I went to the Denver show last night. Absolutely incredible! All three bands sounded great (although Volbeat and AX7 should have boosted the vocals some). Metallica still kick ass and put on a good show. I can't wait for them to come back! Hopefully next time they'll just play Red Rocks for a week (c'mon James, it's just a 90 minute drive to Vail, so you could sleep in your bed every night!).
I got to play Rob's bass and James' guitar in the Sanitarium Rubber Room. I meant to come back to Kirk's guitar after going to the buffet and getting a drink, but I just got so caught up in other things that before I knew it Volbeat was on stage. But I've played an ESP KH2 before.
I gotta say that despite Metallica being my #1 guitar influence, James, Kirk and I don't really have the same taste in guitar ergonomics. I would love to have an Explorer style guitar again (I used to have an 80s Ibanez Destroyer like Iron Maiden), but I can't stand Gibson style necks (or painted necks for that matter). And I love super Strats, but I can't stand Floyd Roses! So odd as it is to say, it's kind of a relief that I have different tastes than my heros. It just means my own identity is stronger than my influences, which I think is a good thing.
And to those wanting to know if I was able to steal any settings from the AX8, they had plastic protectors over the controls and it's not like we would have their IRs... And I like my own presets better anyway, but I'm also positive that they wouldn't translate to stadium gigs!
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