Last night I was at the Baked Potato again. The first time I went was ok but this second show was great! The first band that played was a band called POA-Planet of the Abts, which consists of the rythmn section of Matt Abts, Jorgen Carlsson, and Swedish guitarist and lead singer T-Bone Andersson. Matt (drums) and Jorgen (bass) are both from the famous jam band that Warren Hayes plays in, Gov't Mule. What did I think of this band? They were incredible. They blended jazz, rock, blues, and psychedelia all into one slamming power trio. I was sitting right in front of them. The music was so loud-Andersson played a black stratocaster through a giant Marshall stack, it was deafening. Andersson's sound and style is a mix of many other famous players, you can tell who's influenced him right away. The easy thing to say is that he sounds like Jimi Hendrix. But there were shades of the blues (people like BB King, Albert King, etc) in his playing, David Gilmour (they even played two Pink Floyd songs), and even some old school Black Sabbath Toni Iommi type stuff in there as well. Let's put it this way; while he may not be the greatest technician or shredder, he makes up for in terms of pure feel, raw emotion, and great screaming guitar tone that blows your head off with its sheer awesomeness. His guitar playing made my whole night, it was that impressive and amazing. Jorgen's bass playing is very lead bass kind of playing, while Matt's drumming sounds like a laid back John Bonham, complete with all the great fills. They played a bunch of great songs, but what particularly stood out to me was the song they opened with-a rock version of what sounded to me like Afro Blue, a jazz standard. It was incredible, especially Andersson's guitar playing. What stood out was his double stop licks he was using the Afro Blue melody line, and his screaming solo. He would hold a note, give it all the vibrato he had, and just hold it forever. Very simple but very effective. I learned a lot from Andersson's guitar playing-you don't have to show off or be all that great really if you just have a great feel. His playing is all about feel, although he does have his moment in the sun for technical guitar licks. But he isn't as technical as say me or the other guitarist that played after him.
In addition, another song that stood out to me was when they played Frank Zappa's Dirty Love. That song is just so catchy, rockin', and is perfect for a blues-rock power trio to play. I enjoyed Andersson's vocals on this one especially. He has a pretty good voice. So that was the first band. A Swede that sounds like Hendrix, rather than playing metal like Ywngie and the guys from Opeth, my favorite Swedish band.
The next band was Toshi Yanagi on guitar (from the Jimmy Kimmel show), Jorgen from Gov't Mule on bass, and Toss Panos on drums. This was their first show together as the Buzz Wizards, a cool name for an instrumental jazz fusion band. Toshi is a much better technician than Andersson is, but he doesn't have the same stage presence or feel. What I can say that was amazing was that the first song Toshi played sounded like something Jeff Beck would play, it was a great, rocking, jazz kind of thing that wouldn't sound out of place in the early or mid 1980's. Although Toshi is a lot older than me, I can tell that he is hip on the scene because he has tons of shred licks that young people would use-licks that sound like Guthrie Govan and Eric Johnson. He had this really cool Strat-like guitar with a Floyd-rose on it that sounded and looked super cool. Also, when it was his time to play, that was when all the Japanese people arrived. By this time (around 11-11 30pm) most of the people from the first set had left. His other songs are kind of songs that sound dated today. He even said some of the songs he was going to play were written back in 1992. You need to write more modern songs dude! Haha, but seriously he had this other really cool tune called 'Assassin', that was pretty far out. Also, it was pretty cool seeing the drummer, Toss, play jazz-rock beats using traditional grip. I've tried it myself on drums and it is not the easiest style to use when playing those more rock type beats-and he can go straight up rock at times, pushing the beat super fast and going for super fast fills. Toshi is a great guitarist but I want to see more out of him as a guitar player, I felt like he was holding back at times, not utilizing some of his best licks and ideas. Sometimes a song would go into a great groove that would have a perfect spot for more intensive solos from the bass, guitar, or drums, and instead they would just end the tune, and I'm just sitting there like "come on dude, you had the perfect set up!". All in all though this was the best show I've been to at the Baked Potato, the best jazz club here in the valley. I even had a cheese baked potato, a coke with margarita salt on the rim, and coffee. On top of the great music and eats, the guy at the door let me stay for the second set without paying-talk about cool. I'm going to start taking off Mondays from work to go to the jam sessions they have there. Planning on bringing my Hagstrom Super Swede Les Paul and show them my stuff. I'm especially excited about jamming there because on Monday Night Jams they have the guitarist Jaime Kime, a great guitarist that played with Dweezil Zappa in Zappa Plays Zappa. I really dig his guitar style. Anyways, it was a great show, check the place out if you can, its relatively cheap for shows, food, and drink. Cheers.
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