Guthrie Govan Discussion

[owenvaughan]

Hi everyone, Satch interview up - and we should be having a mid tour face to face with him (fingers crossed) - check out what he says about G3 and guthrie.

www.alloutguitar.com

Cheers

Owen

[alexkhan]

Good read. Guthrie needs another album or two under his belt and, somehow, he's going to have to hit the wildly scattered mainstream over the head with some really cool tunes, but I think it's just a matter of time. At the same time, I don't think being able to play on a G3 tour should be a lifelong goal of Guthrie's or anything like that. If it happens, great, if not, as long as he's doing what he wants to do, that's fine, too. Personally, I really have no interest in the G3 spectacle. The whole concept has never appealed to me from the very beginning. I'd rather watch one artist for the whole evening.
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[liquidtension]

I think guys like Guthrie have really spoiled guitar-oriented music for many of us I can remember when I heard of the first G3 tour, I could barely contain myself; I thought it was the most incredible thing.

Since Guthrie, G3 seems really bland. Don't get me wrong, I like many of the guitarists who play on the tour. But I feel like the whole colaboration at the end of the set has become very uninspiring and highly predictable rather than climactic

I wouldn't mind seeing Guthrie play off of another guitarist in a live situation, someone who shared his same spontaneity and diversity. But I think that's where the difference comes in. Not knowing what to expect and then being utterly surprised (and often blown away for that matter) continually keeps things fresh and interesting. I think this whole thing works best as an occasional featurette than a several month tour.

[Ant711UK]

It would nice if Satch would give Guthrie a guest spot on the UK leg of the G3 tour, also it would be great exposure for Guthrie to support Satriani on his next UK tour too.

Tony

[liquidtension]

[alexkhan]

[Ant711UK]

G3 is Satriani's baby and he is definitely the type of guy who would be happy to Jam with Guthrie. He has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone and would probably love to give someone like Guthrie the opportunity to play alongside him during the show at some point. Whether Mick Brigden (Satch's manager) agrees is another thing. Most serious guitar fans in the UK have heard of Guthrie by now. They may not have heard his material but they've probably heard his name mentioned. Guthrie wouldn't be a big draw, even as a guest player on one song in the same way as someone like Brain May would be for instance but I don't think they'd be taking any risks by having him as a special guest. The audiences aren't stupid and they'd realise he is worthy of 'special guest' status the moment he started playing.

Changing the subject slightly here, I've noticed a similarity in what Guthrie and Satch have created in one of their songs. Satch has sometimes wished he'd never come up with the cross handed palm mute tapping part in 'Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing' as people always want to hear that song when they go to see him and he finds it a real bugger to pull off night after night. Guthrie seems to have created the same problem for himself with the tapping part in 'Wonderful Slippery Thing' because whether he likes the idea of it or not I reckon most people will want to hear that bit in that song.

Tony

[alexkhan]

[sumis]

call me selfish, but i'd rather see/hear guthrie in a smaller venue, a club where u can hear the amp and kind of be part of the experience. i just don't care too much about improvisational music (which is just part of gg's stuff, i know, but my favourite part ) being played on a big stage -- apart from stuff like phish or umphrey's mcgee ...

i've had incomparably great moments in places like the 55Bar. I've seen G3 three times -- it's fun, but I don't care at all for the spectacle part of Satch's or Vai's set. How cool wouldn't it be to hear Vai in a small venue, with a trio, and without costume changes and ridiculous laser gloves and shit! Satch is pretty kitschy as well (what's wrong with the Italians?)

yngwie is another story though

seeing oz noy or jim campilongo with 15 people in the audience is both sad and so awarding. makes a dream theathre gig a pretty silly thing apples and oranges, i know, but i like MUSIC, and G3, how fun it might be (and it IS fun), is about so much more than music.

.

[Jon]

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

The thing about G3 that bugs me is that there's no jamming at all. When the three guitarists get together to do the three cover tunes, all they do is trade generic licks in a terribly unexciting manner. There's no musical interaction, just boring trade-offs with boring players. Yes, I find Satch, Vai and Petrucci boring. Gilbert, while not the most versatile soloist, at least has lots of fire in his playing. I've seen lots of videos where he's trading licks with some generic shredder who's trying to outshred Pablo, and PG either blows the other guy away with some Hendrix licks, or simply melting faces with even faster shred licks.

Now that's entertainment.

As for jamming, someone like Frank Gambale or Scott Henderson could light some fire under Satch's ass and force him to stray from his standard licks for a change.

[liquidtension]

I think we've officially become the Petrucci forum with our own spin on "our guy is better than yours" Na, j/k

I think the problem is that, apart from everything being rehearsed, there are about 30 tour stops where they are "jamming" to the same thing over chord progressions that are very mundane to begin with. If you are pretty much stuck to rock playing (with the exception of playing modally over drone chords), then the outcome will be predictable.

I think there is a great need for "rock" or "fusion" guitarists who have done more than just dabbled in country, jazz, bluegrass, etc, but have spent significant time absorbing the music. More than just "I've put in a Coltrane or Charlie Christian album and copped a few licks for a few hours", but someone who has spent time, for example, absorbing the different eras of jazz chronologically, even if it is just to broaden one's horizons.

As for country, there's so much to absorb there as well. I gotta tell ya, I have absolutely thoroughly been enjoying Brad Paisley lately. Amazing player that I think a lot of rock instrumentalists could learn a ton from.

I think that when we partition our playing, we can expect to become boring players. And I think that's what has happened with G3. At this stage, their playing develops in terms of "variations on a lick" rather than expanding their phrasing and musical vocabulary.

[sumis]

i kind of agree. but the bottom line is that G3 is a spectacle, a show, with some great music and nifty guitar playing playing a major part in it. it's rock'n'roll dammit! that's why the brilliant robert fripp didn't work out on the G3 tour -- wrong venues, wrong audiences with different expectations (although i understand that satch and vai really wanted to present the guy to a new audience -- problem was that fripp didn't seem to care about the context, and the audiences were surprisingly hostile).

G3 it's not scott henderson, adam rogers or bill frisell creating new music on the spot in a free form context, in a small club with a few die hard fans in the audience. and G3 was never intended to be that of course.

i like both things, but if i had to pick one kind of experience to bring to a desert island, it would be pretty simple

changing clothes during a set would be forbidden. and wearing shades on stage is only cool if you're miles davis (sorry satch).

and BTW: i don't see anything wrong or uncool with the encore jam on the G3 shows? what's the problem? they're jamming on some cool tunes. it's fun! it's not a wayne krantz gig for christ sake! i prefer a krantz gig (duh!), but nothing is wrong with great rock guitar virtuosos fooling around on hendrix tunes, is it?

.

[Ant711UK]

You have to remember G3 works because the audiences are made up of different levels of guitar music fans. Although many of us here may prefer a different format or some 'real' jamming, many of the people in the audience would be bored with it. They may be waiting for Satch to pull that harmonic squeal for the 20th time during the evening or Vai to swing his guitar around violently for the 10th time or Petrucci to do the foot on the monitor thing with a scowl on his face. It's entertainment at the end of the day and that's what they try to deliver.

I saw Lukather's 'El grupo' gig in 2005 and the place was only half full but it was excellent in my opinion. I saw Mattias Eklundh last year and the place wasn't even half full and that was excellent too. I saw Gary Moore a while back and the place was sold out but it was the worst gig I've ever seen. As I left I heard some fans saying 'wow that was awesome' and the usual excited comment that are made after a great show. Obviously they loved it but to my ears and eyes it was terrible. G3 would lose half it's audience if it didn't cater for the fans that go expecting to see what they perceive as an 'awesome' show.

Tony

[frankus]

I liked the one back in the nineties where Nuno freaked out watching Vai and Satch play each other's guitars... thrt was on TV, I'm not about to go to the G3 gigs - not my bag.
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