Leverkusen....The Rockpalast sponsored GUITAR NIGHT
(LEFT: you can see the cool lineup we were part of during this festival, with Living Colour and Dominic Miller (Sting's longtime gtrist)
I'm Home now -- but reminiscing about what seems like a few days ago...we were nearing he finish line on this little tour.. (and the Finnish Line, we'd be close to that country soon)
It was such a great tour...after all the obstacles, brickbats and problems...we did it, I'm very proud of the whole thing, I did a lot of the early bricklaying work in the spring of 2008 to get this ball rolling -- and besides thanking The Slick Parents and everyone at TeamBelew, I have to thank especially my dear friend and EU booking agent Wolfgang Scheel at NovaConcerts for coming on board and booking a spectacular set of dates, all in such amazing parts of Europe, we all got a new appreciation for the physical beauty of the continent...from the air and ground.
The 2nd to last show of that EU tour ...We played at a 9 day music festival In Leverkusen DE, a great (2000 cap) venue that I had been to once before, in 2006 when I was Tour Managing/Teching for Al DiMeola. THAT show is immortalized on his recent video SPEAK A VOLCANO, clips of which I'm sure are on youtube. what is there is the final gigs (so far) that I did with him -- Israel, spring of 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kogs1RpHmlI&feature=related - really amazing stuff , filmed by my buddy Ehud Lazin.
ANYWAY...great time in Leverkusen.... we were on a bill sandwiched between Dominic Miller and Living Colour, one of my fave bands of all time.... I have been seeing them since sometime in 1985....well..before they were Living Colour and it was "Vernon Reid" then..."Vernon Reid Trio" etc.
1985...I went to see one of my guitar gods JAMES "BLOOD" ULMER (if you don't know him -- again , run to youtube now.....)
and there was this guy, unknown to me VERNON REID opening up--- I might have seen his name in the Village Voice playing small clubs...but there and then I became a Vernon Reid freak -- he was incredible, that much I remember. So-- started to scour the papers for ANY chance to see this guy . Yes the 'papers' (this is pre-internet, kids!!)
So I watched as his trio morphed and changed, I started finding him on recordings by Ronal Shannon Jackson, right around 1985 he and Bill Frisell released a duo record, "Smash And Scatteration" within which they played ALL kinds of instruments that fascinated and interested me...banjo, guitars, guitar synth, drum machines, all kinds of wild AND traditional sounds..
thru the years... Vernon kept breaking the rules (and still is!) in "My Science Project", GTR OBLQ (with David Torn and Elliot Sharp), Yohimbe Brothers (with DJ Logic & Leon Gruenbaum on the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheepee), Masque and several other projects...touring with the great JACK BRUCE's band, doing Hendrix tributes with the Gil Evans big band, you name it!
Living Colour was just really great in Leverkusen, and especially cool to see them the night before the historic election..... I ran into Dennis Diamond - Vernon's longtime guitar tech and everything-gear-guy
(there's Dennis at right)None of the guys knew I was at the gig - so I had a blast seeing the shock on their faces one by one...
After Dennis... The first band member I saw was drummer extraordinaire Will Calhoun...who was walking back into the venue from sending out his ballot via priority mail of some sort.....half the fun was seeing the look on each of their faces as I surprised them - !!
It was a serious Geek-Fest as I hung out with Vernon for a while talking gear and checking out his extensive bank of effects, laptop and new amps (he's beta-testing the new Bugera tube amps and combos....)
(LEFT: Vernon Reid explains his sci-fi guitar signal chain as Dennis plugs a few things in...)
Vernon hipped me to a few new plug-ins he had recently discovered, and we talked about "Guitar Rig", a software amp/FX system he uses that we are checking out for Adrian as well. Notice the killer Roland VG-99 to Vernon's right ... IMHO that is just one of the sickest new devices to come down the pike in YEARS.... I don;t have one YET but I use the Boss GT-10, which has the same computing brain, just for a regular, mono guitar signal as opposed to 13-pin GK hexaphonic signal....I used that on the recent Project/Object tour....
Here is a part of Vernon's effects bank .. a Boomerang looper, the Roland FC-300 pedal (I love that one, very useful), an Eventide Mod Factor multi-modulation pedal, the yellow thing is a Digitech, I forgot which one.. is that the Space Station..? and a wacky custom pedal (the little red guy ontop of the Boom). Yikes!!!
ADRIAN BELEW POWER TRIO - LEVERKUSEN
(ADRIAN BELEW and his trio under the TV lights, in front of an energized crowd, Leverkusen DE, 3 Nov 2008)An energetic, stellar show....fortunately captured forever by german TV WDR....an awesome multi camera shoot of a fine show. At this point the band has just one date to go...and this one was NUMBER EIGHT in a row... wow....
I think Eric was (unnecessarily, but understandably!) nervous that Will Calhoun was in the room...it pushed him into some cool new stuff....check out his drum solo...
the crimson stuff went over extra great tonight -- and as always "e" was great, the fans here really got it, a captive 'guitar audience'
This will be a real bonus to "introducing" this band to a whole wider , EU audience....a it was captured in expert German style...with a 5(?) camera shoot..stand by for ways to see the complete thing....
Hanging out with Vernon Reid the day after the show, I'm about to leave for our flights to Lithuania...Lithuania by way of Latvia..was a surreal and wonderful.... We got there on election day for the USA, and for us the news of Obama's win came at about 3 or 4 am...my TV Was messed up so I found out by checking the net every few hours...I was pretty serene about it -- trying to not set myself up for disappointment in case it was ANOTHER Diebold election....but ..wow.. woke up to a new direction.
Obama can;t do it ALL....Let's see what we can do. It starts with CITIZEN ACTION on a daily basis..recycling..using less..eating lower on the food chain... buying sustainable products....paying attention to packaging...fuel usage...reproducing responsibly (or not at all)..supporting non-violence as a way of life...conflict resolution ...supporting green candidates....all of this will make a REAL change..and finally we have a president who would at least LISTEN to such talk.
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