Sting Soundcheck and gig in London

[palmerlouie]

Man, i felt so fortunate as i was walking to the stage door. to be able to come watch this awesome band souncheck and hang with them backstage.....it was so cool.

so i got taken up by dominic and walked into the dressing room and vinnie is sat there warming up on a pad and im introduced and vinnie is gushing. so nice. jason, kipper and the percussionist (whos name escapes me) were all very nice too. we hung for a while. vinnie was quite the "joker", making everyone laugh.

we made our way down to the stage for the soundcheck and i planted myself right behind his kit. i was suprised at how high he sits. well, he doesnt sit hit but his drums are very low, especially his cymbals. then to my delight, jason rebello breaks out onto a rendition of chick corea's "spain" and vinnie promptly joins in! so friggin cool! later on i went to sit in the stalls, and sting is playin bass and walks up to my seat and stands next to me and just friggin grooved!

the sound check went on for 2 hours! they couldnt get the right sound in this theatre.......sting wasnt happy. sting wanted everything quieter, quieter, quieter until vinnie almost couldnt play. vinnie was starting to get a little pissed cause he did a session for burt bacharach (cant spell) the other day and he was told to hardly play then either. but towards the end they sort of got it sorted.

stings new single called "send you love to the future" is lovely and has a couple drum breaks in it, and they rehearsed it loads, and vinnie just blew. it was great. then Abe Laboriel Jnr. popped in to say hi, and hugged every one mid-song! he was just sitting boppin to the music!

So then we went up had some dinner and i took my seat for the gig. I turned out that they just went for it and played loud! they stared with "send your love" and vinnie was amazing. throughout the set i was laughing at the amount of subtlety and inventiveness! if taste was a liquid, vinnie would be f***ing drenched!

the set was about 1hr 20mins and most of it from the new album which contained a lot of percussion loops etc, and i liked the new material. Sting and the band of course played great, although sting himself agreed they were a little under-rehearsed. I had no idea sting was such a good bassist tho.....he was blinding. and his plays great classical guitar too.

vinnie, had this little 10" snare to his left and it sounded sublime and he grooved his ass off! as dominic was telling me, his time is PERFECT and he said vinnie is always ON! even if hes pissed off, hes ON! the dynamics were crazy, one minute its hi-hat and shakers, and the next he blows u off ur seat.....but with no effort. his fills were soooo inventive and were brilliant enough to make u smile but didnt interupt any of the music.

after the gig i went back to see vinnie, and he was having dinner (apparantly he cant eat before a gig?!) and we got to chat quite a bit. he was much nicer to me at this point, and we talked about berklee, music, his first zappa audition etc. the guys in the band are trying to convince him to do the whole tour, but vince said he didnt want to be away from the studio scene for 2 yrs. but he also said that tonight felt real good and he loves playing with this band, and that its come at a good time......so who knows he may do the whole tour. (apparantly keith Carlock is on standby to do it as manu asked for too much dosh!)

but vinnie was delightful....very humble and a mother f***er behind the drums! wot a great day!

[drum4fun]

Great review, Louie! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[PencilZ]

Excellent schtuff louie!

Vinnie uptight before the gig! Then he is human afterall. Anxiety.... what a stresser.

[DrumsLand]

Thank?s a lot Guy you are Great!!! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Nikk]

Wow, God is really smiling on Keith Carlock these days. Awesome review. Thanks.

[beat Hit]

Great review, thanks a million!!

[FuseU1]

Louie - THANX 4 that! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

BTW - when u eat, [in "layman's terms"]: your body tends to want to concentrate on its digestion for an hour or so aft the meal... so the blood tends to "rush to the stomach" to help the process, making the execution of a more exertive "aerobic/anabolic/isometric" workout [such as drumming; esp in a jammin' section of a tune] more "fatiguing" [4 lack of better word]... The digestion process "takes away" from your limbs ability to normally execute [or, "do their thing"]... Stv Smith, amongst others, has talked about this, AW. It's best NOT to eat a "full" [or "normal"] meal b4 a gig [at least within about an hr. & a half b4, give or take depending on the amount of food].

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 13, 2003 01:15 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[palmerlouie]

forgot to say, when i met vinnie i almost didnt recognize him. he seems to have put on a lot of weight (almost dennis chambers kinda weight) and had long hair. just interesting..........

[FuseU1]

Wow...
...Louie - are you even sure you were speaking to VINNIE?! I just spoke to him on the night of 6-26 in person... he had his hair cut pretty close to his head... & altho he had what some might consider a small "pooch" [tummy], he was FAR from DC weight... & he was sweating his butt off, wearing dark jogging/runner-style pants to boot, & he's been playing pretty steadily... i just find it hard to believe that he put on that much weight, & especially that he grew that much hair in just a little over 2 months... & i KNOWs he ain'ts gost no hair extensions/weave thang goin' on]... what do you consider "long-hair?"

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 14, 2003 12:01 AM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[royerin]

You're very lucky to have had this experience, thanks for sharing!