GuitarVibe.com

The Stranglers Tour North America

I was super excited to learn that The Stranglers, a band I've been listening to since their first album in 1977, will be touring North America this summer.  I'll be seeing them play their tour opener in Detroit on May 30 and then the next night in Toronto.  Additionally, they'll be playing Montreal, New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.  Shame they are not playing San Francisco, but still...  This is the first time the band has toured North America in 15 years.  I've waited many, many years for this, as have many fans.  So I'm sure it's going to be awesome.  And it's also a heckuva lot cheaper than seeing the Stones.

While some diehard fans will complain that the band is not as good as it once was, it's still kind of a miracle that The Stranglers exists at all today given all the ups and downs of the music business.  Yes, original lead singer and guitarist Hugh Cornwell will be missed, but he's been gone for ages and Baz has his own style.  The recent material from the band is quite good and I expect that the set list will include a lot of songs from the first few albums.  Here's a nice live version of "No More Heroes" from earlier this year at The Roundhouse, London.  Nice to see that Dave Greenfield can still do his solo one-handed while downing a pint. 

I'm also looking forward to seeing Mike Marlin, who will be opening for The Stranglers on this tour.  More on that later on.

If you are near any of these cities and are a fan from ages back, you better get your tickets soon.  Many of the shows are already sold out.

• The Stranglers: Official Site, News
• Mike Marlin: Official Site, Music, News
• Amazon: Stranglers, Giants, Suite XVI, Greatest Hits, Mike Marlin
• GuitarVibe: At the Roundhouse, Suite XVI, Hugh Cornwell Live

Mitch Laddie Band at The Borderline

On a recent trip to London, I managed to catch the latest rising blues artist, The Mitch Laddie Band at The Borderline.  I've passed by The Borderline dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, but until recently never managed to see a band there.  The club is located in Soho just off London's famous Denmark Street --the "Tin Pan Alley" of London's music scene.  It's a small basement club with a dark wood bar off to the side and an otherwise open standing area to accomodate a couple hundred people.  The stage is raised, so even if you're at the back, you've got a great view.  The Borderline has been the launching pad of many an upcoming blues or rock band over the last 20 years and this particular Friday night was no exception.

Mitch Laddie Band opened for veteran blues rocker Larry Miller.  To say that Mitch Laddie stole the show might be overstating it, but for a young man of 22 years, he more than held his own.  I'd say a good chunk of the audience was there to see Mitch Laddie and those who weren't will have have become fans by the time the band finished their sixty minute set.  (I'll follow up with a separate write-up on Larry Miller, who was a ball of energy!)

Laddie's got a classic "power trio" with an extremely tight rhythm section made up of Rhian Wilkinson on bass and Matt Connor on drums.  They provide a solid groove to a broad range of music, from slow blues, shuffle, and even some heavier funk-influenced blues.  And as to the man himself, well, it's clear that Mitch Laddie has been schooled by some of the best bluesmen in the business.  He's apprenticed under Walter Trout and you can definitely hear influence from the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson and, of course, Joe Bonamassa.  Like Bonamassa, Laddie's been playing since he was a young kid.  And, like Bonamassa he's got the whole package with guitar, vocals and songwriting skills to boot.

I'm a sucker for slow blues and Mitch Laddie tears into it with a passion that goes far beyond his years.  He's able to tap into that deep, soulful sound that makes the blues so enduring.  He also incorporates a a healthy dose of funk into his repertoire that stands out from the standard 12-bar blues that we all know and love.  Even though it was a short set, the band covered a range of sounds and styles that kept things fresh and left the audience thirsty for more.

 I've posted some photos on I've posted on PicasaWeb as well as some HD videos on YouTube. 

 

It's clear to me that Mitch Laddie is following in the footsteps of some great blues players; Laddie may well be the next Joe Bonamassa.  I expect that within a couple of years, Mitch Laddie Band will be touring some of the most famous blues clubs and festivals around the world and headlining in a few more years after that.  Then hopefully, he'll come back and play clubs like The Borderline where things really started to take off.  

Mitch's latest CD is "Burning Bridges" and it's available online at Amazon and iTunes as well as directly from the Mitch Laddie site.  Mitch Laddie Band are touring in England through the summer. 

• Mitch Laddie Band:Official Site, Tour, Bio
• Larry Miller: Official Site
• The Borderline: Official Site
• Amazon: Burning Bridges

House of Floyd at the Rio

One of the best tribute bands, House of Floyd, played this Saturday April 20 at the Rio theater in Santa Cruz.  They offer a tremendous "note-for-note" performance of classic Pink Floyd hits along with more obscure tracks from deep in the Pink Floyd archive. 

Here's some of the video I shot and uploaded to YouTube.  Sound quality is good, and I've uploaded in HD resolution.  

 

The setlist included many of the classic Pink Floyd singles as well as some deeper tracks from Meddle and other albums from the Syd Barrett era.

Personally, I favor the more melodic songs from the later albums, but it was obvious there were many fans of all eras at the show.  

House of Floyd is such a great live band, I'm not sure a camera can ever really capture how much fun they are to see.  I've posted some photos on PicasaWeb and embedded them below.  But my advice is to go see the live.  That's  where you really get the full impact of their performance, with not only the sound, but also the lightshow, the lasers, the projection videos and most of all the energy.

The band's performance is tight, vocals are very close to the originals and the playing is as close to note-for-note as you're ever likely to see for some of these songs.  And in case it's not obvious, this is a band that bring tremendous enthusiasm and joy to their work.  House of Floyd will be touring through the summer, and I encourage you to sign up for their newsletter so you can keep track of their schedule.

• House of Floyd: Main site, Setlists, Photos & video
• GuitarVibe: House of Floyd, Live at the Fox

Greg Kihn Band - Live in Pleasanton

Bay area rock legend Greg Kihn is playing two sold out shows at the very intimate Pleasanton Firehouse this weekend.  I managed to catch Friday night's show and it was a gas.  Despite some delays due to a fire alarm (!) it was an excellent show.  The set list was chock full of many GKB hits including "Remember," "Madison Ave," "Another Girl Another Planet," and "Jeopardy" (of course), as well as a few select covers including a very nice medley of  "Ticket to Ride," "Roadrunner" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash." I was hoping to hear "Pretty Vacant" in the mix also, but you can't win 'em all.  Ry Kihn filled in on vocals on a couple of songs and that added a fresh sound to the band.  Ry's guitar was outstanding, as usual.  

The only thing that was less than perfect was the sound.  It clocked in at well over 100db.  I was seated in the first row and despite wearing earplugs, I had to move to the back for a while to get a break from the pounding of the bass drum.  The Firehouse is a very small theater and I think the sound system they used is just too much for this venue.  

I managed to capture some photos and videos with my trusty Sony RX100.

 

Unfortunately, the sound on some of the videos is quite distorted due to the volume.  The sound at the concert was much better than it sounds here.  Based on the strengths of this weekends shows, I hope we'll see dates for a full-fledged summer tour.

• Greg Kihn: Official site, Set list ,Tour dates, Wikipedia
• Amazon: Greg Kihn Band, Author page Rubber Soul

Los Lobos - Live at Moe's Alley

Through some careful last minute wheeling and dealing on Craigslist (thank you Tanya, thank you Tom!) I was able to get two tickets to Los Lobos at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz last night.  Los Lobos is one of the most under-rated of bands.  They've toured with U2, The Grateful Dead and played at the white house.  To see them play in such a small club was fantastic.  In fact, a sweaty hot cramped blues club is probably the best venue you could ever see Los Lobos.

Los Lobos has an extensive and varied repertoire including traditional Mexican folk music, roots rock, blues, Latin rock and jamband groove music.  The show at Moe's Alley ran the full gamut with songs like "Chuco's Cumbia", "Little Things", "Rosa Lee", covers of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and the Grateful Dead's "Bertha"  (which was epic) and more.  

One of the remarkable things about Los Lobos is that it has been the same five guys playing together for 30 years.  This is no one-founding member reunion act, this is the real deal.  The band is a bit greyer (and wider) than when they started, but they remain incredibly tight musically.  The vocals from David Hidalgo and Cesar Romas are as strong as they've ever been and the guitar playing is incredible.  It was also notable how much the rhythm section added to the groove.  Conrad Lozano's bass playing truly drives the sound on many songs.

I've posted photos from my Sony RX100 onto PicasaWeb.  (These may or may not show up at the top of this post, depending on your browser.)  Some of photos are cropped, but otherwise, untreated.  I also shot some video on my iPhone 5.  The quality of the sound on the iPhone is a bit muffled, but it'll give you a feel for the show.  I've posted a few songs on YouTube.  (Note the videos should show up in 720p HD resolution by default.)

 If you're not familiar with Los Lobos, I recommend checking out their latest compilation album "Wolf Tracks".  If you're into the more rocking blues style, check out "The Town & The City" and "Neighborhood", two great albums.  And if you're a long-time fan, their latest album is "Tin Can Trust".

• Amazon: The Town and the City, Wolf Tracks, Neighborhood, Tin Can Trust
• Los Lobos: Official Site, Tour, Bios, Wikipedia

Steve Vai - Regency Ballroom

Steve Vai was in San Francisco recently on his latest "Story of Light" tour and my guitar playing buddy Rob and I managed to attend.  Rob made the trip up to Napa also, so he saw them play two nights in the same week.  He's just that much more comitted than I am.  

Of course, most people know Steve Vai as one of the modern guitar shredders, routinely on the cover of Guitar World magazine and up there with Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen et al.  While the music definitely weighs heavily to the prog rock side of guitar virtuosity, there's enough melody and energy to keep the show interesting even to those who are not themselves guitar players.  (Ok, I suspect that's a small part of the audience.  But in practice it means you can bring your girlfriend or wife to the gig and she probably won't hate it.  There's even a couple of melodic slow temp songs like "Tender Surrender" that work as ballads.)

The Regency is a great venue, big enough that it's a show, but small enough you can get a clear view from just about anywhere.  And although Vai is clearly the star of the show, he's got a set of absolute first class musicians in his band.  It's an eclectic mix with drummer Jeremy Colson (who also tours with Billy Idol), guitar player Dave Weiner, bass player Philip Bynoe and Deborah Henson-Conant on electric harp.  I kid you not, it actually works.   

Vai's a brilliant guitarist, but he's also an entertainer and he's got a sense of playfulness and humor that comes through loud and clear in his show.  I guess that's what you get for touring with Frank Zappa all those years ago.

Here's some videos I've posted on YouTube.  They're shot in HD on the Sony RX100.  Unfortunately, the sound is occasionally clipped at very high volumes.  Nonetheless, it should give you a flavor for the energy this band puts out.

• Steve Vai: Official site, Wikipedia
• Amazon: Steve Vai

Pearl Jam - Treasure Island

Pearl Jam was in San Francisco and played at Oracle Open World a few weeks back with Kings of Leon as the opening act.  I've seen Pearl Jam before at the Bridge School Benefit playing an acoustic set and this was definitely a lot louder and with a lot more energy.  So for PJ fans, I think it was a good show.  Unfortunately both bands were very loud and the result is that the sound on the videos is pretty lousy.  So I remain somewhat frustrated that my Sony RX100 is worse at audio than my five year old Canon G9.  

But for those interested, I've posted some songs on YouTube shot directly from one of the big screens.  Unfortunately, it's all sepia tone and distorted sound.

• Kings of Leon: Official Site, Wikipedia
• Amazon: Kings of Leon, Pearl Jam

Kings of Leon - Treasure Island

Kings of Leon played recently at the Oracle Open World music extravaganza in San Francisco a few weeks back, opening for Pearl Jam.  While I'm not a huge KoL fan, I thought it would be interesting.  It was certainly loud.  In fact, it was too loud for my Sony RX100 camera, resulting in a lot of distortion.  Heck, I could feel my internal organs vibrating from the bass drum.  And it was kind of cool when Eddie Vedder came out to join them.

Despite the poor audio quality, I've posted a few songs on YouTube shot directly from one of the big screens for those who want to check it out.  And I'll follow up with the Pearl Jam post shortly.

• Kings of Leon: Official site, Wikipedia
• Amazon: Kings of Leon, Pearl Jam

Dark Star Orchestra at The Fillmore

I've always been a fan of tribute bands.  While it's not quite the same as seeing the real thing, for a lot of acts like Pink Floyd, The Police or The Rolling Stones, it's as close as you're ever going to come to seeing the live in a small club.  So I was pleased to hear that I was finally gonna get my chance to go see Dark Star Orchestra (DSO) in their famous tribute to The Grateful Dead, playing live at The Fillmore in San Francisco.  The Fillmore is legendary in The Grateful Dead canon as one of their de facto club in the early part of their career and featured in their live album "Live/Dead" and the more recently released "Fillmore West 1969."  

The basic idea behind DSO is that they pick a particular concert from the 30 year career of The Dead and recreate in its entirety capturing the tone and pace of an on original concert from a bygone era.  Sometimes it's an early '70s show and other times it's a late '80s show and once in a while it's put together from various Dead side projects.  At the end of the evening, DSO announces the setlist.    

So how good are DSO?  Good enough that DSO's founding guitar player and vocalist John Kadlecik, now plays with Furthur, the latest incarnation of The Grateful Dead led by founding members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh.  They're so good, current and former members of The Grateful Dead have on occasion played with DSO.  And in fact, the night after I saw them at The Fillmore, Phil Lesh joined DSO on stage for the entire first set.  I missed it by that much...

Ok, even without Phil Lesh with the band, it was still an outstanding show.  As it turns out, it was a setlist from Pine Knob, Michigan in 1991, after the release of "In the Dark" which included the band's only chart-topping single "Touch of Grey" and resulted in the album going to Double Platinum status, a first in their career.  While purists might prefer an earlier era, no one was complaining Friday at The Fillmore.  

My buddy Alex scored balcony seats with a great unobstructed view of the band.  I managed to shoot a few songs, but I was sitting in the one spot in the whole venue that Fillmore security seemed to pay attention to.  So I got what I got, which was not very much: "Touch of Grey", "Iko Iko", "All Along the Watchtower" and "Mexicali Blues", the last one a song I have never enjoyed.  Unfortunately, some of the songs are interrupted and I was not able to capture the brilliant "He's gone", "Throwing Stones" or "Not Fade Away".  

Well, such is life.  At any rate, check out the videos on Youtube, shot with my Sony RX100.  You'll notice some clipping on the adio due to the loud volume.  And be sure to checkout DSO on the rest of their 2012 tour as they make their way east across the country.

• Dark Star Orchestra: Official Site, Setlists, Tour, Wikipedia
• Furthur: Official Site, Wikipedia
• Grateful Dead:Official Site, Wikipedia
• Amazon: Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses), American Beauty, Live/Dead, Fillmore West

Canon G9 vs Sony RX100 for Concerts

The first workout for my Sony RX100 was a short trip to many of Austin's great blues clubs a couple of weeks ago.  As luck would have it, Jimmie Vaughan was in town playing at Antone's.  I had seen him play this same venue twice earlier in March and July 2010, which I had shot with my trusty Canon G9.  While it's not a perfect side-by-side comparison, it is the same venue, the same opening act, and similar songs.  I also happened to be standing in pretty much the same spot, at the left hand side about 3 feet from the stage.

Canon G9 Photos & Video

Here's the best shot I managed to catch of Jimmy with the G9.  (Ok, he doesn't smile too often.)  You can see that there's a lot of noise in the photo and there's an overall washed out look, especially if you click to examine at it at full size.  This was shot using the High ISO setting of the G9, which is pretty much the only setting that will work in a concert venue.

Here are some more shots with the Canon G9 I posted at PicasaWeb.  

 And here are several songs from July 2010. Note that the first two songs in the playlists for the two cameras are the same, giving an easy way to compare the quality.  Sound quality from the G9 has always been exceptional.  You can hear the guitar, bass and drums quite distinctly, especially on Jimmie Vaughan's songs.

Overall, I've thought my Canon G9 did a pretty good job on concert photos and videos.  But when you put it side by side with the more modern RX100, there's no comparison.  The G9 photos like intolerably grainy.  Not only is the RX100 slimmer, lighter and faster to shoot with, it's going to deliver much high quality photos in concert settings.

Sony RX100 Photos & Video

The RX100 did a much better job of getting low-light photos at required high ISO settings without the noise seen on the G9.  The blacks look much blacker and the photo of Vaughan with his white strat has a very dramatic contrast. 

Again, not a lot of smiles from Mr Vaughan, but the RX100 burst mode enabled me to get at least one.  I've also included some shots of the opening band, The Bluebonnets, as well.  All photos were shot in Program mode with an ISO of 3200 (and occasionally 1600) and are uncropped and unprocessed.  

And here are several songs by Jimmie Vaughan, Lou Ann Barton and the Bluebonnets.  Again, note that the first two songs are the same as the earlier gig which used the Canon G9.

 Viewing the videos at high resolution / full screen settings reveals just how much video quality has improved in the 5 years since the G9 was first launched.

The Sony RX100 does a much better job with both low-light concert photos and with higher resolution video.  By comparison photos from the G9 are a lot noisier at high ISO settings.  The RX100 focuses faster, has a better burst mode and generally, higher quality images.  Despite the fact that the G9 has a bigger zoom, I think in most cases, the RX100 will deliver more better quality pictures because of it's faster lens and larger sensor.  I also think a lot of the Auto+ and creative filters are great additions to the RX100.  The only downside of the RX100 high resolution video is that it makes for some pretty large files and lengthy processing and upload times.

However, while the video quality is excellent, I'm not convinced the audio from the Sony RX100 is better; in fact I'd say the audio quality is worse than the G9.  It's boomier and has a more washed out sound and is more likely to clip at very high volumes (above 100 db).  For blues or jazz, that may not be an issue, but if it's a deafening head-banging metal band, sound will be distorted.

That said, I think both cameras do a good job on audio and are much better than the Fujifilm X10, Canon S100 and most other point and shoots.  But this may be a question of personal preference more than anything else.  It's also possible that by setting the Wind Noise Reduction ON, it may sound better, though I've not been able to tell the difference myself. 

I've added a few more recent reviews following my first impressions post.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

• Amazon: Sony DSC RX100
• More Reviews: The Verge, GearPatrol, EOSHD, CNet, PCWorld, PC Mag

First Impressions: Sony RX100 for Concert Photos

I've been jonesing to buy a new compact digital camera for a couple of years.  I love my Canon G9, but it's several years out of date and while I think it does great for concert videos, it's not a great camera for low-light venues.  High ISO pictures have a lot of noise.  Still the camera is very compact, relatively easy to smuggle into venues and the audio quality is superb.  So I passed on the FujiFilm X10 (poor audio), the smaller Canon S100 (poor audio) and the Canon G1X (too large.)  

But a few days ago, I managed to pick up Sony's newest compact digital camera the DSC RX100 .  On paper, it looks outstanding: 8 oz, very small, F1.8 Carl Zeiss lens, built-in effects, etc.  It's not cheap ($650) but if it can get better shots than the G9, what the heck.  The first camera I got was dead after half a dozen shots; it would no longer read any SD card.  Sony let me swap out the camera at a store, which was very gracious of them.  One clear challenge: shooting videos in 12M 1440 x 1080 resolution makes for some pretty massive files.  Converting a 7 minute file to 720x 1080 took about 45 minutes on my Macbook Air and another 40 minutes to upload to YouTube.  While it's to have that kind of higher resolution, I don't think it would be practical when shooting half a dozen or more songs as I usually do.  I wish there was an MP4 resolution halfway between the high res 1440x1080 MP4 and the low-res VGA 640x480.  That would save a lot of processing and uploading time. 

Here's a sample video in MP4 at a local Austin blues jam held at Jax Neighborhood Cafe.  It's a nice venue with good lighting and the sound was around 96db, so not deafeningly loud.  You can click on the video to view it fullscreen.

And here's  another sample shot in AVCHD. (That's me singing slightly off-key.) 

The RX100 did a good job capturing the sound, but it sounds like it is very close to distorting at high volumes.  Or more likely that's just the crappy Fender JAM sold-state amp I was using.    

Here are some videos from Antone's featuring the Bluebonnets, Nick Curran and Jimmie Vaughan.  These were all shot in 12MP MP4 1440 x 1080 resolution and, I uploaded the files directly to YouTube without the tedious conversion process used by iMovie.

And some more video shot at 640x480 VGA resolution.  By default iMovie crops these films before uploading for reasons I don't understand, so they come out slighlty worse looking than if you upload directly as they get scaled to some other resolution.  (Lesson learned!)  I re-uploaded most of the videos directly to YouTube to avoid this problem.  But you might notice a couple are still fuzzier than they should be.  Also the louder songs by Dave Grisson appear to distor the sound.

And here are some still shots at PicasaWeb from various live venues.   All were shot as 20 MB JPEGs and mostly using automatic Program mode (P) at automatic ISO.  Occasionally I tested out 1600 ISO or 3200 ISO as well as the SCN High ISO or Auto+ settings.  Note all photos are uncropped and at the original resolution.  I've still got plenty more photos to upload next couple of days.

And here are some shots of a band where I used some of the creative filters built-in to the RX100.  Some look a bit over the top, but if used sparingly they can be interesting.  

 So far, I would say the RX100 is a nice, small and unobtrusive camera.  It focuses quickly and has the requisite number of dials, nobs and menus to let you control the photos and adjust for lighting.  Overall, it appears to be faster at focusing and shooting than the G9, and it performs reasonably well in tricky lighting situations.  But at $650, it's probably the most expensive point & shoot cameras out there.  And you've still got to shoot a lot of photos to get a few that capture the right expression and I have many photos where something isn't exactly right.  

And there are two significant drawback to keep in mind, relative to the G9.  When shooting in burst mode, it can take 10 seconds or more before the camera is ready to take another shot.  And the audio definitely clips at lower volumes than the G9.  Most of the time it should be fine but at very loud shows (over 100db), you can hear some distortion.  Hard to say how the G9 would have done under the exact same circumstance, but in several years of shooting the G9 it only distorted audio twice.

Not surprisingly, the Sony RX100 is getting great reviews; I've posted links to a few below.  More comments to follow.

• Amazon: Sony DSC RX100
• Reviews: NY Times, Imaging Resource, DPReview, Steve Huff, CameraLabs, TechRadar

 

The Cynics in Europe

Ok, I'm jealous.  I've only recently been introduced to The Cynics, one of the greatest garage bands ever.  My brother saw them live in Toronto and bought me a CD.  This is one tremendous band.  I've bought four more CDs since then and they are all fantastic.  The band has been around for 30 years and it's interesting to hear how they've evolved.  There's a definite "Nuggets" influence in the early work and then later songs have become a bit more polished, but still full of raw energy.  Hard to explain, but if you like the Beatles, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks or other high-energy bands with a great sense of melody, then this might be up your alley.

While The Cynics have never had great acclaim in the US, they've got a huge following in Europe, especially in Spain.  And in fact, they are currently on tour in Europe.  They've been in the UK and Germany and still have shows to go in Spain and Norway --of all places.

Heck, if they can tour in Norway, you'd think they'd be able to make it to San Francisco. Come on, guys, how about it?  

If you're not familiar with The Cynics, I encourage you to check them out on Amazon or on their MySpace or Facebook pages.  Here's a video from their 2011 Album "Spinning Wheel Motel".  I'll post some more about recent albums by The Cynics in a follow up post.

• The Cynics: Facebook, MySpace, Shows, Wikipedia
• Amazon: The Cynics, Spinning Wheel Motel, Living Is the Best Revenge, Sixteen Flights Up