Hardrock69
05-26-2009, 02:19 AM
Last time I saw Randy was in 1980 on his tour to promote his solo album "Millionaire" on Capitol Records.
He blew my fucking mind.
Fast forward to last Saturday.
Whenever I go on a vacation where the purpose is VACATION, and not to see a concert, I will of course check all the events going on in that area.
I got lucky in that respect. I had booked my flight to and from Seattle back in mid-January, and only about a month ago I realized I had not checked Randy's touring schedule. He goes to Europe every spring and does some dates, and he pretty much sticks otherwise to playing gigs in the NW.
To my surprise I saw he was playing a club called Jazzbones in Tacoma, on the very last night I was going to be there!
Got there while he was sound checking. I could here "Machine Gun" half a block away. Talked to him for about half and hour. Asked if he would mind if I videotaped the show. He said I could videotape as much as I want! :D
SO I got the entire set (minus about 30 seconds for tape change), and it turned out sweet visually. The mic is SHIT on my camcorder, and will pop and crackle when exposed to loud noise, but he was not too loud, and it turned out pretty good!
I got him to sign one of his "Million-dollar" bills that he would toss out into the audience on his 1980 "Millionaire" tour. I have had it for 29 years now. He tripped out when I handed it to him. He said "I almost forgot about those".
Naturally he had a 3-piece band. He had several Strats. He told me one of his blonde ones he got in a pawnshop for $175. He had two Marshall plexi heads. One was a 1969, the other he said was a frankenstein conglomeration built out of parts from several different plexis. He ran each head into an 8 X 12 Marshall cabinet.
He also had another head....can't recall the brand, I wanna say Behringer, but that does not sound right. He had it set to the side of the stage on a 2 X 12 cabinet (can't recall the cabinet manufacturer either).
They played for about 70 minutes. I had to switch mini-DV tapes towards the end of "Hear My Train A'Comin' ". Fortunately it was during a slow part, but that song is usually anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes long, no matter who plays it.
What was truly freaky though was that his face so much physically resembles Jimi Hendrix that when the lights were dim, you would SWEAR you were watching Jimi.
And needless to say, he is amazing in his ability to channel Jimi in his guitar playing and his style.
The venue had a balcony around 3 sides, but they did not open it up, as there was only about 40-60 people there on the first floor. The doorman said usually he packs the place, but this being Memorial Day weekend, the club was not expecting a lot of business.
I am in the process of transferring the video to DVD, and have mastered the audio as well with some magic I possess.
Here are 3 screen caps. They look worse than the actual video does:
http://i41.tinypic.com/23hn11f.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/72dkrp.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2n68105.jpg
It is very much worth seeing him if you get the chance. Since Jimi is no longer around, Randy is the next best thing.
He blew my fucking mind.
Fast forward to last Saturday.
Whenever I go on a vacation where the purpose is VACATION, and not to see a concert, I will of course check all the events going on in that area.
I got lucky in that respect. I had booked my flight to and from Seattle back in mid-January, and only about a month ago I realized I had not checked Randy's touring schedule. He goes to Europe every spring and does some dates, and he pretty much sticks otherwise to playing gigs in the NW.
To my surprise I saw he was playing a club called Jazzbones in Tacoma, on the very last night I was going to be there!
Got there while he was sound checking. I could here "Machine Gun" half a block away. Talked to him for about half and hour. Asked if he would mind if I videotaped the show. He said I could videotape as much as I want! :D
SO I got the entire set (minus about 30 seconds for tape change), and it turned out sweet visually. The mic is SHIT on my camcorder, and will pop and crackle when exposed to loud noise, but he was not too loud, and it turned out pretty good!
I got him to sign one of his "Million-dollar" bills that he would toss out into the audience on his 1980 "Millionaire" tour. I have had it for 29 years now. He tripped out when I handed it to him. He said "I almost forgot about those".
Naturally he had a 3-piece band. He had several Strats. He told me one of his blonde ones he got in a pawnshop for $175. He had two Marshall plexi heads. One was a 1969, the other he said was a frankenstein conglomeration built out of parts from several different plexis. He ran each head into an 8 X 12 Marshall cabinet.
He also had another head....can't recall the brand, I wanna say Behringer, but that does not sound right. He had it set to the side of the stage on a 2 X 12 cabinet (can't recall the cabinet manufacturer either).
They played for about 70 minutes. I had to switch mini-DV tapes towards the end of "Hear My Train A'Comin' ". Fortunately it was during a slow part, but that song is usually anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes long, no matter who plays it.
What was truly freaky though was that his face so much physically resembles Jimi Hendrix that when the lights were dim, you would SWEAR you were watching Jimi.
And needless to say, he is amazing in his ability to channel Jimi in his guitar playing and his style.
The venue had a balcony around 3 sides, but they did not open it up, as there was only about 40-60 people there on the first floor. The doorman said usually he packs the place, but this being Memorial Day weekend, the club was not expecting a lot of business.
I am in the process of transferring the video to DVD, and have mastered the audio as well with some magic I possess.
Here are 3 screen caps. They look worse than the actual video does:
http://i41.tinypic.com/23hn11f.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/72dkrp.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2n68105.jpg
It is very much worth seeing him if you get the chance. Since Jimi is no longer around, Randy is the next best thing.