Over the years I have been to countless gigs, often with my dad as he remains as obsessed with guitar at approaching 70 years old as he did when he first picked it up. Consequently we have seen probably hundreds of really great guitar players but there are a few that have rendered us both slack jawed and turning to look at each other in disbelief followed by weeks of talking about the gig, listening to them and trying to steal as much from their playing as possible. Thinking about it the list would be:
Steve Vai on the very first G3 tour
Tommy Emmanuel
Richie Kotzen
Matt Schofield
Mark Tremonti on the first Alter Bridge tour
John Petruci
Joe Bonamassa before the days of the massive corporate machine
JD Simo
looking forward to Joey Landreth and Chris Buck next month.
So who are the guitarists that completely blew you away when you first saw them live?
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
My band, Red For Dissent
Antoine Dufour
I can't help about the shape I'm in, I can't sing I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to
Nuno
Vernon Reid
BB King
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
John Mayer
Ariel Posan
BB King
Buddy Guy
All left me speachless for different reasons.
I also saw a jam band at a Nashville nightclub in the 90s made up of various top notch session musos. Brent Mason was the bandleader and he was just jaw droppingly good.
Going back a long way, Vernon Reid, Ty Tabor. Frank Hannon of Tesla. Maybe Vivian Campbell on the first Dio tour.
I remember seeing Extreme supported by Saigon Kick and although Jason Bieler's not a better player than Nuno he certainly sounded better.
And a non guitar player - John Paul Jones on bass (and lap steel). With Nick Beggs in his band. That was utterly amazing.
Also saw Peter Green live late 90's. Wasn't vintage stuff and don't think he was physically and mentally near the top of his game but he still made his instrument sing in a special way.
Aside from that i haven't memorably been blown away by anyone in particular but theres a regular touring tribute band in the UK called The Classic Rock Show and they play the songs better than the originals. One guy in particular called Howie G. Probably the best axeman i've witnessed in the flesh.
John Butler doing Ocean always floors me. The guys in Mastodon.
I do admire guitarists who use the instrument to come up with sonic textures. Can't think of any that would really leave me speechless, but I suppose what Mogwai, or Radiohead would do with their guitars and more so, their pedals. Also TV on the Radio seem to be able to make a wall of noise with their guitars.
I always admire a guy called Jeff Lang. There's a good video of him talking about his setup, a clever way to get new sounds out of an acoustic and some pedals. He's also a great player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaSYKzQVY64