I heard and saw him Monday night at the Jazz Standard with his band the Downright Upright All-Stars. It was some fantastic playing. They played stuff from the new record, much more funk-oriented than Wood II, and it was totally enjoyable.
Brian played a solo version of the Beatles' Come Together. The two-handed tapping on the neck on that tune, and on other tunes, was astounding --not to take away from other techniques he used. As you all know, Come Together is a blues. It starts in D, goes to the dominant A, and then to G. Brian used the open D and A strings as pedal tones for those chords, but when he got to the G chord he was tapping the low G on the E string with his right hand, and maybe playing some other notes with that hand, while providing harmony by tapping with his left. Great intonation. The only musician I can think of to compare it to is Eddie Van Halen, inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame the same night, but he has frets.
I got home and tried to get a G sound by tapping on my E string, but it was hopless, barely even a thud. Maybe the Weichs help him some there, and perhaps lower action, I don't know. Obviously his hands and his skill are predominanatly responsible.
He had a veritable arsenal of amplification. When he was fooling around unamplified before the set started I could barely hear the bass, even though I was only about ten feet away. His amp died about thirty seconds into the first song, and there were so many pickups and chords and preamps and stomp boxes that it took several minutes just to locate the problem. Then it took I don't know how long --ten minutes or more?-- to route all the stuff into a new amp, an Eden 2x10 or 2x12, which didn't sound as good as the huge Epifani 4x10 / 2x12 combo he started with.
That part was a drag for a few minutes, but the music more than made up for it. The band was great. It was a great swinging, funky musical experience.
Brian played a solo version of the Beatles' Come Together. The two-handed tapping on the neck on that tune, and on other tunes, was astounding --not to take away from other techniques he used. As you all know, Come Together is a blues. It starts in D, goes to the dominant A, and then to G. Brian used the open D and A strings as pedal tones for those chords, but when he got to the G chord he was tapping the low G on the E string with his right hand, and maybe playing some other notes with that hand, while providing harmony by tapping with his left. Great intonation. The only musician I can think of to compare it to is Eddie Van Halen, inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame the same night, but he has frets.
I got home and tried to get a G sound by tapping on my E string, but it was hopless, barely even a thud. Maybe the Weichs help him some there, and perhaps lower action, I don't know. Obviously his hands and his skill are predominanatly responsible.
He had a veritable arsenal of amplification. When he was fooling around unamplified before the set started I could barely hear the bass, even though I was only about ten feet away. His amp died about thirty seconds into the first song, and there were so many pickups and chords and preamps and stomp boxes that it took several minutes just to locate the problem. Then it took I don't know how long --ten minutes or more?-- to route all the stuff into a new amp, an Eden 2x10 or 2x12, which didn't sound as good as the huge Epifani 4x10 / 2x12 combo he started with.
That part was a drag for a few minutes, but the music more than made up for it. The band was great. It was a great swinging, funky musical experience.
I realize you're probably only half serious, but still....
