The Who Rock Honors (VH1) - Great Playing & Tones

jaywa · #1 07-15-2009, 09:16 AM

Caught this last night on VH-1. Personally I thought the guy from Incubus and Jeff Ament both played very well and had great tone but in very different ways. I have never heard a Lakland sound as good live as the Incubus guy's did, and Ament's P-Bass tone on "The Real Me" was just right there. Anyone know if he was using flats?

Lotsa props to the sound techs for that show cause so often you get multi-band things like that and they mash all the different bands' bass tones down to a single, nondescript sludge. It's like you have 4 or 5 different bassists and they all wind up sounding the same. Definitely NOT the case here... the character of each player and his choice of instrument definitely came through.

OTOH kind of disappointed in Pino's tone when The Who finally took the stage themselves. Seemed kind of blah (and too low in the mix) compared to the bands who had gone before. I love Pino's playing but I don't think he quite nailed the Entwistle vibe like the other guys did, sonically.

Agree or disagree?

sevenyearsdown · #2 07-15-2009, 09:18 AM

I'm not even a Pearl Jam fan, but they absolutely smoked at that event. I thought they blew every band off the stage that night.

jaywa · #3 07-15-2009, 09:26 AM

Pearl Jam's drummer was a monster. The first song, he was struggling on tempo a bit out of the gate but by mid-song he had gotten it together and from there on out he was money. It looked like Matt Cameron (ex-Soundgarden)... is that who's playing with them now?

HailCorduroy · #4 07-15-2009, 11:46 AM

Yep, Matt joined them in '98. I've watched the VH-1 show several times and PJ does blow everyone else off the stage. Take that with a grain of salt, cause I am a huge PJ fan (user name kinda gives it away).

I saw them play "Love Reign O'er Me" at Bonnaroo before I saw the VH-1 special. It was even better live.

jaywa · #5 07-15-2009, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HailCorduroy

I saw them play "Love Reign O'er Me" at Bonnaroo before I saw the VH-1 special. It was even better live.

Matt Cameron owned on that song on the VH1 show.

I've always liked him, since the Soundgarden days. "Spoonman", yeah there's a groove for the ages.

Stickk · #6 07-15-2009, 12:03 PM

The dude from The Flaming Lips was great!

jaywa · #7 07-15-2009, 12:12 PM

One thing I noticed, especially on a couple of the opening bands, was how SMALL (in number of pieces) the drum kits were.

If you're a good enough drummer, you really don't need that many. Seriously.

funkytoe · #8 07-15-2009, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaywa

Caught this last night on VH-1. Personally I thought the guy from Incubus and Jeff Ament both played very well and had great tone but in very different ways. I have never heard a Lakland sound as good live as the Incubus guy's did, and Ament's P-Bass tone on "The Real Me" was just right there. Anyone know if he was using flats?

Lotsa props to the sound techs for that show cause so often you get multi-band things like that and they mash all the different bands' bass tones down to a single, nondescript sludge. It's like you have 4 or 5 different bassists and they all wind up sounding the same. Definitely NOT the case here... the character of each player and his choice of instrument definitely came through.

OTOH kind of disappointed in Pino's tone when The Who finally took the stage themselves. Seemed kind of blah (and too low in the mix) compared to the bands who had gone before. I love Pino's playing but I don't think he quite nailed the Entwistle vibe like the other guys did, sonically.

Agree or disagree?

Agree 1000% -- I thought Jeff Ament absolutely killed!! His tone was the most authentic "live" Entwistle tone I've heard from anyone other than the man himself.

As for Pino -- love his stuff -- but he did not impress me this night.

lhoward · #9 07-15-2009, 12:30 PM

I didn't see the VH1 program, but I'm watching a documentary on Entwistle and The Who from their early beginnings on Ovation TV. Its on DirecTv. I don't know what cable companies carry it. Its a 90 minute show and comes on again today at 5pm EDT.

Thought Entwistle fans would want to know.

Lloyd Howard

jaywa · #10 07-15-2009, 12:51 PM

Ament didn't get much screen time but from what I saw he was playing a standard (non-modded) sunburst P-Bass with maple board and plenty of mojo (relic'ed or real I don't know). Fingerstyle and possibly on flatwounds (?) but I couldn't tell on that.

The guy from Incubus tone was, I guess I'd say, "a lot of everything". But sounded GOOD as far as filling up the sound as it should. He was really doing some cool stuff as far as hybrid chording/bass line work and the mix got that across clearly.

Flaming Lips bassist, tone IMO was too distorty, even for Entwistle's parts. Foo Fighters' bass tone really didn't do much for me either way. Kind of like Pino's. It was OK, but didn't stand out like the other guys'. Grohl and the drummer run that band and it shows in how they are mixed.