Yeah, that's been a fave of mine for a few years. The Suhr parties they did around that time have some great material. But also, to be live, the recordings are pretty phenomenal. Honestly, I prefer some of these to their albums. Producer differences or something I guess...
If they could get this live sound(Suhr Party), in recording of a full album, it would be amazing!Well, these aren't smashed to piss and back like the albums. I can't even listen to the last Big Wreck album because it's just a wall of distortion and not the good kind. It's astounding to me how Ian can get such outstanding guitar tones but the albums always end up brickwalled to hell and back.
That pic is the first song on the last Big Wreck album, it starts where the riff starts in the beginning and once the drums come in, it's done for. Such a bummer.
It's interesting to see Big Wreck's resurgence in guitar forums over the past few years, as a Canadian who was around when their first album came out. I had a friend who loved that album and played it all the time.
I never saw Big Wreck live, but I did see Thornley come out and play with Big Sugar at a small college show. The similar band names are comical in retrospect and I wonder if they ever had words about it...
Thornley actually seemed really wasted and messed up beyond just drinking levels, and Gordie Johnson of BS seemed pissed off about it and wouldn't even glance at Thornley's side of the stage. Thornley was yelling out, making extreme guitar faces and stomping his feet to the beat in an overly-enthusiastic way, and Johnson was just staring stoically into space and not looking over at all... whole thing had a very awkward yet funny vibe and I always wondered what the deal was there.
Anyway, killer guitar player and singer, for sure! Cool to see all the online interest in them, all these years later.
Hahahaha was that in the late 90's-mid 00's? I think Ian had a bit of a rockstar phase, especially once he buddied up with Chad Kroeger. He was probably having a great time with life around then; had a few hit songs out, was writing with one of the biggest hard rock bands on the planet, starting his solo thing, etc. He seemed to have touched his feet back on the ground towards 2010 and then was like, "Oh yeah, you guys didn't know I can melt your faces? Ha! I'm more than a catchy chorus and some weird tunings!".
Again, excellent description.His voice changed around the same time, too. He shot up into that Cornell range around then. I remember thinking when I first heard "A Million Days" when he's wailing in the prechorus, "This dude sounds just like Cornell.....but not because he was trying to sound like Cornell, they're both just doing a harder version of Robert Plant." Dude's a phenomenal vocalist. Him and Ritchie Kotzen could take turns doing a Soundgarden tour and I'd buy a ticket to every show!
Again, excellent description.
Also, didn't he audition for Velvet Revolver around that time?
Okay, you can't leave a post like this and not include a linkA thing I really like about him is he shows you how hard he works to be that amazing -- streams his practice sessions which are intense and frequent.