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Saw Tesla Last Night


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Tesla played Charlotte last night at The Fillmore in Charlotte, NC. 

The opener was Voices Of Extreme, a trio from New York that were quite good.  The singer has got a voice!  Everything he sang sounded like he was perfectly on pitch.  It was tempting to buy a CD from these guys.  Their logo is a big "VOX" which looks like a VOX amplifier logo on some of their shirts.  The singer played a Les Paul and the bass player had a P-Bass with a custom body.  The DW drum set had flame maple shells.  They all looked like bodybuilders.  Maybe they are in a Manowar tribute band on the side. 

Next up was The Cringe, another band from New York.  I found out that the singer is a  NYC lawyer who is married to Rachel Ray.  The drummer, Shawn Pelton, is the one who has the rock and roll resume, having played with a lot of people.  I thought his bass drum was busy sounding.  Overall, they were not as good as Voices Of Extreme.  

Tesla filled the 2500 capacity venue, but it was not sold out.  Jeff Keith had been talking to fans at the edge of the bus parking lot early in the day.  He looks older than he is, but that is because there is no fat in his face.  His voice is still the same as it was 30 years ago.  Frank Hannon looks like he is younger that his age. 

My camera was left in the car which was a mistake because it would have been useful to figure out the backline for Tesla.  On Dave Rude's side there were Friedman heads, Marshall cabinets, and an SVT stack.  Rude and Brian Wheat kept their gear simple.  Frank Hannon's side looked like he went to a NAMM show and said, "Give me one of these, and one of these, and one of these..."  He had a mix of cabinets and heads.  There was an SVT stack on his side, too.  Rude had a pedal board that looked large.  Hannon had a pedal board and a very obvious talk box tube running to his microphone, plus a theremin on the side.  Troy Lucketta's drums had a rail/rack around them that looked like something Nikola Tesla would have designed. 

What surprised me was the guitars.  Frank Hannon played a Gibson SG and Les Paul.  Dave Rude had a Gibson Les Paul, but he also played a lot of Epiphones.  He started off with an Epiphone Flying V, and during the show he pulled out a semi-hollow model and an Epiphone Explorer.  Toward the end of the show Frank Hannon used an Epiphone doubleneck SG.   The artist relation people at Epiphone have to be happy with Tesla in their camp.  Everything sounded great. 

Definitely go see Tesla if you have a chance. 

The setlist. 

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For what it's worth, one of my buddies bought an Epi Korina V last week online, sight unseen, through one of the online catalog places that was blowing them out discounted, I can't recall which site. He called me immediately and we started talking about possible upgrades to it once it arrived. He called me a couple days later to say it arrived and to his complete surprise, it really didn't need much in the way of upgrades, it was shockingly good and pretty ripe for his tastes straight out of the box. Considering I have made mods and upgrades on every and any guitar he's ever owned, that spoke volumes as far as not only the bang for buck but the overall value.

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On 8/15/2017 at 9:27 AM, Steve Haynie said:

Jeff Keith had been talking to fans at the edge of the bus parking lot early in the day.  He looks older than he is, but that is because there is no fat in his face.

He's probably older than you think.  His Wikipedia page says he was born in Oct 1958, but several years ago he was on That Metal Show on his birthday and he admitted to being 60.  He's at least 64 or 65.

Edited to add:   That Metal Show episode Jeff was on was taped in 2010.  He may turning 67 this year!  That's great that his voice is holding up.  I'm not the biggest fan, but it seems Sammy Hagar's also been able to hang on to his pretty well for his age.

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15 hours ago, Jeff R said:

For what it's worth, one of my buddies bought an Epi Korina V last week online, sight unseen, through one of the online catalog places that was blowing them out discounted, I can't recall which site. He called me immediately and we started talking about possible upgrades to it once it arrived. He called me a couple days later to say it arrived and to his complete surprise, it really didn't need much in the way of upgrades, it was shockingly good and pretty ripe for his tastes straight out of the box. Considering I have made mods and upgrades on every and any guitar he's ever owned, that spoke volumes as far as not only the bang for buck but the overall value.

Jeff - I've heard similar rave reviews about the Epi Korina Vees from people I know who KNOW (and work on) guitars.  Are they as good as a Hamer Korina?  No, but they're extremely affordable, and the bang for the buck factor is tough to beat.

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