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Saw Eric Johnson Last Night


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It took two hour of driving on wet roads in rain and mist to get to the McGlohon Theater in downtown Charlotte for last night's show.  The food court next to the parking garage was shutting down about the time my car was parked.  Through the misty rain I walked over to the theater, hoping I was not going to be a steaming mess for everyone seated next to me.  A guitar playing friend I only see every now and then was in line inside the building.  We talked a lot before we split to go to our narrow gauge seats. 

Arielle started the show.  She must be in her very early 20's because she has the charm of a teenager, but the stage presence of someone who has been playing in front of audiences for years.  Her online videos make her seem to be more tame.  Arielle really puts a lot of emotion into what she sings.  Being paired up with Eric Johnson leads one to expect her to be a monster guitar player.  To me, she can hold her own with anyone on stage.  Here guitars all have names.  A Gibson ES-335, Martin acoustic, and something with a radical shape were used.  I could not tell what amp she was using.  She is not going for the guitar god status, just really good playing and really good songwriting.  Her songs all sounded interesting enough to make me want to get a CD.  During her last song the crew was taking some of the gear off the stage, and then Eric Johnson's band members were on stage.  Arielle did the introduction. 

Eric Johnson walked out and his first set started.  The last time I saw Eric Johnson was 1990 or 1991 when Ah Via Musicom was the most recent album.  Tommy Taylor and Kyle Brock were the band then, and they are the band now.  It is weird seeing how much those long haired guys who were in their 30's then have changed since then.  The playing is the same, just not the young appearance.  I never realized how much Tommy Taylor added to the vocals, either.  That was an eye opener last night. 

Though my friend in Charlotte said that Eric Johnson would be really loud, it did not seem loud to me at my seat 12 rows back, dead center.  Usually there are plugs in my ears at shows, but not last night.  The amps were positioned behind the piano, and Eric had to walk over to a particular cabinet when he wanted to get feedback roars.  I was not close enough to take inventory of the amps, but there were two tall Fender head cabinets, maybe Showman heads, on top of a Marshall 4x12 cabinet with a Marshall half stack next to it.  He might have been getting feedback from the Marshall.  It seemed like he was getting sustain from pedals.  Eric would bend over and tweak pedals settings sometimes, and he did dance on the pedal board a bit, too.  At the early part of the show there was an Eric Johnson Thinline Strat, but for the second part of the show his Strat had no f-hole.  For Steve's Boogie he used a dark pink, maybe coral pink, Telecaster.  

Kyle Brock had two Fender Jazz basses, one seafoam green that he played most of the time and a candy red one.  He had a Fender bass amp with an 8x10 cabinet.  Next to it was a Hiwatt half stack. 

Instead of guitar faces Eric Johnson does odd guitar posture.  He also turns slightly toward Kyle Brock, but never completely.  If you have a seat on the left side of the stage you might not see Eric's hands as much as those people on the right side. 

Those people who took the time to learn Eric's solos note for note and want to go to the show to find out if they got it right are going to be lost.  The songs sound right, but the solos have changed.  Eric is not playing in a tribute band to himself with carefully rehearsed static solos.  In a way, Cliffs Of Dover changed, perhaps because he has played it so many times over the years.  That is the only tune that seems to me to have wandered from the original feel.  It seemed faster and he really went crazy on the soloing. 

There are still tour dates left so you might be able to catch this show. 

This was last night's setlist. 

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