Genghis
Power User
Went to the Epicenter show last night and had the pleasure of hearing some Fractal artists live. The show was at Irvine Meadows (yeah, I know they call it Verizon Wireless Amphitheater now, but it's still Irvine Meadows to many of us here). The stage there is setup on a turntable so that the next band can be getting setup while one band performs. At the end of the set, they just turn the whole stage around and there's very little lag time between bands. Very nice for a festival such as the Epicenter.
Chris Traynor of Bush sounded killer with his AxeFX II setup and Bush in general really surprised me with their overall show. I saw his 2 Axe-FX IIs in the rack while the stage was turning around for their set. They sounded great and the whole band just seemed like they had the best energy and showmanship of all the bands there. Gavin must spend more time working out than practicing. (Not a knock on his playing, the dude just looks like he really takes care of himself. The women in our party pointed that out a few times.)
Deftones sounded great as well, but I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of their music. Still the guitar and bass tones were great and you got to hear what the Axe-FX can do in the context of a more effected metal sound. The guitars were often very heavy with a lot of tight bottom end. (Much better tone to me than Chevelle's Mesa's) The one big hit of theirs that I had heard enough times to really recognize sounded spot on and was mixed extremely well. I could see that the guitar player had a couple of FRFR wedges behind him onstage, but I couldn't tell what kind. Even though I'm not into them as much as some of the other bands it was nice to hear what they were doing with this newfangled modern technology.
All in all the whole show was more inspiring than I thought it would be. It was very much a flashback to the 90's, and I tend to be a child of the late 70s to 80s music, and these days I really like the heavier stuff a lot (Arch Enemy, etc.) I don't own any albums by any of the bands that played, so it was mostly the radio hits I recognized and Bush and STP had plenty of those.
I'd like to spend the day playing guitar now... but my ears are still kinda shot. First thing this morning I ordered a new set of flat response earplugs so I'll be a little better prepared next time. I guess I'll recover with some football until my hearing comes back.
Chris Traynor of Bush sounded killer with his AxeFX II setup and Bush in general really surprised me with their overall show. I saw his 2 Axe-FX IIs in the rack while the stage was turning around for their set. They sounded great and the whole band just seemed like they had the best energy and showmanship of all the bands there. Gavin must spend more time working out than practicing. (Not a knock on his playing, the dude just looks like he really takes care of himself. The women in our party pointed that out a few times.)
Deftones sounded great as well, but I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of their music. Still the guitar and bass tones were great and you got to hear what the Axe-FX can do in the context of a more effected metal sound. The guitars were often very heavy with a lot of tight bottom end. (Much better tone to me than Chevelle's Mesa's) The one big hit of theirs that I had heard enough times to really recognize sounded spot on and was mixed extremely well. I could see that the guitar player had a couple of FRFR wedges behind him onstage, but I couldn't tell what kind. Even though I'm not into them as much as some of the other bands it was nice to hear what they were doing with this newfangled modern technology.
All in all the whole show was more inspiring than I thought it would be. It was very much a flashback to the 90's, and I tend to be a child of the late 70s to 80s music, and these days I really like the heavier stuff a lot (Arch Enemy, etc.) I don't own any albums by any of the bands that played, so it was mostly the radio hits I recognized and Bush and STP had plenty of those.
I'd like to spend the day playing guitar now... but my ears are still kinda shot. First thing this morning I ordered a new set of flat response earplugs so I'll be a little better prepared next time. I guess I'll recover with some football until my hearing comes back.
