Eric Gales

ElectricXII

lovestrat74 said:

No London or SE dates? Or has he played already?

Mr Gales prefers to avoid shitholes it seems. :-)

rlw

I agree about the tone and I haven't even seen him yet but I'm looking forward to Sunday...

M1ck

dindude said:

So I saw him last night in Leamington. Was really good, worth every penny of the £20 or so it cost. I think what sets him apart from his peers is that a). He can sing and b). He has a versatile that can take in a bit of funk, a bit of jazz, a bit of soul. His band are solid (the keyboard player being stand out) and he’s a got a good presence. Best guitarist in the world right now? Not even close, he’s great and all, but that’s actually a distraction from all the above I’ve mentioned. Only slight negative for me is that I’m not a huge fan of his tone, has that fast attack and brittleness of solid state. All in all though great stuff.

Couldn't have put it better myself, I’m not going to comment on his tone or where he stands in world rankings as that’s very much down to personal taste, but, I do enjoy his studio work, and his playing, and I would definitely go and see him again. 

rlw

Well, well, well.  What an evening.  Not so much a gig as an experience or, as mrsrlw put it, a happening.

The man has huge prescence and the crowd loved him from the minute he walked onto the tiny stage, and were captivated for one hour forty minutes.

And what a start. He walked on carrying an Epi 339 (I think as its the only current model available in natural finish with a bound neck) and declared this to be a bit of a trial as he only bought it that afternoon.  He then played three or four songs on it and made it sing - funk, blues, rock you name it.  You could tell it was new to him as he kept having to look at the controls......

Onto the regular guitar and up with the volume - it was loud and got louder - and a selection of songs off the new album only so much funkier than the recordings.  And a brilliant jam with the band, where they knew where they were going but hadn't planned how to get there, was amazing.  EG and the bass player were epic and, to be honest, I've never heard wah-wah Hammond organ before last night either.   Mind you, I've never been to an electric gig where you could clearly hear every word that was sung either, so that was a first.

During the longish jam there were echoes of Zappa in the chord progressions, James Brown in the vocals, Sly Stone in the rythmns and Albert Collins in the picking.  Mind blowingly cool.  Miles Davis would have loved it I think.

Tone.  Mmmm.  The man likes his sound to be very clear and it was to the point of being ice picky painful at times.  With the keyboard being very prominent too, it did get a bit much in a small room with a low ceiling and I measured peaks of 110dB on my phone while standing at the back.

In summary, a spectacular event, totally brilliant songs delivered with great style and panache, superb guitar playing and a brilliant support by the rest of the band.

I'd go again tonight oop north if I could.

Downsides - none really.  The majority of the 16 seats were reserved so despite being third in the queue, the four in front of us got the only free seats......it matters when you're 70 and your mate has iffy knees and back - but that's life.  The Crescent is a nice venue if a bit old style.  The gents in the front bar takes you back to the sixties despite the new coat of paint

And the support, Dom Martin - a bloke who couldn't decide if he wanted to be Rory Gallagher or not - was not a great success although the women in the crowd seemed to like him.  A horrible mix of distorted Tele sounds and a lot of very weird chord changes made his blues tunes inaccessible and mostly unlistenable - so we went back to the front bar and the relative peace it afforded.

Go see the Eric Gales if you can while he's still playing these small venues.  He may not make it big like JoBo - one of his songs alludes to that - but he'll be in much bigger, less intimate venues next time around.

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/eric-gales-tickets/artist/1549369

boogieman

Seen a few references to the keyboard player being awesome, is it still his wife on keys? It was when I saw him last. 

lustycourtier

Ive just been sent a video of him playing one of my guitars in a mates shop

rlw

The keyboard player was a bloke - and a big one at that - and his missus was playing percussiony things and maybe others - she was tucked away almost out of sight.

lustycourtier

rlw said:

Well, well, well.  What an evening.  Not so much a gig as an experience or, as mrsrlw put it, a happening.

The man has huge prescence and the crowd loved him from the minute he walked onto the tiny stage, and were captivated for one hour forty minutes.

And what a start. He walked on carrying an Epi 339 (I think as its the only current model available in natural finish with a bound neck) and declared this to be a bit of a trial as he only bought it that afternoon.  He then played three or four songs on it and made it sing - funk, blues, rock you name it.  You could tell it was new to him as he kept having to look at the controls......

Yeah he got it from the wonderful  Sams Guitars in Chester on Sunday

DrCornelius

This was posted on Twitter yesterday so maybe this was at one of the recent gigs - sounds awesome 

https://twitter.com/liveguitarsolos/status/1533611925971447808

rlw

It certainly wasn't York as there's no trees in the Crescent Community Centre.....

Neilybob

Looking forward to seeing Eric and the band tonight.  

#someonebuyhimatubeamp! 

Neilybob

Had a great night seeing EG last night. 

Dom Martin kicked things off with his 3 piece band, rocking his half tele (body) and half strat guitar (neck) into a Fender Reverb and a Box AC30 on full tilt, what a nice tone! I would almost describe him as a shredder though more blues in style. 

Then Eric and the band started and played a 100 min set with a mixture of funk, blues, rock etc. I hadn't realised his wife and son were also in the band which is cool. Man!, the keyboard player was amazing. As other had mentioned Eric's tone is harsh (especially at the higher pitches) which comes from playing solid state amps (get that man some tubes!). But altogether a great evening and I'm going to have more of a listen to his other albums (other than Crown). 

rlw

Glad you enjoyed the gig.  And isn't people's tone a funny thing.  We all walked out of Dom Martin's bit as the level of distortion was quite unpleasant - and v loud too.

Neilybob

rlw said:

Glad you enjoyed the gig.  And isn't people's tone a funny thing.  We all walked out of Dom Martin's bit as the level of distortion was quite unpleasant - and v loud too.

For me the louder the better with one exception! Saw ACDC at Donnington and that was feckin loud! 

Neilybob

This is only one of the videos that has surfaced of Dom Martin from Eric's tour and it's recorded at the front of the stage with a phone but you'll get the feel. 

benmurray85

@M1ck me, the wife and her family were at the playhouse that night, how did you rate Danny Bryant? 

I enjoyed Eric, a few too many extended Blues/Funk jams for me, but I’m not a real fan of Blues/Funk. Other than that a great night, his keyboard player on that night too was absolutely superb although from the comments further on here it may have been a different guy. 

M1ck

@benmurray85 ;
benmurray85 said: @M1ck me, the wife and her family were at the playhouse that night, how did you rate Danny Bryant?  Erm… being diplomatic, not my cup of tea.
I usually try to give support bands encouragement by sitting through their sets but I found parts of his set painful. Don’t get me wrong he may well have just been having an off night - it happens and it seems quite often the support gets the ‘that’ll do’ part of the sound, but there was nothing there to make me check out some of his other stuff. 

Eric Gales on the other hand! Seems I’m late to the party!

boogieman

I’ve got a friend who’s hugely into Danny Bryant. I never got the appeal to be honest, just sounds like very generic blues rock. 

guitars4you

boogieman said:

I’ve got a friend who’s hugely into Danny Bryant. I never got the appeal to be honest, just sounds like very generic blues rock. 

A couple of years ago I brought 2 x CD's based on rave reviews etc in the guitar mags and as you say 'very generic blues rock - He is not a crap player, but just another 'I've heard it before' style of album IMO - I forgot about the CD's and him until you posted this 

guitars4you

Just ordered the Crown CD again after rave reviews - Who has it already ? - any comments