The EssenEss Project at NAMM

[Steve Smyth]

Guitarist Steve Smyth (The EssenEss Project/ex-Nevermore/Testament/Dragonlord/Vicious Rumors) has been confirmed to perform and appear at the following booths at this year’s Winter NAMM show.

BC Rich Guitars: Friday, January 18th at 12pm (meet and greet, Booth 4884)

Krank Amps: Friday, January 18th at 2pm (performing/meet and greet, Booth1684 Hall E downstairs)

SIT Strings: Friday, January 18th at 3pm (performing/meet and greet, Booth 5976, Hall B)

Digitech Effects: Friday, January 18th at 4pm (performing, Booth 205A, upstairs)

BC Rich Guitars: Saturday, January 19th at 2pm (meet and greet, Booth 4884)

Digitech Effects: Saturday, January 19th at 4pm (performing/meet and greet, Booth 205A, upstairs)

Smyth, alongside bandmate Steve Hoffman, will be performing songs from their debut instrumental album, The EssenEss Project, with Smyth demonstrating Digitech’s GSP 1101 Preamp Processor, as well as Krank’s Krankenstein Head and cabs.

Says Smyth, “I am pleased to be making a return trip to this year’s Winter NAMM 2008. Steve Hoffman, the other “Ess”, and I will be performing material from The EssenEss Project debut at this year’s NAMM. We’ll be performing at the SIT Strings, Digitech, and Krank booths on Friday, and one more time on Saturday with Digitech. Digitech has asked me to demonstrate the GSP 1101 preamp processor. It’s an awesome and very versatile piece of gear, and I look forward to demonstrating what the GSP 1101 can do. The Krankenstein is still the best, sickest sounding amp I have ever played, and I look forward to shredding it up over at their booth this year as well. I’ll also be over at the BC Rich booth, checking out the new BC’s coming out this year. Looking forward to it!”

 

[Steve Smyth]

What a blast of a weekend!

Steve Hoffman and I arrived at NAMM on Friday morning, and hit the ground running. Atma was not able to make NAMM this year, so we peformed to backing tracks from the album "with" him.

First up, I had a video interview with BC Rich, which was kind of a retrospective on my playing career, and they also asked me to play as well! So, I ripped out some licks while they filmed away. That was fun!
This should be hitting their website, my space and youtube, and other areas very soon, so watch for it!

I ran into Paul Bostaph there, and we caught up for a bit, before I had to go in and do the interview. Also caught some time post interview to catch up with the great team at BC Rich guitars,to see what else was happening this year. There's a great " Chuck Shuldiner Tribute" Stealth guitar coming out this year, so check it out! Great guitar, from a great company! We also talked about some very cool news coming up this year as well, which I will keep you posted about here very soon. As I always say, stay tuned!

From there, we made our way to the Krank booth, where we had our first performance of the day. I bumped into my buddy Marcus Henderson (original Guitar Hero soundtrack player), and he pulled me into one of the booths to check out his new signature axe from Gibson. Awesome Explorer guitar! Check it out when you get a chance! I ripped out a few licks on that, but had to get started with our performance. We set up, and started out playing The Afterlife, and got a great response from our growing crowd. We went into the next song, Sphere, and at this time, the NAMM "sound police" came by and had to shut us down, as we were "too loud" for the booth! Our first time peforming at NAMM, and it felt like the first time we jammed at a party, and along come the cops!

The guys at Krank loved the performance, as did our audience, but the NAMM security shut us down for 2 reasons, as we found out later. We had too many people in the aisle, which is a fire hazard, in addition to being "too loud". Hey, the name of the company is KRANK AMPS for a reason people!

From there, we went to the SIT Strings booth. I played through a Krank REV 1 mini stack, and let me tell you, this thing ruled! It was a little hard to keep the volume under control, as there was a sound concern there as well, but we managed, and played our set through. 4 songs in all: The Afterlife, Sphere, Reflection,Redemption,Rebirth, and closing with Just When You Think. SIT was very happy with the performance, and asked us to come back for Saturday, which unfortunately didn't happen, due to transportation circumstances. We are talking about more performances coming up later this year, so stay tuned! No pun intended here!


Last on the list, and certainly not least, was the Digitech booth, where I was demoing the GSP 1101, by way of our performance. They had a full stage set up there, and completely killer sound system as well! We played the same set this time as well, only at a much better volume!What a great time, and great response from the crowd there, as well as the folks at Digitech! We wrapped up our day there, as Steve Hoffman had a plane to catch that evening (he couldn't stay for the next day performances unfortunately). I ended up repeating the performance solo the next day, and had a great time performing that day as well. Both of these performances were video'd as well, so watch for them on their site and myspace soon!

Always good to run into friends while you're there, and there were many who I was glad to see! Jeff Loomis made his way over to the BC Rich booth while I was there, but I was in my interview, and missed him, as he had a peformance at the Schecter booth around that time. We eventually found each other at the Krank booth, where naturally, it turned into a photo op for the people there, wanting a pic with the two of us together. I don't think this will lead to any speculation though, at least it shouldn't, especially in lieu of Nevermore's present situation. We are still friends, and I still care about what happens in Jeff's life and support him, as he does me. That is all.

There were many other musician friends there who I caught up with for a bit as well(first names only at this point, you guys can figure it out), Chuck, Randy(check out his new band Gigan if you like the Death Metal, cause this one is awesome!),Uli, Johnny, Sharlee, Jason, Dennis,Andy, Jack, Rob, Guy, Lyle, Derrick,Phil, my bro Brian,and so many others in all other areas of the music industry that you can only run into all in the same place. And especially good was seeing fans who have shown their support for me during the time of my bad health, who continue to support me and my music, and also not judge my worth based on what band I'm in or not.You guys are the best! One of the most important was meeting face to face with a friend who "mentored" me through that tough time, through his own experiences of kidney disease, and getting to hang out with him. A true hero! Good times, a great experience,and more great news from this event for us to follow, so STAY TUNED!