Opening act: That One Guy http://www.that1guy.com
It's been almost 3 days and I'm still not really sure how to describe That One Guy. The videos on his website give a little bit of an idea of what's going on. It looks like he and Buckethead have a collaboration CD coming out soon-ish.
His main "instrument" is a metal pipe that's jointed to create two different sections. There's one string along each section and an array of buttons at either end of the segments. It's wired into a pile of gear that sits next to him on the floor....a sequencer of some kind and some other stuff. Basically, he plays the pipe through effects with his hands, a drumstick and a bow and triggers backing sequences and samples with the buttons.
The music was sometimes tribal, sometimes techno, sometimes metal, sometimes jazz. Very strange. One of the song titles I caught was called "Butt Machine."
I knew I wasn't going to describe it well. I got one OK picture:
Buckethead:
I didn't expect the minimalism of the show. There was no band. Buckethead basically played over backing tracks that were being played from an iPod through the house PA. Same amp rig that we're used to seeing...two Mesa Triple Rec's, one angled Marshall 4x12, one Harry Kolbe cabinet. There was a case next to the amps that had other stuff that he fiddled with, but I didn't really notice any sound change when he did. It looks like he's playing a different Les Paul than he normally does, but I've mentioned that elsewhere.
The venue was pretty full. The crowd was a mix guitar players (standing still and staring), Guitar Hero nuts (the ones moshing during Jordan) and bored girlfriends and wives for the most part.
The sound was pretty good. I was up against the barrier, so I got the sound from the cabinets and the house PA. Wasn't too horribly loud until the end of the show when he was making more noise than playing.
I'd never seen Buckethead before, so I didn't have much of an idea of what goes on in his shows other than the sub 10-minute clips on Youtube. He came with a bag of toys and partway through the show, he started handing them out to the crowd. Most of them were Star Wars toys. He started playing what sounded like the tapping part of Eruption with the finger of a rubber severed hand, and I almost caught it when he threw it into the crowd. He did the nunchuk and robot dance routine for a while as well, which I've seen online before but didn't think he still did it. Also, at one point, while playing he kicked one of the busts off the top of his amps.
The playing is fantastic. I was up in the front for the whole show and it was really cool for me to see someone that's that good up that close.
I don't know what the actual playlist was, but he played Soothsayer and Jordan and a Starwars instrumental. Didn't play Post Office Buddy or Frozen Brains. I couldn't tell if anything was new.
He seemed to have a pile of picks stashed next to the iPod. It looked like he was changing picks frequently, sometimes in the middle of a song. Not sure if that's normal...eifferent picks for different songs or what. That was my guess, as he tends to tweak his gear constantly as the show goes on.
Towards the end of the show, Buckethead and That One Guy did a jam session together. Looked/sounded a little improv, but I don't know.
I didn't really go to the show planning on doing a review, so this is all I have.
