Hello, Friends,
I’m gonna start a “Weekend Update”, which, may, or, may not, fall on the weekend (I’m a busy man…), anyway… It WILL be a weekly event. Here’s the first installment…
Back from a weekend run. Chicago, and, our friend, Cara Woods’ birthday party. Chicago was great. Beat Kitchen, one of my fave clubs in the Windy City. Weather was perfect, crowd was the usual Chicago awesome, load in/out was the “Beat Kitchen Standard” piece of cake. We’ve been on the road for so long now, I can’t tell a good show, from a not so good one anymore, but, I THINK this was a good one (I’m talkin’ “technical end” here, ALL shows are good ones, musically speaking, that’s just the way we do things…). Had a crazy new distortion pedal, that was kickin’ my ass. I fought the pedal, and the pedal won. It was all good though. I had another one to fall back on. The greatest accomplishment of the night, was keepin’ Cara’s, next night, birthday party a secret (she was at the show, front and center…). We pulled off the “secret”, rocked like Scorpions, and had another great Chicago night. Thanks, Chicago!
Now, on to the party… Located in a corn field, somewhere near DeKalb, Illinois. Cara arrived, TOTALLY surprised to find us there. Mission accomplished. Cara’s husband, Chris, has the wildest guitar collection I’ve ever seen. All ’80’s, hair metal, pointy, jaggedy, shred machines, along with many other “curiosities”. We decided it would be fun to play some of Chris’ guitars at this show. We told him to surprise us. John got a Kramer. Richie Sambora model. Droopy headstock, 3 humbuckers, star inlays, Floyd Rose whammy bar. Keith got a B.C. Rich bass, pointy, jaggedy, leopard skin paint job. I got the Artist Formerly Known As, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, “Cloud Guitar”. These are instruments, us “vintage nazis” like to laugh at. So garish, so outrageous, so bordering on just plain stupid, UNTIL… You plug them in! Yowza!!! It was the most fun I ever had, playing guitar onstage. I haven’t heard the band sound this ass kickin’ in a long, long, time. What a beautiful contrast, ridiculous guitars, with 8 foot high cornstalks, as a backdrop. I came away from it, understanding the mind of Billy F. Gibbons, a little bit better. Ate some VERY Atkins-unfriendly birthday cake, slightly unwillingly returned Chris’, awesome beyond words, shred machines, and called it a night. Last long run of the tour starts Thursday, in, Maumee, Ohio, then, it’s time off, to get to work on the next album. Stay tuned for reports from the “We Finally See The Finish Line” leg of the Zoysia tour…
Brian