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John Wetton and Asia
- Thread starter GreggBummer
- Start date
Maybe its my tin ear but I never noticed any pitch problems for Lake. Can you give me an example?
Well, aside from the links already mentioned, how about everything?
It's very subtle, to be honest. Even songs like "Knife Edge" have a slightly flat feel to them.
So we played the Asia show last night . . .
The good: Asia was just awesome! They played the usual suspect hits from their early days, some "covers" a la FANTASIA; Court of the Crimson King, Roundabout, Video Killed the Radio Star, Fanfare for the Common Man and some new tunes off of Phoenix including Never Again and An Extraordinary Life.
Wetton's voice was great, powerful and better than ever. More on that later. He played a white Zon Legacy Elite 4 through a Roland D-base combo amp and also utilized a set of midi bass pedals. His Spector 4 was on standby in the wings.
John was super friendly and accommodating. I had a chance to chat with him for awhile. He has completely lost feeling in his index and second fingers of his right hand from carpel tunnel and plays utilizing his thumb which is taped. He also had triple bypass surgery which he's recovered completely from. He believes his voice is better than ever (I'd agree) due to no longer indulging in alcohol or drugs. Took pictures with us and signed my Phoenix CD.
Steve Howe was kinda "different". Not really interested in talking. And, Carl Palmer and Geoffry Downes stayed on the bus until show time. The band didn't soundcheck. Only Steve and John came in to test their mics and gear.
BTW: Howe was fantastic! Played a Gibson ES something or other through a Line 6 combo, a Line 6 Varix for his "acoustic on a stand" and a Gibson acoustic for his solo number. His playing is so clean it's unbelievable.
Asia played great. CP was a joy to watch even though his drum tone was not great. Had a lot of that buuwaaah sound on the toms. And, overall there FOH sound was not that great. About half way through their set they put some doubler delay on Wetton's voice and for some reason it thinned out his seriously great set of pipes.
The Bad: Their road crew was the biggest bunch of jerks I've ever encountered. I honestly didn't think it could get any worse then the dumb @$$ Kansas crew. Surprise. It can. Asia's road manager was pitching a bitch about they haven't had any opening talent all tour, how nothing can be moved on stage, blah, blah, blah. Asia consumed 39 of the 40 channels on the FOH board and none of those inputs can be used for the opener, like moving the bass DI from Wetton's amp to mine or moving a guitar mic in front of another amp. Our FOH engineer brings a mixer and drum mics making it easy to send a sub mix to the main board so it didn't really matter.
They just got more intense as we set up grinding at the owner of the venue. And even though Asia didn't sound check their crew chewed up every minute of available time that we could have used for a sound check. Then there was their lame "security" a-hole who blocked access to the dressing rooms upstairs via one of the 3 available stairways. Shortened version - Him: "Sorry, no one is allowed up here". Me: "That's pretty lame" as I stand across from him in front of our dressing room having giving up arguing with the dullard and gone up via one of the other stairs.
Anyway, we played well and were warmly received by the sold out crowd.
The good: Asia was just awesome! They played the usual suspect hits from their early days, some "covers" a la FANTASIA; Court of the Crimson King, Roundabout, Video Killed the Radio Star, Fanfare for the Common Man and some new tunes off of Phoenix including Never Again and An Extraordinary Life.
Wetton's voice was great, powerful and better than ever. More on that later. He played a white Zon Legacy Elite 4 through a Roland D-base combo amp and also utilized a set of midi bass pedals. His Spector 4 was on standby in the wings.
John was super friendly and accommodating. I had a chance to chat with him for awhile. He has completely lost feeling in his index and second fingers of his right hand from carpel tunnel and plays utilizing his thumb which is taped. He also had triple bypass surgery which he's recovered completely from. He believes his voice is better than ever (I'd agree) due to no longer indulging in alcohol or drugs. Took pictures with us and signed my Phoenix CD.
Steve Howe was kinda "different". Not really interested in talking. And, Carl Palmer and Geoffry Downes stayed on the bus until show time. The band didn't soundcheck. Only Steve and John came in to test their mics and gear.
BTW: Howe was fantastic! Played a Gibson ES something or other through a Line 6 combo, a Line 6 Varix for his "acoustic on a stand" and a Gibson acoustic for his solo number. His playing is so clean it's unbelievable.
Asia played great. CP was a joy to watch even though his drum tone was not great. Had a lot of that buuwaaah sound on the toms. And, overall there FOH sound was not that great. About half way through their set they put some doubler delay on Wetton's voice and for some reason it thinned out his seriously great set of pipes.
The Bad: Their road crew was the biggest bunch of jerks I've ever encountered. I honestly didn't think it could get any worse then the dumb @$$ Kansas crew. Surprise. It can. Asia's road manager was pitching a bitch about they haven't had any opening talent all tour, how nothing can be moved on stage, blah, blah, blah. Asia consumed 39 of the 40 channels on the FOH board and none of those inputs can be used for the opener, like moving the bass DI from Wetton's amp to mine or moving a guitar mic in front of another amp. Our FOH engineer brings a mixer and drum mics making it easy to send a sub mix to the main board so it didn't really matter.
They just got more intense as we set up grinding at the owner of the venue. And even though Asia didn't sound check their crew chewed up every minute of available time that we could have used for a sound check. Then there was their lame "security" a-hole who blocked access to the dressing rooms upstairs via one of the 3 available stairways. Shortened version - Him: "Sorry, no one is allowed up here". Me: "That's pretty lame" as I stand across from him in front of our dressing room having giving up arguing with the dullard and gone up via one of the other stairs.
Anyway, we played well and were warmly received by the sold out crowd.
Great stories. Glad to hear Wetton's voice was strong. As far as the dullard goes it reminds me of a similar experience I had about a 1000 yrs ago when we opened for BB King at the BCC Community College.
That sucks about John's fingers. He seems to have adapted well to the thumbpick. I was watching King Crimson from 1973 Central Park watching him tear it up on "Easy Money". Shame he'll never play that way again. Greta gig story otherwise. Steve Howe is one of my all time favorite guitarists.
Gotta love road crews.
Gotta love road crews.
When I saw John, just a few weeks ago, I really liked his thumb picking...
I didn't know that it was an adaptation due to carpal tunnel.
There is a lesson in this.
I didn't know that it was an adaptation due to carpal tunnel.
There is a lesson in this.
If I ever get out to Ferndale I will buy you a beer (or coffee or whatever your drink of choice is).
I wish I could find a few prog rock heads here in South Jersey to jam with...
Oh well.
G
I wish I could find a few prog rock heads here in South Jersey to jam with...
Oh well.
G
John Wetton uses a thumb pick because his right hand is injured with carpal tunnel syndrome.
He is also one of my favourite all time bass players.
He is also one of my favourite all time bass players.
P-bass thru HIWATT and both folded horn and frontloaded 4x12 cabs (crimson)
Same for Roxy Music
P-bass and Marshall for UK
Same for Roxy Music
P-bass and Marshall for UK
I don't think that was a Mustang bass. I think it was his white P-bass with the pickguard removed (just a little piece for the controls).
Lake was good and he sang good and had a nice piano-y jazz bass tone but c'mon, Wetton kicked his ass.
Wetton was agressive and had chops. Listen to that little segment in Fracture where he goes off, or that awesome distorted riff he plays under the building melody at the end, or Lament, or Providence, or ... try The Great Deciever (good warmup riff). Listen to live versions of Lament. The "guitar solo" gets blown aside with Wetton's awesome, funky riffing.
Wetton brought in an in-your-face rock edge that counterbalanced Fripp (with Bruford in the middle).
Greg Lake was fine in Crimson and ELP but I really don't think he was as into the BASS as Wetton. Wetton SMOKED on Bass.
Wetton was agressive and had chops. Listen to that little segment in Fracture where he goes off, or that awesome distorted riff he plays under the building melody at the end, or Lament, or Providence, or ... try The Great Deciever (good warmup riff). Listen to live versions of Lament. The "guitar solo" gets blown aside with Wetton's awesome, funky riffing.
Wetton brought in an in-your-face rock edge that counterbalanced Fripp (with Bruford in the middle).
Greg Lake was fine in Crimson and ELP but I really don't think he was as into the BASS as Wetton. Wetton SMOKED on Bass.
+1 Overall I'd say Lake had a slightly better voice but he always sounded like a guitarist playing bass. Almost zero groove.
Lake was a guitar player first. As I understand it, he and Fripp grew up in the same town, took lessons from the same teacher.
