The Z Files

I took the drive up to Toronto’s historic Massey Hall last Thursday to see the latest incarnation of the venerable G3 tour. This tour’s lineup featured Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big), John Petrucci (Dream Theater) and Joe Satriani. I was disappointed that Steve Vai wasn’t on board, as it’s very rare to see a G3 tour without him. I was excited to see Gilbert and Petrucci but, as much as I like Satriani, I’d rather see Vai.

Paul Gilbert was the first one up. He had the biggest band of the night, a five-piece complete with old Racer X pal Bruce Bouillet on guitar. I was mostly unfamiliar with Gilbert’s work going into the show, but my expectations were high. I really enjoyed his set. The song selection spanned his entire career, touching on Racer X and Mr. Big material as well as cuts from his solo albums. The musicianship was top notch on all fronts, and the songs and stage performance displayed the humor and irreverence that I had expected. I definitely plan to start building a Gilbert collection after seeing his G3 set.

John Petrucci’s set was enjoyable but predictable. He stuck to material from his solo album, Suspended Animation, playing six of the disc’s eight cuts. The band, once again featuring Dave LaRue on bass and Mike Portnoy on drums, was flawless. I actually spent as much time watching Mike as I did John. (Completely irrelevant to the performance: it seems like Petrucci beefs up a bit more every time I see him. His arms are like tree trunks. He could probably snap Satriani or Gilbert in half.) I think Petrucci would do well to bring a second guitarist out on his solo shows, as his songs have so many different layered guitar parts that it feels like there’s a lot missing when they’re performed in a trio context.

Satriani was my least favorite of the three. My big knock on Satriani’s live show is that he sticks to a very small pool of material. His set lists are way too predictable, especially when considering how much great work spanning his whole career never makes it into the set. I also wish that he’d either do away with rhythm guitarist Galen Henson or give him a bigger role. Both times I’ve seen Satriani, Henson has been completely buried in the mix. One actually has to strain to hear him. Joe should swallow a little bit of his ego and bring Galen up in the mix and let him get a little more into the action.

Satriani closed with “Always With Me, Always With You” and dragged out the outro, at which point he was joined by Petrucci and Gilbert. Both took solos before Satriani ended the song. From there, they went into the G3 jam, featuring Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” and “Purple Haze,” followed by “Going Down” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” The jam was great, even though the songs aren’t exactly my favorite style.

Overall, it was a good show. It doesn’t quite rank among my favorites, but it was still very enjoyable and well worth the price of admission.

So I’ve been entertaining thoughts lately about a couple small Soldano amps, the Astroverb and Atomic, which are basically pint-size 20-watt SLOs. The only difference between the two is that the Astroverb has reverb. This was sparked when a guy from cyberjammin picked up an Astroverb mini-stack for something like $650. I didn’t know anything about those amps and was surprised that one could have a Soldano, albeit used, for well under a grand. That got me thinking right away. With my plans to upgrade my studio gear and get more serious about writing and recording, I’d be very open to getting a recording amp such as an Atomic or Astroverb to compliment my Mesa rig and fill out my recorded sound a bit.

As I was pursuing teh intarwebs last night, I came across an interesting piece of kit announced at NAMM a couple months back: the Krank Rev Jr. mini-stack. (pictured) It’s actually quite similar in concept to the Atomic and Astroverb: a 20w version of the flagship Revolution 100w head. The best part is the price: the halfstack (head and one 1×12 cab) will have a street price of $699, which is about what the Soldanos go for used. I’ve been impressed by the recordings I’ve heard of Krank gear, but there are no Krank dealers anywhere near here. Maybe, when the time comes, I’ll just take a chance and order one. That won’t be for quite a while yet, but still…the GAS fires are burning!