Lari Basilio @ SG

Took some time away from the usual evening routine to attend this clinic. Post-chemo, I'm not used to bright lights & strobe effects, most of the time, I'm trying not to look at the performance spot but being there in person to watch Lari play was time well spent.

Besides the usual gear talk, Lari highlighted the fact that she was in the legal sector prior to the 100% music immersion. One of the attendees asked for advice pertaining to embracing music as a career & the reply was kinda expected - go with your dreams, everything else will fall in place. However, doing so in this country requires tremendous re-thinking. There is no real dedication for sports & the Arts here. Everything you see thrust upon you is a clever facade of hope & liveliness, making ends meet & keeping up with costs are the essence of life in this country. Ironically, sports & the Arts were made to serve the escapist avenue from the rat race as full time athletes & artists continue to struggle. The ones who made it big are perhaps 5% of those who tread this path. 

A big thanks to Davis GMC for making this event happen. I enjoy clinics as opposed to concerts or live performances as I value artist - fans interaction; there's always good take aways & knowledge exchanges. 

Ichika @ SG

Was alerted to this.

Asked around but nobody knows anything. About a few hours later Swee Lee confirmed the date but further details are pending confirmation. Watch this space.

Pics: Ibanez

NJ @ Nov

 Mark this date on your calendar ✌ Looking forward.

Masterclass: Polyphia

Just spreading the word; these guys will be back here for another noodling session. If you missed the last one & would like to atone for your waywardness, keep the details here in mind.

Q&M @ SG: Done

So I was at the Tom Quayle & Martin Miller guitar masterclass last evening. I decided to sit at the top & rear row (3rd last from the back), away from the potential blast of the sound system. Forgive this zoomed in picture on that note. 

Turnout

The attendance for the evening was fantastic. By 6.20pm, almost all seating spaces were occupied. By the time the gentlemen made their way to the stage, the gallery could hardly accommodate curious passers by. It was a good mix of guitar buffs & whoever else with time in their hands & happened to be there. Definitely more attendance compared to the Marty Friedman show.

Sound

A let down. When both guitarists plugged in, there was nothing to be heard for a few minutes. Quayle made a quick appeal to the audience to 'hang in there' while the tech look into things. A few minutes later, only his guitar signals got through, nothing from Miller. After countless plugging & unplugging, flicking of switches & running to & fro, the tech dismissed the possibility of Miller's amp making it for the show. I couldn't quite make out who asked, "Is there any other amp?" but the tech shook his head in the negative. It's every performer's nightmare coming to life- equipment failure.

It is disturbing to know that there was simply no backup considering that Swee Lee's flagship store was just a level above the performance area. No efforts were made to source for a replacement there (I might be wrong, though). A little perplexing because I was there just before the show to grab a smoothie. People were there trying guitars & I really wonder where all those guitar sounds came from. 

Technical glitches continued to plague the show further into the performance but that was handled more swiftly than before. All this while, I only saw one bloke trying to troubleshoot the matter, reorganize failed equipment & manning the mixing console. Yes- ONE person. After this underserving episode, I hope the relevant parties would look into contingency management, including having helping hands from individuals not from the equipment provider. 

The sound system management was poor in its entirety. Quayle's show opener was plagued by inaudible guitar sounds; the backing track overwhelmed everything. Miller kept gesturing to the mixing desk for Quayle's guitar volume to be turned up but being at the side of the stage instead of the front, the poor guy couldn't really gauge how much of which signals to be boosted or cut accordingly. Quayle & Miller's microphones manifested volume imbalance; Miller's was way louder than Quayle's. It seems that when the softer mic was turned up, it automatically did likewise  to the other & when Miller started speaking, the volume was overboard. To be fair to the tech, this could have been affected by the fact that both guitarists had one working amp to be contented with- the reason why you only see one amp mic-ed up in the pic above. The re-routing of signals might have everything to do with the wayward volume. A let down for sure.

Performance

Both gentlemen were outstanding professionals throughout the show. Despite the technical flaw, they got the audience engaged while things were attended to. They sequenced their contents very well, no clash of talking, guitar playing, even the jokes & sarcasm were in place. Thumbs up to them, nothing less. On a personal note, there were too many clean moments, I'd love to hear more overdrive & distortion from two of the best guitar educators right now. Whatever was dished out that evening, the music was simply outstanding.

All in all, the show was delivered as intended (glitches & all) & I got to enjoy an overpriced serving of banana-mango smoothie as consolation. There were free magazines given out so people had something to bring home instead of just the rancid memories of the sound system gone wrong. I have always enjoyed guitar clinics & this was no exception. Just wished that things were handled better but hey, these things do happen & let's not forget the fact that Tom Quayle & Martin Miller were there to deliver awesome music & that happened.

M & Q @ SG- confirmed

Here it is, folks- confirmed. 😁

M & Q @ SG

Stay tuned, folks. 😀

Timmons @ Star Vista

Happening at Star Vista soon 😅 I've seen him play twice here (Fort Canning/ Swee Lee Katong), should there be a third outing?

Merrow - Johnston

Awaiting further details from Davis GMC 👍👍

Tom Quayle @ SG

I was at the Tom Quayle guitar clinic last night, a very cosy venue & great acoustics to boot 👍

This was Mr. Quayle's set up, the fact that we could hear him through both his amp & the monitors meant it was a great surround sound experience. 

The t-shirt inclusion was unexpected.

Tom Quayle is a very technical guitar proponent. There is no letting down when it comes to theory so things could get very technical, very quickly but it didn't. This is where the skilful teacher weaves his magic. Tom Quayle put forth his theoretical grasps conceptually; spatial relationship, visual relationship & repetitions were among some interesting approaches served. The good teacher made sure information overload was dealt with via bite size servings. Complexity made simple. Done. This was my main take away from this session, coming from a non-musical background, there is much respite dealing with music this way. How would you approach the guitar your way because your way would be the best way for you.

Kudos to Davis GMC for  not pulling off (no pun intended) a hard selling stance to push the Laney products through. In fact, there was scant commercial dealings to begin with but we know that, through last night's experience, Laney's Lionheart amp is one of the best value-for-money unit out there in terms of pristine clean tones, the other side of Fender. Awesome! 

Quayle in the city: Confirmed

Alright, it's been confirmed 👍 Please proceed to Davis GMC's homepage & click the banner for ticketing details: CLICK

Quayle in the city (TBC)

Something to look forward to come second half of 2017. Saw this at Davis GMC's homepage. More details to come. 👍

Ohmura's clinic

Happening this Saturday. Tickets available at Davis GMC.

Ibanez guitar clinic: Paul Waggoner

PIC: SWEE LEE Co.

At a single glance, you wouldn't recognize this guy. He's none other than Paul Waggoner from the band Between The Buried & Me. That's a mouthful & it sort of demerits your interest in wanting to know him further but that's besides the point. Mr. Waggoner is one heck of a guitar player & he was there to deliver substance last Friday (27th May 2016).

As with other guitar clinics, the itinerary was simple & to the point; play, talk guitar, Q&A throughout the show. It's educational & might have induced some anxiety on those of us who's there for full entertainment & wanted nothing to do with cognition. I love guitar clinics.

Paul Waggoner shared how he's guitar inclined from the start. There's nothing to be ashamed of in the admittance that one was a guitar geek once upon a time & this helped Paul Waggoner to become who he is today. Excessive practice was the case but these days, it's about making meaning to what he's doing with the instrument in a song context. That's right, this wasn't a shred guitar hero episode to begin with but this man- he can shred, no doubt about it. 

The clinic time showcased his guitar prowess & it tastefully segued into guitar talk. Paul Waggoner is one of those Ibanez devotees who believes in putting a non-DiMarzio pickup set into his Ibanez (like yours truly here who isn't obliged to have DiMarzios in Ibanez guitars). There was adequate mention of how preferred his Mojo Tone humbuckers are & how complementary they sound in context. There was in fact lesser time spent talking about the Ibanez per se because it is in fact a standard S-Series with a thicker body depth. I also respect Paul Waggoner's decision to use the lesser model; the PWM10 throughout the presentation, instead of the more revered PWM100. It proved that a more affordable guitar does not equal a lesser performance delivery. On this note, Mr. Waggoner reminded everyone that once a manufacturer's model reaches its upper tier/ custom handling, everything is good, regardless of the brand name. 

I didn't stay for the photo session (personal reasons) but I could see that the session was beneficial to everyone who attended. I urge everyone to attend instrument clinics at least once in their life time to get a more educational perspective of instrument inclinations (especially the ones with free admissions). Yes, a full show will manifest in pure entertainment & that's what everyone's after but it allows very little interaction with the musician. To know the musician better, we need to know what makes him tick.

Thanks to Swee Lee Co. for making this happen. Looking forward to more instrument clinics in time to come.

In LEEBs & bounds

If you think you are up there in terms of guitar accomplishment, along comes someone like Thomas Leeb to make you realize you are actually down there. This performance was a must-watch for me (despite being an electric guitar fan primarily); Mr. Leeb's capacity is simply stunning after witnessing his Desert Pirates performance on YouTube. I am primarily captivated by any individuals who put 100% focus in their engagements & give off that extra bit to define their technicalities (so that they won't tread the earth a copycat); this is why I am all ears to players like Mark King (bass) & Dave Weckl (drums).On this note, I find it rather disturbing that someone from the audience actually told him to play 'normally' (of course, it was done in jest, but still...); if he ditched that percussive incorporation altogether, then it's not Thomas Leeb anymore. Imagine asking a crab to walk 'normally', moving sideways isn't an option. Tsk, tsk...

Coming back to the performance proper, it was an entertaining evening to say the least, with Mr. Leeb dishing out his original numbers, not forgetting his rendition of some popular tracks which included Van Halen's Jump. He was also there to address some technical queries about his playing & instrument. A true professional will not hold back on all things educational & Mr. Leeb had nothing to hide; his sharing was rich & inspiring. I personally thought he was gonna showcase his Lowden but hey, it's a Cort clinic & that Parkwood he used was more than competent in manifesting his music.

So Mr. Leeb, sir, if you are reading this, thank you for a beautiful evening of music & making us forget that we need to haul our asses off to work the following day. The rain didn't help either but all was forgotten for an evening of stunning guitar showcase. My Mrs is by no means a guitar fan but she enjoyed the music (it's something we hubbies could tell).

Someone wants to know where he could listen to Fishbowl because it's a new, unreleased track by Thomas Leeb, please enjoy this:

Thank you: Cort & Swee Lee for making it happen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS: I'm that chap who wished you a safe journey & to be home for X-mas. I think your little girl needs you more than a new pair of shoes... OK, maybe she needs both :-)

Kiko's clinic @ ACM

I only have this pic to show from Kiko's clinic last night. I'm not the the type who's eager to display others' gear for general discovery. I respect the player, if he wishes to share his gadgets, he has his means of sharing.

Anyway, it's rather disturbing that people are manifesting a lack of respect when someone else is talking, there was a small discussion group near where I was sitting & someone actually answered a call too. They say that today's people today are more educated but they are more emotionally handicapped as well, doubt if education per se can level this out.

Kiko Laureiro is an immensely talented player, his ideas & phrasing are unique, very melodic & displaying lots of Brazilian roots without a direct presentation. In the realm of the arts, we do not ask the artist the concrete formula for a certain outcome because there is no such formula, the reason it's art. Kiko was asked how he came up with certain ideas, the exact concoction was expected to be shared but he did the right thing by pointing the way & not saying how exactly it was done because people would believe there is a fixed formula for it all. Not trying to be critical here but a reflection of maybe why the arts aren't as thriving in this country as they should be.

I certainly enjoyed the concluding track No Gravity because Kiko used a small Laney combo for that, proof that it's not gear pedigree measuring greatness- it's the player.

KIKO!

Got my Kiko ticket, see you there!