I went to guitarfest at the Birmingham NIA yesterday (my god birmingham is confusing to drive around) and honestly, I was disappointed with all of it except the performances.
On stage was Sarah Jory, Jerry Donahue, Stone Gods, Jennifer Batten, Glen Hughes and Yngwie Malmsteen. Each performance was an eye opener and I learnt alot from each person.
But the retail 'village' was terrible. More than half the stalls were for drums and the guitar stalls were a real let down. Most of it was over priced, the cheaper stuff was horrid and the salemen were more interested in talking to their mates rather than trying to sell a product.
Anyway, Highlights.
Glen Hughes. Good voice, but my god I wish he would shut up some times. His annoying falsetto really grates after the first 10 times you hear it. His guitar player sounded like a Zakk Wylde wanna be. Overall, not really impressed.
Jerry Donahue, fantastic country/whatever player. Just a Peavey 'tele' and a small fender amp. Lots of tasty playing and tone, but not much for showmanship.
Sarah Jory, playing a pedal steel guitar. Interesting to hear some one play one, but not really my cup of tea.
Stone Gods, their drummer didn't turn up so they played an acoustic set. Got a bit bored with them.
Doug Wimbish, great set, great improv, great tunes and a bit over the top. Very interesting to see a bass player make his bass sound like a wailing guitar.
Jennifer Batten. She's my new favourite guitar player. Her songs were interesting in the way that she focused more on 'texture' and melody rather than shredding. Great tone and great songs. I tried to buy her CD and get an autograph but she sold out all of her CD's for the day, she seemed like a really sweet woman too. I ended up ordering her CD/DVD from her website anyway.
Yngwie Malmsteen. He was a laugh. Non stop shredding for about 30 minutes. The only time he let up was when he was playing his 'blues' number which sounded more like a classical composers twist on a 12 bar blues. He had a great tone, using the Marshall JVM with the new Dave Mustaine Cabs. Must say though that I got the feeling that he really didn't want to be there. He hardly spoke the entire time and had a sort of 'get f**ked' attitude about him. I saw Jennifer Batten watching his set from the stalls which I found pretty cool, some one who's played countless gigs to billions of people and played with some of the best artists ever, still had the time to sit down and listen to another guitarist.
