Went to see Satch and Eric Johnson on Wednesday......Got a pic with Joe's guitar and a pic with Joe holding my guitar..I totally blanked when I met the man and forgot to ask any questions! ah well, didn't have much time, maybe a couple minutes....he had to get through lots of people...didn't want to take up all his time...I just told him how I got into Tommy Emmanuel from his recommendation in Guitar World, which led me into John Butler of the John Butler trio (was thinking about those amazing videos posted here, hehe)... Told him I loved his little drawings...basically just shot the **** for a minute...kind of disappointed I didn't ask any questions (I was nervous and didn't expect to be picked so quick), but whatever, it was enough to just talk to him, shake his hand etc...After all, he did do one of his characters on my guitar and signed it in two places. When he saw my JS 1200 he said "Your guitar's nicer than mine!" That was pretty damn cool! I'll put the pics from the show up on Flickr or one of those picture hosting sites, as well as the pics of the guitar...It looks really great! I've got between 30 and 40 great shots...I was in the front row and Joe played directly in front of me for a good portion of the night. (8-10 feet away) Also met the whole band, talked to Jeff Campitelli for 15 or 20 minutes. He's a really funny and down to earth guy. Asked him if he ever gets sick of playing the same songs all the time and he said no because they're great songs and he never gets sick of it and just has a blast every time. He signed my laminate and my guitar. Shook hands with Larue and told him 'great show!" but we lost him somewhere. Then I met Galen Henson, talked with him for a good 10-15 minutes. He told me he was a tech for 20 years or something before he started playing for Joe..I think he was Joe's tech for a bit, if I'm not mistaken. I asked him how to set up my JS 1200 like Joe's and he played it and looked at it and gave me lots of help with that, including pickup height, angle, action, neck relief and whatnot. smile.gif Then he signed my guitar and my laminate....Super nice guy! Joe seemed really drained...he sure put out a lot of energy on stage, but he was seeming like he kind of wanted to just get through it all and get to bed...still smiled and signed everything and answered questions and everything....cool guy...really small too! Asked the tour guide if I could talk to Mike Manning and he was like "You won't see him again tonight...he has a date with Jack.....if you know what I mean!" hahaha...If I had to set up all those floating trem guitars, I'd be a drinker too!
....Joe and the band were ON FIRE!!!...The tightest I've ever heard them play, live and on DVD...The whole band brought their 'A' game that night.Joe never plays a song the exact same way. Lots of improv, lots of new additions to the songs,extended solos, lots of absolute SHREDDING....You guys HAVE to see Cool #9 and one Robot's Dream performed live...just amazing! Satch Boogie had some great new riffs...I got a couple great shots of the overhand thing in The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing...It's tough to time a pic of that move just right! Summer Song was a great closer and had everybody bobbing their heads...everyone just rushed to the front of the stage for that one..Arguably one of the best songs of the night, and the best version of Summer song I've ever heard... He just keeps getting better. His energy was just incredible. He was just so exciting to watch and listen to, unlike EJ who just stood in the same spot and was plagued with technical difficulties and he also duffed Cliffs of Dover pretty bad, but...he still had some great moments like SRV which sounded just like the G3 DVD...Didn't like the Rocktopus tune too much...Trademark was awesome.... I might get flamed for this, but ah well: I think Joe has Vai beat in the chops and endurance category!
IMHO of course! All in all, an amazing experience that I will never forget.smile.gif
PS-Galen Henson told me there will be a G3 tour in the fall.
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