the super shredder that is JEFF LOOMIS.
As soon as I heard that they were coming, I literally, ran out the door, took a bus to Tea Tree Plaza and bought my ticket....First person in Adelaide lml. Gotta love commitment eh lol. Tickets were amazingly cheap so I was glad I didn't have to break my back to get a ticket.
Soon after I said, "I have to get a Jeff Loomis Shirt made" lol. Over the last couple of months anxiously waiting for the day, I was getting ready for the best show of my life, I was looking for pics of Jeff that would catch his eye.
A day before the show I rand and e-mailed T Shirt City for the design, quote and eventual making of the shirt... I couldn't pay for it so I gave my dad $50 to pick it up while I was at work. I knew it was gunna turn out great...I also had "Jeff Loomis Is God" printed on the back to make an ultimate tribute to my guitar hero and biggest influence next to Jason Becker.
The only problem with the shirt I had was it was a bit big so I looked king of hip-hop in it lol.
I t was the day of the show, and I was psyched. I had the camera charged and limited edition copy of "Enemies Of Reality" to get signed. I head off to the venue nervously at 4PM. Nevermore's crew only just rocked up and I was hanging around waiting to meet the band pre-soundcheck. I ran into one of the tour managers and he invited me into the venue which was very kind of him. He also said he'd arrange for me to meet them after soundcheck for a chat, autographs and maybe a few pics but I wasn't gunna get my hope's up.
First person that walked up was bassist, Jim Shepard. It was cool seeing a guy I had listened to for a long-ass time with his previous band with Warrel, Sanctuary. I walked up to him a little later so I didn't bother him and we had a quick chat-
Z- It's an honour to see and meet you since my favourite band is Nevermore and the fact I have been listening to Sanctuary for God knows how long
J- Thanks man I realy appreciate it *looks at my shirt*
Z- Yeah, check out on the back *showing him the "Jeff Loomis is God" print* lol
J- *Laughing heartlity* That's great man, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. What's your name bro?
Z- Zak
J- Zak, cool meeting you, I hope you enjoy the show
Z- Best night of my life lol
After that, I saw Chris walk in and dissapear and he looked well buff...Real healthy. 20 minutes after, it happened. Van and Jeff were walking through the door. I walked off my couch, headed straight towards them, turned around and pointed to the writing. I heard to hearty laughs with Jeff saying it out loud. It was a moment to remember. I also proceeded to chat with them two
Z- I am beyond honoured to meet not only memebers of my favourite band, but the guys who is the reason I practise guitar for 12 hours a day.
J- Aww, thanks bro, that means a lot... Now you've even inspired me to play more now. You should get me one of theose shirts printed
V- Nah, get "Legend" to be printed above the pic"
Z- Hell yeah, I can get it modified
V- Yeah, get it modified bro
Z- This amazing meeting my hero nest to Jason Becker
J- I LOVE Jason Becker dude, what's your nmame brother
Z- Zak
J- Zak, it''s great meeting you brother, I'll talk to ya later, right now I need to get some food...Thanks heaps
Z- Sure, thanks heaps for coming down bro
J- Anytime
Right after that I started to call almost everyone I knew who loved Jeff Loomis and said "I just met Jeff Loomis" and everyone was extatic and real happy for me so I'm sorry that they couldn't be there with me. Right after I spoke to my mate, Joey, I saw Warrel walk in and go downstairs for catering.
I didn't see him for a while but Jeff Came out with his C7 Hellraiser and started to play, check his levels and warm-up. He shredded his face of and played some very familiar licks... The minor-hexatonic based lick he did for Guitar World, the descending diminished sweeps in "Serrana" and a whole bunch of other stuff. Seeing my hero rip right in front of me with no-one but the odd crew was amazing. He stayed on for about 25 minutes and went back downstairs.
I saw Warrel again and he was walking past me and I had a similar conversation with him, I told him it was the best day of my life and he said "We haven't even started yet, give us a chance lol". He saw the shirty and he also laughed heartily. I got him to sign my cd and talked to him about his Snactuary days and if he could still go high up like he sued to...He said "I could if I wanted to but it's not 1988 anymore lol". Warrel is a super nice guy and made me laugh a bit.
I took off outside so they could do their soundcheck. About 10 minutes later, my buddy Kieran rocks up with camera and cd booklets and greetd me with "Hey, I knew I'd see you here". Thing is, a week before at the signing session, he aid he had a backstage thing for the show but I told him I met them already and that they were closing off people for soundcheck. We hung out and talked, raving on about how cool Jeff Loomis is, YouTube and Family Guy haha. Apparently I do Cleveland perfectly lol.
We lined up at 6:30PM and heard the boys play "Final Product", "River Dragon..." and "Inside Four Walls" and they sounded great.
I was kinda pissed at the fact I didn't line up earlier so I could get front row but I later found out that there were no barricades so I was ok getting a good spot.
I had a look at merch and it was crap...I don't wanna even talk about how crap it was lol. It looked like something Linkin Park would sell if they were desparate, which is what they are now so the Metal Gods have banished their fortune for all eternity.
The openin bands SUCKED. The first band were a bunch of 45 year olds, they had heart but quality could've improved. Transcending Mortality sucked and I'm definately not a fan of their work...They did play solos, but the structure was horrible. I spent most of the time calling people on my phone outside and hanging out with my brother Coza and my other mates, Roadie, Jason, Mark, Greg, Cass and Kieran.
After that, I bought a beer in spirit of the best night of my life.
I sure as hell had no problem getting a good spot...I was pretty much leaning on the stage and breathing on Jeff's footswitch haha. Coza was next to me and he was just as hell prepared to knock kids outta the way to be in front row to see out favourite guitar player, next to Jason Becker.
We could see "Brodders" (Our nickname for Chris Broderick lol) and he quicly popped on stage to tweak his preamp...H eturned around to pull a funny face and we all went nuts.
Then, the moment arrived... The lights dimmed and the intro tape was roaring through the PA. Van came out and shook everyone's hand as did Chris. Everyone else came out and I was pumped up, getting ready to not only soil my pants, but to watch my guitar hero shred his balls off.
They started with "Final Prduct" and I was banging my head like crazy...First time in a long time...
BTW, Most of these pictures aren't zoomed, so I was THAT close.
Seeing Chris play Steve's first lead perfectly was awesome, I honestly thought Steve was onstage. Warrel, sang his balls off and dictated the crowd for a circle pit and I'm not sure if the did as I was so focussed on the show-
Then, I pondered while quicly looking at Jeff's pedal rig..."How is he gunna play his tapping lick without a wah pedal". Well, the solo came and he even made the single note lines of "Final Product" sound like he created the instrument and that he had full command over it. The the solo came with the tapping lick, he was moving all around nailing it every time and it sounded even better without the wah, then came my favourite bit...The pedal-point lick followed by the diminished sweeps-
Jeff ripping is guts out during the pedal-point lick
He nailed the song perfectly and made his GW Columns look like an amateur lol. I turned back to Coza and both of our jaws were on the ground. We were in aww of our hero's performance.
After that came "My Acid Words" and Warrel sang his heart out for this one and Van pounded the drums like they were made out of jelly lol. Jim also went crazy nailing all his parts perfectly... Even Alex Webster would've been amazed at his playing-
The whole band went really balls out for "Acid..." and I was well chuffed at how active they remained while playing so technically- As you can see, Jeff was HAMMERING the crap outta the guitar-
At one point, Jim was gunna take over Jeff's rig lol-
They banged out more classics from the older catologue like "Narcosynthesis", "Inside Four Walls", "Next In Line"...All of which they delivered a devastaing performance. A million times batter than the studio version's, that's for godammn sure.
They also got stuck into one of my favourites from "Enemies..."..."I, Voyager". Jeff nailed his massive Augmented-arpeggios (I'm pretty sure they're Augmented). Anyways, another thing I loved is the fact they made the super heavy single note riffs sound heavy as-
We loved every minute and we sang our lungs out. He is the super-shreddre I mention is my Opeth blog. He's got a sick voice to, despite it's pisstake lol.
Warrel was king of vocals though... While singing "Voyager.." it felt like he was singing to us all personally.
Of course, a song that couldn't be missed caught up with us. A song that Warrel said "...Made the most die-hard Cannibal Corpse fan break down into tears". It was "Heart Collector" and the head banging start to get to my neck lol. Not as bad as past shows but still...Jeff and Chris sure didn't hesitate to wash the crowd with their locks and sweat lol-
Jeff absolutely wailed his guts out for "Heart Collector"-
Chris in the mean time banged out those power chords like a well oiled killing machine-
Then came a song all fans of the diminised scale would be proud of... "River Dragon...". Jeff went absolutely ape and nailed it better than the studio version...The slides sounded insane. I thought about doing a video for the solo but I thought "It's already on the internet a million times, I'm gunna be different" lol. But during the night, I kept on getting touched on the head and getting my hair stroked by a greek-girl I saw at Arch Enemy. I personally think she was drunk but that doesn't matter lol.
One of my favourites came up again.... "This Godless Endeavour"...I was ready for a sweepfest and me being the overly excited school girl I was, I put my hand next to Jeff's and swept along with him lol. During this, the greek-girl, hopped onto a stage box and leaned my head on her stomach, right under her breats....I knew she was drunk but we were having fun lol....I WAS GETTING GROPED LOL.
Jeff was amazing-
Jeff went on to rip another on of my favourite solo's ever..."Engines Of Hate" which was just a stroke of genius.
Chris crushed out the rhythms like he was shredding his butt off-
I was waiting for my favourite solo ever and it was coming.... "Sentient 6". Most people love the actual solo in the middle of the song ....I do to but my favourite is the arpeggios he does at the end which he didn't do, but he improvised which was just as cool....Too see how cool it was, click play or go to my video page-
Jeff Loomis Playing the outro solo in "Sentient 6"
After that, they ripped out on "Born".... Since I had a few requests to tape the solo, guess what I did lol-
Jeff Loomis playing the "Born" solo
Jeff was amazing and played better than he's ever played and he super-shredded the solo for "Born" up. As you can see.
Since Jeff was pointing out my shirt to the guys during the night, and because i banged my head off, he gave me his pick...He only used the one during the night and he gave it to me...All worn out. I was really chufed and everyone was happy for me, especially Coza. He was jealous but I am now trying my hardest to get him and his stepson, another good mate of mine, Jake, a pick.
I waited with Kieran & Co., Coz and the Greek Chick for the guys to come out after the show. Warrel and Jim left immediatly so I was the only one with his autograph.
They came out and I chatted to Jeff, Chris and Van and got them to sign my CD... I would've got a pic with Van but my camera had no memory left. I did take pics with Loomis and Broderick though-
BTW, I ducked down for this one so he isn't that tall.
Me and my future Guitar Teacher-
You can see the shirt and where Jeff signed it....I can't ever wear it again...I'll get it all framed.
All around the best night of my life and I'm glad Jeff was laidback and a super friendly dude. Like Michael, I hope to be good friends with him one day.
There ya have it....Unbeatable. If any band can say that they can play better than Nevermore, they're lying.
Videos are also in my Video section.
-Zak
PS Thanks to my bro Kieran for giving us a lift home and Coza for being as kickass as always.
