Influences are a dangerous thing. I mean without putting too much thought into it, I've gotten into a bit of slide guitar due to one Mr Derek Trucks.

A number of months ago he made the cover of the UK's Guitarist magazine with the catch line of "Worlds greatest guitarist". Now them's big words to have associated with someone who hasn't really stormed into the limelight & is primarily a slide guitarist, playing lots of ragas & cultural influences from many Indian & Asian nations.

Listening to Derek is unique & quite inspirational to find something that can be done with a guitar which hasn't been done before. Hendrix did it for rock, Stevie Ray Vaughan did it for blues, but finding someone who plays, without being reminded of the various licks & sounds of those who have come before, is quite amazing.

Anyway, in light of witnessing this guy in the flesh as part of Eric Clapton's band & seeing just how easy he made playing with a slide looks, I pulled out my old glass slide to give it a go. & yes, I still sucked just like I remembered, but with a bit of practice & concentration levels which highlight the veins in my forehead, it's getting better.

I was of the opinion if I had a really decent slide, I might just keep putting in the effort, so I went on a bit of a hunt & found the following;



From someone I've never heard play slide, comes the Aerosmith guitarist, Joe Perry, signature edition boneyard slide. I was after a simple ceramic slide with the thought it might have a nice mellow sound, but such items are really hard to find & this one I discovered in a store all on it's lonesome, just happens to be a really nice feel & fit.

The inside is porous, so it doesn't get all sweaty & the glaze has fine cracks which are collecting dirt off the strings & adding character to it's appearance, as if the skull with wings didn't!

So, yes I'm still not very good even with this new slide, but damn it looks cool! I'll keep working on the talent side but Derek Trucks doesn't have too much to worry about for a while!



Like all guitarists, I have a range of picks in a billion different colours & various types of plastic. You end up finding them around the house in strange locations even though you always use one specific pick all the time. It's one of those mysteries of life. For the record, my preferred pick is a Jim Dunlop Gatorgrip .96mm in purple. I've been using one single pick for the best part of a year & they simply don't wear down!

However, that doesn't mean I don't still buy the odd plectrum & a bargain I found a while back were a couple of tins from Fender's 60th Anniversary last year.



A long time ago I found some Fender picks in a local music store & bought a couple because they were the top quality premium celluloid (because I thought that meant they were exceptionally good!) & they cost nearly a dollar each! Both of these tins contained 36 picks & besides being collectible & being housed in a very handy tin, they were very cheap & are very nice & smooth to use. Of course, they still don't beat the purple Gator!

 

The eternal tour of the Dave Matthews Band finally made it to the Festival Theatre in the Kingdom for their first ever visit. After a month delay for the Australian Tour I was itching to see them & damn, I was not disappointed.



To a crowd of less than 2000 (capacity of the Theatre) Dave & his incredible entourage ploughed their way through a set which kept most people on their feet for over two hours & in a place normally reserved for orchestras & opera performances, that's quite impressive. While I overheard a few in the foyer questioning the potentially disastrous sound quality from such a big band in such a small venue, everyone was impressed, including the band. However, it did seem to freak out Dave who had to talk a bit more than normal due to the crowd falling to silence between songs. It was quite easy to hear the band talk to one another on stage as well, but they enjoyed the fact that they had a crowd who actually listened with Dave mentioning how American crowds tend to spend the night talking on their phones.



& here's the set list;

Still Water (partial)
Don't Drink the Water
Crash Into Me
Seek Up
Dream Girl
Hunger For The Great Light
Crush
When The World Ends
Pantala Naga Pampa
Rapunzel
Stolen Away On 55th & 3rd
The Maker
The Idea Of You
Louisiana Bayou
Down By The River
Two Step

Sister (Dave solo)
Everyday
Ants Marching

The highlights of the show... well there's plenty, practically the whole thing! "Seek Up" was a marathon 22+ minutes with everyone getting a lengthy solo spot. Carter proved his incredible drumming prowess throughout the show & Boyd sawed at his violin trying to cut it in two while dancing around the stage during all his energetic solos. The addition of Rashawn Ross on Trumpet complemented the band well. He's a big guy with big lungs & shared some nice horn sections with LeRoi.

It was good to hear some new music from the band as well in the form of "The Idea of You". Really nice song but some of the crowd started sitting down at this point because they didn't know it & then stood up again at the start of "Louisiana Bayou".

At the start of the encore, I was hoping Dave would play "Gravedigger" solo but instead it turned out to be a newish song called "Sister" & what an amazing piece! It's the sort of song which is completely flawless in the way it was written & played & damn I wish I could write like that! It completely overshadowed my need for Gravedigger.

In the intro to "Everyday" I was quietly singing "Honey, Honey, come & dance with me" & stopped at one point to hear the same being sung really faint from various directions around me which proved there were some real fans of the band in the audience. It was a very cool moment.

Support by Xavier Rudd was fitting but while he is disgustingly talented enough to play multiple instruments simultaneously, it's not quite my "thing". It was still good however to see someone able to fill a venue with music completely on their own.



While I'm typing this I actually have a bootlegged copy of the entire Dave Matthews Band performance which was recorded by someone who managed to get some equipment on the stage itself without any security (which was out in force) noticing! The guy next to me held his mobile phone up at one point early on to share his experience with someone on the other end only to have a couple of security swarm in our direction & give a rather severe warning. How someone managed to record the show is beyond amazing & the quality is superb so thanks to the members of "Antsmarching.org" for putting up for everyone!