Fri 13 Apr – G3 - Last night I had the great pleasure to see the
G3 show at the Warner Theater in Washington, DC. I hadn't been the Warner before, but getting there was a breeze. It's basically sitting on top of the Metro Center station so there was no problem there. The only logistical issue was the fact that me and my buddy got there around 7:15 for the 8:00 show and most of the restaurants in the area are either sit down restaurants where we couldn't have gotten in and out in 45 minutes, or were closed by 7pm. Very unfortunate.
The show was excellent. Things got started with
Paul Gilbert. He played about 10 songs - a few from his solo albums, a couple from his
Racer X days and a riff from
Mr. Big's
I'm The One Who Wants To Be With You. Gilbert brought along former
Racer X bandmate
Bruce Bouillet who actually ended up as the 4th G at the end of the G3 Jam Session. I hadn't heard Gilbert play before and I thought he did OK. I liked his
Racer X stuff better than most of his solo material. The only song that really stood out for me was
Rusty Old Boat and that only because it was so weird. It's certainly possible that my opinions of Gilbert were influenced by his appearance: red leather pants, white t-shirt, headphones, and pasty pale spindly white stick-lick arms. Definitely not a look designed to drive the ladies wild. I thought that he needed Bouillet to play off of, and I thought he did really well in the Jam Session where he didn't have to carry the songs by himself.
John Petrucci was next. I was really looking forward to hearing him play, and quite honestly, I wasn't all that impressed. It was obvious that he was making stuff happen and that his fingers were flying all over his guitar, but there was something wrong with his sound - almost like he was playing inside a sock or something. Very strange. As my buddy pointed out, there were a couple of songs in there that had some compelling ideas, but in his development of those ideas he seemed to go off in a different direction and never came back to the basis for the song. I know that last sentence sounded like a lot of drivel, but it was relevant at the time. Petrucci had his
Dream Theater bandmate
Mike Portnoy on drums. Portnoy was excellent and I really thought he provided some flair and excitement to Petrucci's set.
Joe Satriani played third. I hadn't seen Joe since July 2006 on his
Super Colossal tour. I was pleased that he didn't spend too much of short set on Super Colossal tracks. He hit the bright spots with
Satch Boogie,
Circles,
Cool #9,
Flying in a Blue Dream,
Always With You, Always With Me,
Echo,
Summer Song,
The Extremist,
Super Colossal,
The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing, and
Crystal Planet. At the end of his set (
Always With You, Always With Me), Gilbert and Petrucci came out and did what they called an "impromptu G3 Jam Session". I'll be honest, I love Satriani and have most of his albums - but he was the best guitarist on stage that night. And I love it when he does his bald headed, sunglasses, grinning, energizer bunny, bobblehead gremlin thing. Very enjoyable.
The Jam Session was four songs:
Purple Haze,
Foxey Lady,
Down, Down, Down, and
Jumping Jack Flash. Gilbert took the vocal duties for Purple Haze, Foxey Lady and Jumping Jack Flash, with Satch taking it front spot for Down Down Down. It was alot of fun to see the three of them playing together and off one another. By far, the highlight of the show was Purple Haze where the G3 were trading riffs and finally Gilbert resorted to an electric drill to do his picking, but that wasn't enough, so he took his guitar off, set it flat on the stage and played it down there. But that wasn't quite enough help, so both Satch and Petrucci got down and helped him out - Yes. All three kneeling on stage playing Gilbert's guitar that is laying on the stage. That earned them their standing ovation.
In short, I'm looking forward to seeing the next incarnation of the G3 and I hope I'll be able to see them when they come to town.
I Was Warned, and ended the track with the addition of a falsetto "You Suck!", referencing the woman that done him wrong. This kind of ad libbing and crowd interaction was indicative of the show and helped to engage the crowd.