NEW YORK, NY — Aguilar Amplification, maker of high-quality amplification, pickups, preamps and effects pedals for bassists is pleased to announce a clinic with Alissia Benveniste. Dubbed the “future face of funk music” by Huffington Post, Alissia Benveniste was making waves in the bass community while still enrolled at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Since garnering millions of views online for her numerous performance videos, Alissia has toured with her band, Alissia and the Funkateers, opening for Talib Kweli. In early 2016 she released her debut EP, Back To The Funkture and appeared on the Stephen Colbert show backing the legendary George Clinton on his classic P Funk track, Flashlight. The event will be held at the Aguilar Artist Loft in NYC on Tuesday, November 15th, 2016 at 7pm. This clinic is free to attend but seating is limited! To register please RSVP to: info@aguilaramp.com Alissia Benveniste Clinic Aguilar Artist Loft - Chelsea Tuesday November 15th, 2016 148 W 24th Street, 5th Fl. NYC, NY 10011 Doors open at 6:30, Clinic at 7:00 pm Free to attend – Please RSVP to: info@aguilaramp.com {}
I thought it was really good - it was my first clinic ever but performances was on point, solid Q+A opportunities, small crowd, overall intimate setting (my preference). Met expectations - would go again! Dudes at aguilar were cool too.
I got there a bit late, but there's about a period of 30 minutes between doors open (6:30pm) and the official "start" time of the clinic. In the main room there were two basses (I don't recall if they were both F basses, but I know one was for sure), Aguilar amplification TH350 hooked up to two Aguilar cabs, and, of course, their line of pedals. During this time there was chatting among people - small talk, what'd you expect. Didn't see anyone actually playing the basses or testing gear but the option was there. Everyone was then led to a smaller room at 7:00 with good lighting, a small setup of gear upfront, and rows of foldable chairs were setup and I'll post a pic from my view in a bit. Mike Hampton strolled in and no one clapped, I'll be honest I didn't realize who it was at first, then he made a comical statement, he walked out and strolled in again. Then the rest of the band strolled in and started playing a couple songs. They were surprised at the amount of people who showed up as it was a rainy day. After that they opened the floor to a open ended Q+A, there was a brief moment of silence until the first person mustered up the courage to ask a question. After a couple questions they played more songs, a mix of originals and covers (a P-Funk cover because of Mike Hampton). Then more questions, then more songs to close out. Questions ranged from being a female bass player, to gear, to just general song composition - there was also several gear plugs about what Alissia was using. After, wrapping up around 8:27pm, the band took a pic with the Aguilar Guy, a couple folks lingered for photos and to chat, the band was great and very friendly. Their singer (Instagram @rickexpress) also frequently performs in the area, follow his Instagram for details. Hope this covers what you're looking for. It felt like a small interactive intimate concert - and it was free, what more could you ask for. Aguilar did a good job in arranging this.
That covers it, as I had no idea what happened. It is funny that no one recognized Mike Hampton (I'm not saying that I would). Since it was free, about how many people did show up? Did you ask any questions? Did you learn anything? I hope go to something like that one day.
Turn up was pretty solid - really I don't remember how many people exactly showed up, I wanna say around 25. I asked a pretty open question about composition. I think it was pretty cool, personally, didn't learn too much - but it was pretty cool and gave a bit of a spark of inspiration for someone who hasn't played too much recently.
