Re: Guthrie Govan – LIVE in Concert!!!

@Mandz 10227 wrote:

As amazing as Guthrie is, and as much as I enjoy his Erotic Cakes album, I find his live stuff to be a bit boring after about 20mins. Maybe it’s because I just don’t enjoy his fusion jams very much. I saw him just before Xmas and among other tracks he did a Billy Cobham song with Dave Kilminster (who couldn’t seem to match Guthrie’s creativity live and kept playing over Guthrie instead of giving him space) and I was just wishing he’d get back to playing his own stuff. Dull, Dull, Dull. Technically and harmonically impressive, but just dull. I couldn’t count the number of people at this small gig visibly bored and waiting for something interesting for most of the gig. Didn’t help that the sound engineer did a poor job and Dave K was so much louder than everyone else.

Hopefully it will better for you.

I prefer when he does clinics/Q&As as he his an incredibly interesting teacher and can be very funny.

Hi Mandz, 🙂

Thanks for the “heads-up.” I’m actually NOT sure what the gig-format will be as far as whether he’ll have his usual UK-based Erotic Cakes band-lineup or not?!? I know that he has done some of these clinics at Berklee before, (He did one on behalf of Ed Yoon and Suhr guitars about 6-months ago, and from all first-hand accounts it was AWESOME!) He also sat-in with The Jon Finn Group (who is supposedly opening for Guthrie Friday Night, and they’re REALLY good too!) This might be his first Boston-area headlining fusion-gig, so I’m stoked! If he doesn’t sctually bring his band over here with him, then I’m expecting him to use Jon Finn’s Band (Jon Finn is a “local-legend” of sorts who is a Berklee Professor and a LONGTIME Boston-area performing artist who specializes in “shred-delivered-prog-rock-instrumentals!”) Jon Finn is a class-act and a helluva instructor (I never actually took lessons from him – nor did I ever attend Berklee for that matter!) but from those who have, he’s supposedly an OUTSTANDING guy/teacher! 😎

I’m seriously doubting that Guthrie will deliver a fusion-dullfest on Friday! After all, People flock to Berklee College of Music from all over the world every year to earn their degrees from one of the worlds premier jazz-based institutions! Also, I’ve been to MANY shows over the years (many of them instrumental-fusion-type shows too! – like: Steve Smith’s Vital Information, Chick Corea’s Electric Band, Weather Report’s Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, Steve Morse Band, Steve Morse’s The Dregs, Scott Henderson’s Tribal Tech, Mike Stern, etc. and trust me on this – Boston’s proximity to Berklee College, The New England Conservatory of Music, Boston’s own Jazz legacy as well as the relative proximity to the jazz-legends of New York City – ALL adds up to a VERY healthy dose of respect for the average Boston Concert-goer by these serious artists! I’ve read many quotes over the years from some of these legends (and others) who are not lost on the fact that we generally have a healthy contingent of “excellence-thirsting/rabid/demanding” FANS here in the Boston-area!!! 😉

Here’s a quick story for ya: About (11) eleven years-ago, My girlfriend (at-the-time) and I went to see Radiohead here in Boston at the Pavilion on their OK Computer Tour. (BTW, I thought at the time, that the show was a MASTERPIECE!) Anyways, we walked out of there “floating” as it was one of those “Special” shows that just “takes you somewhere,” if that makes any sense? So I spent the better part of the next week-or-two raving about that Radiohead show to anyone who would listen (and I’m sure a few who didn’t want to listen to me too! – LOL :o) Then about a month later I picked-up Rolling Stone Magazine (something I DO NOT regularly do because I think there’s a bunch of self-important CRAP in there too often!) because I noticed that there was a cover story about Radiohead! So when I opened up to the Radiohead article/interview, the interviewer opens-up the story with the following (forgive a bit of paraphrase – I’m jogging my memory from 11-years ago!!!):“I caught up to Radiohead in Philadelphia on their Tour-Bus where they’re passing around a spliff (joint), and absolutely beaming over what they all described as one of their best shows ever up in Boston.” Well, you can imagine how PSYCHED I was to read that! It basically confirmed what my instincts told me was true!!! 😉 This is just one of many examples of how bands and/or individual instrumentalists will “kick-it-up-a-notch” when passing through certain cities/towns, and Boston IS one of those towns IMO! 😉

I WILL give you my honest assessment next week though! 😎

~Bill Meehan~ 😀