A local radio station, 107.7 the Bone, sponsored a show with Testament, Montrose, Y&T, Satriani, and Journey. The wife and I decided to go at the last minute and were lucky enough to get tickets.
I've never seen any of these bands live before. I knew that I would be in for a night of some serious guitar work.
Testament played on the second stage. It was their first gig in two years. I like early Testament in the style of what they did on Practice What You Preach but then they morphed into something different. I was still glad to be able to see some old school metal.
Unfortunately, I couldn't make out a single note of the music clearly. The p.a. sounded like they were playing through a distortion pedal. There was a constant feedback and it sounded absolutely horrible.
I ran over some things in my head as to what I thought I would do to fix it if I were running the sound. After a while I couldn't take it anymore and walked over to the sound board to see if maybe it wasn't the soundman's fault. I hoped to see that everything wasn't peaked out and that an amp or some speakers were to blame.
The soundman was turning knobs left and right and adjusting things like mad. I thought that he knew there was a problem but just couldn't find it. Then I looked at the V.U. meters. Oh boy...
I've seen people run a hot mix, a little bit in the red, but the meters were pegged. They weren't moving. Here he was adjusting knobs and shit as if it would make some difference in the sound.
I really wanted to yell at the dude but I decided to keep my mouth shut and walk away.
Enough about that.
I missed some of Montrose while watching Testament. I didn't know the show times overlapped. Oops! Montrose sounded really good. I like our version of I've Got the Fire better though!!
Next up was Y&T.
I've always liked Forever, Meanstreak, and Rescue Me more than some of their more commercial sounding stuff. Dave Meneketti (sorry if I mispelled that) is an excellent guitarist and he really put on a great show. He had the best guitar sound I've ever heard anyone have live. In my opinion Y&T put on the best show of the night. I really could feel what he was playing.
Then Satriani.
Why not me...how the fuck can one person have so much talent?
The sound was too loud for my tastes during Satriani. I would have liked to be able to make out every note of what he played but I could see what he was playing on the nearby monitor.
Wow...it isn't fair. It's really dishearting to watch him play like that, understand the techniques he's using for the most part ,and know that I'll never come close to being able to do what he does.
Journey came on last and seemed a little off to me. The new singer Steve Augeri has a voice that is really similar to Steve Perry's. He was having problems with his voice and I'm wondering if he's losing his like Steve Perry did. He sounded ok on most stuff until he tried to sing the higher parts and then his voice sounded raspy and had an airy strained quality to it.
I like the cd Journey did with him and expected a show with at least some material from it. I don't think they played a single song from it.
Why not at least play Higher Place?
Neal Schon is a great guitarist but he overplayed on almost every solo. I can understand he was probably hyped a little by what Meneketti and Satriani did but I don't think it was the best thing for the songs they played.
Overall it was a great show.
I've never seen any of these bands live before. I knew that I would be in for a night of some serious guitar work.
Testament played on the second stage. It was their first gig in two years. I like early Testament in the style of what they did on Practice What You Preach but then they morphed into something different. I was still glad to be able to see some old school metal.
Unfortunately, I couldn't make out a single note of the music clearly. The p.a. sounded like they were playing through a distortion pedal. There was a constant feedback and it sounded absolutely horrible.
I ran over some things in my head as to what I thought I would do to fix it if I were running the sound. After a while I couldn't take it anymore and walked over to the sound board to see if maybe it wasn't the soundman's fault. I hoped to see that everything wasn't peaked out and that an amp or some speakers were to blame.
The soundman was turning knobs left and right and adjusting things like mad. I thought that he knew there was a problem but just couldn't find it. Then I looked at the V.U. meters. Oh boy...
I've seen people run a hot mix, a little bit in the red, but the meters were pegged. They weren't moving. Here he was adjusting knobs and shit as if it would make some difference in the sound.
I really wanted to yell at the dude but I decided to keep my mouth shut and walk away. Enough about that.
I missed some of Montrose while watching Testament. I didn't know the show times overlapped. Oops! Montrose sounded really good. I like our version of I've Got the Fire better though!!
Next up was Y&T.
I've always liked Forever, Meanstreak, and Rescue Me more than some of their more commercial sounding stuff. Dave Meneketti (sorry if I mispelled that) is an excellent guitarist and he really put on a great show. He had the best guitar sound I've ever heard anyone have live. In my opinion Y&T put on the best show of the night. I really could feel what he was playing.
Then Satriani.
Why not me...how the fuck can one person have so much talent?
The sound was too loud for my tastes during Satriani. I would have liked to be able to make out every note of what he played but I could see what he was playing on the nearby monitor.
Wow...it isn't fair. It's really dishearting to watch him play like that, understand the techniques he's using for the most part ,and know that I'll never come close to being able to do what he does.
Journey came on last and seemed a little off to me. The new singer Steve Augeri has a voice that is really similar to Steve Perry's. He was having problems with his voice and I'm wondering if he's losing his like Steve Perry did. He sounded ok on most stuff until he tried to sing the higher parts and then his voice sounded raspy and had an airy strained quality to it.
I like the cd Journey did with him and expected a show with at least some material from it. I don't think they played a single song from it.
Why not at least play Higher Place?Neal Schon is a great guitarist but he overplayed on almost every solo. I can understand he was probably hyped a little by what Meneketti and Satriani did but I don't think it was the best thing for the songs they played.
Overall it was a great show.
