ClarkW Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 My guitar player (duh) and I went to see Eric Johnson last night as he passed through Salt Lake City after a trip to NAMM. He said that they got almost no sleep for 3 straight days. That didn't seem to slow them down, as they treated us to 2 hours of blazing blues rock and soaring ballads. He played many of his trademark songs (heh, I made a funny, even though he didn't actually play Trademark). His bass player is a guy named Chris Maresh, who I hadn't heard of until I bought my tickets last week and hit his website. I've ordered his recent solo jazz CD, Tomorrow, as the sound clips impressed me. So I was very anxious to see him live, and he didn't let me down. Very solid playing, and a player well-suited to Johnson's style. Some of the extended jam sections of the songs allowed Maresh to get pretty crazy, which he did with flourish. He even had a long solo in the grande finale for the second encore, and it was very impressive. He kinda reminded me of a Billy Sheehan type, playing his solo in a very guitarist style at times. All around, a great player. Can't wait to get his album and give it a listen. For those interested, he was playing a beauty of a flamed-maple Fender Jazz bass, through a Fender rig (couldn't get close enough to see what kind of amp, but he had two Fender 8x10 enclosures). Johnson, of course, had several different Fender amps all chained together and did it all on a good old Strat (with some of the hottest single-coils I've ever heard). It was worth the trouble of standing-room only for 3 hours and having a 6' 7" fellow standing in front of me most of the time, who dropped his beer all over my shoes about 3/4 of the way through the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E Locrian Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 Eric Johnson is a solid guitarist. My only knowledge of him comes from seeing a vid of a G3 concert where he played w/ Satriani and Vai... who made him look pretty basic, but he still impressed me. I haven't heard of the bassist... I'll check him out. - Tom R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebassman Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 I saw EJ in 2002(?) when he toured down here. I thought Chris was a very nice, solid groover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RHINO_ROB Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 chris samples. samples Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred TBP Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 EJ played last summer at the Mexicali Blues Cafe in northern NJ (there's a website if you want to look up their upcoming shows). For two hours it was SRO (all fans!) for me, and fortunately no one asked me to move when I leaned against the wall for the encores (4 or 5, I lost count). It didn't feel so bad when I looked across the hall and saw Les Paul with his entourage standing as well. If he could stand it, so could I. And I envy Chris that gig with EJ, he's got one of the best jobs in America! Now that I think of it, let me find his live CD. I have it here somewhere... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClarkW Posted January 27, 2005 Author Share Posted January 27, 2005 Originally posted by E Locrian: Eric Johnson is a solid guitarist. My only knowledge of him comes from seeing a vid of a G3 concert where he played w/ Satriani and Vai... who made him look pretty basic, but he still impressed me. I haven't heard of the bassist... I'll check him out.I have that DVD and love it. Satriani and Vai are definitely "flashier" than Johnson. EJ doesn't add a whole lot of flourish moves, didn't touch his whammy bar the whole show, and generally just sticks to picking with the right hand and fretting with the left. But he does an exceptional job of that. Oh sure, he had a passage of false harmonics blow by at breakneck speed, and he did a little slap style work on his acoustic pieces, but I feel that EJ's magic is more in the powerful songwriting, the acute sense of melody, the judicious use of blazing runs and arpeggios, and the fact that he pulls off 5- and 6-fret chord stretches, many of them barres, while also singing. Blew my mind! Chrish Maresh seemed to be a bass player along the same vein. He only thumped and popped for one song in the show (Desert Rose) because that's how it was played on the album. A couple of really quick raked arpeggios, but mostly solid root work with a fill and leading tone here and there. Don't get me wrong, moving your hands in a blazing flurry across the fretboard, unleashing a dizzying fury of notes is awesome, but so is straight ahead playing when done with just as much effort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E Locrian Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 That's why he impressed me I don't think I'd like Satriani or Vai either if I didn't like their music. I love Johnson's melodies. Great bluesy stuff. Back to talking about bass, Stu Hamm was Satriani's bass player on that G3 tour. Even though he's well-known as a very proficient slapper/tapper, he seemed content to just hold down the bottom most of the time. Good stuff. Didn't Johnson play on some of Hamm's stuff? I'm digging what I've heard of Maresh, too. - Tom R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73 P Bass Posted January 29, 2005 Share Posted January 29, 2005 Originally posted by ClarkW: It was worth the trouble of standing-room only for 3 hours and having a 6' 7" fellow standing in front of me most of the time, who dropped his beer all over my shoes about 3/4 of the way through the show. That's one of the problems with going to shows at Toad's (New Haven, CT); those Yale kids are getting taller and taller! "Start listening to music!". -Jeremy C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.